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High Fructose Corn
Syrup How By Dan Gill When I was coming along, back in the '50s, soft drinks were a
special treat. My father kept two jugs of water in the refrigerator so that
one was always ice cold. When we got thirsty, we were expected to drink
water. Back then Coke came in 6 ½ ounce glass bottles and
a fountain drink at the Drug Store was about the same size and cost a nickel.
This was considered to be a normal serving and, along with a Moon Pie or a
nickel candy bar, was a satisfying repast (so long as it wasn't too close to
supper time). My mother kept a six-pack of 12-oz sodas in the pantry and we
could drink them without asking; but there were rules. We went grocery
shopping once a week and that six-pack had to last the entire family. You
were expected to open a bottle and either share it or pour about half into a
glass with ice and use a bottle stopper to save the rest for later, or for
someone else. When was the last time you saw a little red rubber bottle
stopper? Sometime in the late 70s things seemed to change and people,
especially children, were consuming a lot more soft drinks. Convenience
stores and fast food joints served drinks in gigantic cups and we could
easily drink the whole thing along with a hamburger and French fries. Many of
my friends were struggling with weight problems. Whenever a group got
together socially, the conversation inevitably turned to which fad diet who
was on and how much they had lost. Sometimes they just skipped the weather
completely and went straight to diets. I didn't get fat because I worked on
the farm and didn't get out much anyway. The food had not changed much, but
most soft drinks changed from sugar as the sweetener to High Fructose Corn
Syrup. We didn't know that, at least I didn't, but we knew that the drinks
didn't seem to taste quite as good and were not as satisfying or filling. I
think that was about the time I switched to beer and my fat deposition became
more centrally distributed. According to the Center for Disease Control, we Americans are in
the midst of a serious and costly obesity epidemic, especially among children
and young adults. Acting Surgeon General Steven Galston has characterized
childhood obesity as nothing less than "a national catastrophe".
There is also an official epidemic of type 2 diabetes accompanied by a myriad
of other health problems related to excessive body fat and metabolic
dysfunction. These problems appear to be disproportionately high in lower-income
areas and among minority youth. The social cost of obesity is staggering. Excessive weight gain is a complex phenomenon, but the basic and
irrefutable cause is that we take in more calories than we burn and therefore
our bodies store the excess as fat. Other factors besides diet and exercise
influence fat deposition, including genetics, metabolic disorders and stress,
but since World War II, the fat problem for Americans has been caused
primarily by our sedentary lifestyle and our consumption of prepared foods
high in refined carbohydrates and hydrogenated vegetable fats. Around 1980 the obesity index started to soar and has been
climbing steadily ever since. Is there a "smoking gun", other than
indulgent parents who allow children to spend a major portion of their lives
attached to a video console munching on fast food? Though much of the blame
has been based on speculation and anecdotal evidence, a growing number of
professionals and researchers now believe that the most likely culprit is the
increase in consumption of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Recent research tends to
confirm these suspicions. Fructose and glucose are both monosaccharides, or simple sugars,
used by the body for energy. Fructose is by far the sweetest of all of the
sugars and is found naturally in fruit and honey. Glucose is usually
available as ordinary corn syrup. It is not very sweet and is often used in
cooking to retain moisture. Sucrose, or table sugar, is a disaccharide of
fructose and glucose bonded into a single molecule. High Fructose Corn Syrup,
or HFCS, is a blend of individual or "unbound" molecules of
fructose and glucose. It is somewhat sweeter than sucrose and since it is
already in liquid form, it is easier to use in making soft drinks. HFCS did not become commercially available until the mid 1970's.
The fructose present in HFCS is manufactured from corn starch through a
series of complex enzymatic and microbial digestions, then blended back with
corn syrup to achieve the desired proportion of fructose to glucose. Since the
proportion of fructose to glucose in HFCS is only slightly greater than in
sucrose or cane sugar, the two products should be biologically equivalent,
but they are not. Fructose in the "unbound" state seems to be more
biologically active. Since the disaccharide sucrose quickly breaks down to
fructose and glucose during digestion and is absorbed into the bloodstream as
individual or "free" molecules, regulators and industry have
considered this difference to be academic and unimportant. As HFCS is considerably cheaper than cane
sugar, it quickly became the industrial sweetener of choice, replacing sugar
in soft drinks and many processed foods, notably ketchup and related products
such as barbecue sauce. Go to your pantry and refrigerator and read the labels.
You will be amazed at the number of everyday food items that contain
HFCS. By 1980 all of the major
producers of soft drinks had converted from cane sugar to HFCS and it was
rapidly replacing sugar in many prepared foods. Nobody paid much attention; even the
watchdogs and food police missed the warning signs until it was too late.
