Dr Oz: The Sugar Wars
Have you heard about what is being called “the sugar wars?” It’s sugar versus high fructose corn syrup and there’s a big legal battle going on, with your body and your health in the middle. For years, the sugar industry has been pushing claims that high fructose syrup was the “crack cocaine of all sweeteners” and that it makes people “fat, sick, and old” as well as going as far as to call it poison.
The big corn companies fought back with commercials courtesy of the Corn Refiners Association, who claimed that you body can’t tell the difference between corn sugar and traditional sugar. “Sugar is sugar,” they claimed.
Dr Oz and Dr Sanjay Gupta tackled the sugar war, and the debate between high fructose corn syrup and sugar. (42dreams / Flickr)
While the sugar companies fought back, saying that was a lie, and there is a difference, even taking the Corn Refiners Association to court with a $1 billion lawsuit that recently settled, but the outcome was kept confidential. So what’s the truth?
Dr Oz: Hidden Sources Of Sugar
Dr Oz welcomed Dr Sanjay Gupta, who was there to clear up some of the confusion. Dr Gupta explained that in the 70’s Americans wanted to “become a low-fat country.” But if you take fat out of the food, you have to add things back in. Now, sugar is in just about every product you could imagine, from soda to cheese. Other hidden sources of sugar include salad dressing, crackers, bread, soups, tomato sauce, and even meat. Sugar or high fructose corn syrup will often be one of the first three ingredients listed on products.
Dr Gupta said, if you think about your brain, there’s a pleasure center that makes you feel good when you eat something sweet. Sugar or high fructose corn syrup both light up that area of the brain.
Dr Gupta actually underwent a brain scan after drinking soda. He showed an image of a brain “at rest.” He then showed an image of someone’s brain who was simply thinking about or looking at sugar, not even consuming it. The pleasure centers lit up. The same pleasure centers that light up from sugar, also light up with crack cocaine use.
Dr Oz: Sugar VS High Fructose Corn Syrup
Dr Gupta then explained that both sugar and high fructose corn syrup come from “rather natural” ingredients. Sugar comes from sugar cane and high fructose corn syrup comes from corn on the cob. They both get processed, to then be used to make your food sweet and give them calories. Dr Gupta said that your tastebuds truly cannot tell the difference between sugar and high fructose corn syrup, as they are the same once they get into your body. But can your body tell a difference?
Dr Oz: Why Sugar Is Bad For You
With fructose, when you consume it, it goes into your liver to be metabolized. Your body makes it into fats, which makes plaque inside your arteries. The plaque can rupture and your body will try to heal it and the scab gets bigger until the artery blocked, leading to a heart attack or a stroke. Fructose also seems to accumulate in the liver which is a big problem.
Dr Gupta said fructose really is the enemy. Approximately 50% of sugar is made up of fructose and high fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose, so there’s not that big of a difference. Dr Oz believes that high fructose corn syrup has been blamed for the obesity epidemic, when the reality is that sugar in general is a problem. We’re simply having too much of both!
Will you now pay more attention to what kind of sugar and the amount of sugar you’re consuming on a regular basis?
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