The biggest debate about hfcs, as far as the general public is concerned, seems to have to do with whether a calorie is just a calorie. Is a calorie just a calorie? Or are different calories processed different ways by the body?

ONE SIDE OF THE DEBATE: If you eat a candy bar with 200 calories, it doesn’t matter if the calories came from sugar or high fructose corn syrup. It’s “sugar” either way.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT DEBATE: It does matter whether it’s sugar or HFCS to your body and here’s why:

If it’s sugar, your body will use some of the energy from the sugar in the candy bar, metabolize what it can, then send the rest to the liver (if there is anything left over) and the leftovers will turn to fat.

If it’s high fructose corn syrup in the candy bar (according to what I’ve read from physiologists and doctors), only the non-hfcs calories will convert to energy and be metabolized by the body. And all of the hfcs calories (the bulk of the calories in the candy bar) will only be processed in the liver. Thus will have to turn to fat BEFORE the body can ever use those calories.

Additionally, for the same reasons, your body can not detect that it has received these calories until a very long time after they have been consumed, so more calories are consumed before a feeling of fullness or satiety can happen.

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Post tags: The Debate

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