Thanks to Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice

I bought a bottle of the juice and found they have taken out the High Fructose Corn Syrup!  --- Makes me think that protest by NOT BUYING certain products actually works...

Now we should think of other ways to influence our lives, since we seem to have such little control over what our Congress does....

Now that we are eating so much during the holidays

About High Fructose Corn Syrup:


High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristics of obesity in rats: increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels.


Author(s): Bocarsly, Miriam E; Powell, Elyse S; Avena, Nicole M; Hoebel, Bartley G Source: Pharmacol Biochem Behav  Volume: 97    Issue: 1    Pages: 101-6  Published: 2010 Nov    


Rats with 12-h access to HFCS gained significantly more body weight than animals given equal access to 10% sucrose, even though they consumed the same number of total calories, but fewer calories from HFCS than sucrose. In Experiment 2, the long-term effects of HFCS on body weight and obesogenic parameters, as well as gender differences, were explored. Over the course of 6 or 7 months, both male and female rats with access to HFCS gained significantly more body weight than control groups. This increase in body weight with HFCS was accompanied by an increase in adipose fat, notably in the abdominal region, and elevated circulating triglyceride levels. Translated to humans, these results suggest that excessive consumption of HFCS may contribute to the incidence of obesity. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 

A new GAME for High Fructose Corn Syrup

The name change is requested because HFCS is now seen as poison.  Funny thing, you look it up on the Mayo Clinic web page and they say its ok.... no conclusive evidence....

And, you can wonder where the NYT stands on this since they post an advertisement from the Corn Refiners Association - labeled as Sweet Surprise - that is telling everybody HFCS is just fine for your health, even though so many Americans are heading towards heaven via Obesity, Diabetes, and Heart Disease - sped along by drinking and eating so much stuff that contains HFCS.


September 14, 2010, 11:44 am

A New Name for High-Fructose Corn Syrup

By TARA PARKER-POPE - New York Times

...Would high-fructose corn syrup, by any other name, have sweeter appeal?
The Corn Refiners Association, which represents firms that make the syrup, has been trying to improve the image of the much maligned sweetener with ad campaigns promoting it as a natural ingredient made from corn. Now, the group has petitioned the United States Food and Drug Administration to start calling the ingredient “corn sugar,” arguing that a name change is the only way to clear up consumer confusion about the product...more

and a few responses to this article:

Calling HFCS “corn sugar” will be misleading. Sugar in sugar cane and beets are in their natural sugar form (which is sucrose — a disaccharide of fructose and glucose) and needs to be extracted, concentrated and dried — no chemical or biochemical chages are necessary. HFCS on the other hand is obtained by enzymatically transforming corn starch into monosaccahrides of glucose and fructose. Sugar is naturally 50% fructose and 50% glucose. HFCS can have differnt percentages of fructose and glucose by differnt blending. The two common are HFCS -55 (55% Fructose) and HFCS- 42 and a less common third one HFCS-90. How will these be distinguished by the term “corn sugar”. Although no studies have identified any health negatives of HFCS over sugar, more research is needed to say they are the same.

---

The reason that Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, says these things is because she is paid a lot of money to do so. Doesn’t she make an enormous salary at that job?

A lot of people would say those things too, if you paid them that much money.

But beyond this obvious fact, I’m disappointed that Tara Parker-Pope didn’t write about the other legitimate scientific and medical issues regarding High Fructose Corn Syrup. George Jackson, (comment #3) mentions some of these and there are more.

For instance, High Fructose Corn Syrup puts greater stress on the pancreas than regular sugars. Many scientists feel this could be a contributing factor to the explosion of Type 2 diabetes we’ve seen over the past thirty years.

I would urge Ms. Parker-Pope to do more research in the area of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Look at more than the simple fact that it appears to be chemically the same as sugar. Corn industry critics should be given the same amount of space in the next piece, as the corporate lackeys were given in this one.

---
hi-Tang Ho et al. found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS are up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds, such as methylglyoxal, than a diet soft drink control, and claimed that sucrose does not have the same tendency to produce these compounds. Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage.
---

the over saturation of genetically altered corn into this country’s food chain, and the government’s historic subsidation of it all is a great big elephant in the room
---

Thank you OROWEAT

OROWEAT BREADS has given us a great Christmas present.  They no longer put High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in their 100% Whole Wheat Bread.  This is great, because in the past, the whole wheat bread pretended to be healthy while still packing the eventually lethal HFCS.

