Can't give a source unfortunately, as I don't know what my friend Tom was reading, but it's still something to look for"
Apparently there's something in our bodies that says "give me sugar", which old school sodas using regular sugar would flip the trigger on once we'd consumed enough. Hence after only having one or two, our body would respond with, "okay, that's enough, we don't need anymore, so we're stopping the craving".
However, as most sodas here in the States these days are made with corn syrup (sure, it says "sugar and/or corn syrup", but that's their way of using just corn syrup without having to cop to it), things have changed. Rather than being able to say, "hey, that's enough", our bodies don't get whatever it is from corn syrup that they do from sugar, so the craving stays, you're drinking soda to try and satisfy it, but it's doing nothing to satisfy said craving.
In addition, our bodies can't process corn syrup like they can sugar, which I'm sure leads to a number of health problems you mention
Dang, shoulda put the link to the instigating blog in there. It's in the post now.
"Another tricky by product of HFCS is that its consumption does not release the hormone leptin. Therefore, our bodies think we are still hungry and we end up craving and eating more food than we actually need."
can you unpack the "gmo corn?" question a bit more? what about that aspect would you like to know more about? (ie: please state your question in the form of a question ;)
i have a whole office floor full of books that can probably address some of these questions, and they are all at work right now. fates willing i'll look some of it up on monday. (have you read michael pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma? a significant chunk of the book is about corn, including a bit on HFCS. it's a very good book, and well worth reading, though not mostly about this issue. see also: my earlier entry about the book)
in the mean time, i'll see what i can dig up that's not at work ;)
please state your question in the form of a question ;)
Sorry, I was not terribly coherent in my description. :) I've cleaned it up a bit.
Is HFCS produced by genetically modified corn, or is it simply the sweet hybrid corn?
What's the environmental impact of the crop? Is it dependent on nasty fertilizers and pesticides to survive, or is it hardy enough to be low-maintenance? How does it impact the soil (doesn't corn take a lot of nitrogen out of the soil, requiring more frequent field rotation than many other crops)?
While we're at it, what's the processing like? Is it a simple press-and-simmer affair, or is there a more involved process that produces more waste?
Is it related to the corn used in the growing ethanol industry? -- I mean, fermentation of sugar is fermentation of sugar, yo. The more sugar you give the yeast, the more ethanol you get as an end product.
Will look for the science to back it up, but due to cross-fertilization/pollen blowing about, it is virtually impossible to get corn that is certified free of modified genes in the US. There are some farms that do not *deliberately* use GMOs, but cannot certify organic because they receive pollen-blow from fields that do.
(I know this because it's part of why WFM reformulated all of its private label products to not include HFCS -- they have a strict no-GMO policy for private label, and they couldn't guarantee it with that ingredient. Hence cane sugar instead now.)
I can hit the medical and biological databases, but not until Monday: home access is dialup-only, and I'm going to be out of town for most of the weekend anyway.
That'd be great! There's no pressure or deadlines on this -- I'm curious ALL the time. But I thought y'all would be able to help me dig up some actual reference material, rather than pithy brochures from the National Corn Growers Association and rabid reactionary low-carb diet websites.
The majority (90% +/-) of HFCS in the US is made using Yellow Dent #2 corn. This is not a "modified" corn as a breed corn (there are 3 basic types of corn: sweet, dent/flint, and popcorn) dent and flint corns are high starch corns thus they are the most commercially useful. These are the same types of corn that would be used in the production of grain alcohol, and HFCS (the high starch is what makes this so). I pulled this from a variety of sources, but the KS Dept of Ag, and the Iowa Dept of Ag, had most of it.
Have no idea on the eco "impact" of growing such corn, but I'm sure that can be looked up too.
just to get started....lightonthesillMay 5 2007, 02:45:52 UTC
www.pubmed.gov then search "high fructose corn syrup" saw a few things on the first page of listings that might be interesting. If you see anything you like...for goodness sake don't pay for the article...just let me know which one and I can probably get it for free from the med school when I get home. xoxo C
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Apparently there's something in our bodies that says "give me sugar", which old school sodas using regular sugar would flip the trigger on once we'd consumed enough. Hence after only having one or two, our body would respond with, "okay, that's enough, we don't need anymore, so we're stopping the craving".
However, as most sodas here in the States these days are made with corn syrup (sure, it says "sugar and/or corn syrup", but that's their way of using just corn syrup without having to cop to it), things have changed. Rather than being able to say, "hey, that's enough", our bodies don't get whatever it is from corn syrup that they do from sugar, so the craving stays, you're drinking soda to try and satisfy it, but it's doing nothing to satisfy said craving.
In addition, our bodies can't process corn syrup like they can sugar, which I'm sure leads to a number of health problems you mention
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"Another tricky by product of HFCS is that its consumption does not release the hormone leptin. Therefore, our bodies think we are still hungry and we end up craving and eating more food than we actually need."
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i have a whole office floor full of books that can probably address some of these questions, and they are all at work right now. fates willing i'll look some of it up on monday. (have you read michael pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma? a significant chunk of the book is about corn, including a bit on HFCS. it's a very good book, and well worth reading, though not mostly about this issue. see also: my earlier entry about the book)
in the mean time, i'll see what i can dig up that's not at work ;)
Reply
Sorry, I was not terribly coherent in my description. :) I've cleaned it up a bit.
Is HFCS produced by genetically modified corn, or is it simply the sweet hybrid corn?
What's the environmental impact of the crop? Is it dependent on nasty fertilizers and pesticides to survive, or is it hardy enough to be low-maintenance? How does it impact the soil (doesn't corn take a lot of nitrogen out of the soil, requiring more frequent field rotation than many other crops)?
While we're at it, what's the processing like? Is it a simple press-and-simmer affair, or is there a more involved process that produces more waste?
Is it related to the corn used in the growing ethanol industry? -- I mean, fermentation of sugar is fermentation of sugar, yo. The more sugar you give the yeast, the more ethanol you get as an end product.
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(I know this because it's part of why WFM reformulated all of its private label products to not include HFCS -- they have a strict no-GMO policy for private label, and they couldn't guarantee it with that ingredient. Hence cane sugar instead now.)
Will look for science on this and the others.
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dent and flint corns are high starch corns thus they are the most commercially useful. These are the same types of corn that would be used in the production of grain alcohol, and HFCS (the high starch is what makes this so). I pulled this from a variety of sources, but the KS Dept of Ag, and the Iowa Dept of Ag, had most of it.
Have no idea on the eco "impact" of growing such corn, but I'm sure that can be looked up too.
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