Abstract
Sugary beverages have been found to cause weight increase in both children and grown-ups and are attributed to other severe health complications like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and fatty liver disorder. In the US, fructose corn syrup is the most used substance in the manufacture of soft drinks as a sweetening ingredient. There is a reported increase in this high fructose corn syrup in the recent past among Americans. This work aims at showing how the consumption of high volumes of fructose leads to health complications like insulin resistance, triglyceride deposition in the liver, and gall stones. The negative effects of fructose are meant to show how serious the consumption of these soft drinks is and thus appeal to a major manufacturer of the same: Coca-Cola to make a healthy product for its consumers.
Questionable relationship Between Sugary Beverages’ Reality and Nutritional information
Recent research conducted in East Los Angels, California reveals that there is a huge disparity between the actual amounts of sugar in sweetened beverages and what the nutritional reports say about the same. It also shows that drinks that have high fructose corn syrup contain a larger percentage of fructose than had been earlier anticipated. The research conducted by Childhood Obesity Centre investigated sweetened beverages from numerous companies based on their brands’ popularity and frequency of consumption (Ventura, Davis and Goran 2).
It was concluded that the sugar composition of these companies differed from what the nutritionists had said by a range of about 85% to 128%. Among the results, McDonald’s Coke was found to comprise 128% of the sugar it was meant to. Coke from Berger King was the least sweet drink after having been found to compose 117% of the sugar it was supposed to.
The companies with the leading composition of fructose in their products were Pepsi and Coke. The results from the popular Mexican Coke did not reveal sucrose contents but had fructose and glucose in equal proportion. This made researchers conclude that high fructose corn syrup, though not labeled on the drinks bottle was the one used to sweeten the drink (Ventura, Davis and Goran 6).
Evidence for Increased Consumption of High Fructose Corn Sugar in America
Studies show that almost all food and beverage manufacturers in the United States use high fructose corn sugar in their products. This has led to their substituting of table sugar with high fructose corn sugar due to its low cost, ease in transportation, and long shelf life (Hunter 128). Eventually high fructose corn sugar replaced sucrose in all almost all soft drinks including those produced by coca-cola and other beverage manufacturers in Canada, Mexico, and other cities within the United States. This replacement has saved processors up to almost 20% of all their production costs, allowing them to enlarge portion sizes and still make gains.
With a rising use of high fructose corn sugar among the American processors, the national consumption of high fructose corn sugar has grown to taller heights. Between 1970 and 1990, its consumption is said to have increased by at least a thousand percent and this notwithstanding, the increase continues. Studies have revealed that diets that are full of high fructose corn sugar lead to chromium depletion. Further research shows that lower chromium amounts are evidenced in most Americans. Reduced chromium amounts blended with high fructose use can easily result in increased volumes of blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides (Braverman and Braverman 94).
High Fructose Corn Syrup causes obesity
For quite a long time, many people knew that fructose was both sweet and stable. This made it possible for most people to use it as a convenience food. What was least known however was what makes fructose different from sucrose (Critser 136). That is, unlike sucrose, fructose does not undergo some of the vital intermediary breakdown processes. It is selectively locked down the liver. This took quite a very long time before people knew about it.
In the 1970s, another controversial theory was hatched, suggesting that fructose intake may have led to increased rates of obesity. This is not merely through increased calories, but through increased chemical reactions that it triggers in the human body. In addition, this started coming up when European researchers started investigating whether or not cells burn or store new energy (Critser 138).
Next, they then concentrated on two essential enzymes including acyl-CoA and acyl-carnitine, which serve as pathway controllers on the cell surface. They both appear to direct the internal cell as to whether to store or burn any new fat particle that comes in. scientific researchers then went ahead to look at the impact that various fats and sugars have on these two enzymes. Glycerol and fructose elements came up as the key participants.
When these were available in large quantities, acyl-CoA and acyl-carnitine enzymes were depressed making scientists assert that both fructose and glycerol decrease the speed at which fatty acids are oxidized. For quite some time, this information was assumed by American nutritionists who paid much attention to dietetic fats instead of dietetic sugars. This was mainly due to the fact that the research program had been spearheaded by the American Heart Association that had apparently concluded that extra artery-blocking cholesterol was chiefly caused by dietetic fat. However, in the 1990s several transitions started occurring.