Info on High Fructose Corn Syrup (now being called "Corn Syrup") from Wikipedia:

"Metabolic Syndrome
According to the American Heart Association, metabolic syndrome is defined as the manifestation of numerous metabolic risk factors in one individual. These risk factors include high blood pressure, abdominal fat, high blood triglyceride levels, high uric acid levels, insulin resistance and a state of chronic inflammation. Individuals with metabolic syndrome are at a high risk for developing other related health issues such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. ^[54] Metabolic syndrome is becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States, it is estimated that over 50 million Americans have this condition. Due to the increased prevalence of this condition in recent years it is hypothesized that metabolic syndrome is linked to over consumption of high-fructose corn syrup. ^[55]

Similar to the research cited for obesity, the research that speaks to metabolic syndrome focuses mostly on the fructose aspect of high-fructose corn syrup. According to Nseir, Nassar and Assy (2010), the onset of metabolic syndrome is triggered by visceral adipose tissue which is linked to the consumption of fructose. Fructose is related to adiposity through the increase in blood triglyceride levels caused by the consumption of this monosaccharide. This increased adiposity leads to both obesity and metabolic syndrome. ^[55] According to Ferder, Ferder and Inserra (2010), a high-fructose diet induces inflammation and metabolic syndrome. In a study they performed on rats, the addition of 10% wt/volume fructose solution to the rat’s diet increased the inflammatory response in rats as well as the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the experimental groups. Although this research has not been performed on human subjects, the researchers believe that this study is a good indicator of relevance of the hypothesis that increased fructose intake leads to metabolic syndrome. ^[39] Forshee et al. (2007), states that although this research is valid for fructose consumption, it is not a good representation of the effects of HFCS as related to metabolic syndrome. This condition is closely linked with obesity, and both conditions cannot be correlated with the intake of high-fructose corn syrup without further research.^[40]"

Stop Taking In HFCS - And See the Pounds Melt

Princeton Study: Want to be fat? High Fructose Corn Syrup Is the Answer!

Editor's Note: It's a shame they have to experiment on rats to show that high fructose corn syrup is one of the roots of obesity's evil. Just go to Disneyland and walk around a couple of hours and you can see first hand the result of high fructose consumption.

A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides

. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.

"Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, at least under the conditions of our tests," said psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."

In results published online March 18 by the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, the researchers from the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute reported on two experiments investigating the link between the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup and obesity.

The first study showed that male rats given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, in conjunction with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas.

The second experiment -- the first long-term study of the effects of high-fructose corn syrup consumption on obesity in lab animals -- monitored weight gain, body fat and triglyceride levels

in rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup over a period of six months. Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly. Male rats in particular ballooned in size: Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet. In humans, this would be equivalent to a 200-pound man gaining 96 pounds.

"These rats aren't just getting fat; they're demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides," said Princeton graduate student Miriam Bocarsly. "In humans, these same characteristics are known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes." In addition to Hoebel and Bocarsly, the research team included Princeton undergraduate Elyse Powell and visiting research associate Nicole Avena, who was affiliated with Rockefeller University during the study and is now on the faculty at the University of Florida. The Princeton researchers note that they do not know yet why high-fructose corn syrup fed to rats in their study generated more triglycerides, and more body fat that resulted in obesity.

Read the whole story here.

Food Without High Fructose Corn Syrup

Jim Beam's Barbeque Sauce

Heinz Reduced Sugar Ketchup

Kashi foods -- no HFCS

Corn Syrup (just plain Corn Syrup, without the "high fructose")

Bullseye Orignial BBQ sauce

Bush's Baked Beans (original)

Arnold's Flax and Fiber bread -

Luna Bars

Quaker Simple Harvest granola bars

No Pudge Brownie Mix

25¢ to avoid Diabetes - COCA-COLA is NOT Food

Today as I was driving back from the hospital to see my brother, who just had a leg amputated because of diabetes (he is 48), I was listening to KPFT-FM - there was a show on childhood obesity.

A physician from Baylor Medical School, a Houston City Councilman, and another public health advocate (I didn't get her name or who she was) were discussing the proposed 25 cent tax on soft drinks. The politician had the gaul to say that taxing a food source is unreasonable for children in poor neighborhoods, he said that the tax would limit their food choices. The problem is that soft drinks (Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sprite, Fanta etc) are not a food source. They are just a sugar source, and a bad one at that - full of High Fructose Corn Syrup. The doctor really disappointed me when he did not whole heartedly support the tax...

