Princeton Researchers say High-Fructose Corn Syrup Does Make You Fat — Let’s see how long before the PR folks for the corn industry block this information.

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.

Found by Rasvan via Twitter.




  1. Sea Lawyer says:

    Heh, the predominance of HFCS in the United States is largely due to government intervension in the market for sweeteners, along with our huge ag subsidy programs.

    I Guess it’s a good thing the government wants to provide us all with healthcare, since it is doing its best to make us all unhealthy.

  2. Jim Marusak says:

    2 notes:

    pepsi, with this report, bring back the pepsi throwback you put out a couple of months ago. i actually liked that with sugar better than i did the regular soda with corn syrup.

    maybe with all the corn being used for the excessive amounts of HFCS, you can stop making the HCFS and make more ethanol for cars instead (at least until we use sugar and switchgrass ethanol which would be more efficient from a manufacturing standpoint). and with the higher demand for sugar, we won’t need any more subsidies for the industry (aka less federal spending).

  3. spsffan says:

    The sad thing is that the government made the switch to HFCS a no brainer for the soda industry while trying to “protect the domestic sugar industry”. All one has to know is that Cuba produces a lot of cheap sugar to figure this one out.

    Oh, wait….we subsidize corn too!

    And you thought you lived in a capitalist country!

  4. ECA says:

    NOW for canola oil
    And modified Soy beans and oil.

    And yes, the sugar market is a Federal controlled market.

  5. Mac Guy says:

    #2 – I absolutely loved the Throwback Pepsi. When they first released it, I had just gotten back from South America, where they use sugar in their sodas. Very delish!

  6. Dallas says:

    In other news…

    Hardee’s introduces the “Limbaugh Burger” — two 1/3-pound slabs of Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun. Add 50 cents for a Lipitor chaser.

    Just 1420 calories!

  7. Nobody says:

    In other news; water is wet, fire burns – film at 11:00

  8. Improbus says:

    Except for a few convenience store purchases over the years I have completely given up purchasing soft drinks be they HFCS sweetened or diet. Nowadays I drink tea with stevia as a sweetener.

  9. Personality says:

    Fat people will not agree.

  10. Sea Lawyer says:

    #6, the mass production of cheap beef in today’s large, industrial feedlots is directly connected to the government’s corn policy.

  11. Benjamin says:

    I swear that the government is trying to kill us just because some special interest group line some Senator’s pocket. Under a capitalist system the soft drink makers would use sugar because it is naturally cheaper than HFC.

    I think our food is becoming artificial. Fat or cholesterol or even sugar was never bad for people. Artificial is what causes dietary problems. Why do you think my great grandparents lived until ninety while eating lard by the bucket full and eating steak and potatoes?

  12. iwishiwasaballer says:

    Isn’t mercury required to produce HFCS cheaply? And as capitalist everything is done on the cheap, even though better (for the consumer) manufacturing exists. We need to get Jenny McCarthy on this bandwagon, not on the vaccine campaign.

  13. RTaylor says:

    I use some agava nectar because of the low glycemic index. I use raw honey in my tea. Drinking any soda isn’t a good health practice. The acidity can aggravate GERD or hiatal hernias.
    Even the 0 calorie stuff can induce hunger.

  14. Dallas says:

    #10 ..mass production of cheap beef …is directly connected to the government’s corn policy.

    I say it is tied to being able to sell a Whopper with all the trimmings in a nice to go bag for 99 cents.

  15. Buzz says:

    “Coca-Cola is” 6 & 1/2 oz. of water, flavored cane sugar syrup with caffine.
    Of course, always served @ 40 degrees F, carbonated at high pressure in glass bottle.
    Less than 100 calories of alertness & instant energy, that won’t make one ‘fat.’

    Buzz !

  16. Nobody says:

    @# 11 SimonSezz
    Even funnier, they use HFCS in ‘low fat’ dressing. Well fat is bad for you isn’t it? So low fat must be good for you!

    Thank heaven for a well educated, analytically minded and scientifically literate population of consumers

  17. freddybobs68k says:

    #1 Sea Lawyer

    “Heh, the predominance of HFCS in the United States is largely due to government intervension in the market for sweeteners, along with our huge ag subsidy programs.

    I Guess it’s a good thing the government wants to provide us all with healthcare, since it is doing its best to make us all unhealthy.”

    Your argument it the kind the village idiot would produce.

    It might be worth sitting down and spending a little time figuring out the numerous problems here. There’s no point me spelling it out – sometimes its best to just take the time and figure it out for yourself. I’m not joking. Seriously think about it.

    I will give you a tip though – the government is not the root of all problems. See what you can come up with and good luck.

