By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: Before there was high-fructose corn syrup there was just plain corn syrup, the infamous sweetener made by chemically decomposing cornstarch into glucose molecules. Dr. Harvey Wiley, the original head of the FDA, rightfully claimed that use of the word "corn" in describing this imitation food was fraudulent, since it implies naturalness in what is clearly a product of chemical engineering. Dr. Lee cites a seminal experiment conducted by by Drs. Lukens and Dohan at the University of Pennsylvania in which corn syrup (i.e., glucose) was shown to cause diabetes in test animals while refined sugar was not. He adds that animal-feeding studies and clinical trials have shown that glucose "contributes to cancer, diabetes, hypertension, lassitude, brain fatigue, overweight, irritability, [and] mental depression, impairs the assimilation of calcium, and destroys vital amino acids if they are cooked in its presence." Lee also chastises the FDA for helping sell the misconception that corn syrup is a natural product. From Let's Live magazine, 1958.
View PDF: Sidelights on Glucose
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