Soda contains high fructose corn syrup

A talk radio program addressed something the other day that I’ve seldom heard anyone outside of health professionals on television or in print mention:  the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup in every day foods.

Certainly you’ve noticed this.  Read any food label – even foods that are considered to be healthy, like l bran flakes or wheat flakes – and one of the top ingredients is the stuff most have shortened to four letters (HFCS). 

Is it really any wonder, then, why obesity levels are as high as they are?  Or why diabetes diagnoses have jumped an astounding 90 percent in the past 10 years? 

As I’ve documented here and as has been documented elsewhere, high fructose corn syrup is one of the more toxic sweeteners known to man because of the way in which the body metabolizes it.  It’s converted to fat very, very quickly, and when consumed regularly over the course of days, weeks, months and years, it takes a significant toll on the body, leading to obesity and insulin resistance, a precursor to type II diabetes and all that it entails.

The question, of course, is why high fructose corn syrup is so quick to turn to fat than, say, glucose?  Well, researchers believe they may have found the answer to that question after putting a group of insulin-resistant rats through a series of tests. 

As reported in the medical journal Cell Metabolism this month, more than two dozen researchers from some of the country’s finest medical institutions and universities took part in a study that honed in on how HFCS affected the chemical processes of insulin-resistant rats.  They came away with many findings, but the main one was that HFCS appear to influence a specific gene – called PPARg co-activator 1b, if you’re curious. This gene produces an excessive amount of fat that the liver stores when HFCS are consumed.  But when researchers manipulated the gene so that it wouldn’t be affected by HFCS consumption – essentially blocking the gene from producing fat – fat stores declined and the rats’ insulin resistance subsided significantly.

Certainly this is a breakthrough find, but all it really does is satiate chemically-minded brains on why certain things affect the body the way they do.  In other words, it doesn’t get us any closer to becoming resistant to insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance may indeed be an inherited trait, but in an increasing number of cases (I would argue in the majority of cases, but I have no numbers to back that up), it’s inherited due to one’s diet. 

Because of HFCS prevalence, you really need to be careful of what you’re eating at all times and scan the labels whenever you’re not reaching for an organic product.  Because the organic seal is the only thing that assures what you’re buying doesn’t have a trace of high fructose corn syrup.

Each American consumed an estimated 60 pounds worth of high fructose corn syrup in 2005!   The only way to decrease that total for 2009 and beyond is by scanning the labels for each and every thing you buy.  If that sounds like a pain – and it sure does to me – the time is now to go organic.    

Sources:
Chicago Tribune
ScienceDaily

Political scientists are familiar with this term. If you’re unfamiliar with it, perhaps an example will illustrate its meaning.  Studies suggest that incidents of crime increase significantly in the summer time. Something else that increases in the summer time—other than the mercury level—are sales of ice cream. Based on this, we can say that crime and ice cream sales correlate, but we cannot say that ice cream purchases cause an increase in crime. Make sense?

I mention this because of a troubling finding in health matters that correlate to a disturbing trend in food—the prevalence of high fructose corn syrup in foods.  Have you noticed this?  It’s truly amazing.  You name it—cereal, soda, gum, bread, crackers—high fructose corn syrup is among the first few things you’re likely to find in the ingredient list.

If you have noticed this trend, you probably have not noticed the increasing number of people diagnosed with diabetes.  According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 million Americans have diabetes, a blood disease that prevents the body from being able to convert sugar into glucose due to an inability to produce insulin.  At one time, the lion’s share of diabetes cases was Type I.  After 1994, Type II diabetes diagnoses increased dramatically, up from four percent of cases to 45 percent of cases.  It was around this time that high fructose corn syrup began to be used extensively in foods. 

Though no one can say for certain that the rise in high fructose corn syrup in foods has caused the increase in diabetes, the link is hard to dismiss.  Consider the findings revealed by researchers at the American Chemical Society who said that an increased consumption of high fructose corn syrup may increase the risk of acquiring Type II diabetes.  Researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing 11 different sodas, finding that sodas containing high amounts of high fructose corn syrup also contained dangerously high levels of chemical called carbonyls—free radicals that pervade the blood of those with diabetes.  Coincidence?

Of course, more research needs to be done before one can claim true causality, not just correlation.  The point is really moot, though.  The evidence continues to mount over just how unhealthy high fructose corn syrup is for the body.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to avoid.

My best advice is to avoid consuming foods with HFCS if at all possible.  The biggest culprit—i.e. the foods and drinks that have the highest HFCS content—are sugary carbonated sodas.  Stay away from them.  They are bastions of empty calories and serve as a precursor to obesity.  In this instance—obesity and soda pop consumption—correlation does imply causation.  Perhaps we’ll be saying the same about HFCS and diabetes in the not too distant future.