From Al...

So, I heard a report on the radio last night about high fructose corn syrup. They did a study with rats in a lab and gave them sweetened water. They used sugar (sucrose) for one group and they used high fructose corn syrup (hfcs) for the other group. Then in addition to that water, they gave them their regular meals. They could drink as much as they wanted. In this particular study, the rats who drank the hfcs water gained weight whereas the ones who drank the sugar water didn't. They also found something in the rats brains (don't ask me how) that when they had the hfcs, the brain didn't release a chemical that tells your body you're full. The rats who had the sugar, did. They got the chemical signal from their brain while eating their food, that they were full. The sugar rats didn't eat as much even though food was widely available to them. The hfcs rats ate much more. What scientists are deducing from this is that the majority of our foods these days have hfcs because it's cheaper than sugar and stores better (shelf life) than sugar, but there's a possibility that hfcs blocks the chemical in our brain letting us know we're full. For example, individuals who drink a Dr. Pepper with their hamburger and fries will eat more because they're never told they're full. They'll drink a Super Big Gulp and still be hungry. However, you can get Coke that is bottled in Mexico and that Coke is made with cane sugar, not hfcs. Drink that and you'll find and more proportionate rate of hunger and satiation. The U.S. gov't subsidizes the sugar that's imported or grown here to make it more expensive. However, the U.S. gov't also subsidizes the corn industry to make corn more inexpensive.

Also read an article about hfcs that said the make up of hfcs and table sugar is really, quite the same. Hfcs is 55% fructose and 45% sucrose whereas table sugar is 50% fructose and 50% sucrose, something like that, so hfcs isn't that much different and if you have it occasionally instead of the sugar, it's not a big deal. What the article did say is that hfcs metabolizes differently. It sits in the liver and doesn't break down as quick and stores better as fat. That was the difference.

Bottom line......rethink high fructose corn syrup? Make things from scratch with sugar? Don't buy processed? Etc. Etc.????