HFCS?

Ok one question....What is really so bad about high fructose corn syrup?????

I mean when people look at the ingrediants and they see HFCS they freak out and don't buy the product anymore because it's "not healthy." For example, my Fiber One Bars...they have HFCS and when i went online to see what people thought of them (reviews on flavor, etc) people were claiming not to buy it anymore because of HFCS ... BUT I LOOOOVE FIBER ONE BARS...

Isn't HFCS just sugar made from corn? just a cheaper alternative than granulated white sugar...so many companies use them in their products....

I mean I don't get what's so bad about them, unless you're on a low sugar diet...if people avoid HFCS shouldn't they also be avoiding any other form(s) of sugar???

I need someone to enlighten me...i am REALLY confused!

anyone?!

okay, this is all just my crackpot opinion, so nobody jump down my throat:

there was a study released months ago saying hfcs is safe in moderation, just like sugar - (but i think it was funded by the corn industry).

i've been trying to avoid hfcs actually for a couple of years, since before the current trend, so i'm not sure if it's for the same reason, but i've always thought this -- corn is not really meant to be eaten by humans.  it was originally a feed crop, and was developed into the product we eat today. but it's really not good for us and we don't digest it well (not to be gross, but think about all the jokes you've heard about what happens to corn after you eat it).

so the drastic increase not just in obesity, but in diseases like diabetes, can possibly be tied in to the food industry's increased usage of hfcs in just about everything, not just sugary foods. people are getting fatter and fat people are getting sicker.

sure, there are other reasons people are getting fatter, like inactivity, poor eating habits, etc, but i personally think our reliance on all over-processed, commercial industrialized food is making us all very sick and very fat. there have always been people who ignore nutrition and feed their kids fast food and junk - but did there used to be so many 150-lb four-year-olds?

there have even been some tests on chain restaurant food that shows they pump in unnecessary salt and fat and sugar just because it makes you eat more of it. you may not even taste it, but it's there and it's working on you. i don't eat any sugar really, but hfcs is in things you wouldn't expect. not sweet things. so it just seems so evil that it's in there for no reason. why does my rye bread need it?

so i've tried not to buy anything with hfcs.  bottom line, it's just unecessary and too sweet.  and maybe if enough people stop buying, the food companies will stop using it - there are already some products that tout being made with "REAL" sugar.

look at it this way, it can't be better for you than natural sugar, and it could be a whole lot worse.

The concern is that it's concentrated fructose.  A large amount delivered very quickly to your system.  Which will cause an insulin spike, which plays heck with your body's energy system.  Insulin is what causes the body to store sugars as fat as well.  The more insulin you have in your system, the less you're going to use your fat as an energy source.

Insulin is also related to hunger.  High levels of insulin will cause you to be very hungry.  An article called "what if it's all a big fat lie?" in the September 13 New York Times, written by Gary Taubes talks about HFCS, sugar and carbohydrates.  It’s an interesting read.

Until recently I didn’t give the HFCS warnings much credence.  I’m skeptical of most food claims…plastic is bad for you, don’t burn your food or you’ll get cancer, shouldn’t eat eggs, shouldn’t eat meat, shouldn’t eat genetically modified foods, shouldn’t eat aspartame or Sucralose.  For every food there’s someone out there telling you that it’s bad for you.

However, I about 2 weeks ago, I was noticing that I was getting VERY, VERY hungry for some reason.  I couldn’t eat enough!  A sandwich, half a pizza and I was still ravenous…  I had been snacking pretty heavily on a bag of marshmallows throughout the day, which are pretty much HFCS and air…  I decided that the next day I would eat NO sugar at all.  Meaning no HFCS, no sugar, no bread or any other carbohydrate, since those things break down into sugars anyway…

In less than a day, I was less hungry.  The following day, I had to force myself to eat.  I’ve been doing this now for 2 weeks.  I’m NEVER hungry, ever…not even a little bit.  I eat meat, cheese, eggs, tuna, broccoli and cauliflower…some carrots, not many…

I’m certain that the HFCS was making me hungry.  Cutting it out solved that problem.

So, long story short.  HFCS is bad for insulin spikes, fat storage, and hunger.