Consumers barely noticed unless they happened to travel to Canada or Mexico
and realized that the soft drinks there, made with natural sugar, tasted much
better and were more filling and satisfying. As word spread, enlightened
consumers looked for soft drinks made with cane sugar. Some smaller and
specialty bottlers refused to make the switch to HFCS. Word also got out that
Coke uses real sugar for certain markets since
corn products are not generally considered "kosher for Passover". HFCS is considered by government agencies
to be "generally recognized as safe", and probably is in
moderation, but soft drink consumption increased dramatically after it
replaced sugar in sweetened beverages. Serving sizes increased, children were
typically drinking more sodas, and they were getting fat. It appears that
unbound fructose, as found in soft drinks sweetened with HFCS, does not
trigger biofeedback mechanisms as effectively as does sucrose. Fructose
increases uric acid levels, which in turn suppress production of insulin and
leptin, the hormones that tell the body when it has taken in enough energy
and can stop eating. Unlike glucose, which can be utilized by all of the cells in the
body, fructose can only be metabolized by the liver. Some is converted to
glycogen for energy storage, but excess fructose is converted to fatty acids
and triglycerides in a process known as lipogenesis, a fancy word for fat
production. Fructose is therefore associated with fatty liver syndrome and
cirrhosis and can lead to "metabolic syndrome", characterized by
fat accumulations around the middle of the body. Research reports are now
coming in from around the country suggesting that consuming fructose in the
form of HFCS appears to affect metabolism in a way that favors fat storage.
Dr. Elizabeth Parks, lead author of a study published in the Journal of
Nutrition in June of 2008, refers to "the surprising speed with which
humans make body fat from fructose" and "once you start the process
of fat synthesis from fructose, it's hard to slow it down". Type 2 diabetes, formerly known as "adult onset"
diabetes and usually associated with poor nutrition and inadequate exercise,
has become a serious problem among overweight children over the past few
decades. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin
or when the cells become resistant to the effects of insulin. As noted above,
fructose is known to inhibit the secretion of insulin, but recent research
conducted by Dr. Chi-Tang Ho of Rutgers University found that HFCS also
contains chemical compounds associated with "unbound" fructose and
glucose that cause tissue damage and intensify the impact of fructose. At the
234th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Ho
reported finding "astonishingly high" levels of reactive carbonyls
in beverages sweetened with HFCS. These highly reactive compounds, not
present in natural sugar, are believed to damage cells and cause diabetes.
Carbonyls may account for other problems associated with HFCS. "People
consume too much high-fructose corn syrup in this country," Ho said.
"It's in way too many food and drink products, and there's growing
evidence that it's bad for you." Health professionals have also noted a significant and abnormal
increase in gallstones in children and gout in men. Both of these maladies
are associated with elevated levels of uric acid, which is correlated with
fructose intake. Doctors and researchers are recommending that patients prone
to gallstones or gout limit consumption of fruit juices and high fructose
beverages. The
FDA recently reversed its previous position and ruled that products
containing HFCS may be labeled as "all natural" when made by an
approved process. The position of the FDA notwithstanding, HFCS is not
natural: It is the result of a complex industrial process which disassembles
corn starch molecules and rearranges their components resulting in aberrant
chemical compounds not found in natural cane sugar. Obviously anything labeled as "organic" must be
made without HFCS and therefore organic ketchups are gaining in popularity
and availability. I
know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me real sugar, or
give me water. I now read the ingredient list on every processed food I buy
and return anything to the shelf that contains HFCS. I am not so concerned
about incidental ingredients, such as the low levels found in baked goods;
the body can probably handle reasonable amounts without a problem. Mainstream
soft drinks and beverages are definitely out (there goes my vodka and tonic!)
along with popular sports drinks. The best way to send a message to food
processors and the industry is to stop buying their products. Some have
already gotten the message: Jones Sodas recently switched back to sugar and
there are more products showing up on grocery shelves claiming freedom from
HFCS. At
our store, we carry an assortment of soft drinks sweetened with cane sugar
with a sign saying which they are. Fruit juices and fruit juice drinks,
though high in naturally occurring fructose, are generally considered healthy
(unless you are prone to gout or gallstones) because of all of the other good
things they contain. I am now in the process of developing my own ketchup
that I can use to make our barbecue sauces. (c) Dan Gill 8-08 Published
in Pleasant Living magazine Sept. – Oct. 2008 Previous: Summer Salads Back to: September – October Pleasant
Living Dan Gill www.pine3.info |