Fructose - An American Crisis

High-Fructose Corn Syrup

High-Fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the villain in processed, junk, and fast food produced in the United States that is currently destroying the health of anyone who eats American food.

Fructose is the sugar naturally found in fruit, while high-fructose corn syrup was artificially produced from corn for the first time in 1966.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup is responsible for creating an obesity epidemic in America.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup is the primary health threat facing Americans today ever since Richard Nixon encouraged its introduction into our food supply, in order to stabilize and lower the cost of food, and actively supported its use in the WIC supplemental food and nutrition program for low-income families. Added table sugar, or sucrose, is bad enough for your health. Nevertheless, the adverse health effects of man made fructose are far greater.

Truthfully, the current health crisis was manufactured entirely by the U.S. government subsidizing the corn industry.

This results in High-Fructose Corn Syrup being artificially lower in price than sucrose, or table sugar.

"A system of sugar tariffs and sugar quotas imposed in 1977 in the United States significantly increased the cost of imported sugar and U.S. producers sought cheaper sources. High-fructose corn syrup, derived from corn, is more economical because the domestic U.S. prices of sugar are twice the global price and the price of corn is kept low through government subsidies paid to growers." [Wikipedia 2012]

As a result, all commercial businesses have been substituting High-Fructose corn syrup for sucrose in all of our foods with disastrous health results.

Fructose Based Drinks Cause People to Automatically Gain Weight

One third of High-Fructose Corn Syrup calories end up as abdominal fat.

Just as obviously, the United States government could end the obesity crisis in America literally overnight by stop subsidizing the corn industry. Naturally, this will not happen in our lifetime since the financial liability of the government for causing our current health care crisis would be astronomical.

Fructose is virtually alcohol without any of the High!

The Corn Refiners Association has been effectively using media ads to spread half-truths, double-talk, and word games in a publicity campaign that tries to convince the public that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is perfectly natural and virtually identical to real sugar, or sucrose. Believe me, it is NOT. Your body knows the difference.

"Fructose is a primary contributor to human disease as it is metabolized in the liver differently to glucose, and is more akin to that of ethanol."[Lustig 2009]

Fructose is just plain bad for your health.

A good 30 percent of High-fructose corn syrup calories consumed end up as body fat deposited directly on your belly.

"Fructose exerts toxic effects on the liver that are similar to those of alcohol."[Lustig 2012]

If that was NOT bad enough the consumption of this chronic liver toxin encourages you to eat more food because fructose does NOT turn off leptin, your body's appetite hormone.

Fructose - A World Crisis

Since the mid 1990s, the United States has subsidized the growing of corn, which has effectively lowered the cost of HFCS worldwide. In recent years, sugar prices have soared.

While it can be argued that the process food industry first started using High-Fructose Corn Syrup as a sweetener in order to save money, it is reasonable to assume that they soon figured out that HFCS encourages higher rates of food consumption and is more addictive than sucrose is. In addition, it keeps processed foods moist, boosts their shelf life, as well as bulk up baked goods.

What started out as an American problem has gone international. Food manufacturers, afterall, want their customers to consume more of their food products. The worldwide problem of fructose in sodas like Coca-Cola is covered in the Globesity: Fat's New Frontier film.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup is known simply as corn syrup in many countries, isoglucose or glucose-fructose syrup in the EU, glucose-fructose syrup in the UK, glucose/fructose in Canada, and high-fructose maize syrup in other foreign countries. However, quotas that are designed to protect the sugar industry control its use in many countries.

In Britain, use of HFCS has pretty much saturated the processed food market. Their British Soft Drink Association (BSDA) has tried to promote its use.

On the positive side, a number of food processors reportedly have stopped using HFCS in many of their processed foods, including Hunt's ketchup, Gatorade, Snapple, and Starbucks.

Please read our Medical Advice Disclaimer.

Fructose - An American Crisis Comments:

References:

High-fructose corn syrup, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, version at 01:04, 30 January 2012.
Sucrose-sweetened beverages increase fat storage in the liver, muscle, and visceral fat depot: a 6-mo randomized intervention study.
Maersk M, Belza A, Stødkilde-Jørgensen H, ...
Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Dec 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 22205311
Editorial: Public health - The toxic truth about sugar. [Full Text Online]
Lustig RH, Schmidt LA, Brindis CD.
Nature. 2012 Feb 1;482(7383):27-9. doi: 10.1038/482027a.
PMID: 22297952
- General Introduction
- Sugar - The Bitter Truth