Even more depressing was that the KPFT announcer said he was also against the tax.

I wonder how some people can say things like taxing soft drinks would be bad for kids. How can this be if these drinks are directly responsible for the obesity epidemic we are experiencing. Drinking plain water is much healthier, cheaper, and non-fattening.

link to image

High Fructose Corn Syrup REALLY is Poison

Many of the store-bought foods we eat and drink contain High-Fructose Corn Syrup.  These include:

Soft Drinks (Coke, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Pepsi)

Cookies - (Oreos, Chocolate Chip, etc.)

Catsup

Fruit Juices 

Ice Cream

Breakfast Cereals (Corn Flakes etc)

see dreamacttexas post:  "Poison - High Fructose Corn Syrup," October 30, 2008

Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury

Monday, January 26, 2009; 12:00 AM

Washington Post

MONDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies...more

---

link to image

see report from Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy below:
421_2_105026

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Our own obesity will create a "Horror Show" - no kidding

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/oliver-warns-of-obesity-horror-show-993498.html

Oliver warns of obesity 'horror show'

By Tim Moynihan, Andrew Woodcock and Dan Bentley, PA
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Jamie Oliver at the Fifteen Melbourne restaurant launch in Melbourne, Australia

Britain will face an obesity "horror show" unless action is taken to tackle it over the next 10 years, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver warned today.

He said: "The obesity problem is an epidemic, it's a massive problem. If we don't deal with it in the next 10 years, it's going to be 10 times harder to fix, and it will be a horror show."

He was speaking at a news conference after addressing a parliamentary inquiry into health inequalities at which he warned Britain was facing a "new kind of poverty" where many parents were unable to nourish their families - not through lack of money but lack of knowledge.

He demanded to know why there was not a "minister for food", someone from the private sector who was all over the problem "like a rash" and could drive the response for the next 10 years.

"We are not in a great place, but we are in a place from which it can be fixed," he told the committee.

"If we leave it, it will be like America, where it is almost not worth it, because it's so ingrained."

At the news conference he said he would turn down any invitation to be "minister for food", because he could do more "on the outside", but he would be happy to find someone fit for the job.

His wide-ranging evidence to the committee included an attack on the EU over labelling of food, criticism of the detail of plans for teaching children how to cook in schools, and a suggestion that women used to hold knowledge about nutrition which was now missing since they went to work.

He also said he agreed with legislation in California to cap the number of fast food outlets in an area.

link to article

Michael Moore on High Fructose Corn Syrup

Moore appeared on Democracy Now yesterday...while talking about what our next president should do, Moore briefly mentioned the sweet poison:

---

Democracynow.org

November 1, 2008

AMY GOODMAN: Ban high-fructose corn syrup?

MICHAEL MOORE: You’re not saying—well, you’re not saying the word right, because you don’t—you actually don’t not use that substance. But you’re talking to the poster boy. I think that we’ve allowed this substance into our foods, and it’s caused a huge problem in our society. And again, it’s just one of these things. Why would we allow something that kills so many people? And so, I would have it banned from our food system. more

see Dream Act Texas post "Poison: High Fructose Corn Syrup," October 30, 2008

POISON! High Fructose Corn Syrup

"people who drank two or more sugary sodas a day were at 40 percent higher risk for kidney damage, while the risk for women soda drinkers nearly doubled."  NYT


http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/still-spooked-by-high-fructose-corn-syrup/?hp

Just this month, researchers from Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago took a look at the link between kidney disease and high-fructose corn syrup. Using data from nearly 9,400 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2004, they tracked consumption of sugary soft drinks, a major source of high-fructose corn syrup in the United States, and protein in the urine, a sensitive marker for kidney disease. They found that overall, people who drank two or more sugary sodas a day were at 40 percent higher risk for kidney damage, while the risk for women soda drinkers nearly doubled.

In June, the Journal of Hepatology suggested a link between consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in sodas and fatty liver disease.

And this summer, a small study published in The Journal of Nutrition suggested that fructose may make people fatter by bypassing the body’s regulation of sugars, which means it gets more quickly converted to fat than do other sugars.

