Here are a few articles on High fructose corn syrup. If you are not already doing so start reading labels and avoid anything with any type of corn sweetener. This stuff is really bad for the human body. The F.D.A. is not looking out for your best interest, it is taking care of corporations first. We need to take responsibility for what goes into our bodies. Whole organic unprocessed foods are always the best choices. If you want something sweet, fruits are the best and full of vitamins, minerals and fiber.
Why Is HFCS So Cheap?
High Fructose Corn Syrup is dirt cheap. Why? Well, let’s look at where your tax money goes.
As we already mentioned in our What is HFCS article, it is a well known fact that the US government subsidizes the corn growers of America and heavily taxes the import of table sugar from other countries. How much, exactly, of your tax money goes towards supporting the corn growers?
$3,975,606,299
That’s correct – America spends almost four billion dollars on corn subsidies. And that’s only in 2009. The total amount of subsidies given throughout 1994-2009 is a mind-boggling 75 billion dollars! What amount goes towards subsidizing sugar beet production? $0. To top things off, not only does the government discourage domestic sugar production, it also places taxes (tariffs) on import of table sugar from other countries.
Why is that?
The original intent of the subsidies was to ensure a stable food supply in our country. Now, much surplus corn rots in large piles outdoors due to over-production. The excellent documentary, King Corn, available on Netflix goes into much detail about corn subsidies in the U.S.
One doesn’t need a degree in economics to see what’s wrong with this picture. The result? Once you can get the cost of a raw ingredient down next to nothing, economic forces dictate finding uses for it. But it’s hard to believe the original intent of corn subsidies was to create a fat America.
At the end of the day, it’s practically impossible to find foods that don’t contain corn by-products, especially refined corn syrup, which, in the amounts the average American is consuming it, has been shown to cause a variety of health problems.
High Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury
How much should we really trust the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) industry? While the FDA does not currently regulate corn fructose use in foods, perhaps it should. Not just for the side effects it has from massive consumption, but for its actual production and distribution process.
In January 2009, the Washington Post published a article entitled Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury. From the article: “Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.”
Mercury, the element, not the planet, and most of its compounds are extremely toxic and are generally handled with care. Mercury can cause both chronic (long term exposure) and acute (instant) poisoning. It can be inhaled and absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes, so containers of mercury are securely sealed to avoid spills and evaporation. The most toxic forms of mercury are its organic compounds, such as dimethlymercury and methylmercury. However, inorganic compounds, such as cinnabar are also highly toxic by ingestion or inhalation of the dust.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a non-profit watchdog group, found that nearly one in three of 55 brand-name foods contained mercury.
Two separate studies cited in the article found mercury in 20 different samples of commercial glucose/fructose syrup (HFCS). Of course the Corn Refiners Association dispute the study saying: “This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance,” said Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, in a statement. “Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years. These mercury-free re-agents perform important functions, including adjusting pH balances.”
According to the article, however, the IATP says that four plants in Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and West Virginia still use “mercury-cell” technology that can lead to contamination and that the use of mercury-contaminated caustic soda in the production of HFCS is common. The contamination occurs when mercury cells are used to produce caustic soda.
Probably the most shocking tidbit from the article: “The bad news is that nobody knows whether or not their soda or snack food contains HFCS made from ingredients like caustic soda contaminated with mercury.”
How High Fructose Corn Syrup Damages Your Body
- Mercola, July 10, 2007
Straight to the Source
Drinking high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), the main ingredient in most soft drinks throughout the world, increases your triglyceride levels and your LDL (bad) cholesterol. These effects only occurred in the study participants who drank fructose — not glucose.
Consumption of beverages containing fructose rose 135 percent between 1977 and 2001. Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that HFCS was not only cheaper to make, it was also much sweeter (processed fructose is nearly 20 times sweeter than table sugar), a switch that has drastically altered the American diet.
In 1966, sucrose made up 86 percent of sweeteners. Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used are made from corn.
Dr Mercola’s Comments
In case you forgot, or never knew in the first place, the number one source of calories in the US is high fructose corn syrup. Let me say that in different words so you more fully appreciate the impact of this fact. Remember that fat has 250% more calories than sugar, but even with this major disadvantage, the food that most people get MOST of their calories from is sugar from corn, primarily in the form of soft drinks.
Even though I have known this for years, it is still shocking to me every time I reflect on the enormity of this truth. But, like W. Clement Stone, I believe that there is a nugget of good in this horrible fact. The good is that stopping this pernicious habit is one of the easiest things to do. Since this is such a pervasive problem in the US, we could make radically outrageous improvements in our health as a culture if we just simply stopped everyone from drinking soda.
I am HIGHLY confident that the health improvement would be FAR more profound than if everyone stopped smoking because elevated insulin levels are the foundation of nearly every chronic disease known to man, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, aging, arthritis, osteoporosis, you name it, and you will find elevated insulin levels as a primary factor.
This evidence of an increase in triglyceride levels and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels is just the latest among countless findings pointing to the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).
Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar, and, because most fructose is consumed in liquid form, its negative metabolic effects are significantly magnified.
HFCS has also been linked to:
* Diabetes
* Obesity
* Metabolic Syndrome
The delusion that fructose is an acceptable form of sugar is quite prevalent in many nutritional circles. In fact, nearly all simple sugars are metabolized quickly and disrupt insulin levels, which contributes to most chronic illness. Eating small amounts of whole fruit will not provide tremendous amounts of fructose and should not be a problem for most people, unless diabetes or obesity is an issue but fruit juices, sodas and other beverages sweetened with fructose should be avoided.
To add insult to injury, the corn that the high fructose corn syrup is metabolized from nearly all comes from genetically modified corn which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns.
High fructose corn syrup is is not something that should be in your diet at all. But HFCS is the primary caloric sweetener in U.S. soft drinks. Researchers estimate that most Americans eat 132 calories of HFCS per day, while the top 20 percent of sweetener consumers eat over 300. And some, they say, eat as much as 700 calories per day of HFCS.
Sodas, of course, are not the only source of HFCS (though they represent one of the main ones). This dangerous sweetener is also in many processed foods and fruit juices, so to avoid it you need to focus your diet on whole foods and, if you do purchase packaged foods, become an avid label reader.
