Natural Home : High Fructose Corn Syrup

'We now eat food grown by unnatural processes which make use of a host of chemical substances: hormones, antibiotics, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides - of which residues are to be found in nearly all the food commercially available today.' Edward Goldsmith, The Ecologist, Vol 30 No 7, October 2000

The Murky World of High Fructose Corn Syrup

Nobody thinks of sugar when they see a field of corn. Most of us would be surprised to learn that the larger percentage of sweeteners used in processed food comes from corn, not sugar cane or beets. The process for making the sweetener high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) out of corn was developed in the 1970s. Use of HFCS grew rapidly, from less than three million short tons in 1980 to almost 8 million short tons in 1995. During the late 1990s, use of sugar actually declined as it was eclipsed by HFCS. Today north americans consume more HFCS than sugar.

HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from cane or beet sugar but it is obviously much more complicated to make, involving vats of murky fermenting liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of which take place in one of 16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It is also very easy to transport—it's just piped into tanker trucks. This translates into lower costs and higher profits for food producers.

HFCS took up the slack as demand for corn oil margarine declined. Lysine, an amino acid, can be produced from the corn residue after the glucose is removed. This is the modus operandi of the food conglomerates—break down commodities into their basic components and then put them back together again as processed food.

Now science is now telling us that high fructose corn syrup is not metabolizing in the body until it gets to the liver, at which point it has already turned into fat. Most food starts to metabolize BEFORE it gets to the liver.

HFCS inhibits satiety (feelings of fullness after a meal) for basically the same reason. Your body does not get the signal that it has consumed enough because your body hasn’t started to metabolized the high fructose corn syrup you're still eating. Therefore the feeling of fullness comes after eating.  Unfortunately by then, you have consumed far more calories than necessary. In other words, if those calories had been anything other than high fructose corn syrup, your body would have signaled fullness and you would have stopped eating sooner.

The manufacturers and promoters also use deceptive phrasing and words.  For example, substituting the phrase ‘high fructose corn syrup’ with the word ‘fructose’ on food labels. These two words are not interchangeable.  They are two very different food sources.

HFCS In Surprising Places.

Dry Roasted Peanuts; bread- almost every brand including “whole grain” and healthy alternatives; and of all things Yogurt, peanut butter, crackers and mayonaise. Please read the label carefully and don't be fooled by the word 'natural' . If the label reads cornsyrup, cornstarch, or HFCS consider alternatives or make your own.

Corn syrup is made from GMO corn, using GMO chemicals in processing. Until we know more, it is simply better to make a conscious choice and stay away from it as much as possible. There is too much growing evidence not to be concerned.

Click here for Organic Principle's growing list of what contains HFCS.

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