High Fructose Corn Syrup: Not Just Any Sugar

By Mary Mucci

I eat very little sugar....I never drink soda,  and I almost never eat commercial cookies or candy.  So I can’t speak firsthand about high fructose corn syrup.  But I keep reading about it.  The latest article in Life Extension magazine repeats what Dr Scott Banks told me in our interview:  that unlike table sugar, HFCS is metabolized differently.  It’s processed by the liver, ”flooding metabolic pathways and leading to increased triglyceride synthesis and fat storage in the liver.”   The article sites a study which compared two groups of healthy young men.  One was fed a high glucose {regular sugar} diet and the other a high fructose diet.  At the end of the week, the high fructose group had a significant reduction in insulin sensitivity and insulin binding whereas no significant changes were seen in the high glucose group.

Even so…regular table sugar is not a food group.  It is a sweet poison.  It is made up of fifty per cent glucose and fifty per cent fructose. {HFCS is 80% fructose}  I have avoided it ever since reading “Sugar Blues,” by William Duffy about twenty years ago.   In it, he tells the story of legendary actress Gloria Swanson who attributed her youthful look to never eating sugar.

At home when I indulge, it’s always organic in a homemade treat.  Obviously not everyone has the time to make their own bakery products.  But the trick is to remember these things are “treats” not to be eaten every day, because even the best quality sugar steals nutrients in the digestive process.  It weakens immunity.  It makes us tired. It makes us vulnerable to cancer.  And in the case of HFCS, it makes us especially vulnerable to heart disease, diabetes, fatty liver and accelerated aging.

I have read it over and over again how this highly processed corn product is not natural as the advertisements claim.  However as damaging to health as it appears to be, I suspect HFCS is a better choice than aspartame or sucralose . 

To Your Health,

Mary Mucci

Contacts;

Dr Scott Banks

Banks Chiropractic and Nutrition

631  271 0770,  Huntington

 

{Most chiropractors, and all naturopaths as well as nutritionists can guide you if you would like a full health assessment.  Some have more diagnostic tools than others.  } 

 

 

Comments

[John]

That's what I suspected, Siemelle, but didn't have the information handy. Thanks.

And I agree that Stevia is...unpleasant, to say the least.

The corn problem is another issue. The environmentalists very nearly starved millions of people by diverting the corn to ethanol, so there can't be that much of a surplus, and yet it's used everywhere except for food. This may warrant more research.

[siemelle]

HFCS contains both fructose and glucose, therefore it is inherently different from fructose which is simply fructose. Fruit sugar (fructose) does not cause the release of insulin; glucose does. Insulin insensitivity due to increased insulin production is what leads to diabetes; therefore, increased fructose does not lead to diabetes. However, when fructose is metabolized by the liver, it is turned into glucose and if glucose is not needed it turns into fat, so all sugars should be minimized. Nonetheless, it does not cause the initial spike in glucose, it is metabolized much differently. Further, when you eat fructose/fruit, you're getting nutrients as well as fiber which also affects its metabolism.. fructose is hardly the same as HFCS.

Corn syrup is 'bad' in that it is another form of unnecessary sugar, you just don't ever need it. You're right to implicate a quantitative issue - the point, though, is that HFCS is in virtually everything, so quantitatively it is also a problem.

Raw, unpasteurized honey is the best sweeter you could use and it tastes great. Stevia is another option but I think it has a funny aftertaste.

Michael Pollan delineates the problems with HFCS very well; unfortunately, I don't remember if he does so in "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or "In Defense of Food." Probably the latter..

Bottom line: there's an excess of corn so they put it in things that don't require it and our bodies are not designed for all of it..stay away

[John]

Oh, and to add to the paranoia, why wasn't this nationwide headline news?

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/fresh-greens/2009/01/28/mercury-found-in-high-fructose-corn-syrup.html

Everybody's two favorite food-related topics, all in one story!

[John]

The question I always have in this situation (and unfortunately, I don't have any food scientists handy to ask them) is how high fructose corn syrup is different than, well, fructose?

Fructose itself is "fruit sugar." It stands to reason that, if the demonized processed form is bad for you, then apples should be almost as bad. But they're obviously not. Does this mean that corn syrup isn't as bad as Dr. Banks (and most of civilization) claims? Is there a chemical difference in syrup form, in combination with whatever else is in there? Or is it a quantitative issue, just like the tiny bit of table sugar (sucrose, actually, but its components are glucose) in one cookie isn't bad, but downing a cup of it is?

And how does it compare (in sweetness and safety) to an invert syrup, or its natural cousin honey?