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Obesity Expert Cites Fructose, Soft Drinks
A pioneering obesity and diabetes researcher has
identified the rapid introduction in the 1970s of
high-fructose corn syrup into the food supply --
particularly in soft drinks -- as an important factor
contributing to the obesity epidemic that has swept the
world in the last 30 years.
At
the same time soft drink consumption has risen,
consumption of calcium via milk -- which is protective
against obesity -- has fallen, said Dr. George Bray, a
principal investigator on the widely quoted Diabetes
Prevention Program study. He is the former executive
director of one of the leading research centers looking
at metabolism, diabetes and obesity: Pennington Center
for Biomedical Research at Louisiana State University in
Baton Rouge.
At
the 9th International Congress on Obesity on Friday,
Bray displayed four charts from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. The charts show from 1970 through 1990 a
dramatic rise in the consumption of high fructose corn
syrup as the use of cane sugar dropped. At the same
time, from 1970, a chart shows a steady decline in milk
consumption as soft drinks grew in popularity to eclipse
per capita consumption of milk just before 1980.
High-fructose corn syrups and related sweeteners
manufactured from corn starch became commercialized in
the 1970s into major food additives. One food
information Web site, at Oregon State University,
describes the development of these sweeteners from corn
starch as "one of the greatest changes in the sugar
and sweetener industry over several centuries."
In
1980, soon after these substances became commercial
products, Bray noted, the chart from the CDC
demonstrates the beginning of a sharp rise in obesity
for both men and women. From 1980 to 2000, the incidence
of obesity at least doubled for men and women in the
United States, while obesity had remained relatively
flat for the preceding 20 years.
The
changes of food consumption involving fructose-sweetened
soft drinks and the drop in milk consumption "fits
precisely on top of the inflexion point of the rise of
obesity," Bray told a small news briefing at the
congress. He said he could find no other single
combination of environmental changes or food consumption
habits that could be as significant to obesity as the
change in drinking habits around the world.
He
said fructose, sweeter than either sucrose or glucose,
sidesteps certain key regulatory processes in the body.
For example, it does not stimulate insulin, which is
believed to be part of an important feedback pathway
involved with feelings of fullness.
At the same time, it stimulates formation of fat cells
more than other sweeteners.
"Once inside the cell, it forms the backbone for
fat molecules," he said of a key breakdown product
of fructose.
Although Bray acknowledged the epidemic of obesity is
the result of many factors, he added, "I believe
(fructose) plays a role."
Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity
Taskforce in London, said Bray's views are consistent
with what is emerging from a report still being drafted
on diet, nutrition and chronic disease in by the United
Nations' World Health Organizaation and Food and
Agriculture Organization.
Neville Rigby, director of public policy and public
affairs for the task force, told UPI Bray is one of the
founding fathers of the study of obesity. The statement
by Bray, he said, represents one of the strongest he has
heard from an elder statesmen in the field to identify
fructose in soft drinks as a potentially important cause
of obesity.
Bray's comments came one day after the board of the Los
Angeles County school district voted unanimously to
extend the ban on carbonated soft drinks to all its
schools in an effort to combat childhood obesity.
News
reports quote Sean McBride, a spokesman for the National
Soft Drink Association as saying, "Physical
education and physical activity are, by far, more
important in combating obesity than banning soft drinks
from students' diets. In the end, this is really about
the couch and not the can."
--
Copyright 2002 by
United Press International.
All rights
reserved.
--
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