On Jul 28, 2006, at 9:48 AM, Jim Devine wrote:
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
I've been toying with one idea that might help Cubans. Americans are
getting anxious about obesity. The rise of obesity here coincided
with the rise of high fructose corn syrup. We do a campaign against
corn syrup, hammering on that (as well as lack of exercise).
Manufacturers would then have to turn to sugar. Sugar prices rise.
Cubans get happy. :->
why is high-fructose corn syrup more fattening than regular old sugar?
My daughter is a molecular toxicology major at UC Berkeley. Here's
what she wrote me...
Dan
-------
Well...
For starters (probably the most important part), our bodies do not
regulate the digestion of fructose like it does all other
energy-containing substances (fats, carbos and protien). It just gets
absorbed as fast as you consume it, and if your body does not need that
energy at that moment, it gets stored as fat.
Constantly eating sugar can lead to higher blood sugar levels, as your
body's ability to utilize it properly is taxed. High levels of any sugar
in your blood can lead to diabetes, heart disease, etc.
Fructose is also a monosaccharide, single-sugar molecule. Normal sugar
(or
sucrose) is a disaccharide, two-sugar molecule, that has to get broken
down into it's components (one fructose and one glucose) before it is
digested. Fructose has basically been digested for us (by different
types
of enzymes) during manufacturing. I assume, then, that you burn less
energy digesting corn syrup (HFCS) than sugar.
I read an article a few years ago that said HFCS is especially bas for
men, that it causes heart disease.
I just found this on the internet
(http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html):
The male rats (that were on a HFCS diet versus sugar) did not reach
adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy—that
means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded. They also had
delayed testicular development. Dr. Field explains that fructose in
combination with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with
collagen production. (Copper deficiency, by the way, is widespread in
America.) In a nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart.
The females were not so affected, but they were unable to produce live
young.
"The medical profession thinks fructose is better for diabetics than
sugar," says Dr. Field, "but every cell in the body can metabolize
glucose. However, all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The
livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the livers of
alcoholics, plugged with fat and cirrhotic."
That article also mentions how all the corn is GM, and the enzymes
used to
process the corn are GM, too.
Another thing that is bad, that I don't know too much about, is the
politics of it. Cheap food, high profits, who cares if Americans are
sick.
And it is *so* processed. Like petroleum or hydrogenated oil.
That's all I can think of... :)
Leona
