Is high-fructose corn syrup bad for you?
Theres been a lot of ads lately on TV about High Fructose Corn Syrup. I'm still a little weary myself and Eating Well had this article about it and I thought I would share it.
Q. Should I avoid all foods containing it?
A: High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a manmade sweetener that’s found in a wide range of processed foods, from ketchup and cereals to crackers and salad dressings. It also sweetens just about all of the (regular) soda Americans drink. HFCS used in foods is between 50 to 55 percent fructose—so chemically, it’s virtually identical to table sugar (sucrose), which is 50 percent fructose. Metabolic studies suggest our bodies break down and use HFCS and sucrose the same way.
Yet, after HFCS began to be widely introduced into the food supply 30-odd years ago, obesity rates skyrocketed. And because the sweetener is so ubiquitous, many blame HFCS for playing a major role in our national obesity epidemic. As a result, some shoppers equate HFCS with “toxic waste” when they see it on a food label. But when it comes right down to it, a sugar is a sugar is a sugar. A can of soda contains around nine teaspoons of sugar in the form of HFCS—but, from a biochemical standpoint, drinking that soda is no worse for you than sipping home-brewed iced tea that you’ve doctored with nine teaspoons of table sugar or an equivalent amount of honey.
Even Barry Popkin, Ph.D., a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who previously suggested, in an influential 2004 paper, a possible HFCS-obesity link, stresses that the real obesity problem doesn’t lie just with HFCS. Rather, it’s the fact that sugars from all sources have become so prevalent in our food supply, especially in our beverages. He scoffs at the “natural” sweeteners sometimes added to upscale processed foods like organic crackers and salad dressings. “They all have the same caloric effects as sugar,” he explains. “I don’t care whether something contains concentrated fruit juice, brown sugar, honey or HFCS. The only better sweetener option is ‘none of the above.’”
At EatingWell, it’s our philosophy to keep any sweeteners we use in our recipes to a minimum—and likewise, to limit processed foods with added sugars of any type, including HFCS. We recommend you do the same.
—Joyce Hendley
Q. Should I avoid all foods containing it?
A: High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a manmade sweetener that’s found in a wide range of processed foods, from ketchup and cereals to crackers and salad dressings. It also sweetens just about all of the (regular) soda Americans drink. HFCS used in foods is between 50 to 55 percent fructose—so chemically, it’s virtually identical to table sugar (sucrose), which is 50 percent fructose. Metabolic studies suggest our bodies break down and use HFCS and sucrose the same way.
Yet, after HFCS began to be widely introduced into the food supply 30-odd years ago, obesity rates skyrocketed. And because the sweetener is so ubiquitous, many blame HFCS for playing a major role in our national obesity epidemic. As a result, some shoppers equate HFCS with “toxic waste” when they see it on a food label. But when it comes right down to it, a sugar is a sugar is a sugar. A can of soda contains around nine teaspoons of sugar in the form of HFCS—but, from a biochemical standpoint, drinking that soda is no worse for you than sipping home-brewed iced tea that you’ve doctored with nine teaspoons of table sugar or an equivalent amount of honey.
Even Barry Popkin, Ph.D., a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who previously suggested, in an influential 2004 paper, a possible HFCS-obesity link, stresses that the real obesity problem doesn’t lie just with HFCS. Rather, it’s the fact that sugars from all sources have become so prevalent in our food supply, especially in our beverages. He scoffs at the “natural” sweeteners sometimes added to upscale processed foods like organic crackers and salad dressings. “They all have the same caloric effects as sugar,” he explains. “I don’t care whether something contains concentrated fruit juice, brown sugar, honey or HFCS. The only better sweetener option is ‘none of the above.’”
At EatingWell, it’s our philosophy to keep any sweeteners we use in our recipes to a minimum—and likewise, to limit processed foods with added sugars of any type, including HFCS. We recommend you do the same.
—Joyce Hendley
Comment
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Comment by Smartie on November 20, 2008 at 7:05am - yeah! i completely agree with you! our nation should eat more usefull food! it is about our health and health of our children!
