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VIDEOTo End Obesity, Start by Dismantling Sugar Quotas
By
Justin Rohrlich
Sep 08, 2010 8:30 am
During National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month the White House has the opportunity to change the antiquated, unhealthy sugar quotas and tariffs that foster production of high fructose corn syrup.
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One night, say, over a plate of quinoa and hummus, all Mrs. Obama has to do is persuade her husband to dismantle the destructive sugar quotas and tariffs that have, to borrow a phrase, directly and indirectly, contributed to America’s obesity epidemic perhaps more than anything else, by fostering production of high-fructose corn syrup.
A proclamation from the White House issued a week ago includes language like:
“During National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, I urge all Americans to take action to meet our national goal of solving the problem of childhood obesity within a generation.”
“We must do more to halt and reverse this epidemic, as obesity can lead to severe and chronic health problems during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and asthma.”
And, “As president, I created a Task Force on Childhood Obesity to marshal the combined resources of the federal government to develop interagency solutions and make recommendations on how to respond to this crisis.”
Parents like Mrs. Obama, who's said that she won’t feed her daughters foods containing HFCS, are hard-pressed even to find products without it.
What’s so bad about HFCS?
A recent study out of Princeton University showed that “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.”
"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 study explains:
High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both compounds that contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, but there are at least two clear differences between them. First, sucrose is composed of equal amounts of the two simple sugars -- it is 50% fructose and 50% glucose -- but the typical high-fructose corn syrup used in this study features a slightly imbalanced ratio, containing 55% fructose and 42% glucose. Larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides make up the remaining 3% of the sweetener. Second, as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized. In the 40 years since the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup as a cost-effective sweetener in the American diet, rates of obesity in the US have skyrocketed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1970, around 15% of the US population met the definition for obesity; today, roughly one-third of the American adults are considered obese.
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