 For years I have cautioned people about the deleterious effects of sugar on our bodies: washing nutrients out of us, empty calories that cause us to gain weight, upsets to our blood sugar maintenance systems as examples.
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is all that and More! Beware should be printed on any food that contains this newly created product from the 1970’s.
Let’s look at the details.
Sugar is glucose (50%) and fructose (50%). The “–ose”ending of any word means it is some form of a sugar. Every living being on earth utilizes glucose as its source of energy. (We don’t burn wood in our bodies, we “burn” glucose).
When we eat foods with naturally occurring fructose, like in fruit and some vegetables, the food comes with fiber, minerals, vitamins, enzymes and other phytonutrients. If this were all a person ate, that person would get about 15 grams of fructose.
So what is so bad about HFCS if we eat fructose anyway?
The problem is the amount of fructose consumed if we eat foods with that product in them. Those foods and drinks tend to be devoid of nutritional value. What are these foods? Breads, pasta sauces and other sauces, juice products, bacon, beer, sodas, “natural” sodas, many protein bars, cookies, salad dressings, soups, even yogurt. If a food is sweetened nowadays, it is most likely sweetened with fructose. Why? The HFCS is CHEAP and convenient.
In the United States we consume over 140 pounds of sugar per person per year. 25% of the calories people are consuming are from sugar, and most of that sugar is in the form of glucose.
The problem for our bodies is this. Not only is the fructose unbalanced by fiber and nutrients. but our body turns the fructose into FAT. That fat is collecting around our heart and our other organs.
Glucose is used to provide energy. Fructose, in contrast, is metabolized by the liver and turned into fat which gets stored in the liver and in muscle. Fatty liver syndrome in the past was associated with excessive alcohol consumption. Now we are seeing it from excessive sugar (fructose) consumption.
In addition, all of this fructose (sugar) results in our insulin being less responsive to sugar. This is called insulin resistance. The body as a result puts out more and more insulin to try to manage all of the sugar. When a person needs more and more insulin because it is not working as well, this creates the disorder Type II Diabetes.
As if that is not bad enough, higher levels of insulin increase one’s risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease as well as cancer. And, because the liver has to put out more waste products, like uric acid, this person is also more at risk to get gout, heart disease, and high blood pressure
Lastly, fructose does not participate in the normal feedback that signals when one has eaten enough. The result of this is that the individual eats too much.
As a result of our eating all of this fructose, we are seeing the terrifying epidemic of obesity, even in our children, that is occurring in our country.
What is a person to do? Avoid sodas, the number one source of calories in our country.
If you need to sweeten a food, use stevia (a plant from South America) or raw cane sugar (still has the minerals and other nutrients in it), or raw honey. Be careful about agave as that is processed and really is just fructose. Don’t switch to artificial sweeteners. They are just another form of poison. Question any food that claims it is “natural.” Too much can be done to a food and have it still be called “natural.” “Natural” does not necessarily mean healthy.
For your health’s sake, do not fall into the HCFS trap.
Thanks to the Mercola.com, Wikipedia, and www.westonprice.org websites for the above information. |
