September 18, 2011
High Fructose Corn Syrup
A group of sugar farmers and refiners are suing corn
processors and a lobbying group for advertising that High
Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is as healthful as sugar (Associated
Press, September 13, 2011). The granulated table sugar that you
buy in the store comes from sugar cane or sugar beets. HFCS is
processed from corn and is found in almost all sugared soft
drinks.
As of today, nobody has shown that HFCS is any more
damaging to your health than granulated table sugar. Almost all
studies show that large amounts of granulated table sugar or HFCS
equally increase risk for diabetes, heart attacks, obesity and
premature death.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HFCS AND TABLE SUGAR: Table sugar is
primarily sucrose, a double sugar with almost equal parts of two
single sugars called glucose and fructose. HFCS is also glucose
and fructose, but they are single sugars that are not bound
together.
DOES SEPARATE GLUCOSE AND FRUCTOSE CAUSE MORE DISEASE?
It may, but nobody has shown that it does. All sugars can increase
risk for obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and premature death
RATIOS OF GLUCOSE TO FRUCTOSE ARE NEARLY IDENTICAL: Table
sugar has about a 50/50 ratio of glucose to fructose. HFCS has
approximately a 55/42 ratio. Nobody has shown that this
difference in ratio increases risk for disease or premature
death.
THE FRUCTOSE IN HFCS AND TABLE SUGAR ARE THE SAME.
Of the two sugars, glucose is allowed to circulate freely
in your bloodstream and can enter all your cells. However,
fructose is immediately trapped by your liver. It is first sent
into liver cells as a stored sugar called glycogen. When glycogen
stores are full, fructose is converted to a fat called
triglycerides. Triglycerides are the building blocks used to
make the bad LDL cholesterol that causes plaques to form in
arteries. High triglycerides cause high LDL cholesterol.
HOW COULD HFCS BE MORE HARMFUL THAT TABLE SUGAR? When
your blood sugar rises too high, sugar sticks to the outer
surface of cell membranes. Once there, sugar can never get off.
It is converted by a series of chemical reactions first from
glucose to fructose and eventually to sorbitol, a sugar alcohol
that destroys the cell to cause all the side effects of diabetes:
nerve damage such as blindness, deafness, and loss of feeling,
impotency, heart attacks, strokes, dementia, kidney damage, and
so forth.
Theoretically, HFCS could cause a higher rise in blood
sugar, but this has not been proven. HFCS contains single sugars
(glucose and fructose), while table sugar has the two sugars
bound together in a single molecule (sucrose). It takes an extra
chemical reaction to convert sucrose to the single sugars that
are already individual in HFCS. So theoretically, HFCS could
cause a higher rise in blood sugar than table sugar, but, as of
today, we do not have this proof.
WHY CAN ALL SUGARED DRINKS HARM YOU? Sugared drinks
cause much higher rises in blood sugar than sugared foods. The
higher the rise in blood sugar, the greater the cell damage.
When food enters your stomach, the pyloric sphincter at the end
of your stomach closes and no solid food can pass into your
intestines. Only a liquid soup is squeezed into your intestines.
Sugared drinks enter your intestines to be absorbed immediately.
When you eat whole fruit, it can stay in your stomach for up to
five hours before it is squirted into your intestines.
MY RECOMMENDATIONS: When you are not exercising, avoid
any form of added sugars in foods and drinks. Whole fruit is
fine, but avoid fruit juices. When you are exercising, you can
take sugared drinks and foods. Contracting muscles can draw
sugar into their cells without needing insulin. On the other
hand, resting muscles are passive and require insulin to draw
sugar from your bloodstream. Taking sugar when you are not
exercising causes much higher rises in blood sugar.
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Reports from DrMirkin.com
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http://www.drmirkin.com/archive/6826.html
How many miles should you run?
http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/run_miles.html
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Dear Dr. Mirkin: When should I take sugar to increase endurance
and speed during exercise?
Taking sugar DURING exercise prolongs speed and
endurance, but do not take sugar until at least 10 minutes AFTER
YOU START exercising. Taking sugar BEFORE exercise raises
insulin levels that cause lower blood sugar levels over the time
of exercise which decreases endurance (International Journal of
Sports Medicine, May 2011).
During exercise, muscles draw sugar from the bloodstream
into their cells without requiring insulin. This prevents blood
sugar levels from rising too high to cause the pancreas to
release large amounts of insulin, which lowers blood sugar
levels. Since insulin levels can remain high for hours, you
should not take foods that cause a high rise in blood sugar for
three hours before you compete.
On the other hand, when you exercise, contracting
muscles draw sugar so rapidly from the bloodstream that blood
sugar levels do not rise high enough to cause a high rise in
insulin.
LOW BLOOD SUGAR TIRES YOU: Almost 100 percent of the
energy for your brain comes from sugar in your bloodstream.
When you take sugared drinks or food and your muscles are not
contracting, your blood sugar levels rise high, calling out for
your pancreas to release insulin to lower your blood sugar.
Then your exercising muscles also start pulling sugar from your
bloodstream which can cause low blood sugar levels. If blood
sugar levels drop, your brain does not get enough sugar and you
feel tired and have to slow down.
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Dear Dr. Mirkin: Why is sugar the main dietary cause of high
triglycerides and low levels of the good HDL cholesterol?
As I explained in my article on HFCS (above), most
dietary sugar is made up of two single sugars called glucose
and fructose. The glucose is allowed to circulate in your
bloodstream, but fructose is trapped in your liver.
*First, fructose is converted to stored sugar in the liver called
glycogen.
*Any extra fructose is converted to a fat called triglycerides.
*As triglycerides accumulate in your bloodstream, they can cause
clotting and heart attacks, so your body has to do something to
lower blood levels of triglycerides.
* Your good HDL cholesterol is used up in carrying triglycerides
from your bloodstream to the liver where they accumulate in the
liver to form a fatty liver. So your blood levels of the good
HDL cholesterol go down (Current Atherosclerosis Reports,
published online September 8, 2011).
Remember that the good HDL (Healthy) cholesterol helps
to prevent heart attacks, and the bad LDL (Lousy) cholesterol
helps to cause them. Drugs that raise HDL have not consistently
been shown to help prevent heart attacks. The best ways to raise
HDL cholesterol are to:
1) exercise
2) replace dietary carbohydrates with polyunsaturated or
monounsaturated fats
3) drink one or two glasses of wine per day
4) lose weight.
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Recipe of the Week:
Portuguese Potato-Garlic Soup
http://www.drmirkin.com/recipes/portsoup.html
You'll find lots of recipes and helpful tips in
The Good Food Book
http://www.drmirkin.com/goodfood/index.html
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