Richard Montoya Montoya 1
Professor Lance Lund
BIOL 100-01
11 October 2014
Food, Poison, or Both? The Sugar Question
Is sugar toxic. Some researchers believe it is, while others are unsure of the evidence. Robert Lustig, In his toxic sugar theory, speaks about the dangers of high fructose corn syrup and states that it is a major contributor to health problems in American society. He believes that the government should regulate sugar because of the risks it puts on peoples health. "The average American now, consciously or not eats 28 teaspoons of added sugars a day, or more than 90 pounds of sugar per year." states Rachael Moeller Gorman in her article called "The Truth About Sugar". Sugar may a major risk factor when it comes to
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Many sugar sweetened beverages use high fructose corn syrup in their production process. HFCS, also know as high fructose corn syrup is a sweetener that is used in many food and beverages, especially in processed foods. In high fructose corn syrup, some of the Glucose in corn syrup is converted to fructose to get the desired sweetness. High fructose corn syrup is used often because it is less expensive than producing standard Sucrose sweetened foods and beverages. This is mainly due to production costs. Sucrose is the sugar that we know as table sugar. HFCS comes from corn starch, while Sucrose comes from many plant sources, but we mainly extract it from sugar beets and sugar cane. Both Sucrose and Fructose sugars contain smaller Glucose and fructose sugars in equal amounts and scientists state that high fructose corn syrup and Sucrose are both chemically equivalent. Dr. Robert Lustig links several diseases to too much fructose intake overtime. Lustig states "this mega-shot of fructose