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The Truth About High Fructose Corn Syrup - The Science Behind the Sweetener
QSR Magazine ^ | May 2008 | Blair Chancey

Posted on 05/12/2008 10:22:56 PM PDT by neverdem

Dr. John White is the founder & president of White Technical Research, a consulting firm serving the food and beverage industry for nearly 15 years. He has worked with high fructose corn syrup for more than 25 years, and his expertise has been quoted by numerous news outlets. Organizations such as the American Council on Science and Health in Washington, D.C., the Institute of Food Technologists in Atlanta, and most recently the Corn Refiners Association have turned to him and his expertise on the sweetener for answers. Now, QSR talks with him to set the record straight about the similarities and differences between sugar and the contested HFCS.

Can you explain how high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was developed? What was on the market before its creation? We’re going back into the 1970s. At that time sucrose was the dominant sweetener. It has a composition that is half fructose and half glucose. Those are two monosaccharides. In sucrose there’s a bond between them. So sucrose is called a disaccharide, but in composition it is half fructose and half glucose.

The other dominant or common caloric sweetener was honey, and it has roughly the same composition but is mostly monosaccharides. So it’s about half fructose and half glucose and its monosaccharous, so there’s no bond between them. So those were the two common caloric sweeteners at the time.

There was a little bit of fruit juice concentrate that also happens to have the same composition, half fructose, half glucose, depending on the fruit that is being concentrated.

So how did HFCS come into the picture? The driving force was twofold for the development of HFCS. One was that it was not always easy to use sucrose in food applications where you had to dissolve the sugar to use it in...

(Excerpt) Read more at qsrmagazine.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corn; cornsyrup; diabetes; fda; fructose; health; hfcs; medicine; nafld; sugar
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To: MoochPooch

depends what kind it is.
Pure maple syrup is made from Maple tree sap. I doubt that’s what you have however. It’s very expensive and hard to come by in the USA. More likely you have a bottle of maple flavored corn syrup in your hand, or a blend (less than 10% maple syrup) of maple and corn syrup.


41 posted on 05/13/2008 12:40:29 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
That comment defies logic.

If it's being subsidized, then it would be even cheaper.

Subsidies cause commodity prices to remain artificially low. I'd rather commodity prices reflect the actual cost plus profit of growing a crop and stop this government give away of billions of taxpayers dollars to supply the markets (and thus oil rich turd world countries) with cheap commodities.

Not at all. Think about it for a second. *Ethanol production* is subsidized. Not regular production. It's effectively a market control, which screws up the natural level of pricing(arable land that would otherwise go for human consumption is going for ethanol, making regular corn more expensive).

It's also driving up the cost of hops. Ethanol corn is more profitable that hops so the amount of hops produced is shrinking driving up the price.

42 posted on 05/13/2008 12:41:48 AM PDT by ketsu
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To: neverdem
"White Technical Research, a consulting firm serving the food and beverage industry for nearly 15 years."

Really?

I thought that was Hillary's preferred polling organization for today's West Virginia Primary!
43 posted on 05/13/2008 12:43:23 AM PDT by mkjessup (Jimmy Carter is the skidmark in the panties of American history.)
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To: Nathan Zachary

Glutamine also activates the “savory” taste buds, which is why it’s used as a flavor enhancer. Glutamine is also a neurotransmitter. That’s why it can cause headaches and other problems in people sensitive to it.


44 posted on 05/13/2008 12:47:55 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("Ah! but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares.")
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To: Don W
"Now, today, we have literally millions of children who are insulin dependant. There are millions of adults who have DEVELOPED insulin dependant diabetes SINCE the advent of HFCS as the primary sweetener in commercial food products."

No, since the development of white table sugar. The mother of all posion. (white death) Pure (crystaline)Fructose is actually much better for you.

Crystalline fructose and high-fructose corn syrup are often mistakenly confused as the same product. The former is simply pure (100%) fructose. The latter is composed of nearly equal amounts of fructose and glucose (cane sugar). Crystalline fructose is held to offer many unique benefits such as improved product texture, taste and stability. Specifically, when combined with other sweeteners and starches, crystalline fructose is said to boost cake height (in baked goods) and mouth-feel of foods and beverages and to produce a pleasing brown surface color and pleasant aroma when baking.

