In Wednesday’s opinion section, Sarah Tisinger discusses how one must be selective when getting their facts from sound bites, and then goes on to make several claims about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that are either false or misleading.

She claims that “HFCS does not have the same [hunger-ending] reaction [as natural sugars], which is why children especially do not know when to stop eating, and obesity can occur” and that there is “not much released information on the internet.”

Contrary to her claims, the December 2008 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition featured a literature review entitled “High-fructose corn syrup, energy intake, and appetite regulation” concluding that “appetite and energy intake do not differ” between sucrose and HFCS and that “the metabolic and endocrine responses that have been measured to date are similar between HFCS and sucrose, the sweetener HFCS has largely replaced in the US diet.”

A March 2008 study published in The Journal of Pediatric Metabolism concludes that “short-term high dietary fructose intake had no effects on insulin sensitivity and secretion or glucose and lipid metabolism in healthy, obese adolescents.”

As educated students at a prestigious university of science and technology, we should not be relying on Google, The Quad City Times or advocacy Web sites such as intol.com as sources — especially when there is free access through the library to every sort of peer reviewed literature imaginable. I would encourage students to take advantage of this, and draw their own conclusions.

-Dustin Loy is a senior in veterinary medicine.