Many scientists hypothesize that high-fructose corn syrup has contributed to rising obesity rates, although others say there is no solid evidence to support the theory. The corn refiners agree, dedicating a Web site to the “sweet surprise” of high-fructose corn syrup. more

 click here to order the tee-shirt  

Mexicans Don't Come to the U.S. with Diabetes

At least most of them don't (unless they are rich and overweight).  Working immigrants from Latin American countries are healthier because for one, many of the people who immigrate are very active physically, either through their work or because they don't drive as much as we do.

There is another reason - which is really worth looking at.  Soft drinks in Mexico are sweetened with CANE, not High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Just thought you'd want to know.  

p.s. we all need to watch our general sugar intake, so don't overdose on Mexican Coca-Cola - 

The Killer Sweetner: Pushing High Fructose Corn Syrup - Unethical Advertising in the NY Times

Today there is a huge one page Ad in the NY Times front section, saying that the ingredient High Fructose Corn Syrup had been "smeared" (exact words). The Ad goes on to say that HFCS is not harmful. PLEASE. How can the NYT allow the publication of such mis-information?

Here is what the Corn Refiners Association placed in the NYT under the web site SweetSurprises.com:

Lately, high fructose corn syrup has had its name dragged through the media.  Truth is, it's nutritionally the same as table sugar.  Has the same number of calories, too.  Even registered dietitians agree that you can keep enjoying the foods and beverages you love, just do it in moderation. To get all the facts, visit our website.  We welcome a healthy discussion.

My question to the Corn Refiners is, what do you mean by moderation?  Maybe it is "nutritionally the same as table sugar" but they fail to mention that High Fructose Corn Syrup is linked to Insulin Resistance Syndrome

Journal Of Hepatology
2008 Jun; Vol. 48 (6), pp. 993-9

Fructose consumption as a risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

BACKGROUND/AIMS: While the rise in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) parallels the increase in obesity and diabetes, a significant increase in dietary fructose consumption in industrialized countries has also occurred. The increased consumption of high fructose corn syrup, primarily in the form of soft drinks, is linked with complications of the insulin resistance syndrome. Furthermore, the hepatic metabolism of fructose favors de novo lipogenesis and ATP depletion. We hypothesize that increased fructose consumption contributes to the development of NAFLD. ..CONCLUSIONS: The pathogenic mechanism underlying the development of NAFLD may be associated with excessive dietary fructose consumption.

If this isn't clear enough --- there are many other articles that address this...

from Diabetes Health
What Does It All Mean?

If HFCS is one of the first ingredients listed on a food label, don’t eat it. Make a mental list of the worst culprits, such as regular soft drinks and many highly sweetened breakfast cereals. HFCS alone won’t make you fat, but when HFCS is high on the ingredient list, the food is not the best choice. As part of a lifestyle that has many of us eating too much and moving too little, we’re putting our health at risk if we don’t choose our foods carefully.

from the American Academy of Family Physicians:

Insulin resistance can be linked to diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease and other abnormalities. These abnormalities constitute the insulin resistance syndrome. Because resistance usually develops long before these diseases appear, identifying and treating insulin-resistant patients has potentially great preventive value.

from FamilyDoctor.org:

What Causes Insulin Resistance Syndrome?

The main known causes of insulin resistance syndrome are a combination of (a) genetic factors; (b) obesity; and (c) lack of exercise. Other influences include: nutritional deficiencies of certain minerals, and liver dysfunction and/or fatty liver.

from today's Houston Chronicle concerning Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, "New Battle for Obese Teens: Liver Disease"

link to photo

Preventing Diabetes, Part I - Avoid Soft Drinks

photo: freedigitalphotos
This will be the first of a number of post that will discuss basic things we can do to prevent diabetes. Second generation Latino immigrants are some of the most vulnerable...


Avoid soft drinks - yes, this means Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Fanta, Mountain Dew, Snapple, bottled fruit juices and all the others. They are full of High Fructose Corn Syrup. They trick us into drinking double the number of calories posted on the can. They say 150 calories per serving, but a can is two servings, and who leaves a can of Coke half empty?!

Remember High Fructose Corn Syrup encourages your body to develop diabetes.

This is especially important for kids, because if they get used to drinking lots of Coke before age 10, you know it will be something they will want to do all their lives (the Coke people love this).

What can you drink? how about water?

