As we all know, obesity is a growing issue for children. New research points an accusing finger at fructose, a sugar in food that is a major component of widely used high fructose corn syrup in soft drinks, processed foods and candy, and suggests it may cause fat cells in children to multiply faster, playing a key role in obesity. Shockingly, an estimated 17% of children in the U.S. aged 2 to 19 years are now considered obese.
Obese kids and teens face a host of struggles... beyond being at higher risk of asthma, hepatic steatosis and sleep apnea, they're also at increased risk for other dangerous health conditions usually only seen in adults.
HEPATIC STEATOSIS
More likely to be obese when they reach adulthood, these kids are also the targets of an early, systematic and relentless social discrimination, leading to an understandable lack of self-esteem that is likely to be with them the rest of their lives.
This new research is just the latest argument in the raging sugar vs. high fructose corn syrup debate.
On one side critics claim it contributes to obesity and tricks the body into wanting to eat more. And then there are the health conscious who balk at putting any kind of toxic, man-made concoction into the body. The industry, predictably, says high fructose corn syrup is just fine... perfectly safe... the same as sugar.
You've probably seen the TV commercials the Corn Refiners Association has been running, despite questions on the objectivity of the quoted research raised by reports of funding for the studies being supplied by companies with a financial stake in the outcome.
The research on fructose and childhood obesity involved a team extracting preadipocytes, cells that will eventually turn into fat cells, from 32 normal weight children who had yet to go through puberty. The cells were of both types, subcutaneous or just below the skin, and visceral, deeper in the abdominal cavity. The cells were soaked in normal level glucose, high level glucose or high fructose solutions and allowed to grow.
Upon examination the visceral fat cells, the cells that were in fructose divided and multiplied more than those soaked in glucose. Both the subcutaneous and visceral cells exposed to glucose showed increased insulin resistance, known to be a risk factor for diabetes.
High fructose corn syrup is used more often in American foods than sucrose. It is made from milling corn, processing that starch into syrup and adding enzymes to change it into fructose. Glucose syrup is added to create a mixture that's 45% glucose; 55% fructose. The industry says that high fructose corn syrup helps prolong the shelf life of products, keeps moisture in and, probably most important, is cheaper than sugar.
The worrisome thing for medicine is that doctors are seeing more type 2 diabetes today than ever before, and claim this is due to kids being overweight.
Our children may be unknowingly increasing their risks for other adults-only conditions, like cardiovascular disease. Experts have seen a rise in cholesterol numbers and blood pressure readings in overweight children... just as they would in the grown up population.
A cardiologist and consultant to the Corn Refiners Association points out that high fructose corn syrup is not the same as fructose. High fructose corn syrup is half fructose and half glucose. A minor point considering we're still talking about sugar and how it is often an unavoidable part of the foods and drinks around us.
When it comes to high fructose corn syrup, one expert suggests that the thinking be "it's just as bad as sugar". While trace amounts of high fructose corn syrup are probably not going to hurt you, too much of any kind of sugar in the diet will.
Another important point. The study, while using actual human cells, was conducted in the lab, so you should look on the results with some measure of caution. Experiments in human subjects would be needed to confirm the findings of the effect of sugar in food. This is an important point, however there is a growing number in the medical community who fear that this will be the first generation of children who may not outlive their parents.
Sugar in Food Causes Fat Cells to Multiply Faster HEPATIC STEATOSIS
1 comments:
Thanks for the information. We do not have to be the slaves to the fast/processed food corporations. We can choose to consume real food--not synthetic foods like high fructose corn syrup.
Does anyone really believe that Audrae Erickson, and other corn refiner leaders, really consume that artificial red drink (from the first "corny" commercials), and give it to their own children? Or do they just want other American parents to buy it and feed it to their unsuspecting children.
"It's made from corn, and sugar is sugar," they spout like "synthetic" robots from some other "corn" planet--a genetically altered planet.
We must love our children enough to feed them real food, and avoid the fast food restaurants that care only for food addiction and profits--at the expense of health.
We can choose to be free from this awful addiction that is slowly destroying the health of children.
Post a Comment