 

thank you, that was way better than my response.  now i have a succinct scientific explanation when people ask me why i avoid hfcs!

oh wow, thanks guys. This really really cleared up the confusion. I get it now why so many people avoid HFCS. Thanks so much!

I avoid HFCS because it is a marker for overly-processed food, and not because I think it is intrinsically less healthful than other forms of sugar (Americans eat too darn much sugar of all kinds).  It is present in so many foods, especially frozen foods, because it is hydrophyllic, and keeps them moister and chewier, even if they aren't foods that I think of as sweet (like pizza).  I try to keep my sugar intake down to around 50-60 grams a day, and that is only possible if I avoid most desserts and "junk food" if I want to eat a few servings of fruit a day (and I do!).

OOOHHH LOOK AT WHAT I FOUND ON THE INTERNET!!!!

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Is high fructose corn syrup healthy to eat -- or should you look out? Expert answers about this common ingredient.

By Leah McLaughlin

Question: "I keep seeing high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient in the foods I buy. Should I stay away from it?"

That would be difficult. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a very common sweetener, composed of about 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose -- in other words, just another form of sugar, explains Elisa Zied, RD, author of So What Can I Eat?! (Wiley, 2006). It isn't necessarily harmful; the main problem with HFCS is that it's often found in high-calorie foods that are otherwise devoid of nutrients.

"Some research shows a connection between HFCS-laced beverages and weight gain, but there's still no solid proof," says Milton Stokes, RD, chief dietitian at St. Barnabas Hospital and Nursing Home in New York City and a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Consider the overall healthfulness of foods -- their fat, calorie, fiber, and vitamin content -- rather than obsessing about a single ingredient

A friend of mine asked me the very same question a few months ago, and below you'll find a copy and paste of some reserach I did for him:

 

How it’s Made:

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is produced by processing corn starch to yield glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is industrially produced by a bacterium, usually Bacillus sp It is purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers.Next, an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose. Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely see little balls of Aspergillus floating on the top

The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, is very expensive. It converts glucose to a mixture of about 42 percent fructose and 50-52 percent glucose with some other sugars mixed in. While alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it. Inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are used only once, glucose-isomerase is reused until it loses most of its activity. There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that takes the mixture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is back-blended with the original mixture to yield a final concentration of about 55 percent fructose--what the industry calls high fructose corn syrup.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. Yet in spite of all the special enzymes required, 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.

 

Why It’s Bad

Besides the way it’s made, there's a couple of other murky things that consumers should know about HFCS. According to a food technology expert, two of the enzymes used, alpha-amylase and glucose-isomerase, are genetically modified to make them more stable. Enzymes are actually very large proteins and through genetic modification specific amino acids in the enzymes are changed or replaced so the enzyme's "backbone" won't break down or unfold. This allows the industry to get the enzymes to higher temperatures before they become unstable.

Consumers trying to avoid genetically modified foods should avoid HFCS

But there's another reason to avoid HFCS. Consumers may think that because it contains fructose--which they associate with fruit, which is a natural food--that it is healthier than sugar. A team of investigators at the USDA, led by Dr. Meira Field, has discovered that this just ain't so.

Sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. When sugar is given to rats in high amounts, the rats develop multiple health problems, especially when the rats were deficient in certain nutrients, such as copper. The researchers wanted to know whether it was the fructose or the glucose moiety that was causing the problems. So they repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The male rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy--that means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded. They also had delayed testicular development. Dr. Field explains that fructose in combination with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with collagen production. (Copper deficiency, by the way, is widespread in America.) In a nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart. The females were not so affected, but they were unable to produce live young.

"The medical profession thinks fructose is better for diabetics than sugar," says Dr. Field, "but every cell in the body can metabolize glucose. However, all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and cirrhotic." HFCS contains more fructose than sugar and this fructose is more immediately available because it is not bound up in sucrose. Since the effects of fructose are most severe in the growing organism, we need to think carefully about what kind of sweeteners we give to our children. Fruit juices should be strictly avoided--they are very high in fructose--but so should anything with HFCS.

Interestingly, although HFCS is used in many products aimed at children, it is not used in baby formula, even though it would probably save the manufactueres a few pennies for each can. Do the formula makers know something they aren't telling us? Pretty murky!

