A harvest of corn.
Diabetes in my family
Recently, my mother was diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus. Type 2 to be exact. This is the most common form of Diabetes to be diagnosed in people. Type 2 occurs when the body fails to use insulin properly. As of 2009, there are roughly 57 million Americans who have pre-diabetes conditions and 23 million Americans living with Type 2 Diabetes.
All forms of Diabetes are treatable but there is no cure. I am forced to learn more about the disease and its possible causes as there is some evidence that it can be passed on through genetics. Scientists have also collected evidence to support the idea that poor diet and lack of exercise can trigger the disease.
As is often the case, my Mother's Diabetes went unnoticed until recently. The treatment is fairly low-tech; exercise, decreasing carbohydates and losing weight. The treatment is not short term though. People diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes must adjust their lives to eating well and getting plenty of exercise. Oral medication may be needed if these simple steps alone are not enough to treat the disease.
No one knows what the exact cause of type 2 Diabetes is but there is some speculation that the increasing presence of High-fructose Corn Syrup in our everyday foods could have a role. There is no straight answer and both sides, the producers of the syrup and those against its use, have different opinions and research. Here are some articles I have found online while starting to learn more about Diabetes. I have also included Sweet Suprise, a lobby group that denies the negative claims and supports the use of High-Fructose Syrup. Any conclusions are yours to make.
What is High-fructose Corn Syrup?
From Wikipedia.org
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) – called isoglucose[1] in Europe and glucose-fructose in Canada – comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert its glucose into fructose and has then been mixed with pure corn syrup (100% glucose) to produce a desired sweetness. In the United States, HFCS is typically used as a sugar substitute and is ubiquitous in processed foods and beverages, including soft drinks, yogurt, cookies, salad dressing and tomato soup.
Read the rest of High Fructose Corn Syrup at Wikipedia.org.
Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 79, No. 4, 537-543, April 2004
As obesity has escalated to epidemic proportions around the world, many causes, including dietary components, have been suggested. Excessive caloric intake has been related to high-fat foods, increased portion sizes, and diets high both in simple sugars such as sucrose and in high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as a source of fructose (1–3). In this article, we discuss the evidence that a marked increase in the use of HFCS, and therefore in total fructose consumption, preceded the obesity epidemic and may be an important contributor to this epidemic in the United States.
Read the rest of the article.
Diabetes fears over corn syrup in soda
It's not cast-iron proof that high-fructose corn syrup causes diabetes, but new evidence suggests we should think twice about using it to sweeten soft drinks.
Chi-Tang Ho at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and his colleagues found that adding the syrup to fizzy drinks makes them up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds - elevated in people with diabetes and blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage - than fizzy drinks containing cane sugar.
The most harmful compound, called methylglyoxal, is known to damage cells directly. "The link between methylglyoxal and diabetic complications is well documented," says Ho, whose team found carbonyl compounds in 11 popular brands of soft drink sweetened with the syrup.
High-fructose corn syrup is popular in the US, where import tariffs make cane sugar relatively expensive. It is made by treating corn starch with enzymes that transform some of the glucose into fructose. Ho says these free-floating monosaccharides can undergo the so-called Maillard reaction, which converts them into carbonyl compounds. By contrast, cane sugar consists almost entirely of pure sucrose, a disaccharide.
While Ho stresses that consuming carbonyl compounds has not been shown to cause diabetes, he urges a switch away from the syrups as a precaution. The results were presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston last week.
Read the rest of Diabetes fears over corn syrup in soda.
Sugar Is Back on Food Labels, This Time as a Selling Point
From the New York Times
Sugar, the nutritional pariah that dentists and dietitians have long reviled, is enjoying a second act, dressed up as a natural, healthful ingredient.
From the tomato sauce on a Pizza Hut pie called “The Natural,” to the just-released soda Pepsi Natural, some of the biggest players in the American food business have started, in the last few months, replacing high-fructose corn syrup with old-fashioned sugar.
ConAgra uses only sugar or honey in its new Healthy Choice All Natural frozen entrees. Kraft Foods recently removed the corn sweetener from its salad dressings, and is working on its Lunchables line of portable meals and snacks.
Read the rest of Sugar is back in foods.
Sweet Surprise
http://www.sweetsurprise.com
Welcome to SweetSurprise.com, the site devoted to answering your questions and providing factual information about high fructose corn syrup — an ingredient that’s more than just a natural sweetener. High fructose corn syrup provides many important characteristics, such as texture, flavor and freshness, to your favorite foods and beverages.
Visit Sweet Surprise.
7UP, Now 100% Natural Flavors
All the more reasons to enjoy the crisp, clean, refreshing lemon-lime taste of 7UP flavors. 7UP has 100% natural flavors.
7UP is stripped of artificial flavors and preservatives. What's left is the clean, crisp taste of 7UP. As always, 7UP has no caffeine. Peel one open today and try for yourself.
Visit http://www.7up.com.
A Sweetener With a Bad Rap
From the New York Times
As America's obesity problem has evolved into a major public health concern over the last five years, singling out high-fructose corn syrup as a singular culprit reflects, perhaps, society's early response to a vexingly complex issue. Scientists say part of the confusion about the ingredient's role in the nutrition debate stems from a basic misunderstanding: the idea that high-fructose corn syrup is actually high in fructose.
Studies have shown that the human body metabolizes fructose, the sweetest of the natural sugars, in a way that may promote weight gain. Specifically, fructose does not prompt the production of certain hormones that help regulate appetite and fat storage, and it produces elevated levels of triglycerides that researchers have linked to an increased risk of heart disease.
Read the rest of A Sweetner with a Bad Rap.
Hi,
I share your concern for your mother's diabetes. You have been doing some good research. May I make a comment on the composition of one variant of HFCS? HFCS-55,
used to sweeten all national brands of soda is 55%fructose:45%
glucose. This appears to be only 5% different than the 50:50 ratio found in sucrose, table sugar, until you do the math.
55%:45%= 55/45= 1.22. This means that in every Coke there is, compared to glucose, 22% fructose.
Read Dr. Dana Flavin's summary "The Metabolic Dangers of
High Fructose Corn syrup". It is the excess fructose over time that has wreaked havoc on our waistlines and our health. Ditch HFCS, especially as a sweetener for beverages. Take care.