Posted on 03/22/2010 1:19:34 PM PDT by dan1123
A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.
"Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, at least under the conditions of our tests," said psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."
A Princeton University research team, including (from left) undergraduate Elyse Powell, psychology professor Bart Hoebel, visiting research associate Nicole Avena and graduate student Miriam Bocarsly, has demonstrated that rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup -- a sweetener found in many popular sodas -- gain significantly more weight than those with access to water sweetened with table sugar, even when they consume the same number of calories. The work may have important implications for understanding obesity trends in the United States. (Photo: Denise Applewhite) Photos for news media In results published online March 18 by the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, the researchers from the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute reported on two experiments investigating the link between the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup and obesity.
The first study showed that male rats given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, in conjunction with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas.
The second experiment -- the first long-term study of the effects of high-fructose corn syrup consumption on obesity in lab animals -- monitored weight gain, body fat and triglyceride levels in rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup over a period of six months. Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly. Male rats in particular ballooned in size: Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet. In humans, this would be equivalent to a 200-pound man gaining 96 pounds.
"These rats aren't just getting fat; they're demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides," said Princeton graduate student Miriam Bocarsly. "In humans, these same characteristics are known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes." In addition to Hoebel and Bocarsly, the research team included Princeton undergraduate Elyse Powell and visiting research associate Nicole Avena, who was affiliated with Rockefeller University during the study and is now on the faculty at the University of Florida. The Princeton researchers note that they do not know yet why high-fructose corn syrup fed to rats in their study generated more triglycerides, and more body fat that resulted in obesity.
High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both compounds that contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, but there at least two clear differences between them. First, sucrose is composed of equal amounts of the two simple sugars -- it is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose -- but the typical high-fructose corn syrup used in this study features a slightly imbalanced ratio, containing 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose. Larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides make up the remaining 3 percent of the sweetener. Second, as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized.
This creates a fascinating puzzle. The rats in the Princeton study became obese by drinking high-fructose corn syrup, but not by drinking sucrose. The critical differences in appetite, metabolism and gene expression that underlie this phenomenon are yet to be discovered, but may relate to the fact that excess fructose is being metabolized to produce fat, while glucose is largely being processed for energy or stored as a carbohydrate, called glycogen, in the liver and muscles.
In the 40 years since the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup as a cost-effective sweetener in the American diet, rates of obesity in the U.S. have skyrocketed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1970, around 15 percent of the U.S. population met the definition for obesity; today, roughly one-third of the American adults are considered obese, the CDC reported. High-fructose corn syrup is found in a wide range of foods and beverages, including fruit juice, soda, cereal, bread, yogurt, ketchup and mayonnaise. On average, Americans consume 60 pounds of the sweetener per person every year.
"Our findings lend support to the theory that the excessive consumption of high-fructose corn syrup found in many beverages may be an important factor in the obesity epidemic," Avena said.
The new research complements previous work led by Hoebel and Avena demonstrating that sucrose can be addictive, having effects on the brain similar to some drugs of abuse.
In the future, the team intends to explore how the animals respond to the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in conjunction with a high-fat diet -- the equivalent of a typical fast-food meal containing a hamburger, fries and soda -- and whether excessive high-fructose corn syrup consumption contributes to the diseases associated with obesity. Another step will be to study how fructose affects brain function in the control of appetite.
The research was supported by the U.S. Public Health Service.
I wish they’d do a study on ethanol.
A local snowmobile rental place lost 6 machines in one weekend to this stuff. Of course the renter had to pay.
Many more stories of marine motors lawn mowers etc.
fructose corn syrup is made in the lab by moving i think hydrogen ions around.
Nothing natural, not like natural fructose.
What do you mean they lost the snowmobile?
It’s cheaper.
Here’s some other reasons to get it out of your diet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831.html
i think it makes more sense to point to the communist leanings of princeton professors, don't you
Of course the research material will be held to the same high standards as those of East Anglia University. ..... /sarc
you need a better reference eh.
The amount of kilocalories expended in physical activity plus the amount expended in resting metabolic rate (including futile cycle) plus the amount expended in the thermic effect of a meal (TEM) plus the amount of energy put into storage either as glycogen or fat must equal energy intake to maintain weight or exceed it to lose body weight. The only way that the rats could gain fat when fed exactly the same kilocalories as other rats that had no weight gain would be for the HFC to cause them to perform the same amount of physical activity with much less energy use or to cause them to reduce their overall level of physical activity or to significantly reduce their resting metabolic rate or futile cycle for generating body heat from brown fat. Although rats, like other animals and unlike man, may be capable of de novo lipogenesis from carbohydrates, they cannot gain fat with no change in their kilocalorie intake unless they have a corresponding reduction of caloric expenditure.
Fructose and High Fructose Corn Syrup are not the same thing.
http://www.epinions.com/content_4312834180
the us sugar industry is protected. the us corn industry is not. nothing better for you than karo.
Regarding “a calorie is a calorie is a calorie”...I’ve read extensively about this and it seems not all calories are equal. Most peoples’ bodies convert refined carbohydrates into fat much more easily than they convert fat or protein into fat. In addition, most people with weight problems simply like refined carbs more than other foods, so they ingest massive calories of them quickly. I believe 90% of fat people will never lose weight and keep it off unless they abstain — for emotional and physiological reasons — from refined carbs.
they don't.
the natural diet of the Sa'ami consists of fish, reindeer and lingonberries.
your liver produces sugar just like that of the Sa'ami.
That’s what struck me. I had always thought maybe HFCS was worse because it caused insulin levels to spike and drop, making you want to eat more. But, different things react in our bodies in different ways. People who suggest otherwise are either mentally lazy or don’t know how the body works.
As usual, if you look hard enough, you discover at the bottom of every problem in the US is Uncle Sam.
I’m guessing the ethanol was consumed by the riders, not by the machines...
But you're a "kook" if you're a libertarian and want to excise government from your life. Where's the cognitive dissonance? Americans used to say things like "No King but Jesus". What "loosertarians".
Like this long winded article saying how tough we are?
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2009/01/latest-scare-du-jour-mercury-in-hfcs.html
After all the MMGW and Healthcare lying studies, you really wnat to take a chance? Something is making people sick and fat.
Are you telling me that you believe that HFCS is simply fructose? I mean, you can insult that reference all you want, but answer that question. Are they the same?
And no, I don’t think people require sugar. I actually eat a low carb sugar free (most of the time, I admit an occasional lapse) diet.
I’d love to get the govt out of virtually every bit of our lives and let people make their own decisions on what they eat.
For the same reason we are not studing the effects of adamantium on humans.
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