The Sugar That Is Changing It All

The Sugar that is Changing it All

Jalyn Hill

University of Kentucky

The Sugar that is Changing it All

Every single day I see 20-plus individuals drinking some type of soda. In that same day I see a different 20-plus individuals eating some type of snack cake. Those things would be perfectly fine to consume, in moderation of course, if one ingredient was left out of them – high fructose corn syrup. But until that ingredient is taken out, soda and snack cake are not safe to consume at all. Many people are not aware that this one ingredient is so toxic and so they continue to eat and drink products that contain it. I believe that it should be banned from all foods and drinks. Why should we continue to put something into our body’s that is potentially killing us if we do not have to? In this paper I am going to tell you what exactly high fructose corn syrup is, why they started putting it in our food, and lastly the health effects of it, in order to illustrate my position that it should be banned.

First, what exactly is high fructose corn syrup? It is a common sweetener that is used in soft drinks, breakfast cereals, cookies, snacks and many other baked goods. Like table sugar (sucrose), HFCS is made up of a combination of the sugars fructose and glucose. The key to HFCS is the differences between it and table sugar. High fructose corn syrup is processed to change the ratio of fructose and glucose to potentially make it sweeter. Another major difference is HFCS is a monosaccharide hydrocarbon that does not exist naturally in nature by itself. Sucrose or table sugar is a disaccharide that does exist naturally. A third difference is the temperatures at which each of them crystallizes and burns. HFCS crystallizes at 65 degrees Fahrenheit and burns at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Sucrose crystallizes at 20 degrees Fahrenheit and burns at 228.75 degrees Fahrenheit. The fourth and final difference is HFCS is automatically converted to triglycerides and stored as body...