The corn refiners Association would love for you to believe that it is perfectly okay to consume High Fructose Syrup (HFCS) “in moderation” but we run into a problem when you realize that HFCS is in almost every processed food, candy and soda that you can buy. What exactly is moderation when every aspect of your diet contains HFCS? Ketchup, Bread, Tortillas, Mustard, Soda, Juice, Teas, Sports Drinks, Candy Bars…. Read the label and you’ll be surprised where you find it. The average American consumes around 142 POUNDS of HFCS a year… this is NOT moderation.
The Corn Refiners Association would also love you to believe that HFCS is natural. The fact is…
“High-fructose corn syrup could be all-natural, if cornstarch happened to fall into a vat of alpha-amylase, soak there for a while, then trickle into another vat of glucoamylase, get strained to remove the Aspergillus fungus likely growing on top, and then find its way into some industrial-grade D-xylose isomerase.” (5)
I find it interesting that http://www.sweetsurprise.com, which is the website that the corn refiners want you to go to in order to see how “harmless” their product is, says that honey, sugar and HFCS are all considered “Natural” by the FDA but the reference they quote is from a 1993 Federal Register. In January of 2009, the FDA ruled that HFCS can NOT be considered “Natural”. Why are they still being allowed to deceive the public?
Don’t believe for a second that this product is anywhere close to something you could find in nature. Even if you want to argue that HFCS comes from corn, you should know that corn is not a vegetable. Corn is a grain and it metabolizes like sugar in your body which makes your blood sugar spike and puts added burden on your pancreas to produce insulin to counteract the corn sugar’s effects.
The bottom line that I want to convey is that HFCS is dangerous and you should avoid consuming it as much as possible, if you must consume it at all that is. Even the amount in ONE single soda a day elevates your risk for diabetes and obesity…. And that doesn’t even factor in the HFCS you get from all the other sources.
Which brings me to the first danger; HFCS makes you fat and is one of the main factors behind the rapidly rising obesity epidemic. To understand how HFCS makes you fat, you must understand that the liver is responsible for the decision of whether to burn food for energy or to convert it to fat for future use. Fructose, specifically, bypasses the liver and is stored as fat immediately. Not only does HFCS turn into fat immediately but there is another prong in its assault on your weight… HFCS also decreases your central nervous system’s ability to receive messages from insulin and Leptin which are two key hormones that control the amount of food we eat, i.e. our hunger or satiety. This means that the signals that are supposed to go to your brain to tell it that you are full will not be sent and you will continue to eat more and more food.
HFCS can also cause Diabetes. The fact that Fructose has the ability to bypass the liver means that it can lead to something called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease which causes insulin resistance and type II diabetes.
Not only that but HFCS does not contain any enzymes, vitamins or minerals of its own so it must take these nutrients from your body in order to be assimilated.
If you aren’t convinced yet then you should also know that the majority of HFCS is made from Genetically Modified Corn Crops. Genetic Modification of our food crops is extremely dangerous and will have consequences that we cannot even comprehend yet because we are the lab rats for this experiment in altering the DNA of the food supply. Scientists are splicing genes together and we have no idea what the future consequences will actually be when those genes start mingling with our own DNA. It is scary and it is dangerous.
HFCS has also been shown to be contaminated with mercury due to the manufacturing process. Mercury is a highly toxic heavy metal that has been linked with many diseases and neurological disorders.
It has also been shown that HFCS contributes to heart disease because it scars your arteries. You need to understand that cholesterol is necessary; your body produces it because it is vital to your survival. When arterial walls are smooth, the cholesterol will travel through them with no problems but when the arteries get scarred, it provides a tacky surface which allows the perfectly healthy cholesterol traveling in your blood to get stuck on the artery wall. The cholesterol then starts to build up and constricts blood flow which overburdens the heart to work harder to pump your blood. HFCS scars your arteries and allows this to happen.
You may want to argue that Fructose is the same sugar found in fruits so it can’t be bad for you. You are right on the first part and misinformed on the second part. Fructose is the sugar in fruit and if you were to isolate that sugar and just eat that instead of the whole fruit, it would be unhealthy. A whole fruit contains many other nutrients, fibers and chemical bonds that slow down the absorption of fructose and make it safer to consume. The synergy of nutrients working together that you find in whole foods is indescribably valuable. When you start isolating molecules and transforming them into something else is when you start to experience major health problems.
The subject goes far deeper than just what I have explained here but I hope that you now have an answer when the commercials ask “What do they say about it” and the actress stands there like a deer in the headlights.
Links of Interest:
Natural News High Fructose Corn Syrup Articles
– For Educational Purposes Only
– Not meant to diagnose or treat any medical condition
-These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA
– These statements are my opinions and conclusion from the knowledge I have thus far
References:
1. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/03/24/Why-HighFructose-Corn-Syrup-Causes-Insulin-Resistance.aspx
Accessed: 03/26/09, Author Dr. Joseph Mercola
2. http://blogs.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/02/14/most-common-source-of-calories-in-us-is-loaded-with-mercury.aspx
Accessed: 03/26/09, Author: Dr. Joseph Mercola
3. http://www.naturalnews.com/025442.html
Accessed: 03/26/09, Author: Mike Adams
4. http://www.naturalnews.com/003002.html
Accessed: 03/26/09, Author: Mike Adams
5. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/11/13/corn-syrup-s-new-disguise.aspx
Accessed: 03/26/09, Author: Dr. Joseph Mercola”
6. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB33/EIB33.pdf
Accessed:03/26/09, Author: USDA
7. http://www.naturalnews.com/024466.html
Accessed: 03/26/09, Author: Richard Stacel
8. http://www.naturalnews.com/025292.html
Accessed: 03/26/09, Author: David Gutierrez
9. http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html
Accessed: 03/27/09, Author: Bill Sanda, BS, MBA
Wisdom That Heals 