Sugar seeks sweet revenge against competition from corn

[n2doc]

They are the two bad boys of the American diet, linked to a variety of ailments including obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.

But now sugar is taking high fructose corn syrup to court in a landmark battle over which is the greater evil.

In a lawsuit that goes before a Los Angeles federal judge Wednesday, sugar producers accuse their corn industry rivals of false advertising in a campaign that casts the liquid sweetener as "nutritionally the same as table sugar" and claims "your body can't tell the difference."

Sugar forces argue that high fructose corn syrup is far less healthy than their product and are demanding that the ads run by the Corn Refiners Assn. be halted and that the corn association pay unspecified monetary damages.

The corn industry promoters "characterize high fructose corn syrup as a natural product. It is not — it is man-made," said Adam Fox, an attorney for the sugar industry plaintiffs, led by Western Sugar Corp. "Yet they are advertising it as identical to sugar cane and sugar beets."

more

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sweetener-suit-20120307,0,7189463.story

[MADem]

1. I think your body CAN tell the difference. nt

[FarCenter]

4. The sucrose molecule is split into its component glucose and fructose before it is absorbed

Sucrose is a disaccharide, comprised of one molecule of glucose and one of fructose. So it it 50% fructose.

Sucrase secreted by the tips of the vili in the intestines splits the sucrose molecule so that it can pass through the intestinal lining and into the blood stream. If your intestines are diseased, sufficient sucrase may not be available and you might excrete sucrose, but that would be uncommon.

HFCS is generally 55% fructose and 45% glucose when it is used in soft drinks, etc. as a sweetener.

HFCS is generally 42% fructose when used in baked goods, etc.

Corn syrup is all glucose, which doesn't taste as sweet as fructose. That is why they use an enzyme to convert part of the glucose to fructose.

[elleng]

8. You gonna testify for one of these parties???

Thanks for this! Amazing what bodies do!!!

[FarCenter]

11. Metabolism is interesting, and you can learn a lot from what is available on the internet

Carbohydrates basically have to be split down to monosacharides in order to be absorbed. Sucrose isn't complex enough to be much different from glucose and fructose.

The more complex the carb, the longer it takes to digest and the better off you are. Otherwise, you either spike glucose metabolism and create insulin problems, or you spike the load on the liver to metabolise fructose.

Therefore, avoid sugars and white starchy stuff.

[elleng]

15. Thanks. Working on all this,

as just learned blood test showed slight 'high' blood sugar (103 when high end of 'normal' range is 99), so asked our cooks and bakers for thoughts, and ended up with 50+ responses!

There are sugars everywhere, so 'avoid sugars' virtually impossible! For example, like carrots in soups and stews!

[MADem]

9. I do not drink "sweetened" coca cola.

The last time I bought one it cost ten cents out of a red machine with rounded corners and a long glass door on the side, and came in a green returnable (not recyclable--we didn't use that term) bottle.

However, I recently was given the "taste test" of "coke w/sugar" vs. "coke w/HFCS." I was able to point to the sugar coke without hesitation.

[hifiguy]

16. IIRC Coke made in Mexico and Kosher Coke

are made with real sugar. And HFCS has a heavy, syrupy flavor that is really noticeable in Coke, which still has a crisp, snappy taste when sweetened with sugar. I am not a big soda drinker, but will always opt for the drink w/o HFCS given a choice.

[Aerows]

19. I wish more manufacturers made unsweetened iced tea

I love unsweetened iced tea and it's nearly impossible to find. All of it is loaded with either sugar or artificial sweetener. I despise sweetened drinks, and wouldn't touch a soft drink with a ten foot pole.

[MADem]

20. We always make our own, and keep it in the fridge come summer. Cheap, tastes better, too.

Keep a lemon or lemon juice handy if you like that to go with, or grow a bit of mint on the windowsill.

[Aerows]

21. I make my own, too

Every day.

I just wish it was more available to on-the-go people. I always have it at home, just wish it was more available as a choice when I'm out and about.

[elleng]

2. Query: Is it any more 'man made' than refined 'table sugar?'

[Systematic Chaos]

3. People's taste buds sure the fuck can tell the difference!

I guess in a way I have corporate greed to thank for causing me to lose my desire to comfort myself with most of the crap out there, because damn near everything I remember from the 70s and 80s as a kid which I used to love when it had sugar is now almost unpalatable with the HFCS in it. In addition, there are so many more random chemicals in most prepared foods that they don't even try to disguise the fact that it was made in a lab.

