Sunday, October 2, 2011

High Fructose Corn Syrup




I went to the store the other day to buy some cheerios for my boys and was curious about the ingredients. I couldn't believe that they had high fructose corn syrup in cheerios. What a bummer! Good to know though. I don't want to be feeding my children this poison that is in almost anything that's processed. It's cheeper to make food with high fructose corn syrup verses cane sugar and that's the only reason they put it in our food. That's like saying who cares about the health of our people, we can make twice as much money by doing so.

Hight fructose corn syrup is a major cause of cancer, obesity, dementia, liver failure, tooth decay and more.

Regular cane sugar (sucrose) is made of glucose and fructose in equal amounts bound tightly together. The enzymes in your digestive tract must break down the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are then absorbed into the body.

High fructose corn syrup is not made up of equal amounts of fructose and glucose and is not bound tightly together. Because of their molecular structure there is no digestion required which allows it to be absorbed straight into your blood stream. The fructose goes straight into the liver and triggers the production of triglycerides and cholesterol which damage the liver and cause a condition called "fatty liver". The glucose is also quickly absorbed into the blood stream triggering spikes in insulin (our body's major fat storage hormone). Because of the way fructose and glucose are absorbed into our blood stream, our metabolism is disturbed and the effects are increased appetite, weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and more.

Knowing this, I would like to challenge you to avoid high fructose corn syrup for a whole week. Although you may not notice a huge difference in a short week, your body will thank you in the long run. If you can develop a habit of avoiding high fructose corn syrup, you will definitely notice a difference.

3 comments:

  1. I love this post!!!!! This clarified a lot for me. Thanks for the great info.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This explains it so well. We cut out all high fructose corn syrup out of our diet over a year ago and I have noticed a huge difference!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the comment Tiff. That's what we are trying to do. It's not easy, but totally worth it! Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete