I have my suspicions about HFCS, but what's not clear from the way this was written, and I suspect is the kicker here, is the access to line. Is it the same calorically balanced diet PLUS sucrose water or HFCS water, or is it the same calorically balanced diet INCLUDING sucrose water or HFCS water. The difference between the two of those is massive, and I would bet it's the former not the latter.
High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
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Re: High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
#12Stop giving out corn welfare to corporations and problem solved. It's the ONLY reason why it's so heavily used. Corn syrup and ethanol - two massively damaging products of a completely corrupt system that everyone refuses to change because of massive profits off taxpayers.
Re: High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
#13I don't understand the mechanism here. I thought sucrase, the enzyme that breaks down sucrose (table sugar) into 1 fructose and 1 glucose (same as HFCS), acted almost immediately -- at least on the timescale of nutrient absorption. Is it just short circuiting our sense of satiety? Maybe the raw fructose makes things sweeter and stimulates reward centers better? I wonder where honey falls in all this since it has high…
You sound like you are a paid shill. I know that you aren't, which disappoints me further, because I'd like to think that people are capable of educating themselves instead of spreading misinformation. On your first paragraph, pondering whether sucrose breaks down into fructose and glucose immediately: No, it doesn't. HFCS makes sugars available to the bloodstream sooner, causing larger swings in overall blood sugar…
Re: High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
#14Re: High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
#15HFCS might be indirectly responsible for weight problems, but that's only because of its prominence, low price, and calorie dense-ness. Not some voodoo reason as this article states and as many believe.
Try this: http://examine.com/faq/is-hfcs-high-fructose-corn-syrup-wors...
The experiment's conclusions don't make sense either. There are dozens and dozens of studies showing ONLY net calorie intake is what is responsible for weight gain or weight loss, not the contents of what they eat: http://examine.com/faq/what-should-i-eat-for-weight-loss.htm...
So for the study to refute the conclusions we have arrived at today would be quite the breakthrough. Not to mention the whole part where it violates the laws of thermodynamics.
Can anyone link to a study (not an article) showing HFCS causing more weight gain in a calorie-controlled study that accounts for water weight and (preferably) doesn't have the people count their own calories?
Re: High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yours has to be the most dickish comment on a comment I've ever read on HN. Congratulations. What is it that you've added to the conversation again ? Nothing.
As far as I can tell, everything he says is grounded in fact or is at least cogently supported. I intend to follow some of his pointers and read more. On the other hand, your comment is strangely and unintentionally self referential.
MostAwesomeDude could have started out answering the questions on the assumption they are honestly meant, without the attitude, and it would have come across a lot better.
Re: High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
#17"The rats in the Princeton study became obese by drinking high-fructose corn syrup, but not by drinking sucrose. The critical differences in appetite, metabolism and gene expression that underlie this phenomenon are yet to be discovered" The whole thing is one big correlation confirmation. I was hoping to find something substantial that would explain the underlying cause.
Instead of considering HFCS as a food, and measuring how it works on your body, why not consider HFCS as a drug, and measure how it works on your brain? I think the HFCS->obesity issue has a lot more to do with the way sugar affects our brains.
I think HFCS is detrimental to human survival because it has encouraged us to get all of our happiness from food, leading to overeating and eating to "feel better" (it never happens) in some portions of the population. Thus, we are at this obesity issue, which is really a happiness issue. From my own personal experience: When you believe in yourself and you want to change, obesity becomes less and less of a problem because you are motivated to work out, eat better and generally take care of yourself. But the fact remains that you once ingested a drug to feel happy which also made you fat. Now you are eating food the way you're supposed to and not really getting that happiness that was once supplied by the sugary foods you were eating. You must use other drugs, like meditation or even alcohol/marijuana, to supplant this "completeness" feeling that you are missing from the lack of sugary foods.
Eventually, your body will give up the tolerance to sugary foods and you'll find yourself drinking sodas and eating dessert much less than you used to. Now, the general level of HFCS in all of our foods is no longer affecting your body weight and the way you feel about yourself.
I don't want to sound like a commercial here, but in the last 2-3 years I've been very much aware of my sugar-rich diet and began to slowly wean myself off of the addiction, and I can happily say that I've gone from a size 40 to a size 36 waist and lost over 20 pounds in the last year alone by simply being aware of how sugar affects your mind AND body, getting more exercise, and eating smaller portions of healthier food.
Re: High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
#18Stop giving out corn welfare to corporations and problem solved. It's the ONLY reason why it's so heavily used. Corn syrup and ethanol - two massively damaging products of a completely corrupt system that everyone refuses to change because of massive profits off taxpayers.
Re: High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
#19I don't understand the mechanism here. I thought sucrase, the enzyme that breaks down sucrose (table sugar) into 1 fructose and 1 glucose (same as HFCS), acted almost immediately -- at least on the timescale of nutrient absorption. Is it just short circuiting our sense of satiety? Maybe the raw fructose makes things sweeter and stimulates reward centers better? I wonder where honey falls in all this since it has high…
You sound like you are a paid shill. I know that you aren't, which disappoints me further, because I'd like to think that people are capable of educating themselves instead of spreading misinformation. On your first paragraph, pondering whether sucrose breaks down into fructose and glucose immediately: No, it doesn't. HFCS makes sugars available to the bloodstream sooner, causing larger swings in overall blood sugar…
Re: High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain than sugar (2010)
#20I don't understand the mechanism here. I thought sucrase, the enzyme that breaks down sucrose (table sugar) into 1 fructose and 1 glucose (same as HFCS), acted almost immediately -- at least on the timescale of nutrient absorption. Is it just short circuiting our sense of satiety? Maybe the raw fructose makes things sweeter and stimulates reward centers better? I wonder where honey falls in all this since it has high…
You sound like you are a paid shill. I know that you aren't, which disappoints me further, because I'd like to think that people are capable of educating themselves instead of spreading misinformation. On your first paragraph, pondering whether sucrose breaks down into fructose and glucose immediately: No, it doesn't. HFCS makes sugars available to the bloodstream sooner, causing larger swings in overall blood sugar…
> pondering whether sucrose breaks down into fructose and glucose immediately: No, it doesn't.
Can you substantiate this further (say, with an in-vivo sucrose half-life)? I don't have journal access at the moment, so the best I could find was this study: http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/content/59/1/413.extract which seems to support what you claim (only 90% inversion after 6.5 hours in rabbits), but I'd still like to see something more modern and preferably in humans.
> Additionally, this study covers rats which were given strict diets
Strict diets? It seems to me like they had unmeasured and uncontrolled access to chow and sugar solution ("controlled" only on the basis of availability time)! I tend to agree with the grandparent post that the observed results could be caused by the relative sweetness of HFCS driving the rats to continue consuming HFCS past the point where they would have stopped consuming sucrose solution. Since humans tend to consume drinks in fixed quantities (8oz, 16oz) not entirely chosen on the bases of satiety, I question the relevance of this study to human health.
> you contradict yourself by noting (correctly) that HFCS is not half-and-half fructose and glucose
You quibble. I'll take it back iff you substantiate the implicit claim (which occurs under the assumption that you weren't quibbling) that the 5% or 7% difference in sugar concentrations creates a disproportionate effect on energy output or weight gain.