High Fructose Corn Syrup - New Information

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High Fructose Corn Syrup - New Information

High Fructose Corn Syrup - New Information - It's everywhere, from your soda to your bread, from your tomato soup to your bacon. High fructose corn syrup has become the ubiquitous sweetener of choice, replacing sucrose and fructose across the board, infused into so many different foods that it's almost impossible not to eat. Coincidentally, obesity and diabetes has risen alongside its popularity, thought the Corn Refiners Association denies that there is any difference between HFCS or regular table sugar. What's the truth? Should you avoid HFCS, or just moderate how much you eat like any other sugar?

First off, a quick look at why HFCS is everywhere. It comes down to economics, not nutrition. Farmers in the US get huge benefits, and one is that corn is a protected crop, such that economic incentives make it the undisputed king when it comes to the US market. Thus, HFCS is cheaper to buy than sugar, which is exported from abroad. When something is cheaper, it gets used in order to drive down costs, and so HFCS has come to be pumped into everything in order to drive up profits. It's really that simple.

However, since its use really took off, obesity and diabetes has also skyrocketed, much to the Corn Refiners Association's chagrin. To combat this they have begun a media campaign similar to the tobacco industry's 1950's onslaught, denying everything and stating that American's are simply eating more junk, not that the quality of the sweetener itself is any different. Eat more sugar, and you get fatter, they say. Chemically, HFCS and sucrose are almost identical, so don't blame us.

A new study released in a 2010 issue of Pharmacology Biochemistry & Behavior puts the lie to this claim. Rats that drank water sweetened with HFCS gained significantly more fat than those fed water sweetened with sucrose, and almost 50% more fat than those fed simple water. The HFCS rats also gained substantially more fat around the gut than the others and had higher levels of blood triglycerides.

Seems like a simple, effective and conclusive experiment to me. Now, there is definitely some truth to what the Corn Refiners Association is saying, in that Americans today eat more junk than they did before. A study revealed that Americans today eat about 533 more calories per day than they did in 1970, resulting in a consequent increase in weight gain. However, while the rise of obesity and diabetes is no doubt a complex problem caused by many factors, the role of HFCS cannot be denied; the correlations are too strong, the science speaks loudly as to the connection, and the very stridency of the Corn Refiners Association proves that they are desperate to keep Americans from realizing this truth.

How can you most effectively avoid HFCS? Eat organic food. In order for a food to be labeled organic, it can't contain HFSC. Simple.


By Phil Tucker
 
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