In a previous post I wrote a bit about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I mentioned that it was brought to my attention in the book You On A Diet
I’d like to go into more detail on the background of HFCS, and explain more about why it is so unhealthy for our bodies.
HFCS was developed in Japan in 1971. It is made from corn, and in the mid 1970’s we had an excess of corn crops in America. At the same time, sugar prices were high, which meant that food prices were higher for the consumer.
Since HFCS is made from corn and is grown right here in the States, it is very cheap to produce, while at the same time being six times sweeter than cane sugar. This meant that all of the excess corn could be used to make HFCS, and food that used to be made with sugar could be produced at a much cheaper cost. Sounds like a good solution because the farmers were winning by selling their surplus crops, and the American consumer could buy sweetened foods at a lower cost.
High fructose corn syrup makes food taste really good, however it serves a few more purposes beyond that. It is a great preservative so it can be used in (almost all–check your labels and this site for even more info on high fructose corn syrup aka HFCS) processed foods to extend their shelf life. It protects processed, frozen foods from freezer burn. It is also fabulous for making baked goods look tasty: it was found that by adding HFCS, it would make food appear more “natural looking”, as if it had just come out of Grandma’s oven! (I hope you’re catching my sarcasm here 😉 )
With all of these wonderful benefits that high fructose corn syrup gives us, why should we care about it, especially since it makes our food taste good? What does it matter that it was banned in Mexico and is rarely found in foods in New Zealand. Is it really that bad? Why should we care about HFCS?
There are several different names and forms of sugar, fructose, sucrose, and dextrose being three. Here we are focusing on fructose, which behaves differently than the latter two in regards to our metabolism.
Both sucrose and dextrose are broken down in our body before they ever make it to our liver, however fructose does not breakdown and reaches the liver “almost completely intact”. This feature of fructose (which in HFCS is of an even higher concentration) has been named “metabolic shunting” since the fructose is “shunted” or sidetracked towards the liver.
Fructose is used to build triglycerides in the liver, which it does by imitating insulin, causing the liver to release fatty acids into the bloodstream. The flood of fatty acids then causes muscle tissue to develop insulin resistance.
Do humans actually consume enough high fructose corn syrup to activate this process in their livers? HFCS is present in fast food, processed food, food found in convenience stores, sodas, cereal, energy bars, and more.
How much of this type of food do many people consume daily in their busy lives? A study was actually done on golden hamsters (their metabolism is very close to ours) in the year 2000 in which they were fed diets with high levels of HFCS. It took only weeks until they had high triglyceride levels as well as insulin resistance.
Studies have also been done on whether or not fructose causes the body to burn sugar as opposed to burning fat. It has been found that our metabolism veers towards fat storage when consuming high levels of fructose. Therefore, HFCS contributes to obesity not only by the fact that our brains don’t know that our stomachs are full, but also by causing the body to burn sugar rather than fat in our cells.
High fructose corn syrup is a man-made, processed sweetener. I was in a convenience store recently and was reading labels to find out whether or not they contained HFCS. I did not go through every processed food on the shelf (I read 10 labels), I only found one item that did not contain HFCS (and the other one contained sugar). I stopped at 10 because these were foods that I used to eat and I didn’t want to look at them anymore.
I obtained most of this information while reading the book “Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World” by Greg Critser. If you would like to learn more about this topic, I would recommend this book to you. It’s easy to read and it gives the fascinating history on how our current food industry evolved to what it is today.
Thank you for the article on HFCS!
I love to cook and bake. Stress and disappointments were my vehicle to obesity by overeating thoughtlessly.
I appreciate the knowledge of what this ingredient really is. I always wondered why everything appears to have HFCS as an ingredient!
Makes sense now – availability and price.
Hi TDW,
No problem, thanks for your comment!
I can completely relate to overeating because of stress or disappointments. Now you are aware of your actions though, which is the first step to breaking that habit.
You also are spot on re: “availability and price“. I hope that there will be more people like you who become conscious of what is going on with the processed food industry (and how it affects their health), and start reading their labels. 🙂
All the best,
JoLynn
Great article on HFCS, would love info on aspartame and phenylalanine.
Hi Mashell,
Thank you very much! 🙂
I will put aspartame and phenylalanine (I think I saw the latter listed in the ingred. of the “bottled waters” that I was reading in the store that contained crystalline fructose, but I will need to verify that…) on my list of articles to write about.
I’ll need to do some more research first and that is wonderful because I’d also like to know more. Thank you for the suggestion!! 😉
All the best,
JoLynn
High fructose corn syrup is CAUSING autism. Around 12 months we begin feeding our children “table food” which is loaded with HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. This toxin poisons the developing brain and reverses language and learned behaviors. The child retreates into it’s own world. No more eye contact or physical contact is desired. Even some of our “junior” baby foods and formulas contain HFCS. Again, we are poisoning the developing brain. HFCS is NOT a sugar nor is it NATURAL. It is a CHEMICAL. Our bodies do not understand how to metabolize this chemical, so our livers convert it into fat(obesity skyrocketing rates) and it clogs our brains with left over metabolites (the left over stuff). Get this stuff out of your diet. It is killing americans with obesity, heart disease, diabetes, non-alcholic fatty liver disease and AUTISM rates at 1 in 90 kids. This is scary. The FDA NEVER tested HFCS nor will it. They are “sleeping” with the corn industry. No one is proecting us. The corn industry LIES and says it is JUST LIKE SUGAR, yes a 30 step chemically altered substance is “sugar”?? I don’t think so!!! You can’t make this at home, nor can you grow it!! Don’t eat it ever again and tell parents of babies to watch labels, you would be shocked at the huge number of foods and beverages which contain this “chemical”. Good luck
Hi Amy,
Thank you for your comments, I sure hope that none of your children are now autistic.