Among other consequences, HFCS has been implicated in elevated blood cholesterol levels and the creation of blood clots. It has been found to inhibit the action of white blood cells so that they are unable to defend the body against harmful foreign invaders.8 This is the first step for glucose to enter a cell and be metabolized. As a result, the body needs to pump out more insulin to handle the same amount of glucose.21

Fructose reduces the affinity of insulin for its receptor, which is the hallmark of type-2 diabetes.

Fructose interacts with oral contraceptives and elevates insulin levels in women on "the pill."

17

Because it is metabolized by the liver, fructose does not cause the pancreas to release insulin the way it normally does. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. This may be one of the reasons Americans continue to get fatter. Fructose raises serum triglycerides significantly. As a left-handed sugar, fructose digestion is very low. For complete internal conversion of fructose into glucose and acetates, it must rob ATP energy stores from the liver.21

Not only does fructose have more damaging effects in the presence of copper deficiency, fructose also inhibits copper metabolism--another example of the sweeteners double-whammy effect. A deficiency in copper leads to bone fragility, anemia, defects of the connective tissue, arteries, and bone, infertility, heart arrhythmias, high cholesterol levels, heart attacks, and an inability to control blood sugar levels.22

. It is almost certainly made from genetically modified corn and then it is processed with genetically modified enzymes. I've seen some estimates claiming that virtually everything--almost 80 percent--of what we eat today has been genetically modified at some point. Since the use of HFCS is so prevalent in processed foods, those figures may be right.

 

So, I'm assuming the amount of fructose in fruit is much lower than in HFCS?

I have a packet of All-Bran here which states it contains "fructose glucose syrup". Is that the same as HFCS? It doesn't specifically mention corn.

All-bran happens to be one of the only artificially processed foods I eat, so it would be pretty easy for me to avoid HFCS if I wanted to. I think Zeid's comments (in #7) that HFCS would be hard to avoid is a little misleading. Hard to avoid if you eat a lot of processed food, sure! But then the health dangers of that probably go far beyond HFCS.

I don't know about All Bran Meryl, that's one of the wonderful things about the FDA and our regulatory agency here in Canada...you are allowed to call one thing, many different things, and most companies do when they are trying to deceive you.  

About fructose in fruit...one of my general rules of thumb is...when in doubt, defer to mother nature.   For me it's not a debate about whether HFCS cause this or that specific illness or symptom...it's that there is doubt and I don't need to eat packaged and processed foods, I don't need to drink coke...so I just don't.  Sure once in a while I do when I feel like it cause a little isn't going to harm you, but I just made it a part of my lifestyle not to eat stuff with HFCS or processed food in general.

Original Post by johnnypenso:

  About fructose in fruit...one of my general rules of thumb is...when in doubt, defer to mother nature.  

Bingo!  This sums up my general philosophy as well.  Or, as Micheal Pollan says, eat food (not manufactured food-like products), mostly plants, not too much (my only addition is to move more, making this a "lifestyle" not just a "diet").

my reason for cutting out HFCS was that it interferes with the two hunger/full hormones in the human body.  it doesn't turn off the "hungry" hormone as efficiently as "normal" food and it doesn't trigger as complete of a release of the "full" hormone as "normal" food.  so what you've got is something that leaves you feeling hungry and keeps you from feeling full. 

i don't usually go for "fad food phobias" but i decided to see what would happen if i cut out the HFCS and it's really made a difference*.  i'm feeling fuller longer on fewer calories.  since i still have the same calorie targets each day,  this means i get more food each day.  that's an epic win in my book.

*for the sake of transparency, i would like to point out that i am hypoglycemic and my entire day revolves around the thin line between "full" and "hungry".  i'm fairly sensitive to the waxing and waning of food related hormones so every little bit helps.

 

Original Post by johnnypenso:

I don't know about All Bran Meryl, that's one of the wonderful things about the FDA and our regulatory agency here in Canada...you are allowed to call one thing, many different things, and most companies do when they are trying to deceive you.  

About fructose in fruit...one of my general rules of thumb is...when in doubt, defer to mother nature.   For me it's not a debate about whether HFCS cause this or that specific illness or symptom...it's that there is doubt and I don't need to eat packaged and processed foods, I don't need to drink coke...so I just don't.  Sure once in a while I do when I feel like it cause a little isn't going to harm you, but I just made it a part of my lifestyle not to eat stuff with HFCS or processed food in general.

