The Bitter Side of Sweet
Article Link: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
A study
done by Princeton University researchers has found that different types of
sweeteners have different effects on your body.
The researches decided to test out their theory that not all sweetners
have the same effects using rats. One
group of rats was fed high levels of sugar, while the other group was fed high
levels of high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener found in many soft drinks,
candies, and processed foods. The rats
eating the sugar were receiving a dose that had a similar concentration to that
of a soft drink. The rats eating
high-fructose corn syrup were drinking it at a much lower concentration that
what is normally found in most soft drinks. The rats that were ingesting a high
level of sugar had some signs of fat accumulation, but there were no severe
signals that their weight was getting out of control. The rats that ate corn syrup, on the other
hand, were almost all obese, and showed major signs of fat accumulation. Their fat followed known patterns of obesity,
such as gathering around the stomach and the thighs.
During the experiment researches found out
that the rats being fed the
high-fructose diet were 48% more overweight than the ones eating normal
rat food. The scientists believe that
one of the main reasons for these results is that normal sugar, sucrose, must
be processed by your body more than the corn syrup, while corn syrup was
processed, and is made for easy consumption and absorption. I think that these findings are very relevant
to problems we are facing in society today.
An overwhelming amount of the population is overweight or obese. During the 1970’s, the American obesity rate
was 15%. When corn syrup was introduced
to the market, the number of obese citizens living in America greatly elevated,
and now obese people make up around one third of America’s adult population.
Not only
does being obese make it harder to perform basic tasks during the day, but it
also makes you prone to many serious diseases, such as diabetes, coronary
artery disease, and cancer. In fact,
many of the rats who were consuming the corn syrup exhibited signs of the
aforementioned diseases. This study aids
us in our battle against obesity, since it shows us one of the possible causes
for such an increased obesity rate.
People can use this study to influence their decisions on what to
eat. They will be able to make more
informed decisions, and won’t be unknowingly contributing to the obesity
crisis.
Though
obesity might seem like a fair consequence for a bad choice, many adults base
their (and, commonly, their children's) eating decisions based on the marketing around them. A lot of products claim to be sugar free or
low in fat, when they might actually harm you.
Another reason I think that citizens shouldn’t be held fully responsible
for the rising obesity rate is because when corn syrup was first made,
researchers didn’t determine whether or not there were any long term effects of
it. They might have tested it thoroughly
for diseases that were common a few decades back, but something like the
obesity epidemic probably hadn’t crossed their minds (or, if it did, then they
just thought it would have a simple solution, such as exercise, or were very
motivated by profits). This situation
can be seen now as well, since we are developing a lot of new technology, and
are more commonly eating food that has been genetically modified. We do not yet know what the long term effects
of GM food are. Even though we have
tested a lot of this food, there is something that we’re still not seeing,
which might come back to hurt us.
Reading
this article has made me think about what I eat, and just how little I think
about my nutrition. As a teenager, I
find my attention taken by things that I consider interesting, which are not
necessarily always important. Usually, I
eat things if they taste good, and pay little mind to what is in the food. With this new information about corn syrup, I
can easily cut out a large part of my diet that is unhealthy. I can also use this information to make more
conscious choices about what I eat.
While reading this article, it was important to ensure its
credibility. The author of this article
is Hilary Parker, a writer for the Princeton website. Because the main research team is affiliated
with Princeton University, the article was published on the Princeton
Website. This website has a “.edu”
ending, which adds credibility to it.
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