It Likely Makes Your Brain Eat More

Here’s a likely culprit to your weight gain.

Yes, corn may be actually be making you fat. Regardless of how little or how much you eat of the fresh grown version, you’re probably overdosing on the suspected bad version.

When corn is refined into high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) it becomes a combination of glucose and fructose. Your everyday table sugar (sucrose) is a 50-50 mixture of glucose and fructose. HFCS can range from 42%, 55% or 90% fructose to glucose ratios depending on its final use.

There’s a lot of controversy as to the implications of using HFCS in the processed food and beverage industry and the resulting rise in obesity. Studies so far have not provided a conclusive relationship. There are also other factors such as decreased physical activity, emotional triggers and excito-toxins (chemical flavor enhancers which stimulated increased consumption) contributing to weight gain and obesity.

However, a recent small study by Dr. Robert Sherwin, a Yale University endocrinologist, increases suspicions of the role of HFCS in weight gain. Twenty normal weight test subjects were given two MRI brain scans weeks apart. In the study one group received a glucose drink and the other a HFCS drink.

Those who drank the glucose sample reported feeling more full. This was corroborated with their brain scans which indicated according to Dr. Sherwin that glucose “turns off or suppresses the activity of areas of the brain that are critical for reward and desire for food… .” By contrast, brain scans indicated that HFCS did not turn off or suppress the same brain activity. Consequently, it appears that the desire to eat continues with HFCS.

These results are intriguing and further studies are planned to verify if the same results are found in those with obesity.

In the mean time, if you feel the food you’re indulging in isn’t satisfying you, the culprit might just be that HFCS sweetening ingredient. It seems that despite your best efforts, your brain could be tricked into eating more by this secret saboteur.

What do you think? Do you know how much HFCS you’re eating?

Source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/fructose-overeating-obesity-brain-imaging-_n_2395413.html?utm_hp_ref=food&ir=Food

Wikipedia: High Fructose Corn Syrup