Posted on 11/28/2012 12:58:27 PM PST by neverdem
Countries using high-fructose corn syrup have diabetes rates 20 percent higher than countries that do not, a new international analysis finds.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in national food supplies around the world might help explain the rising rates of type 2 diabetes around the world, researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford report in the journal Global Public Health.
After studying 42 countries, researchers found that those that use HFCS in their food supply had a 20 percent higher prevalence of diabetes than those that did not use HFCS, suggesting an association with diabetes independent of total sugar intake and obesity levels.
"HFCS appears to pose a serious public health problem on a global scale," said principal study author Michael I. Goran, MD, professor of preventive medicine , director of the Childhood Obesity Research Center, and co-director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the Keck School of Medicine at USC in a release. "The study adds to a growing body of scientific literature that indicates HFCS consumption may result in negative health consequences distinct from and more deleterious than natural sugar."
Not surprisingly, the United States topped the list with the most per-capita consumption of HFCS - 55 pounds per person, per year. The second highest was Hungary, with an annual rate of 46 pounds per person per year. Canada, Slovakia Bulgaria, Belgium, Argentina, Korea, Japan, and Mexico also had high rates while Germany, Poland, Greece, Portugal, Egypt, Finland, and Serbia were found to be among the lowest HFCS consumers.
Countries on the high end of the HFCS scale had an average type 2 diabetes rate of 8 percent, compared to 6.7 percent in countries not using HFCS. Researchers believe this link is driven by higher amounts of fructose in foods made with HFCS than in foods made with regular table sugar or glucose. Some evidence suggests that the body metabolizes fructose differently from glucose , researchers say in the article, though this runs contrary to the positions of the American Medical Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, among other groups. The AMA says HFCS is no worse for the body than glucose-containing table sugar - a claim that's hard for some consumers to believe, as HFCS has been vilified for decades because of its suspected role in weight gain and metabolic syndrome .
Regardless, the take-home message is that consumers need to reduce the amount of all forms of sugar and sweeteners in their diets, says Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD, LDN, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "Honey, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sucrose, molasses - these are all sources of added sugars that we need to reduce in our diet," she says. "Sixty-five percent of Americans are overweight, and getting rid of foods like these that are just empty calories can potentially help manage weight."
Well, duh...
Gotta love these studies...
I heard high fructose corn syrup also causes global warming....(s)
It’s true.
I got diabetes from drinking 2 liters of coke classic every day for about 2 years.
No one else in my family has it or had it, and no one else was addicted to soft drinks like I was.
Again? Why are people so desperate to find some food product to blame for their poor health?
***”HFCS appears to pose a serious public health problem on a global scale,” said principal study author Michael I. Goran, MD***
And of course ‘global problems’ require nothing less than global solutions.
Now that the sugar industry in the US has been reduced and nearly wiped out with government controls, regulations and rules, we find that the previously touted “new, safer, sugar” is worse than the junk science of bad sugar. We are such a misled nation, misled by the politics of science - consensus.
So now we can claim it was good news that Hostess bit the dust...
Well, this one has a simple solution - get rid of sugar tariffs.
My wife was on the this 10 years ago. She avoids anything with HFCS like the plague—which is tough because its everywhere. Plain old sugar is preferable.
Are you saying that you don’t think that your diet is an important health factor?
Funded by sugar cane refiners, correct?
but reguardless....we use HFCS here in the states because IIRC the corn industry is highly subsidized by the govt to grow all the corn...
same reason we now have biofuels that we burn instead of eat...
we got to keep those Iowa farmers fat and happy using their products in some way...
follow the money...
then follow the vote....Iowa loves dumping their corn on the rest of us and they wouldn't want any fiscal conservative interferring with the gravy train....
Offhand, do you believe that swapping corn syrup for cane sugar would have made a difference? I'm not convinced that consuming 1.5 cups of any kind of sugar every day (the amount found in a single two-liter bottle of Coke) is healthy for anyone, corn syrup or no.
“Why are people so desperate to find some food product to blame for their poor health?”
I was drinking a lot of fruit “juice,” figuring it was about 95% water, and good for me. But they were loaded with high-fructose corn syrup. Doc did my blood one day and told me my sugar was really, really high, and that I had type 2. I cut out the “juice,” and within a couple months, I was slightly above high normal. Don’t even have to take meds anymore.
The sugar industry in the U.S. is protected by high tariff walls. That’s why you pay much more than the world price for the stuff — and that’s why the food industry uses so much HFCS as a substitute. So yeah, government policies are at the root of the problem — but, for very different reasons than you posit.
Cum hoc egro propter hoc
The conclusion to be drawn from this study rather is that the higher per-capital consumption of HFCS and/or sugar, the higher the incidence of diabetes. NOT that HFCS causes diabetes as the headline falsely implies.
I've been drinking a lot of wine figuring much the same thing!
I do the same thing. No sodas, strict limit on juices and I check labels like crazy. I cut out the sodas 10 years ago..2 years I started avoiding the HFCS as much as humanly possible.
These studies appeal to those with high anxiety about getting sick. If they can find something they think lets them predict a cause, which they can then avoid, it feels to them like they have control over what otherwise seems to be a more or less random occurrence. They then seek to recruit others to believe the same thing, which gives them confidence they must be right.
As for the researchers, they're just in it for the easy publications and maybe some grant money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.