More on HFCS

More investigation reveals:

High fructose corn syrup is an artificially manufactured sweetener that uses an enzymatic process to convert glucose syrup from corn into a fructose/glucose mixture.

Because HFCS are cheaper to produce than sucrose, it is a common additive to foods produced in the United States, it is a VERY common additive to low-fat foods.

Glucose:

-        Important in energy production

-        Critical to the production of proteins and lipids

-        6 membered ring

-        Glucose is the energy of life

In a sample of 120 calories of glucose:

-        96 calories (80%) is used by all the organs in the body because glucose is the energy of life

-        24 calories go to the liver

-        Insulin goes up and the brain registers food is available

-        0.42% of the original 120 calories ends up as fat

-        (½ calorie of VLDL is created)

-         

Fructose:

-        Has no biological role

In a sample of 120 calories of HFCS (60 from fructose, 60 from glucose):

-        60 calories (100%) of the fructose goes to the liver because it is only metabolized in the liver

-        12 calories of the glucose goes to the liver

-        72 total calories hit the liver

-        No insulin change

-        The waste product of fructose metabolism is uric acid which causes gout and hypertension

-        Triglycerides go up

-        30% of the original 120 calories ends up as fat

-        A high HFCS diet IS a high fat diet!

Marshall and Kooi, 1957 R.O. Marshall and E.R. Kooi, Enzymatic conversion of d-glucose to d-fructose,

Science 125 (3249) (1957), pp. 648–649.