One of the factors behind these changes was the large increase in the uptake of fructose that mainly originated from convenience meals, tartlets, and nibbles. The link with obesity became outspoken when in 1999 there were statistics from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicating graphically, the rate of growth of new foodstuffs versus the rate of growth of the average countrywide Body Mass Index.
There was a uniform increase in the rates of both aspects within the same period of time. This was followed by revisiting the previous research. In 1993, another research done in the United Kingdom on both animal and human models revealed the connection between fructose and obesity. It was concluded that an additional soft drink taken in a day increases the probability of a child becoming obese by 60%.
The relationship that exists between the intake of soft drinks and weight gain is evident, for instance, each drink taken daily was shown to increase “18 points to a child’s body mass index (BMI)”; this was bound to take place regardless of whether the child ate something extra or exercised (Critser 140). The response from the food industry was quite anticipatory with most of its scientific authorities claiming that fructose was part and parcel of Mother Nature. They indisputably pinpointed that it was produced from the well-known American corn. However, not one of these organizations has disproved the fact that after fructose has been made by most food processors and used by Americans it does not remain natural anymore.
High Fructose Corn Syrup Causes Insulin Resistance
Studies reveal that insulin resistance is not only caused by how one eats, but also by what one eats. Excessive high-energy snacking stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin in proportions that are more than the required amount. This causes the liver to be subjected to excessive collisions by the hormone. When this takes place, the liver starts to take to mean the release of insulin as an indicator to discharge excess fats (in form of triglycerides) into someone’s bloodstream.
These surplus triglycerides happen to make muscles more resistant to the insulin hormone. In the long run, the triglycerides over overfill fat cells where they are meant to be kept in form of energy and start to fall over as fatty acids that in turn hit the beta cells that secrete insulin in the pancreas. This causes insulin amounts to be lowered and as a result, blood sugar rises resulting in a risky diabetic phase. The use of high fructose corn syrup can equally lead to the insulin resistance in equal magnitude (Critser 136).
Approximately sixty million Americans suffer from insulin resistance. The phase that comes after this condition is the most agonizing one, finally resulting to complete type-2 diabetes. Since insulin resistance is normally unrecognized, the pancreas can keep producing excess insulin before reaching a level where it can no longer continue doing so. And at such a point, one might be fully under the effect of type 2 much long before its diagnosis.
Excess sugar in someone’s blood speeds up so many problems that may in the long run leave someone unable to help themselves. Someone who is suffering from either type 2 diabetes, obesity or both may begin to encounter very unusual happenings to their feet: they may at times start tingling or just get numb. In case of a bruise or grazed, they may end up taking uncharacteristically longer to recover. This is due to the fact that too much sugar in the blood has led to the hurting of crucial nerve endings, resulting in atherosclerosis caused to less blood flow towards the feet.
The resulting numbness can facade a serious injury, “which can become infected, eventually leading to gangrene and amputation” (Critser 143). This normally takes place more frequently than people may imagine especially during both middle and late middle age. The effect of excess insulin in the blood may spread from just the feet to actually some parts above the legs. At the back of the knees, one may develop some shady velvety patches. Also, muscle tissues around the thighs may shrivel due to fuel starvation brought about by insulin resistance. A diabetic individual may thus be getting wasted away at the muscles as he or she adds on more fat, a very bad situation.
Additionally, the diabetic obese begins to develop frail vessels that may begin to bleed quite easily. The worst aspect is when they begin to bleed in the vitreous humor part of the eye. When this happens, the individual is likely to become blurred vision. This may result in blurred vision and finally to inability to see completely. Research shows that a bigger percentage of diabetic individuals who have had the situation for at least fifteen years have some injury to their blood vessels that lead to the retina. Obese diabetics are attributed to numb legs, excruciating gallstones, extraction of hair from shameful body parts and diminishing vision.
These are just the starting effects because any obese diabetic case is equally characterized by non-diabetic health symptoms. Even if one’s situation does not lead to complete manifestation of diabetes, a blend between insulin resistance, continual poor diet and excessive visceral fat acids can easily result in the worst danger of Coronary Artery Disease, high blood pressure and stroke (Critser 143).
