Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Well, a little clarification...

High fructose corn syrup is a very highly refined product. Many nutritionists believe it is a leading cause of the proliferation of obesity and it is also linked to diabetes. I stopped consuming it over a year ago and have been nearly symptom free ever since. Here is the process for making HFCS from wikipedia:

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.

First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called polysaccharides.

Next, an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose.

The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, 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, glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it. This 42-43% fructose glucose mixture is than subjected to a liquid chromatography step where the fructose is enriched to approx 90%. The 90% fructose is than back blended with 42% fructose to achieve a 55% fructose final product. Numerous ion-exchange and evaporation steps are also part of the overall process.

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