High Fructose Corn Syrup and Diabetes

Researchers at Rutgers University found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS may contribute to the development of diabetes, particularly in children.  Since the 1980s virtually all the sodas and most of the fruit drinks sold in the supermarket have been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—after water, corn sweetener is their principal ingredient.  Read the ingredients on the label of any processed food and provided you know the chemical names it travels under, corn is what you will find.  For modified or unmodified starch, for glucose syrup and maltodextrin, for crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid, for lecithin and dextrose, lactic acid and lysine, for maltose and HFCS, for MSG and polyols, for the caramel color and zanthan gum, read: corn.”
In 2006, Rodale Press, the Prevention Magazine folks (who were right about organic agriculture), published a book called “The Sugar Solution.”  Page 6 reads, “And there’s growing evidence that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), now the most ubiquitous sweetener in the American food supply, is directly linked to the national’s twin epidemics of overweight and diabetes.  HFCS’s role? This sweetener seems to bypass the body’s “I feel full” mechanisms.  In a study of 93,000 women, Harvard School of Public Health researchers recently linked a 10 pound weight gain and 83% high diabetes risk directly to the consumption of HFCS.”

In August 2007 researchers at Rutgers University found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS may contribute to the development of diabetes, particularly in children.  In a laboratory study of commonly consumed carbonated beverages, the scientists found that drinks containing the syrup had high levels of reactive compounds called carbonyls that could trigger cell and tissue damage leading to diabetes.  These reactive carbonyls are also elevated in the blood of individuals with diabetes and linked to the complications of the disease.  Based on the study data, Chi-Tang Ho, PhD, professor of food chemistry, estimates that a single can of soda contains about five times the concentration of reactive carbonyls found in the blood of an adult person with diabetes.
Rutgers University, www.ahrq.gov

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FACT:
Diabetes-related Amputations Rise For Hispanics, USA: Hospitalizations of adult Hispanics for diabetes-related foot or leg amputations rose sharply between 2001 and 2004. About 86,000 Americans underwent diabetes-related amputations in 2004. Diabetes is the leading cause of foot or leg amputations, those complications and others can be minimized or avoided completely, through proper care by medical providers and patients. The hospitalization rate for diabetes-related amputations among Hispanics’ increased from 63 admissions per 100,000 people in 2001 to nearly 80 admissions per 100,000 people in 2004. During the same period, the rate for whites remained steady at roughly 28 to 31 admissions per 100,000 people. The diabetes-related amputation rate among blacks decreased slightly from 113 per 100,000 people to about 104 admissions per 100,000 people. That rate remains more than three times the rate for whites. In 2004, only 38 percent of adult Hispanics age 40 and over with diabetes received three recommended annual screenings – foot exams, eye exams and blood sugar level checks (hemoglobin A1c test). The percentage was 47 for whites and 47 for blacks. This AHRQ News and Numbers summary is based on data from the 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report