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."
Question: Isn’t sugar just sugar?
Fructose, insulin resistance, and metabolic dyslipidemia
FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.
The PDF isn't that long.
This isn't junk science like anthropogenic global warming. It isn't any calorie from glucose is the same as a calorie from fructose. Fructose metabolism favors the production of triglycerides. The 2nd link explains fructose metabolism if you can deal with some biochemistry.
P.S. Non alcoholic fatty liver disease was unknown as a common diagnosis before the introduction of HFCS.
P.P.S. Before this latest paper mentioning the possible variations in actual fructose content of HFCS-55, it was claimed to be 55 % fructose, 42 % glucose and 3 % other sugars. That's almost 4:3 ratio of fructose to glucose, aka dextrose.
I would like to recommend the book about the body type diet by Dr Eliot Abravanal. The cravings you describe are typical for what he calls “the thyroid type.”
Pancreatic Cancers Use Fructose, Common in a Western Diet, to Fuel GrowthI read food labels and avoid junk food containing HFCS.
Helpful.
“I got diabetes from drinking 2 liters of coke classic every day for about 2 years.”
If that was the sole or primary cause of your diabetes (IF), I would venture a guess that at the high rate of consumption - 2 liters a day - it would not have mattered if the sweetener was regular sugar or HFCS.
“they began sweetening even ice cream with this crap 10 to 20 years ago... it’s garbage, and I don’t care for the taste.”
I’m sure you probably know this, and there are probably other brands out there, but Breyers vanilla and chocolate and the original recipe Turkey Hill have only real sugar in them.
Please check comment# 62, especially the second link there. Thank you for those of you who made links to this thread.
“I heard high fructose corn syrup also causes global warming....(s)”
It also looks like it might soon cause very rich lawyers!
Right you are!
I’ve been drinking lots of Coke for 50+ years. My hair has grown white, the aches & pains have increased, triple bypass & three stents and I now weigh 60 pounds more than I did when I finished boot camp...
Yep, it must be the fault of the Coke.
(sarc)
Ugh! Just what we don't need! More donations to the rats!
Don't be surprised about HFCS-55. Please check comment# 62, especially the second link there if you understand biochemistry.
Yes, that’s exactly what I was saying! (SARCASM)
Actually it is, just not as politically useful.....yet. There are as many studies one way as the other but the evidence in humans, as opposed to the lab rats upon which most of the doom and gloom studies are based, doesn't support the thesis that HFCS is any worse than sucrose. It's the overconsumption of either that is a problem.
Metabolic effects of fructose and the worldwide increase in obesity.
Physiol Rev. 2010 Jan;90(1):23-46.
"There has also been much concern that consumption of free fructose, as provided in high fructose corn syrup, may cause more adverse effects than consumption of fructose consumed with sucrose. There is, however, no direct evidence for more serious metabolic consequences of high fructose corn syrup versus sucrose consumption."
Just one of many.
I have one stent after one heart attack @ 39. Quit drinking coke then.
Carry on!
Yep I would have to agree.
Funny all those people who said soft drinks are bad for you were right >_>
Interesting study, but several issues jump out.
I noticed that the specific calorie count of sugar water consumed versus corn sweetened water consumed is not reported.
If it was not identical, that should be reported in highlights.
I personally prefer the taste of corn sweetener.
Perhaps rats do, too, and drink more of it?
Most important, I can't imagine a medical study that would be cheaper or simpler to replicate in humans than this one.
Has anyone tested this theory on humans?
Is there any evidence that fructose injures people who consume large quantities of orange juice and sweet fruits like peaches, plums, and apples?
That would be a description of my diet, by the way.
Watch some of the old movies. Belly fat was not an issue. They all are trim. Seems the current obesity issue is more complicated than Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move”
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