Rachael Gorman The Truth About Sugar Analysis

HFCS: how it relates to us

According to an article “The truth about Sugar” by Rachael Gorman, obesity rates in America have doubled over the last 20 years. Many studies have linked drinking sugary beverages with this increased obesity. An article posted by Harvard titled “Sugary Drinks and Obesity Fact Sheet” states that one out of three children in the United States are obese. Sugary drinks play a role in this rising epidemic. The article states that the average soda contains 240 calories and 15 to 18 teaspoons of sugar. Some of these drinks contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and sucrose (table Sugar).

There has been an ongoing debate on whether or not HFCS is bad for you or not. Both HFCS and sucrose are made of about equal amounts

The first step is to ask a question, which the Nurses’ Health Study did. The question at hand as stated early is whether or not different fruits give an individual a higher chance of getting type 2 diabetes. Then next step is to do some background research. This area could have been improved for the fact that there was none given in the abstract. The following step is to create a hypothesis which the study claimed that different fruits do induce a higher risk for type 2 diabetes. The fourth and possibly more important of the scientific method is to conduct the experiment. For this study they chose to do a longitudinal study, from 1976 to 2008 including both Nurses; Health Study I and II. The experiment involved a questionnaire that was sent out a very large sample pool of individuals. By having random questionnaires sent out it eliminates researcher bias one confounding variable. One problem with the random questionnaire for this study is that it did not reach a wide demographic because it only involved women. Researchers cut out other confounding variables by disregarding many of the participants if they did not meet qualifications. For instance any participant who had type 1 or 2 diabetes at the beginning of the experiment. They also disregarded anyone who did not have all the information of fruit or fruit juice consumption. Taking these precautions and more

A placebo would not further this experiment in any way since the experiment needs to track people’s everyday lives of their fruit intake. The researchers are not giving them anything they are just receiving the data every few years when they sent the follow up questionnaire. Since the study was conducted over such a long period of time, along with the questionnaires becoming more detailed each time, this study fits the criteria of valid length wise.

The fifth step is to gather all the data analyze it and come to a conclusion. After acquiring all the data from the study the conclusion was that different fruits do give you different chances of getting diabetes. Fruit juice had the highest chance of giving an individual type 2 diabetes while fruits like blueberries and grapes give an individual a lesser chance of getting diabetes.

Since fruit juices contain the “toxic-sugar” that Dr. Lustig had mention I do believe that this study supports his theory. This research relates to modern life because today there is an obesity crisis not just in the United States but in other places across the world. Any research or ways to reduce the epidemic is beneficial to us as the human race. We need to tackle unhealthy eating habits and try to make the individuals on this earth