TimesToCome

Corn syrup has gotten almost as much press time as transfats lately.

Corn syrup is made from corn starch and is mostly glucose. It is used to sweeten food and to help food stay moist.

High fructose corn syrup is a 75 % sweeter variation of corn syrup developed in the 1970s. It tastes sweeter than sugar and because it is a thick liquid instead of crystals it is easier for manufacturers to blend into soft drinks and bakery goods.

To create corn syrup you first turn corn starch into polysaccharides using alpha-amylase. Alpha-amylase is an industrially produced genetically modified bacterium.

Second glucoamylase is used to break down the polysaccharides into glucose. Glucoamylase an enzyme produced by the fungus Aspergillus.

Third glucose-isomerase is added to convert the glucose to fructose and glucose with small amounts of other sugars. Glucose-isomerase is another genetically modified enzyme.

Fourth liquid chromatography converts the mixture to 90% fructose.

Fifth this mix is blended with corn syrup to give us High fructose corn syrup.

Despite all this processing, high fructose corn syrup is cheaper than plain sugar.
There are 16 chemical plants in the US doing this right now.

Sweet but not so innocent?
…More recent research suggests, however, that there may be some unexpected nutritional consequences of using the syrup. “Fructose is absorbed differently” than other sugars, says Bray. “It doesn’t register in the body metabolically the same way that glucose does.”

For example, consumption of glucose kicks off a cascade of biochemical reactions. It increases production of insulin by the pancreas, which enables sugar in the blood to be transported into cells, where it can be used for energy. It increases production of leptin, a hormone that helps regulate appetite and fat storage, and it suppresses production of another hormone made by the stomach, ghrelin, that helps regulate food intake. It has been theorized that when ghrelin levels drop, as they do after eating carbohydrates composed of glucose, hunger declines.

Fructose is a different story. It “appears to behave more like fat with respect to the hormones involved in body weight regulation,” explains Peter Havel, associate professor of nutrition at the University of California, Davis. “Fructose doesn’t stimulate insulin secretion. It doesn’t increase leptin production or suppress production of ghrelin. That suggests that consuming a lot of fructose, like consuming too much fat, could contribute to weight gain.” Whether it actually does do this is not known “because the studies have not been conducted,” said Havel.

Another concern is the action of fructose in the liver, where it is converted into the chemical backbone of trigylcerides more efficiently than glucose. Like low-density lipoprotein — the most damaging form of cholesterol — elevated levels of trigylcerides are linked to an increased risk of heart disease. …

HFCS has also taken much of the blame for the recent obesity epidemic in the U.S. U.S . annual consumption of HFCS has gone from 0 in 1966 to 79 pounds a year per person in 2005. Or about 137,618 extra calories a year. Sugar consumption has fallen from 114 pounds/person/year in the 1960s to 66 pounds/person 2005. Or 74,304 less calories a year. This gives a net gain of 18 pounds of weight per person. So it is perhaps it is a part of the problem

*1 cup sugar = 774 calories, 2 cups of sugar = 1 pound
*1 cup HFCS = 871 calories, 2 cups of HFCS = 1 pound

HRCS ( Oregon State Un )
Is high-fructose corn syrup making us fat? ( Seattle Times )
Sweet but not so innocent? (WP)
The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup
USDA Food Consumption up 16 percent since 1970