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Comment by Craig on September 30, 2008 at 7:36am -
You know, growing up I was very healthy. I played sports, was active all the time. I even studied martial-arts for several years. It wasn't until I was in a car accident and injured my back that I started my downward spiral. I began smoking, and putting on weight and a whole slew of other bad things. But through it all, even from my most earliest memory, I abhorred sugar! With a passion. When my brothers were smothering their cereal with it, Mom and Dad were drowning their coffee (why do people even like coffee?) in it, I watched with a fascination, wondering how they could do such a thing? I couldn't stand it! To this day, I still cannot. I don't put sugar in my tea, never have.
Then a few years ago, I began hearing bad information about this HFCS. It's in everything! and with every fiber in my being, I cry out in frustration. You watch shows like "Super-Size Me" and the like, and your eyes begin to open, a fog lifts from your mind. I watch people eat without concern as they wolf-down the fast foods or prepared foods which are all scientifically designed to appeal to us, with all of their scientific preparedness. Foods with ingredients that we can't even pronounce the names of, we put into our bodies thinking that just because someone prepared it for us, it can't possibly hurt us.
We as a nation need to wake up, and shake off the fog that corporate America has enshrouded us with...but we won't, and I think that is the worse tragedy. There will always be those groups of us that know better, but the majority rules.
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Comment by Danny Weems on September 30, 2008 at 6:36am - I agree with big nick. Sugar is sugar is only true when refering to taste all are sweet, however, the picture becomes more complex when you examine metabolism and the metabolites created in metabolism. I have proven to myself the different degree cane sugar vs High fructose corn syrup affects my BS.
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Comment by MelissaBL on September 29, 2008 at 9:26pm - I go out of my way to avoid buying products that contain it. You can't always avoid it, but you can try. Nature's Own makes a couple of HFCS free breads (I like the honey 7 grain).
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Comment by Steven R. Hulse on September 29, 2008 at 7:08pm - Ahhh so true Big nick, so true. We as a race have become so lazy and numb that we will just accept pretty much anything that is given to us. I know I do and did until I was diagnosed. it took me some time but once I finally settled in and accepted it, I really had to re-evaluate a lot of things. I'm still learning about it everyday but I'm more aware.
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Comment by Big Nick on September 29, 2008 at 5:33pm -
The chemistry of "sugar" is exceptionally complex. How can anyone trivialise it to a sugar is a sugar. Glucose, sucrose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, dextrose, maltodextrin, carob, dulcitol, honey, levulose, mannitol, molasses, sacchrose, sorbitol, treacle, xylitol, xylose. Authorities say some of these are "OK" in small amount for people with diabetes.
As a person with diabetes, take some (50gm) and see what it does to your blood sugar.
ATEOD, they just want to sell their product. If they really understood how it screws people up (especially children with dabetes) , the world would stop them doing it.
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Comment by Steven R. Hulse on September 23, 2008 at 5:20am
- "GMO"? It's early and I haven't fully gone through all the other posts. Would you mind explaining what "GMO" is please? :-)
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Comment by sweetpotater on September 22, 2008 at 12:42pm -
Thanks for a great post on a very important topic! To me the GMO aspect is even more damning than all this other evidence – especially the fact that in the U.S. at least, labels are not required to identify GMO ingredients. As a diabetic it's crucial to me to know exactly what I am eating and what it will do to me – and very little testing has been done to ensure the safety of genetically modified food plants. It's just assumed that except for the fact that you can drench them with Roundup and the plant lives on ... we're supposed to believe that other than that, they're just exactly the same as regular plants. Hmm.
I'm not buying it. Or eating it.
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Comment by Scott Strumello on September 21, 2008 at 3:54pm -
I did a more detailed blog posting on this subject, see http://sstrumello.blogspot.com/2008/09/sweet-surprise.html for details.
Of particular interest is video clip from the movie "King Corn" where they attempt to make high-fructose corn syrup at home. See the clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eBJQ-bajns:
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Comment by Manny Hernandez on September 21, 2008 at 2:48pm - This is a GREAT topic!! I started a discussion in the Forum, linking to this blog post.
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