Text 3234, 171 rader
Skriven 2006-07-11 22:44:06 av mark lewis (1:3634/12.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: TASTES 875  60702
=========================
 DS> There are basically two colors of corn syrup available to the
 DS> American market: "light" (aka "white") which is sort of colorless
 DS> {but may have a slightly yellowish tinge) and "dark" which is very
 DS> brown, like molasses (but of corn.)  The difference in flavor is
 DS> negligible - the color is simply due to caramel coloring - but
 DS> some recipes prefer a different coloration for aesthetic reasons.

 GJ> So how is corn syrup made?  When I was very young I read that the
 GJ> action of (I think) sulphuric acid on starch turned it into a
 GJ> sugar, so I tried making a slurry with flour, adding acid, then
 GJ> limestone to supposedly neutralise the acid, then I sipped it to
 GJ> see if it was sweet.  My teeth started to fizz, so I decided to
 GJ> wash out my mouth and forget the whole experiment.  Is that how
 GJ> they do it these days? 

i think i answered this already... but just in case...

maybe you discovered what is sold, today, as tooth whitener?

and on the HFCS manufacture, i was trying to write a reply and my connection
was acting wierd... anyway, i googled for...

  make OR made high fructose corn syrup

and the following is the first URL that came up... it is extremely informative
although it may also be "one sided" or similar (al la the report i have on
iodine by a doctor in my familr tree that the AMA refused to publish... and
which i do have a copy that i'm working on getting into html format for
publishing again since my cousin's site seems to have disappeared in the last
years)...

===== quote http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html =====

 By Linda Joyce Forristal, CCP, MTA

Think of sugar and you think of sugar cane or beets. Extraction of sugar from
sugar cane spurred the colonization of the New World. Extraction of sugar from
beets was developed during the time of Napoleon so that the French could have
sugar in spite of the English trading blockade.

Nobody thinks of sugar when they see a field of corn. Most of us would be
surprised to learn that the larger percentage of sweeteners used in processed
food comes from corn, not sugar cane or beets.

The process for making the sweetener high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) out of
corn was developed in the 1970s. Use of HFCS grew rapidly, from less than three
million short tons in 1980 to almost 8 million short tons in 1995. During the
late 1990s, use of sugar actually declined as it was eclipsed by HFCS. Today
Americans consume more HFCS than sugar.

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is produced by processing corn starch to yield
glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of
fructose. It all sounds rather simple_white cornstarch is turned into crystal
clear syrup. However, the process is actually very complicated. Three different
enzymes are needed to break down cornstarch, which is composed of chains of
glucose molecules of almost infinite length, into the simple sugars glucose and
fructose.

First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of
sugars called polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is industrially produced by a
bacterium, usually Bacillus sp. It is purified and then shipped to HFCS
manufacturers.

Next, an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further
to yield the simple sugar glucose. Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is
produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely
see little balls of Aspergillus floating on the top.

The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, is very expensive. It converts glucose to
a mixture of about 42 percent fructose and 50-52 percent glucose with some
other sugars mixed in. While alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly
to the slurry, pricey glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar
mixture is then passed over it. Inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are
used only once, glucose-isomerase is reused until it loses most of its
activity.

There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that
takes the mixture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is back-blended with
the original mixture to yield a final concentration of about 55 percent
fructose_what the industry calls high fructose corn syrup.

HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from
cane or beet sugar but it is obviously much more complicated to make, involving
vats of murky fermenting liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of which
take place in one of 16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. Yet in spite
of all the special enzymes required, HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It is
also very easy to transport_it's just piped into tanker trucks. This translates
into lower costs and higher profits for food producers.

The development of the HFCS process came at an opportune time for corn growers.
Refinements of the partial hydrogenation process had made it possible to get
better shortenings and margarines out of soybeans than corn. HFCS took up the
slack as demand for corn oil margarine declined. Lysine, an amino acid, can be
produced from the corn residue after the glucose is removed. This is the modus
operandi of the food conglomerates_break down commodities into their basic
components and then put them back together again as processed food.

Today HFCS is used to sweeten jams, condiments like ketchup, and soft drinks.
It is also a favorite ingredient in many so-called health foods. Four companies
control 85 percent of the $2.6 billion business_Archer Daniels Midland,
Cargill, Staley Manufacturing Co. and CPC International. In the mid-1990s, ADM
was the object of an FBI probe into price fixing of three products_HFCS, citric
acid and lysine_and consumers got a glimpse of the murky world of corporate
manipulation.

There's a couple of other murky things that consumers should know about HFCS.
According to a food technology expert, two of the enzymes used, alpha-amylase
and glucose-isomerase, are genetically modified to make them more stable.
Enzymes are actually very large proteins and through genetic modification
specific amino acids in the enzymes are changed or replaced so the enzyme's
"backbone" won't break down or unfold. This allows the industry to get the
enzymes to higher temperatures before they become unstable.

Consumers trying to avoid genetically modified foods should avoid HFCS. It is
almost certainly made from genetically modified corn and then it is processed
with genetically modified enzymes. I've seen some estimates claiming that
virtually everything_almost 80 percent_of what we eat today has been
genetically modified at some point. Since the use of HFCS is so prevalent in
processed foods, those figures may be right.

But there's another reason to avoid HFCS. Consumers may think that because it
contains fructose_which they associate with fruit, which is a natural food_that
it is healthier than sugar. A team of investigators at the USDA, led by Dr.
Meira Field, has discovered that this just ain't so.

Sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. When sugar is given to rats in
high amounts, the rats develop multiple health problems, especially when the
rats were deficient in certain nutrients, such as copper. The researchers
wanted to know whether it was the fructose or the glucose moiety that was
causing the problems. So they repeated their studies with two groups of rats,
one given high amounts of glucose and one given high amounts of fructose. The
glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The
male rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart
hypertrophy_that means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded. They
also had delayed testicular development. Dr. Field explains that fructose in
combination with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with
collagen production. (Copper deficiency, by the way, is widespread in America.)
In a nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart. The females were
not so affected, but they were unable to produce live young.

"The medical profession thinks fructose is better for diabetics than sugar,"
says Dr. Field, "but every cell in the body can metabolize glucose. However,
all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of the rats on the
high fructose diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and
cirrhotic."

HFCS contains more fructose than sugar and this fructose is more immediately
available because it is not bound up in sucrose. Since the effects of fructose
are most severe in the growing organism, we need to think carefully about what
kind of sweeteners we give to our children. Fruit juices should be strictly
avoided_they are very high in fructose_but so should anything with HFCS.

Interestingly, although HFCS is used in many products aimed at children, it is
not used in baby formula, even though it would probably save the manufactueres
a few pennies for each can. Do the formula makers know something they aren't
telling us? Pretty murky!

About the author
Weston A. Price Foundation Board Member Linda Forristal is the author of Ode to
Sucanat (1993) and Bulgarian Rhapsody (1998). Visit her website at
www.motherlindas.com.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts,
the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Fall 2001

This page was posted on 12/03/03

===== end quote =====

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 * Origin:  (1:3634/12)