I used to think that drinking bottled juice was better for me than a carbonated drink, until I looked at the label and saw that High Fructose Corn syrup was second on the list of ingredients.

Diabetes is eating us alive, Part II

detail of image from the New York Times





continued

One culprit that is increasing the incidence of diabetes is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). This concoction is a cheap sweetener, much less expensive than regular sugar. Food processors everywhere are using it. It is in regular bread, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, crackers, breakfast cereal, cookies, catsup, soft drinks, juice, and any number of food products. A few days ago I bought some vegetarian sushi and found it also contained high fructose corn syrup! This concoction does something strange to our system and fools our bodies into becoming insulin resistant.

A team of noted scientists, headed by Chi-Tang Ho* found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS are up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds, such as methylglyoxal, than a diet soft drink control. Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage."

"Other foods that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup: Coke, Pepsi and Snapple iced tea to Dannon yogurt and Chips Ahoy cookies. It also lurks in unexpected places, like Ritz crackers, Wonder bread, Wishbone ranch dressing and Campbell's tomato soup."(from NYT)





*Chi-Tang Ho (Chinese: 何其儻; born 1944) is a Chinese-born American food scientist. He received his PhD in organic chemistry in 1974 and immediately started working professionally as a researcher and professor in the food science department at Rutgers University. He is now director of the food science graduate program at Rutgers.

A seldom considered consequence of immigration

In memory of Mario Sotelo


How many Oreos can you eat?

The New York Times published an article "Does this goo make you groan" on July 2, 2006 in which it quotes a Harvard scientist:
''There's no substantial evidence to support the idea that high-fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity,'' said Dr. Walter Willett, the chairman of the nutrition department of the Harvard School of Public Health"

maybe the title of the NYT article should be "Does this misinformation make you groan?"


We often think of how our lives (those of us who are not immigrants) have changed because of immigration. Yes, our cities and schools have changed. There are bilingual signs everywhere. Salsa is now more popular than catsup.

Even so, we rarely think of what happens to people who immigrate to the United States. While we were at the funeral of yet another Latino who died of complications of diabetes - Juli mentioned to me that she never heard of diabetes when she lived in Mexico.


Diabetes is an AMERICAN disease. It seems strikingly perverse when health professionals point out that Latinos and African Americans are disproportionately diagnosed with diabetes. They say this without explanation. Is it fair for to be labeled with an illness that is actually more white American than apple pie?

There is a term thrown around by health researches called the "Hispanic Paradox" -- I don't know why people would be surprised that when people from Mexico first immigrate here they are healthier (yes, in better shape) than our middle class white American. Just the fact that it is called a "paradox" explains that immigrants who lived in poverty in their home country could actually be healthier. How is this possible without Centrum, meat everyday, nutritionally balanced diets, and the best health care service in the world?

The answer is simple: when immigrants still lived in Mexico, they rarely, if ever ate at a McDonalds (I recommend the film "Super-Sized Me" for those who doubt) or a Burger King, or a Jack in the Box. The beans and tortillas they made at home did not have high fructose corn syrup, one of the big culprits in the development of diabetes.

While Latino immigrants surprise researchers with their health and great physical condition, they again surprise them when long term studies are done, and it is found that immigrants quickly take on the eating habits and therefore diseases of our average American.

It is the food. This wonderful country that offers everything, where a person (if documented) can go from rags to riches, get a great education, and complain about the president without going to jail - is killing us with food, specifically American food - hamburgers, fries, box cereals, 100% fruit juice full of high fructose corn syrup, Jack in the Box Tacos, Dominoes Pizza, Oreo cookies, Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Fanta Orange, and many more of the wonderful things we eat everyday.

Diabetes is ravaging the Latino community in the United States.


photo: http://www.eskimo.com/~nanook/blog/uploaded_images/highfructosecornsyrup-740920.jpg

High Fructose Corn Syrup is Killing You

London Daily Mail:
"Often it [the sweetner we crave] is disguised as 'high fructose corn syrup' a maize-derived sugar product that is not included as part of conventional sugar consumption figures but which has a similar effect on the body."

Daily Mail (London)

October 25, 2007 Thursday

IS SUGAR KILLING YOU?;
We're obsessed with the dangers of everything from salt to smoking. But the real menace is a poison we're genetically programmed to crave ...

