Would You Like To Avoid The Health
Threat Of High Fructose Corn Syrup?

Health Matters
Minutes Article
Jul 30, 2004

Progress Against High Fructose Corn Syrup

I have known for a long time that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is detrimental to your health. I recently went back to take a second look at the scientific experiments being done with HFCS and was amazed at how many studies there were that demonstrated how bad this product is for your health.

One particular study by the USDA concluded that HFCS interfered with the formation of collagen and elastin which they called "the sinews that hold the body together".

In other findings, fructose adversely impacts organs and heart in people who are copper deficient, which most Americans are, and especially our children since families do not include liver in the family diet anymore, liver being the single best source of copper. 

Fructose appears to promote disease formation, is bad for diabetics and is suspected of contributing heavily to obesity. 

With the United States Department of Agriculture and hundreds of other studies telling us how bad HFCS is for your heath, all of which is public knowledge, we hear not a peep from the FDA. Who's side are they on? I wonder?

Why do food and drink processors us HFCS? Because it's cheap, sweet, and being in liquid form, easy to handle.

High fructose corn syrup is extremely soluble and mixes well in many foods.

It is cheap to produce, sweet and easy to store. It's used in everything from bread to pasta sauces to bacon to beer as well as in "health products" like protein bars and "natural" sodas. 

Read the labels!

So how do we protect ourselves and our children since the FDA is so useless?

Here's a first step and the hope that it will spread throughout the industry and then hopefully to supermarket chains. Food and drink processors will then get the message and switch back to sugar.

The following is from a report from Natural Food Expo Association:

Last week, Earth Fare, a chain of nine "healthy" supermarkets based in Asheville, N.C., announced it would ban all products made with high fructose corn syrup. 

"Over a third of our sodas and energy bars will have to be removed, some of them best sellers," said Earth Fare Director of Purchasing David Bowles. 

"We were the first chain to ban hydrogenated oils from our shelves, and now we set the standard again, putting customer health before profit," added Earth Fare CEO and President Michael Cianciarulo.

Hooray! Michael (my comment)

High fructose corn syrup has been implicated in an array of health woes, from childhood obesity to diabetes and heart disease. Use of HFCS in soft drinks increased 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, according to a study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which also reported a link between refined carbohydrates, such as HFCS, and type 2 diabetes.

"When you turn on the TV and repeatedly hear about the increase in diabetes, how can you responsibly offer products containing something that looks like it might be one of the main causes?" said Cianciarulo.

It's statements like Cianciarulo's that get under the skin of food processors.

"There is simply no credible scientific evidence that HFCS is the cause of rising overweight/obesity rates," said Center for Food and Nutrition Policy Director Maureen Storey, speaking at the Institute of Food Technologists' meeting last week in Las Vegas. 

"It's sort of a battle of the scientists," said Mary Mulry, senior director of product development and standards at Wild Oats, based in Boulder, Colo.

Wild Oats, the 105-store supernatural chain known for its strict ingredients policy, has not yet implemented an all-out ban on HFCS but is not accepting any new products with the controversial ingredient.

"It's becoming an issue for us as well," said Mulry. "We look at it as the next hydrogenated oil."

Mulry said all of the chain's private-label products are HFCS-free. "We're working on getting manufacturers to switch" to a different sweetener, she said, notably Blue Sky and Hansen's sodas.

The chain is likely to remove Newman's Own pasta sauce and lemonade in the near future, she said. "It is really a conventional brand," she said. "They're not interested in changing."

Earth Fare plans to have all products containing HFCS removed from store shelves by year's end.

If you want to do some of your own research, refer to the list of references below.

Read the labels and stop buying food and drink that contains HFCS.

To Your Good Health And Longevity!

Ira Marxe
CEO, Good Health Supplement

REFERENCES:
1. Fields, M, Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 1984, 175:530-537.
2. Appleton, Nancy, PhD, Fructose is No Answer For a Sweetener, http://www.mercola.com/2002/jan/5/fructose.htm.
3. Beatrice Trum Hunter, Confusing Consumers About Sugar Intake, Consumer's Research 78, no 1 (January 1995): 14-17.
4. Fallon, Sally and Mary Enig, Nourishing Traditions, New Trends Publishing, Washington DC, 2001, p. 23.
5. Hallfrisch, Judith, Metabolic Effects of Dietary Fructose, FASEB Journal 4 (June 1990): 2652-2660.
6. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2002 Vol. 76, No. 5, 911-922.
7. Appleton, Nancy Ph.D., Fructose is No Answer For a Sweetener, http://www.mercola.com/2002/jan/5/fructose.htm.
8. http://www.mcvitamins.com/cornsyrup.htm.
9. H. F. Bunn and P. J. Higgins, Reaction of Nonosaccharides with Proteins; Possible Evolutionary Significance, Science 213 (1981):2222-2244.
10. William L Dills Jr., Protein Fructosylation: Fructose and the Maillard Reaction, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 58 (suppl) (1993): 779S-787S.
11. Hunter.
12. J. MacDonald, Anne Keyser, and Deborah Pacy, Some Effects, in Man, of Varying the Load of Glucose, Sucrose, Fructose, or Sorbitol on Various Metabolites in Blood, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 31 (August 1978)): 1305-1311.
13. Hallfrisch, Judith, Metabolic Effects of Dietary Fructose, FASEB Journal 4 (June 1990): 2652-2660.
14. D. Zakim and R. H. Herman, Fructose Metabolism II, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 21: 315-319, 1968.
15. A. E. Bender and K. B. Damji, Some Effects of Dietary Sucrose, World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics 15 (1972): 104-155.
16. J. J. Rumessen and E. Gudmand-Hoyer, Functional Bowel Disease: Malabsorption and Abdominal Distress After Ingestion of Fructose, Sorbitol, and Fructose-Sorbitol Mixtures, Gastroenterology 95, no. 3 (September 1988): 694-700.
17. Hunter,Beatrice Trum,Confusing Consumers About Sugar Intake, Consumers' Research 78, no 1 (January 1995): 14-17.
18. A. E. Bergstra, A. G. Lemmens, and A. C. Beynens, Dietary Fructose vs. Glucose Stimulates Nephrocalcinogenesis in Female Rats, Journal of Nutrition 123, no. 7 (July 1993): 1320-1327.
19. R. Ivaturi and C. Kies, Mineral Balances in Humans as Affected by Fructose, High Fructose Corn Syrup and Sucrose, Plant Foods for Human Nutrition 42, no. 2 (1992): 143-151.
20. Roger B. Mc Donald, Influence of Dietary Sucrose on Biological Aging, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 62 (suppl), (1995): 284s-293s.
21. H. Hallfrisch, et al.,The Effects of Fructose on Blood Lipid Levels, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 37: 5, 1983, 740-748.
22. Klevay, Leslie, Acting Director of the U.S. Agriculture Department's Human Nutrition Research Center, Grand Forks, N.D.
23. Observation by Nancy Appleton, PhD.
24. Hollenbeck, Claire B., Dietary Fructose Effects on Lipoprotein Metabolism and Risk for Coronary Artery Disease, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 58 (suppl), (1993): 800S-807S.
25. Appleton, Nancy Ph.D., Fructose is No Answer For a Sweetener, http://www.mercola.com/2002/jan/5/fructose.htm.

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