Do you eat a lot of high fructose corn syrup or other sources of fructose? Watch the excellent video "Sugar: The Bitter Truth." It was made by University of California, Television. In this hour+ long video, Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues and presents evidence that too much fructose and too little fiber are cornerstones of the obesity epidemic, and that fructose is essentially "a poison."
Note: Ordinary table sugar is sucrose, which is one molecule of glucose linked to one molecule of fructose. Fructose is sweeter than glucose, but for reasons discussed in the video, the increased sweetness does not lead to eating less of it. – Ilene
Sugar: The Bitter Truth, Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 16717]."
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Henry Blodget discusses a recent study of the effect of high fructose corn syrup on rats (below).
Oh, Crap: Scientists Discover That High-Fructose Corn Syrup Makes You Really Fat
Courtesy of Henry Blodget at Clusterstock
Princeton scientists have discovered something that will come as a blow to many food manufacturers: High-fructose corn syrup makes you a lot fatter than sugar.
How did the scientists discover this?
They fed rats high-fructose corn syrup. The rats blew up like balloons.
Sucks to be a high-in-high-fructose corn syrup food manufacturer right now…
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."
"The rats are going absolutely bananas about this!"
Image: Princeton