BYLINE: Lois Rogers

SECTION: 1ST; Pg. 66


AS THE ban on smoking in public places takes hold, and the final smoke rings are blown away from the bars, offices and homes of Britain, an equally deadly scourge is taking the place of tobacco.

Like cigarettes, it is leading to a national health crisis. Like cigarettes, it is readily available on every high street. Like cigarettes, experts believe it is highly addictive. And like the tobacco firms of old, the manufacturers are using slick tactics to increase consumption of their products while obscuring public awareness about the dangers they present.

And the name of this dangerous commodity? Sugar. Yes, that delicious sweet substance we all consume with scarcely a second thought is, say experts, behind a new health crisis.

Last week's headlines said it all: 'Obesity: now deadlier than smoking.' That was the conclusion of a report by 250 leading scientists who say that while smoking reduces life expectancy by an average of ten years, being seriously overweight can cut it by as much as 13 years.

The scale of the problem is certainly immense.

The report claimed that if current trends continue, by 2050, 60 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women will be clinically obese, placing an intolerable strain on the health service as rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and weight-related cancer spiral.

But the report did not examine the role that sugar is playing in this public health scandal.

Until now, scientists have had difficulty explaining how so many of us have managed to put on so much weight. But new research by a group of experts at Cambridge University suggests that our spiralling consumption of sugar may be to blame.

They have proved for the first time that many people are actually consuming far greater quantities of sugar than they realise, eating almost half a pound of it a day more than four times the recommended healthy daily limit even when they believe their intake is much lower.

This is not just a case of ignorance and greed: it is because the sugar industry is stealthily shovelling its product into as many foods as possible.

For sugar is not just used to make sweets and biscuits, it is present in ever-growing quantities in everything we eat, from pizza and cooked meat to tinned vegetables, 'healthy' fruit juices and even diet foods like Ryvita and Slim Fast.

Often it is disguised as 'high fructose corn syrup' a maize-derived sugar product that is not included as part of conventional sugar consumption figures but which has a similar effect on the body.

What makes this trend even more insidious is that the more sugar we consume, the more we want to consume.

OUR CRAVING for sugar is primeval: when our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived by foraging for food, they quickly learned that naturally sweet foods were seldom toxic. The result is that we are genetically programmed to like the taste.

The trouble is, the more sweet food we eat, the more we are likely to reject food that is not sweet even if it is meat or vegetables.

Of course, sugar is not poisonous, like the tar in tobacco, but what is very disturbing is the way the food conglomerates are using many of the same tactics once employed by tobacco firms to obscure the health risks that excessive sugar consumption presents.

For a start, efforts by the Government to present consumers with clear evidence of the harmful effects of a poor diet have been repeatedly blocked. A so-called 'traffic light' food labelling system to warn consumers if food presented a potential health risk was first proposed 20 years ago. But it is not even close to acceptance by the food industry and retailers.

Britain's biggest supermarket, Tesco, refuses to sign up to the scheme, preferring to use its own, more complex system. It says this gives consumers even more information to help them choose healthy products. But cynics say such systems deliberately confuse shoppers, making it harder for them to know what they are buying, and thus ensuring that sales of junk food products remain buoyant.

There is plenty of evidence the public does not know what is healthy food, and what isn't. A survey last month of more than 2,000 people by the government's Food Standards Agency showed nearly half did not know that foods with a high sugar content could be bad for you, and one in five thought they could somehow wipe out the calorie gain from sugary processed foods by eating extra fruit to compensate.

Tony Cameron, 47, and a father of two, was typical of the obesity crisis in Britain. He used to weigh 19 stone, and is diabetic, as a result of years of eating junk food. But thanks to attending a food management course run by his local council in South London, which taught him how to read food labels properly, he has got his weight down to 15 stone.

He now knows that all ingredients ending in '...ose' such as maltose, dextrose, glucose and so on are forms of sugar.

'All the ingredients are disguised,' he says. 'You have to be an expert chemist to get through it, and without understanding labels you wouldn't know how many foods contain sugar. It's outrageous.

'Now everyone is off the cigarettes, they are stitching us up with extra sugar instead.' Although there is no universally agreed recommendation for an individual's daily sugar intake, the Food Standards Agency and the World Health Organisation say that no more than ten per cent or 200-250 calories should come from processed sugar, including sugar found in fruit juice.

But even eating a bowl of cereal means you may well have had a quarter of your daily sugar allowance, while a single can of Coca-Cola contains eight teaspoons of sugar more than half the total daily allowance.

