I'm sure at one point or another you have all seen a commercial ad similar to this one:
This new ad campaign in now attempting to show that high fructose corn syrup is just as healthy and/or safe as regular sugar with in moderation. Let's examine this a bit.
What is High Fructose Corn Syrup?
It s a sugar substitute made from heavily processed corn. During one of the chemical processes, enzymes and bacteria are added, breaking the corn down until it becomes a sweet syrup. The syrup can be used for sweetening soda, baked goods, cereals, meats, frozen meals, candy and candy bars. Food manufacturers include the sweetener in many products you would not necessarily think need to be sweetened-- low fat dressings, pizza crusts, cough syrup, ice cream bars, pickles, beef jerky, lunch meat etc. The low cost of high fructose corn syrup makes it appealing to profit-minded food manufacturers. This low cost can be attributed to a surplus of corn in the market, largely supported by farm subsidies from the U.S. Government. The price of corn is kept artificially low by these subsidies, which makes processed food manufacturers very happy. These food companies can sweeten up their processed foods at a low price and advertise it as a great value. Food companies even inject their “healthy” products with high fructose corn syrup.
So What is the Problem?
Unfortunately, food companies generally do not tell you about the potential harmful health effects of high fructose corn syrup. For many of us who battle the scale, high fructose corn syrup is a big problem. Studies suggest a link between high fructose corn syrup consumption and increased weight gain and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Peter Havel an endocrinologist, found that when people consumed high fructose corn syrup-sweetened beverages with food it inhibited the production of insulin and leptin – hormones that help regulate food intake and body weight. Another study found that lab rats fed small doses of high fructose corn syrup became obese across the board, in comparison with lab rats fed a high-fat diet that do not universally become obese. Disruption to your body's engineering causes incremental damage that make it more likely that weight gain and disease will take hold in the long term. Think about fueling your car with diluted gasoline instead of pure unleaded gasoline and then expecting your car to run at top form. The car will quickly deteriorate and be made susceptible to break-downs and poor performance.
Sweet Cravings
Many of us crave sweet things, including high fructose corn syrup products. Sugar and artificial sweeteners like HFCS can be addictive. In another lab rat study, the rats, given a choice, generally preferred sugar over cocaine. You can probably guess that the more of something addictive you consume, the greater your dependence on it becomes. The addiction keeps on getting stronger. So, the more foods we eat that contain high fructose corn syrup or refined sugar, the more likely we are to reach for seconds or thirds. Logically, consumption of sugar and high fructose corn syrup leads us to eat larger portions than we need, encouraging weight gain. It may seem that I am demonizing high fructose corn syrup without giving other refined sugars their fair share of criticism. Don't get me wrong, consuming too much of any sweetener will be damaging to our health and fuel the addiction. My concern is that many products containing high fructose corn syrup don't always jump out at us as being “sweetened.” It's easier to identify and avoid items one traditionally thinks of as sweet, like cookies, ice cream, or cake. The problem with high fructose corn syrup, as I noted earlier, is that it is embedded in a lot of products you would not typically think of as sweetened. In fact, many of these products we are led to think of as healthy based on how they are advertised to us. high fructose corn syrup is contained in much of the modern diet and much processed food. Also, as alluded to in the research, the chemical process of extracting high fructose corn syrup is cause for alarm.
