Dear Aunt,
I have research the topic of high fructose corn syrup in order to help you stay on the healthier side of life. High fructose corn syrup is not the way you should go because it is unhealthy.
High fructose corn syrup is a liquid sweetener chemically produced from cornstarch, to replace regular white sugar in food and drinks. High fructose corn syrup is a lot like regular white sugar but instead of having 50-50 glucose and fructose like regular white sugar, cornstarch is inserted with enzymes to turn some of the glucose into fructose. Instead of having 50% glucose and 50% fructose like regular white sugar, high fructose corn syrup has around 42% glucose and 58% fructose (White 2008). The process by which it is made is first crushing corn to produce cornstarch, then processing that starch to stop corn syrup, and then adding enzymes that change some of the glucose to fructose (Nwosu, Parker, & Salas 2010). Enzymes are catalyst that helps your metabolic process function. Therefore they add enzymes to add more fructose, the problem with that is that the white sugar has a balance of what is needed while the high fructose corn syrup is not balance and has more of what you want and less of what you need. In this case although white sugar isn’t as tasty and high fructose corn syrup it is healthier.
The graph you sent me tries to imply that high fructose corn syrup is causing obesity in America through the years. Although high fructose corn syrup does contribute to obesity, obesity has more than one factor, and high fructose corn syrup is one of the many factors, but the reason for obesity can’t be pinpointed to high fructose corn syrup. The graph shows that even when the consumption of high fructose corn syrup went up obesity maintain the same rate. If you see on the graph the line label high fructose corn syrup spikes between the years of 1975-1985 but the obesity line stays at a constant rate. Even in later years that line for obesity stays at a constant rate going up regardless of the high fructose corn syrup going up or down. Between the years of 1985-1990 there is a little drop in the high fructose corn syrup line but the obesity rate is still going up. Although its one of the many factors for obesity, high fructose corn syrup doesn’t have a direct relationship for obesity. Having said that, high fructose corn syrup isn’t healthy for you and you should try to reduce the consumption of it.
There have been many studies on high fructose corn syrup and the conclusion I got from studying the studies is that high fructose corn syrup is not healthy for you. Research has been done on this topic and the results have came back that it can affect the liver, kidney, pancreas, abdomen, heart, and bloodstream. It affects your liver because some of the fructose that you have consume goes to the liver where it can either be used as energy or saved for fat and because you consume a lot of it after it is saved for