This excessive intake leads to weight gain, and all its associated health problems, including a higher risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes an illness which in turn can lead to blindness, limb amputation and premature death.

BUT JUST as the tobacco manufacturers for years denied the link between smoking and cancer, so the Sugar Bureau Britain's sugar industry trade association continues to deny a link between sugar and obesity.

'Many people still mistakenly believe that sugar is fattening,' the Bureau says on its website.

'Sugar is a carbohydrate. Eating plenty of carbohydrates and taking part in regular physical activity is the healthiest way to maintain a desirable body weight.' Last week its spokesman said: 'The balance of evidence available at present does not support any particular role for sugar in the causation of obesity.' But that directly contradicts new research by Professor Sheila Bingham of Cambridge University, who has developed a way to test total sugar intake, and has conducted a study involving 800 people aged 45 to 75 which has shown a causal link between excessive weight and high sugar consumption.

The trouble is, in the same way as the tobacco industry sought to infiltrate mainstream science and distort the agenda, the food industry and by extension the sugar manufacturers are doing the same.

The confusing message they seek to promote is that there is no such thing as 'bad food', only 'bad diet'.

For example, the much-discussed

Guideline Daily Allowances for different food groups are set not by independent nutritionists, but by the food industry itself.

The reason for this, according to health campaigners, is the intense lobbying of politicians by aggressive manufacturers who are anxious to protect their market.

One such lobby group is the independent-sounding British Nutrition Foundation, an organisation which claims to promote 'the well-being of society through the impartial interpretation and effective dissemination of scientifically-based knowledge and advice on the relationship between diet, physical activity and health'.

But how pleased would healthconscious parents be to know that this 'impartial' organisation was in

Picture: ABPL fact funded by Britain's suppliers of sugary products, including British Sugar, Cadbury Schweppes, Coca- Cola and Tate & Lyle? Nor is the connection between the tactics of the sugar lobby and the tobacco industry entirely coincidental: Altria, the industrial conglomerate that produces Marlboro cigarettes, is also the parent company of Kraft Foods, makers of sugar-rich foods such as Toblerone, and Terry's Chocolate Orange.

Similarly, the manufacturer of Camel cigarettes, Reynolds American Inc, was for many years the owner of the snack and biscuit giant, Nabisco (Nabisco's brands have now also been integrated into the Altria stable).

No wonder the marketing techniques for processed food and cigarettes seem so similar.

What remains more contentious is whether sugar really is addictive, in the same way as tobacco.

Four years ago, researchers at Princeton University in America claimed they had proved that it is.

They conducted an experiment whereby laboratory rats were offered a healthy grain-based meal alongside a sugary drink solution.

Within a month, the rats had doubled their intake of the sugary drink, and cut down on their intake of calories from food which contained the nutrients they needed.

DIETARY experts say humans behave in the the same way. 'You can say the urge to get a sugar rush is intensely habit-forming,' said Aubrey Sheiham, emeritus professor of dental public health at University College London, who has studied the effect of sugar on the body.

'Added sugar is not the same as natural sugar in an apple, for example, which you metabolise slowly.

Added sugar is metabolised fast and goes straight into your bloodstream.

In some people you get "rebound hypoglycaemia" which means their blood sugar dips abnormally low when the effect wears off, and they then want more sugar.' It's no surprise, then, that our appetite for sugar has increased.

'We have a big problem with a population that now expects all its food to taste sweet,' said Professor Philip James, a senior government nutrition adviser and chairman of the International Obesity Task Force.

'Although I would also say eating too much sugar is more of a deeply entrenched habit than an addiction, we have an industry which uses all the tactics of the tobacco trade to fight for their market.

'The obesity epidemic among children is out of control.' Last week the Department of Health said it was keeping all the evidence on obesity trends 'under review,' while the Food Standards Agency said it is at the early stages of planning a campaign to persuade food processors to use less sugar, in the same way it has tried to persuade them to use less salt.

A spokesman admitted, however, that while the salt campaign was proving hard enough, an anti-sugar campaign would be even harder.

Professor James said: 'We won't get anywhere until the Government realises that this is not just a health issue, it is a serious economic and social problem.

'There should be a minister tackling the obesity epidemic in the Cabinet, not tucked away as some adjunct to the Department of Health. We are facing a crisis.'

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