You have a great philosophy. I am also trying to limit my processed food intake - all-bran is the only manufactured thing I eat aside from more naturally processed foods like bread, yoghurt, cheese... and the odd glass of wine! Now that I think about it I am beginning to think that despite all the fibre in All-Bran it doesn't exactly keep me full. When this box runs out I'll make my own muesli and see how that compares - I can't wait!

Original Post by dkenworthy:

Original Post by johnnypenso:

  About fructose in fruit...one of my general rules of thumb is...when in doubt, defer to mother nature.  

Bingo!  This sums up my general philosophy as well.  Or, as Micheal Pollan says, eat food (not manufactured food-like products), mostly plants, not too much (my only addition is to move more, making this a "lifestyle" not just a "diet").

I am glad Michael Pollan is getting so much press lately. If only more people took his advice we would all be healthier and happier!

Meryl, thanks for the props...I have worked hard mentally and physically to get to this frame of mind and it's nice to know that someone notices..lol...thanks again!!!

Now, have you tried drinking a glass of water before you eat the All Bran?  Really high fibre stuff like that will absorb water in the stomach if it's available and expand, aiding the "fuller, longer" feeling you are looking for.  In Canada here we have a similar cereal called Fibre First, available under the President's Choice line of products from Loblaws and their affiliated stores like Zehrs.  It has 13 grams of fibre and 58 net calories in just a half cup.  No HFCS or artificial sweeteners or colours, so to me it's about as good a manufactured food for fibre you can find.  Only 5 grams of sugar and most of that is from your basic table sugar.  I wish they got rid of that sugar and used Stevia instead...but nothing is perfect...lol. 

I haven't read Pollan's book but from what I've heard I think you are exactly right...lots of us could learn from that philosophy and we'd all be better off if we did.

To be honest, I don't think it's HFCS that's causing obesity or other health problems.  It's just the fact that you can find it in so many prepackaged foods, and people who subsist mainly on prepackaged foods get unhealthy.  I don't think it should be avoided like the plague, but just be smart and choose more natural foods.  That way you don't have to worry about it. =]

Original Post by johnnypenso:

Meryl, thanks for the props...I have worked hard mentally and physically to get to this frame of mind and it's nice to know that someone notices..lol...thanks again!!!

Now, have you tried drinking a glass of water before you eat the All Bran?  Really high fibre stuff like that will absorb water in the stomach if it's available and expand, aiding the "fuller, longer" feeling you are looking for.  In Canada here we have a similar cereal called Fibre First, available under the President's Choice line of products from Loblaws and their affiliated stores like Zehrs.  It has 13 grams of fibre and 58 net calories in just a half cup.  No HFCS or artificial sweeteners or colours, so to me it's about as good a manufactured food for fibre you can find.  Only 5 grams of sugar and most of that is from your basic table sugar.  I wish they got rid of that sugar and used Stevia instead...but nothing is perfect...lol. 

I haven't read Pollan's book but from what I've heard I think you are exactly right...lots of us could learn from that philosophy and we'd all be better off if we did.

You're welcome :) Unfortunately my food choices are slightly limited right now...  I'm spending this year in Malaysia and everyone here is so keen to be thought of as affluent and Western; unfortunately it seems that buying up frosty flakes and cocoa-pops is one of the things they think will ensure their transformation. It's such a shame as they have no need to try and be anything but themselves; they already have such a beautiful, quirky culture of their own.

Anyway, because of the current craze for American packaged foods, finding less processed food can be a bit of a struggle at times. Discovering All-Bran here was a find as it's probably the only high-fibre cereal here with an ingredient list <20.

The ingredients are: wheat bran, sugar, malt extract, fructose glucose syrup, salt, raising agent (sodium hydrogen carbonate), colour (caramel IV), and then some added vitamins and minerals.

I am a fish when it comes to drinking... I down mugs of water, peppermint tea, fruit tisanes and the odd tea with milk all day long, so I am definitely hydrated at breakfast time. I also eat the cereal with yoghurt to give my breakfast more bulk, but I still usually end up eating two bowls. On the days I eat muesli and yoghurt, I only need one bowl. Maybe it's something totally unrelated to the cereal itself but I'm going to stick with muesli for the next week or two and see if it makes any difference.