All Sugars Are Not the Same
Our country's sweet tooth has grown to striking proportions. During the 1970s and 1980s, we were able to keep our sugar habit at a relatively stable 3.5 ounces per day. But then we discovered liquid sweeteners - including the grand champion sweetener in today's marketplace: high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). While our total sweetener consumption has increased by more than 25% and now averages over 4.5 ounces per day, HFCS now accounts for half of our total sweetener intake.
So what, you say! Dextrose, sucrose, glucose syrup, HFCS - isn't it all processed, refined sugar? Doesn't it all provide a similar amount of calories per teaspoon?
From a natural medicine perspective, we would have to answer both questions "yes" and "no." Yes, because all the sweeteners listed above are indeed highly-processed, nutrient-poor sugars, providing approximately 10-15 calories per teaspoon. But no as well, because these sugars are not simply "calorie packages." Each of these sweeteners has a different chemistry, a different origin, and a different way of impacting our metabolism. In natural medicine, it's the unique nature of every food and nutrient that matters most - in the exact same way that our unique, individual nature must always serve as the context for our personal health decisions.
The unique nature of HFCS may pose some special problems for our health, according to an admittedly preliminary research study published in the March 2007 issue of Hepatology. By adding corn-derived fructose syrup to the drinking water of rats, researchers were able to identify certain metabolic changes that took place in the rats' metabolism. These changes had not previously been expected. The extra-sugar addition to the rats' diet did indeed provide them with too many calories. But is also affected their liver function by causing increased formation of fat, and it went through a different processing pattern than the simple sugar fructose.
In other words, fructose syrup made from corn and ordinary fructose sugar found in fruit are not the same. They do not have the same nature. In technical science terms, fructose syrup is capable of disrupting leptin signals from fat cells, and also capable of altering the function of a protein receptor on the fat cell nucleus called PPAR-alpha. The naturally occurring fructose in fruit is not capable of these same effects. The ability to trigger changes in leptin signaling and PPAR-alpha function changes makes the sugar in fructose syrup more than just a sugar. According to this study, and precisely because of its unique effects, HFCS might be able to increase risk of obesity in a way that is unrelated to the calories it contains.
Of course, we're only talking about a single animal study. It's impossible to draw any firm conclusions about human health from a single animal study, or even 50 animal studies. We need to learn much more about the processing of HFCS inside human beings. After learning more, we need to see if our observations hold true over and over again, and with human beings from all walks of life, of all ages, and with all kinds of health histories. Only then will we be able to draw any scientific conclusions.
But in the meantime, we can still remind ourselves that all sugars are not the same, and the unique nature of high fructose corn syrup might be something worth thinking about.
Technorati Tags: health and wellness, diet, nutrition, sugar, high fructose corn syrup
So what, you say! Dextrose, sucrose, glucose syrup, HFCS - isn't it all processed, refined sugar? Doesn't it all provide a similar amount of calories per teaspoon?
From a natural medicine perspective, we would have to answer both questions "yes" and "no." Yes, because all the sweeteners listed above are indeed highly-processed, nutrient-poor sugars, providing approximately 10-15 calories per teaspoon. But no as well, because these sugars are not simply "calorie packages." Each of these sweeteners has a different chemistry, a different origin, and a different way of impacting our metabolism. In natural medicine, it's the unique nature of every food and nutrient that matters most - in the exact same way that our unique, individual nature must always serve as the context for our personal health decisions.
The unique nature of HFCS may pose some special problems for our health, according to an admittedly preliminary research study published in the March 2007 issue of Hepatology. By adding corn-derived fructose syrup to the drinking water of rats, researchers were able to identify certain metabolic changes that took place in the rats' metabolism. These changes had not previously been expected. The extra-sugar addition to the rats' diet did indeed provide them with too many calories. But is also affected their liver function by causing increased formation of fat, and it went through a different processing pattern than the simple sugar fructose.
In other words, fructose syrup made from corn and ordinary fructose sugar found in fruit are not the same. They do not have the same nature. In technical science terms, fructose syrup is capable of disrupting leptin signals from fat cells, and also capable of altering the function of a protein receptor on the fat cell nucleus called PPAR-alpha. The naturally occurring fructose in fruit is not capable of these same effects. The ability to trigger changes in leptin signaling and PPAR-alpha function changes makes the sugar in fructose syrup more than just a sugar. According to this study, and precisely because of its unique effects, HFCS might be able to increase risk of obesity in a way that is unrelated to the calories it contains.
Of course, we're only talking about a single animal study. It's impossible to draw any firm conclusions about human health from a single animal study, or even 50 animal studies. We need to learn much more about the processing of HFCS inside human beings. After learning more, we need to see if our observations hold true over and over again, and with human beings from all walks of life, of all ages, and with all kinds of health histories. Only then will we be able to draw any scientific conclusions.
But in the meantime, we can still remind ourselves that all sugars are not the same, and the unique nature of high fructose corn syrup might be something worth thinking about.
References:
Related Topics: - Haley S, Reed J, Lin B-H et al. (2005). Sweetener consumption in the United States. Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD
- Roglans N, Vila L, Farre M et al. (2007). Impairment of hepatic Stat-3 activation and reduction of PPARalpha activity in fructose-fed rats. Hepatology Mar;45(3):778-88.
Technorati Tags: health and wellness, diet, nutrition, sugar, high fructose corn syrup
Labels: food
1 Comments:
How does the human body metabolizes sugar? Does the sugar, after consumed remain in the body indefinitely?
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