Fructose (crystalline) is often recommended for, and consumed by, people with diabetes mellitus or hyperglycemia, because it does not raise blood glucose or insulin concentrations since it is metabolized without the need of insulin.

crystalline fructose can also be made from corn. It is the sugar that remains after the starches extracted from the corn are converted. It's used a lot in beer and whiskey brewing.

45 posted on 05/13/2008 12:50:17 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: El Gato; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; Dianna; ...
A Genetic Variation Is Linked to Sugary Food Consumption

Perfecting An Artificial Pancreas

Balloons 'bombard' North Alabama landfill to collect data, improve tornado warnings

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

46 posted on 05/13/2008 12:52:40 AM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: ketsu
Note he was talking about Corn being subsidized.

""Corn no longer is cheap, as it’s being subsidized for ethanol production!"

Not ethanol. And it's only plant construction and development that is being subsidized.

47 posted on 05/13/2008 12:54:00 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
Note he was talking about Corn being subsidized.

""Corn no longer is cheap, as it’s being subsidized for ethanol production!"

Not ethanol. And it's only plant construction and development that is being subsidized.

That may be true. But it's entirely unrelated to your previous, economic, argument. You might be able to argue with his premises, but his logic was sound.
48 posted on 05/13/2008 12:57:02 AM PDT by ketsu
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To: ketsu
Hops production problems have been weather related problem which began long before this ethanol BS. (most GOOD hops are imported anyways)

Corn prices today STILL do not reflect actual COST of growing it, because there are STILL corn subsidies in effect.

Corn is around $4 a bushel right now. About $2 cheaper than it actually costs to grow it.(because subsidies depress market prices) The main cause of corn prices increasing are strictly fuel machinery and fertilizer costs. As are all commodity price increases.

49 posted on 05/13/2008 1:01:15 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary

The maple syrup I bought claims to be pure and “organic.” (Grade A) As you can tell, I’m a bit of a foodie.

Anyway, I wondered what it contained.


50 posted on 05/13/2008 1:02:15 AM PDT by MoochPooch (I'm a compassionate cynic.)
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To: ketsu
There is no shortage of corn, no shortage of land to grow it on, and it does not take away from other crops.

And has nothing whatsoever to do with hops problems, which as mentioned, are mostly imported anyways.

If you actually researched the TRUTH of the matter, you'd learn these things.

51 posted on 05/13/2008 1:04:58 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
There is no shortage of corn, no shortage of land to grow it on, and it does not take away from other crops.

And has nothing whatsoever to do with hops problems, which as mentioned, are mostly imported anyways.

If you actually researched the TRUTH of the matter, you'd learn these things

Uuum... you're quite the logician. Did you learn the "If I pretend I didn't say it it didn't happen" trick in high school? So you agree that your earlier logic was faulty?
52 posted on 05/13/2008 1:07:12 AM PDT by ketsu
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To: MoochPooch

If it says pure 100% maple syrup, then that’s what it should be. It costs about $12 a half pint. Read the label carefully to make sure. Most of it is made in Ontario Canada or Quebec)

Excellent stuff if that’s what you do ideed have.


53 posted on 05/13/2008 1:07:21 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: MoochPooch

All it is, is Canada maple tree sap, which is collected in the spring, then boiled down to a syrup viscosity.


54 posted on 05/13/2008 1:09:09 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: ketsu

No it wasn’t. His claim is faulty.


55 posted on 05/13/2008 1:12:04 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
No it wasn’t. His claim is faulty.
No it wasn't, at least logically. You don't understand the difference between soundness and validity.
56 posted on 05/13/2008 1:13:57 AM PDT by ketsu
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To: ketsu

blah, blah, blah. Go read how and where hops come from. learn something instead of parroting BS.


57 posted on 05/13/2008 1:17:58 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
blah, blah, blah. Go read how and where hops come from. learn something instead of parroting BS.
Yawn... go ahead and keep proving how uneducated you are. There's a reason they teach deductive logic in college.
58 posted on 05/13/2008 1:22:48 AM PDT by ketsu
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To: Nathan Zachary

Any grocery store carries pure maple syrup. You do have to read the labels carefully, though, and it is much more expensive than “maple-flavored” syrup.


59 posted on 05/13/2008 1:23:32 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("Ah! but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares.")
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To: Nathan Zachary

Most of maple syrup is sucrose. Birch syrup is mostly fructose and much more expensive than maple syrup. Both are of the world’s best-flavored sweetners, though.


60 posted on 05/13/2008 1:28:23 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("Ah! but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares.")
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