I ran across the following article today, and as our focus this month is on good nutrition, I want to share its findings with you. To summarize, Princeton researchers fed rats a a diet high in high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) for six months. They observed that the rats fed the HFCS were far more likely to gain weight than other rats fed a similar-calorie diet that did not include HFCS.
Does HFCS lead to obesity? If you're a lab rat, I'd strongly suggest avoiding it. But what if you're not a lab rat? In that case, I'd have to say the answer isn't quite that simple. I've noticed that when I eat more or exercise less, I tend to gain a few pounds. When I turned 30, I found it much easier to gain weight, and much harder to lose it -- and my diet didn't change at all.
I'm not advocating for HFCS. One of the major sources in the American diet is regular soda, which I don't drink (and I limit the amount of diet soda I drink, too). And I'm a huge fan of eating, as the American Dietetic Association is promoting this year, "eating from the ground up." Corn grows in the ground, but HFCS, not so much.
So if you avoid foods with HFCS in them, more power to you. For the most part, you'll be avoiding foods that are high in calories and low in good nutrition. However, if you cut out foods that are high in HFCS and replace them with foods that are equally high in calories, or if you make other changes to your lifestyle that support weight gain, I'm willing to bet you won't suddenly lose weight.
I'm curious to hear what you think. Will this study change the way you eat? Do you think there's any validity to it? Let me know!
Here are two articles on the study:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/25/corn.syrup.sugar/
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
Have a great weekend...I'll see you Monday!
I always figured whatever the sweetener (sugar, corn syrup, molasses, etc) that calories were calories. But even though they taste good, they are empty calories and don't really benefit our bodies. They always said honey had lots of benefits and it's a natural product. But some of the artifical sweeteners leave a nasty after taste. So in a way I'd rather use a little of the real thing. I'd rather have tea with a teaspoon of sugar or honey then the artificial suff. But that's just my own personal idea. I figure it's up to everybody's individual taste and health.
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