However, since the article by Dr. Bray was posted, the scientific community sought to find the truth as to whether high fructose corn syrup could really be responsible for this dramatic spike in obesity. Dr. John White is a leading opponent of Brady's hypothesis linking HFCS with obesity. Since the HFCS-obesity hypothesis was introduced by Dr. Bray in 2004, as White (2008) put it:
...it quickly took on a life of its own. This once mundane ingredient [high fructose corn syrup] became vilified in scientific circles and then in the public arena when the hypothesis was translated as fact through leading nutrition journals, weekly and specialty magazines, national and local newspapers, and an endless number of television news programs.
In Straight …show more content…
People generally tend to confuse the name corn syrup, fructose, and HFCS as the same thing when really they are all different. Corn syrup is really just glucose molecules that are either free or bonded in chains. Fructose is the free monosaccharide that does not contain any glucose at all. People confuse this with HFCS because the name implies that it is high in fructose content when really it isn't. As stated earlier, the sucrose ration is 50-50 fructose to glucose and the highest HFCS ratio is found HFCS-55 which is a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio. That's only a 5% difference, which is not very quantifiable (White, 2008). Further, given this information, the misconception that a major contributor to obesity is due to fruit juices and soft drinks that have replaced sucrose with HFCS-55 can be debunked. White (2008) does well to explain how both HFCS and sucrose are chemically the same in soft drinks. High fructose corn syrup is comprised of free fructose and free glucose in a mixture called a syrup. The only difference between sucrose and HFCS is a bond linking fructose and glucose together, thus making them not free like in HFCS. However, the inversion (breakdown) of sucrose is accelerated by high temperatures and low acidity levels. Carbonated soft drinks, like Coca-Cola, are low in pH and stored at a room temperature or warm warehouse for weeks before they hit the supermarkets (some aren't even ever refrigerated- stacks in the middle of the aisle in Walmart for example). Given the low acidity and high temperatures, the sucrose in the soft drink breaks down to free fructose and glucose molecules just like HFCS before the consumer takes a drink (White, 2008). Dr. White humorously sums this reality up in saying, "it is a sweet irony that purists who must have their sucrose-sweetened sodas end up drinking a sweetener composition more similar to HFCS and have been doing so since the
...it quickly took on a life of its own. This once mundane ingredient [high fructose corn syrup] became vilified in scientific circles and then in the public arena when the hypothesis was translated as fact through leading nutrition journals, weekly and specialty magazines, national and local newspapers, and an endless number of television news programs.
In Straight …show more content…
People generally tend to confuse the name corn syrup, fructose, and HFCS as the same thing when really they are all different. Corn syrup is really just glucose molecules that are either free or bonded in chains. Fructose is the free monosaccharide that does not contain any glucose at all. People confuse this with HFCS because the name implies that it is high in fructose content when really it isn't. As stated earlier, the sucrose ration is 50-50 fructose to glucose and the highest HFCS ratio is found HFCS-55 which is a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio. That's only a 5% difference, which is not very quantifiable (White, 2008). Further, given this information, the misconception that a major contributor to obesity is due to fruit juices and soft drinks that have replaced sucrose with HFCS-55 can be debunked. White (2008) does well to explain how both HFCS and sucrose are chemically the same in soft drinks. High fructose corn syrup is comprised of free fructose and free glucose in a mixture called a syrup. The only difference between sucrose and HFCS is a bond linking fructose and glucose together, thus making them not free like in HFCS. However, the inversion (breakdown) of sucrose is accelerated by high temperatures and low acidity levels. Carbonated soft drinks, like Coca-Cola, are low in pH and stored at a room temperature or warm warehouse for weeks before they hit the supermarkets (some aren't even ever refrigerated- stacks in the middle of the aisle in Walmart for example). Given the low acidity and high temperatures, the sucrose in the soft drink breaks down to free fructose and glucose molecules just like HFCS before the consumer takes a drink (White, 2008). Dr. White humorously sums this reality up in saying, "it is a sweet irony that purists who must have their sucrose-sweetened sodas end up drinking a sweetener composition more similar to HFCS and have been doing so since the