by Chris Dixon

Created on: June 27, 2007

EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK
The dangers of high fructose corn syrup begin with the misleading name. It sounds like its something natural when its actually about the furthest thing from nature. Not one person I know could tell me what it was, other than to say it was some type of food additive. Some companies even promote this product as being a kind of natural ingredient. They are preying on our ignorance, and oh how ignorance is bliss!

It is estimated that as much as 40 percent of our super market foods contain high fructose corn syrup or HCFS as the industry call it. After learning about how this substance is made I feel it is more of a chemical than a food, maybe even a drug, as it can be addictive. (Or at least the kind in MY ice cream is). HCFS is a food additive and preservative. Most is made from genetically altered corn. It is ground into a fine powder and then it is broken down further with a fungus and a bacterium through a process us la-men cant fathom. It lasts longer than real sugar, and more importantly its cheaper. This is the number one reason it is in anything and everything. I grew up in the 70's when this product was first created in some weird science lab. That is about the same time the obesity trend began in this country. Now in science labs they are trying to figure out why rats fed HCFS are having consistent problems. It seems Male rats are not developing their testes fully after ingesting this chemical and the female rats hearts explode. OH MY. Something to ponder.

HCFS is a very controversial ingredient amongst informed consumers. The process by which it is made absolutely disgusts me and the health risks horrify. Yet I am addicted to this sweet drug. It makes my bread sweeter, my ice cream better. Its in my ketchup and my yogurt. In fact its in almost everything I eat. When I drink a can of soda there's approximately 13 teaspoons of HCFS sweetening the deal. Yum. It is in almost everything we consume, and unfortunately our bodies cannot break it down the same way as naturally occurring sugars. It must be broken down by our liver. This can cause problems like a fatty liver in people who should otherwise be healthy. It is also suspected to be linked to the increase in type 2 diabetes and some forms of heart disease.

The biggest dangers of high fructose corn syrup are that most of us are unaware of what it is exactly or just how much we are consuming. We have a responsibility to our own health to read the nutrition labels on the foods we buy! We also need to contact food makers and tell them we want better ingredients. I don't need ketchup with a 3 year shelf life, but I do need healthy ingredients I can feel safe feeding to my children. We also need to hold the FDA accountable for the seriously crappy foods they allow food makers to feed us. These chemicals that are in preservatives and additives that we can not identify. You would have to be a chemist to understand what's in my ice cream. When did my food become a mixture of chemicals and genetically altered ingredients?

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