The Truthiness About High Fructose Corn Syrup

I found a site that I can lookup all food products that have high fructose in them
Or any other ingredient yellow 5, blue 1
www.foodfacts.com
I sign up so any time they put a product in that has high fructose in it
I get an email showing me what it is

Joan

The fact that it is in so many things, that it isn't easily recognizable as a sweetener like 'sugar' is, and even is put into things where we would never put sugar, because it also is used to make things more shelf stable, to add viscosity, or moisture is what makes it such an unhealthy product.

And no, 'safe' does NOT mean 'healthy'. Bacon fat is 'safe', as in it isn't toxic and a person can consume it without dying. Safe, and healthy, are two separate things. (Not that 'generally recognized as safe' is exactly the most glowing endorsement.

Essentially, corn is subsidized, HFCS is cheaper than sugar, therefore it is put in EVERYTHING. Cheap way to make something taste better, as opposed to better ingredients.

The production of High Fructose Corn Syrup, developed in the 1970's, is a super sweetener made by processing corn starch to yield glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. Three different enzymes are needed to break down cornstarch, which is composed of chains of glucose molecules of almost infinite length, into the simple sugars glucose and fructose. Two of the enzymes used, alpha-amylase and glucose-isomerase, are genetically modified to make them more stable. Enzymes are actually very large proteins and through genetic modification specific amino acids in the enzymes are changed or replaced so the enzyme's "backbone" won't break down or unfold. This allows the industry to get the enzymes to higher temperatures before they become unstable.
Is HFCS safe? Absolutely not. Studies have shown that HFCS is processed differently in our bodies. Because it is metabolized by the liver, fructose does not cause the pancreas to release insulin the way it normally does. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. Fructose raises serum triglycerides significantly and fructose ingestion does not increase the production of two hormones, insulin and leptin, that have key roles in the long-term regulation of food intake and energy expenditure. This may be one of the major reasons Americans continue to get fatter. The worst part of all this, is that High Fructose Corn Syrup is in thousands of food items; bread, jelly, syrup, barbecue sauce, salad dressings, bakery pies, ketchup, ice cream, Gatorade. The list goes on.
If there is one thing consumers can do to help themselves become healthier, it would be to read labels and avoid all foods containing High Fructose Corn Syrup. Go back to eating more of the kinds of food our ancestors ate; food grown from the ground, fresh and unprocessed.

My, Janice--you do have smart and intelligent readers! I'm happy you're back in my computer world--and my heart! love patti

They used to have a phrase that goes 'damning with faint praise'.

Saying that HFCS is 'generally recognized as safe' sort of strikes me that way. It doesn't say 'healthy', it only says 'safe'. I think we were all aware that it isn't cyanide. It won't kill you immediately on consumption. But I don't think that was the point being made anyway.

But, generally, if the best thing that can be said about an additive is 'well, it won't kill you, at least not right off', I'd say we're likely better off without it.

Hi,
My google alert for HFCS picked up your article. HFCS is not basically
the same as sucrose. Doesn't anybody care to do the math? HFCS 55, which sweetens every national brand of soda and sports drink, is 55% fructose and 45% glucose. While that appears to be "similar" to the 50:50 ratio found in sucrose, it is not. 55/45=1.22 or 122%. That means that everytime a teen is chugging a few cans of sugar soda their liver is receiving 22% more fructose (in excess of glucose). It is
well documented that fructose is the moiety that can lead to long term
health problems: metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes; and elevated
triglycerides and cardiovascular disease.