When you look at the nutritional labels on sodas, fruit juice, cookies, candy, and probably in the breads, pasta sauce or breakfast cereals you eat, you are likely to see high-fructose corn syrup. But what are the high fructose corn syrup health risks?
Let’s start with telling you what is high-fructose corn syrup? To replace simple white table sugar as a sweetener, food companies created what is called high-fructose corn syrup. Simple white sugar is made up of equal amounts of two sugar molecules: glucose and fructose (sucrose).
High-fructose corn syrup is now preferred by food companies, over sugar, because it mixes well in many foods and drinks, and it is much cheaper for them to produce and easy for them to store. Plus it fools consumers in believing it is better for you than sugar. But is it really good for you?
Food manufacturers, looking for a cheaper replacement for sugar, first turned to corn syrup. The problem was that corn syrup (made from cornstarch) only contains glucose, without the fructose. The result being, it was not as sweet as sugar.
Eventually scientists perfected the process of converting about half of the glucose into fructose and gave it the name of high-fructose corn syrup, because regular corn syrup has no fructose. Get it?
What are its effects on health and weight? Once people learn the truth about the health risks of high fructose corn syrup, many people are surprised that high-fructose corn syrup has about the same ratio of glucose and fructose as simple white sugar. Now that the truth is coming out, there’s a lot of controversy about the effects high-fructose corn syrup has on obesity, diabetes and heart disease to name just a few! Duh!
Americans stray away from eating sugar because we’re told it’s bad for us, yet ever since the food companies have introduced high fructose corn syrup into our diets (1960′s), Americans, instead of discovering how to get skinny, have been getting fatter and fatter on a yearly basis. Is this simply coincidence? I don’t think so…
Other theories claim that high fructose corn syrup is converted more into fat by your liver than plain sugar. That’s not to claim that sugar is good for you. They are both bad!
Animal studies have shown a link between increased high-fructose corn syrup and diabetes and heart disease. It was found that fructose raised the insulin levels, triglycerides and blood pressure, in some animals.
The reality is; Americans have a sweet tooth and the food companies know it. Seeing that they only care about their bottom lines and not our health, they’re going to keep cramming unhealthy foods and chemicals down our throats as long as we keep buying them. Only the educated individuals, who apply this knowledge and change their eating habits, will be the better for it.
To cut back on sugar, you need to do the following:
Read labels carefully. Any forms of sugar will keep you from losing weight. Drink fresh raw vegetable juices and drink plenty of water. Omit or cut way back on soda’s and store bought fruit juices. A single soda has as much as 15 teaspoons of sugar!
Choose 100% whole grains, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, enjoy raw nuts and raw seeds, and eat lean proteins; lean meats and fish & seafood with no added chemicals or hormones or steroids, and limit or omit the amount of processed foods you now eat.
So what’s the bottom line? The high fructose corn syrup health risks are just too numerous. Plus, too much high-fructose corn syrup, and process white sugar, is harmful to your health. And remember, all sugars, no matter what their source, inhibits weight loss!
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NOTE: (Please understand, we are not addressing any readers personal circumstances. You should rely on this for informational purposes only. Always consult with your personal physician before acting on any recommendations contained herein.)
