My friends in the corn industry do not
like this study. I know, this issue is not going away and sometime
in the future researchers are going to research this properly. They
are getting closer, but to-date no one has found the correct formula
to prove beyond a doubt that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) causes
diabetes. This study gets closer to making this case than many in
the past, but it is still not conclusive. The relationship for a
potential cause-and-effect is definitely not missing and this is
bound to cause many countries to reassess their use of HFCS.
The researchers did find that the
countries using HFCS had a 20% higher rate of diabetes than countries
that did not mix HFCS into foods. This difference remains after
researchers accounted for differences in body size, population, and
wealth. The researchers also refuted the claim that people in
countries using HFCS were using more sugar or more calories. They
were able to show that, “There were no
overall differences in total sugars or total calories between
countries that did and didn’t use high-fructose corn syrup,
suggesting that there’s an independent relationship between
high-fructose corn syrup and diabetes.”
Of course, the corn industry disagrees
with the results and must make their opposition known. In a prepared
statement, Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners
Association stated, “Just because an
ingredient is available in a nation's diet does not mean it is
uniquely the cause of a disease.” Of course, both sides
have their experts that will make their statements to support their
side.
Researcher Michael I. Goran, PhD,
co-director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the
Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, in
Los Angeles, says the problem is more complex. He continues,
“There’s some scientific evidence that
the body treats fructose differently than glucose. Table sugar is
about half fructose and half glucose. The percentage of fructose in
high-fructose corn syrup isn’t disclosed on food labels, but it’s
thought to range from 42% to 55%. But it may be even higher than
that.”
In 2011 in the journal Obesity, Goran
found the percentage of fructose in drinks sweetened with
high-fructose corn syrup ranged from 47% to 65%. “I
know there’s a lot of consumer confusion about fructose: It’s a
fruit sugar; it’s healthy; it’s already in sugar,” he
states.
I agree that it's not that simple.
“Goran thinks there’s a big difference
between fructose in fruit - where it’s paired with fiber, which
slows down its absorption - and fructose that’s refined into syrup.
There are lots of other aspects of the way fructose is handled by
the body which are different than glucose that make it metabolically
dangerous for the body, he says.”
I do think that Goran is on the right
track in his thinking and that we need to consider seriously, what he
has to say.
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