Our nearby grocery store is in the habit of selling their riper bananas for like 29 cents a pound to get rid of them before they get too spotty. It's amazing how it can help your weight loss going for those when stressed out as opposed to chips, Twinkies or M&M's.

[elleng]

5. Is a calorie a calorie?

'Its talmudic.'

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/20/is-a-calorie-a-calorie/?hp

Sounds like these guys will be fighting about this one for quite a while. Wonder how the court will react!

[Drale]

6. I say we put them both in a room

and let them bare knuckle box, that way I no longer have to watch those stupid corn sugar comercials.

[LuvNewcastle]

7. It's going to be difficult to show the nutritional differences

between cane or beet sugar and HFCS since Americans consume 888 calories of sweetener per day. Who's to say which type of sugar tips the scales to make someone obese?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. I remember the excitment of scooping up fallen sugar beets off the road as a kid

the beet trucks would rumble thru town, piled high. for a few weeks we had all the raw beets to chew on that we could handle.
here's the process for beets
http://www.sucrose.com/lbeet.html

as compared to HFCS
High-fructose corn syrup is produced by milling corn to produce corn starch, then processing that starch to yield corn syrup, which is almost entirely glucose, and then adding enzymes that change some of the glucose into fructose. The resulting syrup (after enzyme conversion) contains approximately 42% fructose and is HFCS 42. Some of the 42% fructose is then purified to 90% fructose, HFCS 90. To make HFCS 55, the HFCS 90 is mixed with HFCS 42 in the appropriate ratios to form the desired HFCS 55. The enzyme process that changes the 100% glucose corn syrup into HFCS 42 is as follows:

Cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called oligosaccharides.
Glucoamylase - which is produced by Aspergillus, species of mold, in a fermentation vat — breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose.
Xylose isomerase (aka glucose isomerase) converts glucose to a mixture of about 42% fructose and 50–52% glucose with some other sugars mixed in.

While inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry and used only once, the more costly xylose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it, allowing it to be used repeatedly until it loses its activity. This 42–43% fructose glucose mixture is then subjected to a liquid chromatography step, where the fructose is enriched to about 90%. The 90% fructose is then back-blended with 42% fructose to achieve a 55% fructose final product. Most manufacturers use carbon adsorption for impurity removal. Numerous filtration, ion-exchange and evaporation steps are also part of the overall process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup

[LuvNewcastle]

14. I used to know people who grew sugar cane

when I was a kid. We enjoyed chewing it -- one stalk could last you a good while. I think that if people put cane juice or beet powder in their foods, the effect would be a lot different than consuming refined or chemically made sugars. Most people today consume refined sugar as well as HFCS, so it's kind of difficult to tell which one is having a greater influence in causing obesity, especially when you consider that each person's metabolism is different and that people get different amounts of exercise. If people are going to consume sugars, especially in large amounts, it would be much better if they got it from its natural state rather than from a more refined or chemically altered state.

[valerief]

12. I hope sugar wins! Then it can duke it out with Stevia. nt

[closeupready]

13. I look at ingredients; anything with HFCS or transfats, goes back on the shelf.

Period.

[msongs]

17. "King Corn" movie shows how HFC's are made - totally fabricated product is NOT natural

corn is cooked and filtered and poisoned with chemicals to produce sweeteners. It's a great movie by the way about farming/corn production.

[Lionessa]

18. I'd be interested to see this debate go even tighter by comparing

beet sugar to cane sugar.

I drink sweet tea and have noticed even a difference in the qualities of cane vs beet sugar. For example if I use cane sugar, a gallon of tea made up on Monday is still the same when I pour a glass on Wednesday. If I use beet sugar, by Tuesday afternoon it has seemed to spoil with a really odd kind of odor (faint but there) and an aftertaste. Additionally it takes 1/4 more beet sugar to sweeten the same.

I've never believed all sweeteners are equal, not even all the ones called "sugar."

[dickthegrouch]

22. My body certainly can tell the difference

HFCS is one of my main triggers for migraines. I never have that problem with real sugar.