I agree that all of the corn sweeteners are very unhealthy, besides the fact that hfcs causes overeating because your brain doesn’t get the message that your stomach is full. I highly recommend staying away from it.
I have a neighbor who’s husband worked for a factory that produced corn products, including HFCS. They allowed the employees to take home products some times, and so he brought home some HFCS to his wife to try in baking, since “it’s just like sugar(!)” She tried it in all kinds of stuff, and it just didn’t act the same. For food manufacturers to use HFCS, they have to do all kinds of things to their products, just to make it look normal! If you can’t use HFCS in a home kitchen, why would we use it in anything?
Carrie’s last blog post..change your food, change your life
Hi Carrie,
Wow, to hear this first hand experience (or second hand since it’s your neighbor 🙂 ) with this stuff, all I can say is thank you!! Quite amazing, isn’t it, that this is the gunk that is a HUGE cog in the wheel our “modern day” food supply – yuck!
I was glad to read about this HFCS in a book I bought in Wal Mart Its call Healthy living made easy FIRST then I deside to look it up on the internet when I come accross your add It was wonderful I will be reading more about this and many more thanks you all are wonderful thanks again Maxiner
Hi Maxine,
Good, I’m glad to hear that you’re learning about how unhealth HFCS is, and thanks very much for your compliments!
Several years ago I twigged that HFCS was causing my headaches that were very similar to migraines. I found this site today while researching “crystalline sucrose”. I was not surprised to learn that it the same substance as HFCS, only worse. I drink very few soft drinks but those that I do drink are now “diet”. After I mentioned my headaches to my son. he also began avoiding HFCS and now has fewer headaches. I reason that it must have something to do with metabolizing HFCS in the liver. I have suffered from low blood sugar and theorize that somehow HFCS causes a similar reaction in me.
Hi Jim,
Thank you very much for sharing your experience with eliminating high fructose corn syrup from your diet. I’m not sure if your migraines were reduced because of how the HFCS is metabolized in your liver (guess you’d have to had medical testing for that) but IMHO the corn sugars (or any refined sugar) isn’t healthy for the body.
Well, it’s not just my opinion but based on the research I’ve done and my own personal experience with eliminating the stuff from my diet.
Great job you’ve done with listening to your own body and then helping your son, too. Thanks again for sharing your story here. 🙂
I have been at normal weight all my life and was diagnosed with diabetes about 4 years ago. From what you wrote about fructose not breaking down before it reaches the liver, and imitates insulin, thus tricking the liver to release large amounts of fatty acids, making muscle to become insulin resistant, leads me to believe that this is what caused my diabetes. As you said, practically everything now has HFCS in it. Thoughts?
Hi Tom,
That’s a really good question and I honestly can’t say for sure, especially since I’m not a doctor….but the one thing I can say is that HFCS is sugar, even though it’s made from corn – it’s still sugar. And, whether it’s corn sugar, beet sugar, or cane sugar, refined sugar is in almost all processed and fast food.
Since so many exist on processed and fast food, it’s no wonder that there is not only an obesity epidemic but also a diabetes epidemic, in fact the documentary Super Size Me pointed out that the generation of children today may be the first generation to die before their parents because of diabetes.
So, I think you have a really good point but I’m just not sure if it’s the cause of your diabetes, but there’s a high chance it could be!
I am a very concerned mom that is looking for products without HFCS in them. We have already cut out all Hydroganated oils from our diet, and some organic snacks are out for us because my son has a severe nut allergy, does anyone know products that are best?? We eat alot of Annie’s products but haven’t checked them for HFCS will have to do that after work today! Thanks so much
Hi Teri,
This might not be the answer you’re looking for but the best way that I’ve found to avoid this stuff is by sticking with a diet filled with whole, nutritious foods – lean proteins, fresh fruits and veggies, and complex carbs.
I really feel the best when I’m eating non-processed foods and if I eat the stuff that has HFCS in it I feel really really bad, worse than if I eat plain sugar, even though that doesn’t help me either.
If you’re looking for processed snacks I would recommend Larabars – they are naturally sweet without any added sugar. Also check out Mrs. Mays, but they do contain sugar (it’s low on the list though, and is not HFCS).
JoLynn,
Thanks for the tips and I agree that is the best way to avoid. And actually for myself it is not that hard, its my young grade school kids that I have a harder time with, they are always needing snacks for school for after activities and we are on the go quite a bit once school starts that is what I am having the harder time with. Although looked through pantry last night and wasn’t too bad, we already eat alot of Annie’s products and back to Nature, and other organic products and we love the Stretch Island fruit leathers that are all natural with only sugar coming from the fruit. Our hardest is finding cereal without HFCS, Hydrogenated oils and colors that are also safe for my peanut/tree nut allergic son, if anyone has any cereal ideas that would be awesome!Thanks
Teri