Fructose Corn Syrup

The citizens of the United States have been constantly gaining weight over the last few decades. It may be because of the abundance of food, lack of activity, cheaper food prices, or numerous other factors at cause here. A lot of people have been placing the blame on high fructose corn syrup for the weight gain and obesity in the United States in over the years, but high fructose corn syrup is far from the only problem.

High fructose corn syrup has been catching a lot of heat in the nutrition world because it is the most common sweetener now found in the majority of soft drinks as well as juice drinks. There is no doubt that in the common society today people are consuming many more soft drinks than they used to and this is where a lot of those extra calories are coming from. Some researchers at Princeton University did a study on some rats and they found that some of them had a high weight and higher triglycerides as well (Herndon, 2010). In general people have been trying to link the consumption of high fructose corn syrup to obesity, diabetes, and decreased liver function. Some of these signs may be showing up, but they are mainly not due to the fact that people now days are consuming high fructose corn syrup.

The reason that people are gaining more and more weight is because of the fact that they are simply taking in more calories than they can burn and the average person is consuming many more calories when compared to just a few decades ago. Just because high fructose corn syrup is more prevalent in todays food doesn't mean that it is the cause of the weight gain, if the regular sweetener is sugar, we would still be seeing the same amount of weight gain. As you can see in the chart below, the average amount of calories consumed has gone up over 400 calories per day since the 1970's. You would have to consume a lot of food to reach the

maximum allowed recommended sugars and calories from high fructose corn syrup. It would take 87 bowls of cereal, 39 slices of bread, or 20 servings of spaghetti sauce in order to reach that high level of recommended sugar allowances from high fructose corn syrup. Cleary no one is going to consume 87 bowls of cereal in one day so the calories have to be coming from somewhere other than high fructose corn syrup (Controlling Obesity, 2011). In a Time magazine article there is strong evidence that high fructose corn syrup isn't the cause of obesity. "The American Medical Association recently announced at its annual policy-making meeting in Chicago that high-fructose corn syrup does not contribute more to obesity than sugar or other caloric sweeteners" (McLaughlin, 2008). This information coming from a highly regarded association leaves no doubt that the cause of obesity in the United States is not high fructose corn syrup alone.

In conclusion the cause of the obesity and weight gain in the United States is not high