Since becoming a mom, i began to really make a conscience effort to have my family eat healthier. and for a while i thought we were doing well, but about 4 years ago i found an article in the medical journal of health concerning high fructose corn syrup. it scared me straight to my cupboards and chucking all of the food from the shelves and into the trash (to the HORROR of my husband!). recently, the mister told me about a commercial he saw promoting HFCS and i thought that he was kidding with me since he knows how passionate i am against it. but lo and behold, i saw the very same commercial a couple of days later. well i am going to set the record straight on this issue once and for all!
HFCS, made from cornstarch, is much sweeter than regular granulated sugar, or sucrose (made from sugarcane or sugar beets), and it's cheaper to produce, so the food industry LOVES it. Although it didn't exist before the sixties, it's now the leading sweetener (along with plain corn syrup) used in the U.S. nearly all soft drinks and sweet snack foods are loaded with it. and because it also prevents freezer burn and extends shelf life, it's in more processed and frozen foods than you'd imagine. in face, U.S. consumption of HFCS increased by more than 1,000 percent from 1970 to 1990!
yes, we're eating a lot of it--but why is that so bad? as greg critser notes in his book fat land: how americans became the fattest people in the world, the body digests HFCS differently than sugar. it's processed in the liver rather than in the stomach, increasing the liver's release of fat cells (triglycerides). high blood triglyceride levels increase your risk for heart disease. and that's not all. when filmmaker morgan spurlock became a fat guy after eating only mcdonald's fare for just one month for his documentary, super size me, why did he become so suddenly, seriously ill? the stress of processing so much HFCS in the 32oz sodas and shakes probably had as much to do with damaging his liver as the high fat content of the big macs.
the sweetener is also thought to decrease the release of leptin, the hormone that tells the body it's full. in other words, it may be harder to get satisfied from eating foods with HFCS, a surefire way to pack on the pounds.
in fact, in a recent study of pre-schoolers, researchers at the center for disease control and prevention and at the missouri demonstration project, found that just one to two sodas or other sweet drinks a day made kids who were at risk for weight problems twice as likely to gain a significant amount of weight within a year. i think HFCS is addictive-your palate gets accustomed to it's sweeter-than-sugar flavor and thus prefers it.
if the nutritional hazards of HFCS don't worry you, then consider this: the corn that's used to make the sweetener is almost always genetically modified. GMO corn, among it's many ecological shortcomings, is often exposed to more herbicides than regular crops are-and the risks that eating GMO foods may pose to our health are still unknown.
Fueled by my convictions, i imagined that avoiding the sweetener would be relatively easy, right? WRONG. always a compulsive label-reader, i started scanning the ingredient list of everything i bought. turns out HFCS is in all sorts of unexpected products: condiments, pickles, breads, jams, cereals and cereal bars, juices, frozen foods, yogurts, icecream, cookies, granola bars, crackers, soups, most medicines and most disappointing to me a "natural food", morning star products.
eating organic is the only sure way to avoid HFCS all together. and for the most part we do, but no one can always achieve that high of a standard. for this reason, i've made the decision to not purchase or support the products that contain HFCS. i hope this has enlightened people to the horror of this stuff and i urge anyone to avoid HFCS in hopes of a healthier you!
okay, i'm soooooo sorry of my lonnnnngggg winded rant. it's just obviously something i'm passionate about! i promise something much more upbeat next time.
