@ForkReporter- Technique of the Week- Cane Sugar vs. HFCS

Neil is doing his research. Which is healthier for us, cane sugar or HFCS? You won't believe how much sugar is in some of our fav bites. Take a listen!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I wanted to talk to you about something that I've
been seeing in the news popping around about, you know,
cane sugar. And if you remember, some weeks ago, there
was some talk I think President Trump came out jumped
into the conversation about coca cola. They might switch from
you know, the HFCs or what we refer to as

(00:22):
high fruit toose corn syrup. I'll explain that and what
that is in a minute, but that you know, started
putting it into the public conversation again, and the automatic
reaction I think is like, hey, well, cane cane sugar
has got to be better. You remember growing up talking

(00:43):
about pure cane sugar and in a way to think that, yes,
coming from the source is a whole food. It's going
to have its benefits. However, going through the health benefits
or so called health benefits to understand in balance as

(01:03):
to you know, what it is. Just because it's natural
in one sense, and is it modified like hypruitose corn syrup,
it doesn't necessarily make it better for you. So let's
let's break it down a little bit. What are the
different sugar So cane sugar well comes from sugar cane,

(01:25):
pretty easy if you've ever been to Hawaii, it's really
beautiful to see the stalks of all this. If you
go to maybe your local farmer's market, sometimes you'll find
somebody with these cool presses that will press the sugar
cane into a beverage and it's it's lovely. It really

(01:47):
is lovely, and mostly we think of it as regular
table sugar. This is the granulation manulated, usually processed to
be white, bright white, and all of those things tables sugar.
It's made up of half glucose and half fructose. These
are two types of very simple sugars. Now, corn syrup

(02:10):
is different. It's made from corn and it's pretty much
one hundred percent glucose. So you're like, well, why they
call it high fructose corn syrup if it's like one
hundred percent glucose. Well that's where the modification comes in.
So high fructose corn syrup HFCs is corn syrup that

(02:35):
has been processed. Now, the way they process this is
to turn some of the glucose into fructose. So just
like cane sugar, it ends up being about fifty percent
glucose and fifty percent fructose, which I just explained is
what you're looking at when you're looking at pure cane sugar.

(02:57):
So cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup are very
similar in terms of what they're made up chemically on
the in the sugar sense. Now it comes down to
the part of your body where your body intercepts this
in foods and processes it into things that are needed. Now,

(03:22):
there's a lot of issues with white sugar and added
sugar and processed sugar. Obviously, there's a lot of people
that says you eat that say you should never have
anything with added sugar in it, and there are great
arguments for that, so I don't want to put that
by the side. So really, the way your body is

(03:44):
processing these sugars are important. At how much you're getting.
Does your body need sugar? Absolutely, your brain needs sugar.
It's basically the food for your brain. That's what your
brain needs and that helps it. However, too much of
anything you're gonna have problems. We've said this on the
show many times before, that toxicity is in the dose.

(04:07):
There are a lot of things. Salt is good for
you and necessary to your body, but if you have
too much salt, it becomes bad for you. Salt regulates
the electricity in your body, It keeps liquids in your body.
It does a lot of things. As a matter of fact,
as far as your tastes go, one of the tastes

(04:27):
you have on your tongue is salt. Things that are salty,
and you know what's salty in life? Only one thing
is salty in life. That's salt. But too much of
it and it ends up causing problems. Your body has
a hard time filtering out the salt and can cause

(04:49):
blood pressure issues and things like that. So how does
your body handle these things? Well, Cane sugar it's also
called sucrose by the way, it has glucose ruptase, like
I said, but they're linked together. Your body has to
break that bond. It has to unlink those things before
it can absorb them. However, with high fruit toose corn syrup,

(05:11):
the glucose and the fruit toase are separated. They're not
bonded in any way because this comes from the process
of changing that glucose part of it into fruit toase.
So you get that fifty to fifty blood. Your body
absorbs it just a tiny bit faster than it does
regular sucrose or sugar, But in the end both give

(05:33):
your body sugar in pretty similar ways. Our technique of
the week dealing with sugar, you know, basically cane sugar
versus high fruititase corn syrup, so your body breaks it down.
It's a little easier to break down high fruitose corn
syrup because the glucose and the fruit coos are separated

(05:54):
in it because it's a different process, whereas naturally glucose
and fruit toase in case sugar are attached to one another.
So the big question is one healthier than the other?
In short, not really. When it comes to doctors and
nutrition experts, they agree that too much added sugar of

(06:16):
any kind is not good for you. Now I know,
high fruitose corn syrup becomes the bad guy, and there's
other issues that you can be concerned about, but it
doesn't matter if it's cane sugar, high fruitose corn syrup, honey,
or agave. They can all lead to health problems, weight gain,

(06:37):
type two diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay. They can come
across the board on any of those. So really the
usage of it and the amount of it is the
biggest issue. So some studies say that high fruitose corn
syrup might slightly increase inflammation or stress on your liver more,

(07:00):
and that should definitely be looked at because inflammation, anything
that has itis at the end of it is a
bad thing. Some people really think that the vast majority
of our concerns as we get older is inflammation in
the body because things swell, and that could very well
be tied to food for sure, liver processing these things,

(07:22):
of course, but both cane sugar and a high fruit
doose corn sugar pretty equal when it comes to the problem,
which is over consumption. Now I'm going to remind you
I'm not a doctor. I don't even play one on
the radio. I'm just your friendly neighborhood folk reporter who
likes to do research on your behalf. So where does

(07:46):
high fruitose? Corns are a pop up everywhere, sweet teas, SODA's,
even energy drinks, sports drinks, those things have it a
place where you probably don't think sugar is going to
be like bread. Now when you go to Europe, it's
not the same way. We have very sweet bread here

(08:07):
in the US, package snacks, cereals, even ketchup and barbecue sauce.
If you knew how much sugar is in these things,
bottled salad dressings, some flavored yogurts. Even so, it's why
is it used so much. It's cheapier and easier to use.

(08:28):
That's the reality why it's in everything. So corn is
grown massively throughout the US, and a lot of people
don't know this. Corn is government subsidized, so corn based
sweeteners are incredibly affordable. Also, hypructose corn syrup is a liquid.

(08:48):
It mixes much simpler into drinks and processed food than
granulated sugar. So look at serving size, look at added sugars,
do those things. That's what's gonna keep keep you safe.
But the reality is sugar is sugar, and moderation is
going to be the key.