A Public Service Announcement

Have you seen those commercials promoting High Fructose Corn Syrup?!? "The same calories as sugar. Fine in moderation!" They make me crazy. Enough people must be beginning to wake up to the dangers of HFCS and are beginning to read labels, making big ag nervous. That's the good news. The bad news is that many of them may be lulled back into a false sense of security.

Calories are not the primary issue with HFCS. And it's virtually impossible to eat it in moderation without diligent label reading. It is in everything from your sandwich bread, to your ketchup and pickles. It's probably even in your yogurt. In fact, the number one source of calories in the US is HFCS. Yep, you heard that right.

The sugar molecule breaks down to fructose in the intestine. It raises blood glucose and the crashes it within 25 minutes of ingestion.

But HFCS does not convert to glucose in the blood. It instead breaks down into adipose (fat) tissue and triglycerides (which lead to heart disease).

So, HFCS goes straight to fat and triglycerides.

The fact that most fructose is consumed in a liquid form, in fruit juice drinks and soda, significantly magnifies its negative metabolic effects.

In addition, unlike glucose (sugar), fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin, a hormone involved in appetite regulation. Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in regulating how much food you eat and body weight, this suggests that it would contribute to increased food intake and weight gain. So it's a double whammy. Not only does it convert straight to fat, it makes us want to eat more.

Fructose has no enzymes, vitamins or minerals so it takes micronutrients from the body while it assimilates itself for use.

Although we call it a vegetable, corn is a grain. When early Native Americans changed their diet to one based mostly on corn, they had increased rates of the following:
Anemia
Dental cavities
Osteoarthritis
Bone infections and other bone problems

The main problem with the corn is the sugar content. And we are adding a refined corn sweetener, stripped of all fiber, vitamins and minerals, to a large percentage of our food. In addition to all of the actual corn and corn products we eat.

In moderation indeed.

This ends our public service announcement.

*Update* I forgot to add that over 60% of HFCS is from genetically modified corn. Which has its own host of problems.

I forgot something else too, but I forget what it was...