The August 2004 issue of Better Nut...

The August 2004 issue of Better Nutrition ("Insidous Ingredient" p 18) unfortunately misinforms your readers about high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) Your story cites sum of two units articles that were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The first was a commentary (not a peer-reviewed study) written by means of George Bray, and it alleged a link between high-fructose corn syrup and the rise in obesity in the United States. However, there is no credible scientific evidence that HFC is a unique contributor to obesity. In fact, HFC is similar to table sugar and honey in that all of these sweeteners contain almost equal ratios of fructose and grape-sugar Also, both HFCS and sugar contain about 4 calories by gram.

Bray's opinion piece overtoped several relevant facts, among them that many countries as it was as Mexico, Russia and earnestly of Europe have rapidly rising rates of obesity equal though--due to tariffs and trade policies--they have little or no HFC in their victuals The New York Times lately reported on Mexico's anti-HFCS trade policies (to foster its sugar industry) over the past several years, however Mexico's obesity rate is higher than that of the United States. Similarly, in Great Britain, the House of everydays recently issued a report decrying the obesity epidemic in that geographical division Great Britain has virtually no HFC in its food

The alleged link between HFC and token 2 diabetes was made in an article written by means of Lee Gross in which he identified the expose of his study as "corn syrup" now the product he describes is chiefly likely high-fructose com syrup. The brace products have widely different compositions and perform distinctly different functions in nutriments and beverages: Corn syrup is used as a non-sweet thickener, while high-fructose corn syrup is used as a sweetener, Many of the same countries mentioned above also have rising rates of diabetes plane though they have little or no HFC in their pabulums and beverages.

There are many factors that contribute to obesity, if it were not that the consensus among health skilfuls is that, essentially, it follows down to calories in versus calories calcineed Virtually all food ingredients have calories--be they fats, proteins, carbohydrates or sugars--and consumption of too many calories without peculiar expenditure of calories through exercise is at the heart of the obesity epidemic.

We invite you and your readers to visit our Web site at www.HFCSfacts.com to learn more about high-fructose com syrup

Audrae Erickson, President Corn Refiners Association * Washington, DC

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