Stuff You Should Know
The digital duo Josh and Chuck deconstruct your world.

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Is high fructose corn syrup bad for you? | April 28, 2009

Announcer

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com.

Josh Clark

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I’m Josh Clark. There’s Chuck Bryant. Right?

Chuck Bryant

Josh, do you want a bite?

Josh Clark

I thought you loved me.

Chuck Bryant

I do. Take two bites.

Josh Clark

But it’s got high fructose corn syrup in it.

Chuck Bryant

So?

Josh Clark

Well, you know what they say about that stuff.

Chuck Bryant

What?

Josh Clark

That it’s – that – uh -

Chuck Bryant

That it’s made from corn has the same calories as sugar, honey, and its fine in moderation.

Josh Clark

You only brought one?

Chuck Bryant

The end. And scene!

Josh Clark

Chuck, I feel dirty right now.

Chuck Bryant

Yes. We were clearly riffing on a popular commercial touting high fructose corn syrup.

Josh Clark

Yeah, which is kind of a big deal these days? Right, Chuck?

Chuck Bryant

It is, indeed.

Josh Clark

So Chuck and I are going to talk about high fructose corn syrup and maybe some of the concerns, what it is, and whether or not it actually is bad for you.

Chuck Bryant

It is.

Josh Clark

So we will get to that right this moment. Right?

Chuck Bryant

Right, and welcome to Matt, our guest producer for the week.

Josh Clark

Yes, thank you for Matt for filling for Jerry who is on vacation, hopefully not enduring any life threatening circumstances, as is usually the case. Right?

Chuck Bryant

Yes, and we love young and talented Matt. So welcome.

Josh Clark

Yeah. Young, talented, and well groomed Matt.

Chuck Bryant

Handsome. Yes.

Josh Clark

How’s it going, Matt? All right, so on to high fructose corn syrup, Chuck. So this stuff didn’t exist before 1957. Did you know that?

Chuck Bryant

I did.

Josh Clark

Okay. Let me explain a little further then. So in 1957, some researchers figured out that you can take glucose and corn syrup. I think corn syrup is like all glucose. And glucose is one of our primary energy sources. And did you know that insulin’s job is to actually go in and basically open the cellular membrane to let the glucose in for burning?

Chuck Bryant

I did.

Josh Clark

Okay, well anyway, so if you want a lot of energy, you could basically pound a bottle of corn syrup. Just plain old corn syrup! But these researchers figured out in 1957 that if you added a couple of enzymes at different stages, you could convert glucose into fructose.

Chuck Bryant

Right, and fructose, Josh, as you know, is naturally occurring. It’s a simple sugar. It’s produced by a lot of different plants, and it’s really, really sweet. And it’s more soluble in water than glucose, which is also a simple sugar. So that’s why it’s good for things like soft drinks and in products like that.

Tags: fructose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Stuff You Should Know, Stuff You Should Know podcast, sucrose, SYSK

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