High Fructose Corn Syrup

Many of us know that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is not a healthy staple to have in your diet but not so many know the reasons why. Perhaps if more knowledge of why it is so bad for you was known, people would be more apt to stay away from it.

So why then is it really so bad for us? Well, sugar is not just the sugar that sits on our counters to sweeten our coffee or in baking our cookies. There are many forms of sugar that are stockpiling our grocery shelves and fast foods restaurants that are causing an epidemic of diabetes and heart disease alike.

Let’s first define sugar so we have a starting point. Sugar is a simple carbohydrate made up of monosaccharides (one sugar molecule) and disaccharides (two sugar molecules) and come in the form of glucose, fructose, galactose, sorbitol, mannitol, and mannose. Sucrose is your common table sugar while fructose is fruit sugar.

Fructose in the form of natural fruits acts differently in the body than does other forms of sugar. When fruit is consumed, it has a lower glycemic affect than table sugar does. Sugar causes a rapid rise in blood glucose levels which has been determined to have an adverse health effect. The absorption and digestion of fructose in the body is much slower than in sugar where glucose is absorbed in the stomach.

Corn syrup is made from the starch of corn and comprised mainly of glucose. High fructose corn syrup is made from a group of corn syrups that undergo enzymatic processing to convert its glucose into fructose and is then mixed with pure corn syrup (100% glucose) to achieve the desired sweetness.

While the fruit sugar in natural fruits is healthy, fructose used in conjunction with foods is not. Once fructose is mixed with other foods, the blood glucose effect changes and has an adverse affect. Popular in its use as food additives, high fructose corn syrup has had an effect on overall health of those who consume food with this additive. HFCS was introduced 40 years ago as an alternative to sugar in products as it is cheaper than sugar.

A recent study done by Princeton University found that rats that ingested high fructose corn syrup gain a substantial amount of weight in comparison to those that were fed table sugar even when the caloric consumption was the same. In addition, long term consumption led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen and also caused a rise of triglycerides. The study proved that the rats weren’t just getting fat but were getting obese with major health risks. In humans, these traits are risk factors for high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, and coronary artery disease.

High fructose corn syrup can be found in ketchups, mayonnaise, soft drinks, fruit juices, cereals, breads, and yogurts, just to name a few. In the last 40 years since high fructose corn syrup was introduced to the consumer, obesity rates have skyrocketed as well as major diseases. There has been a strong movement back to using regular table sugar as the health effects of this are not the same. Although regular table sugar is not good for us in abundance, in moderation it is safe to consume and does not have the health detriments as high fructose corn syrup does.

The best thing us consumers can do it read the nutrition labels of everything that we are considering purchasing before we put it in our grocery cart. It could literally be a matter of life and death by what we choose to put in our grocery cart.