Coronary Artery Disease emanates directly from atherosclerosis, a condition where the artery walls thicken due to the availability of lipids-these originate not only from foods consumed, but also from the patient with insulin resistance’s tendency to secrete excessive compensatory insulin that triggers the liver to produce too much fatty acid into the blood. Latest research reveals that changes in the composition of artery walls that may result in stiffening start at a tender age of twelve years.
Blood pressure due to reduction in diameter of blood vessels (hypertension) has numerous sophisticated and yet unknown causes. A recent theory postulated by Gerald Reaven tries to show the link between insulin and the cause of hypertension. The theory suggests that excessive secretion of insulin in the blood makes the kidneys preserve salt and water they’re increasing the entire amount of blood and its resulting pressure along the walls of the artery.
This is followed by alterations in the blood vessels where insulin plays a central duty. Since insulin affects the functioning of the central nervous system, it can result in a reduction in thickness of the arteries. Insulin further speeds up the functioning of catecholamine that partially reduces the thickness of arteries, in turn accelerating the pressure at which blood flows. Studies reveal that hypertension is more pronounced in obese children with about a fifth of those between five and eleven years said to have it. With arteries that are reduced in diameter and overworked, there is a possibility of all kinds of vascular complications emerging, one of them being stroke.
This results when all these conditions cause a blockage of all the arteries leading to the brain. The brain is therefore deprived of both nutrients and oxygen that are very essential for its functioning. When the brain cannot access either oxygen or nutrients, it is rendered functionless.
The obesity caused due to consumption of high fructose corn syrup found drinks that are produced by coca-cola and other food processing companies has an effect on the brain too – pseudotumor. The brain responds with a tumor-like situation that results from too much abdominal weight acting on the lungs and heart that pressurizes the blood vessel that transports blood away from the brain. The most pronounced symptoms are puking, headaches, blurred and double vision (McMillan 2394). Obesity is reported to manifest in most children with pseudotumor. An increase in a child’s body weight by about 20% above the normal leads to about twenty times the probability of him or her suffering from the brain pseudotumor.
Additionally, there are orthopedic complications. First, there are arthritic feet that result from bearing excessive weight. Secondly, most obese children rather than non-obese ones also suffer from slipped hip (Critser 144). Its effects can be both chronic and hurting. It may require the insertion of a screw in the hip. The same is also the case in Blount’s disease where one’s feet usually get bowed due to excessive weight.
There are about $100 billion annual budgetary allocations towards care and treatment of diabetics. Most of the diabetic upcoming cases are as a result of too much weight. As far as Federal resources are concerned, one in every four Medicare dollars goes towards diabetic treatment and care. Most experts in the area acknowledge that diabetes is can be well comprehended from the rule of halves. Due to its exceeding existence at lower social levels and since one can live with the disease for long without realizing it, only 50% of diabetics are really diagnosed. Of these, 50% are treated of whom only half have the malady properly managed.
Obesity and the Quality of life
Obesity goes a long way to affecting our quality of life also. There has been an extensive loss in the past due to obesity. This has been in terms of loss in working days hence loss in income, loss due to restricted activity days, loss in million bed rest days and physician visits days. Actually, the financial and individual health expenses of overweight and obesity are exorbitant and jeopardize the state of health of the United States. This affects both advantaged and the disadvantaged in life (Critser 146).
Conclusion
The effects of the consumption of sweetened drinks that contain high fructose corn syrup on the health of the consumers are far-reaching. The president of Coca-Cola ought to take a quick initiative that will rectify the problem and embark on the production of a healthy product that boosts the lives of its consumers nutritively. Change from high fructose corn syrup to national sugar is highly recommended.
Works Cited
Braverman, Dasha. and Braverman, Eric. The Amazing Way to Reverse Heart Disease Naturally. North Bergen: Basic Health Publications. 2004.
Critser, Greg. Fat land: How Americans became the fattest people in the world. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2003.
Hunter, Beatrice. The Sweetener Trap and How to Avoid it. New York: Accessible publishing systems. 2010.
McMillan, Julia et al. Oski’s Pediatrics: Principles and Practice. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 2006.
Ventura, Emily, Davis, Jaimie and Goran, Michael. Sugar Content of Popular Sweetened Beverages Based on Objective Laboratory Analysis: Focus on Fructose Content. Nature Publishing Group. 2010. Web.