Monday, February 16, 2009

High Fructose Corn Syrup

I read an article in USA Today, which compared high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to table sugar. The article says that in 2004, researchers were looking for a link between obesity and HFCS because there has been an increase in both over the recent years. Research was recently done in 2008, and there has been no such link between HFCS and obesity.

I found it interesting that the article we read for class states that HFCS is 55% fructose and 45% glucose, while the USA Today article states that HFCS is 55% fructose and 42% glucose. Could this be misleading to some who read several articles on the topic or even to those who are precise about statistics being accurate?

The article then states that there is evidence that the fructose found in HFCS and table sugar could lead to cardiovascular disease because of the triglycerides found in the fructose. So, is there really a big difference between HFCS and table sugar? According to this article, no, not really.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-12-08-fructose-corn-syrup_N.htm

2 comments:

Lindsay MacKinnon said...

Here's the 2004 research study that was published about the possible link between obesity and HFCS. This journal article comes from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The researchers studied food consumption patterns in the U.S. from 1967 to 2000. They looked at how fructose and glucose digest in the human body to see if HFCS could be linked to obesity.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/79/4/537?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=Popkin&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

Anonymous said...

Lindsay,

I think that is an error in the article. There is more than one form of HFCS as discussed in our reading. There is one form that contains 42% fructose and another that contains 55% fructose. I don't think the USA Today presents much information.