  18. angry says:

    #18

    Hey genius why don’t you spell it out for all of us slack-jawed village idiots? Why? Because you can’t…you have no argument and nothing to contribute.

  19. bobbo, international pastry chef and rhetoric master says:

    #18–Hey Freddy==most of your posts are much better than this vacuous boilerplate BS. If the Gov is not the “root” of this issue, what do you call it?==The stem? The nematode?? Totally Unrelated? What???

    Quite a silly post. Let me respond in like vein:

    Freddy: “Your argument it the kind the village idiot would produce.” It might be worth sitting down and spending a little time figuring out the numerous problems here. There’s no point me spelling it out – sometimes its best to just take the time and figure it out for yourself. I’m not joking. Seriously think about it.

    I will give you a tip though – village idiots such as yourself are not always wrong, just mostly wrong most of the time==so each case still needs to be analyzed. See what you can come up with and good luck.

  20. bill says:

    Why do you think everyone likes ‘mexican coca-cola’ It’s the one with cane sugar. Look for it, get it real cold, and close your eyes, and drink it…

    You will instantly travel thru time to when you were a kid on that hot summer day… Now if we could just get the little bottles…

    That would be it!!!

  21. freddybobs68k says:

    #20 bobbo

    A conversation with you can be like pulling teeth. You have a flair for pedantry that is quite breathtaking. So I’m going to decline to engage further on this one.

    It wasn’t a particularly deep or brilliant point granted. If you don’t understand it – that’s fine. I’ll survive through that knowledge. There are much more interesting things to talk about.

    But perhaps you should think why its okay for you to wave around ‘village idiot’ but apparently me not. If saying makes you one… well you go figure.

  22. Smik says:

    CIGARETTES DO NOT CAUSE CANCER!

  23. dusanmal says:

    “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.” – missed by many diet gurus who swear to “calories-n-calories-out” nonsense.

    We evolved for 99.6% of our existence without access to the grains (more work required to collect them than nutrition delivered + no intestinal tract suitable for consuming them) and with seasonal-only access to the fruits and vegetables. Not even ordinary sugar is of any use. We should wake up and go back to ancestral diet dominated by meat with seasonally available plants as supplement. Our brains would thank us (grow).

  24. Improbus says:

    @dusanmal

    I believe you are referring to the Paleolithic diet.

  25. Tristar says:

    Duh, every mother is a woman.

    American people lives the life of a domesticated animal, feeding on a steady diet of cheap industrial-graded ingredients.

    Every processed food in the supermarket are all mainly artificial. That’s the price we paid to lived in a capitalist system where every ounce of profit is being squeezed till the last drop.

  26. ECA says:

    # 23 Smik said, on March 22nd, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    CIGARETTES DO NOT CAUSE CANCER!
    ======================
    WRONG Cigs cause cancer..
    Tobacco in its natural form is LESS cancerous.
    Its the processing that makes it Worse.
    There are more chemicals in cigs then there are in your WHOLE HOUSE..

  27. bobbo, the evangelical anti-theist says:

    #22–see Freddy==I liked that post. Well done.

    BTW–cigarettes don’t cause cancer. Just a significant risk factor for it. They do cause emphysema though if you smoke enough. If you smoke and Don’t get cancer, then you didn’t smoke enough.

    Yea, thats the way it works.

    Well, I can’t ignore it. OK Freddy==our government artificially keeps cane sugar prices high and keeps Cuban sugar off the market thus making HFCS even cheaper than it would be otherwise. The Gov also artificially supports the use of corn and corn byproducts. So the government has policies against cane sugar and in favor of HFCS. Yes, HFCS is “sweeter” per pound/volume/whatever and as with most foods, our corporate providers don’t care what it tastes like==only what it costs.

    So, that is indeed all I know and that is sufficient for me to conclude Government policies prevent any free market dealing in sugar based products. What product would Pepsi/Coke use if there was a totally free market in sweeteners??? I don’t know.

    There is my logic. Why don’t you pull a tooth or two and give us yours if you have any?

  28. mlubb says:

    I hate the HFCS soda’s out there. We have a small Hispanic grocery near my office that sells the good stuff with real sugar and can tell you that it tastes 100% better with real sugar.

  29. ben says:

    So whats the difference between “healthy” fruit sugar (fructose) found in fruits, and unhealthy high fructose corn sugar? It would seem to me, they are both fructose… which I always thought was healthier than table sugar sucrose (which contains glucose and fructose).

    Is juicing and/or eating dehydrated fruit would also seem bad…

  30. Joe says:

    Old news for those of us who have seen UCSF Professor Robert Lustig’s excellent lecture “Sugar: The Bitter Truth”. Link:


1

Bad Behavior has blocked 6041 access attempts in the last 7 days.