High Fructose Corn Syrup: What it is and Why is it Everywhere?

Look at any processed food or soft drink and you will find high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. At this point you will probably wonder one of two things (if not both), what is high fructose corn syrup, and why is it included in so many foods?

First, let's talk about what high fructose corn syrup is. Corn syrup itself is glucose, the only sugar your body uses for energy. When you eat fructose from fruits, it converts to glucose. When you eat sucrose from sugar (bag sugar) it also converts to glucose. But where does the "high fructose" part come into this? I just said that corn syrup was made of glucose.

Well, the problem with glucose is in the taste, and it's not that great. We are used to all types of sugars being sweet, but just because it is in the sugar family doesn't mean it has that archetypal sugar taste.

Since our bodies can convert the very tasty fructose into glucose, scientists thought they could do the opposite. Thereby, after corn syrup is created, they turn the nasty tasting glucose into something tolerable.

I also said that fructose was in fruits. With the bad rap of high fructose corn syrup, does this mean that the sugar from fruits is bad for you? While too much of any sugar is bad of course, you should still eat fruit for its healthy benefits. The problem here is in the quantity.

Fruit delivers a much smaller dose of fructose than high fructose corn syrup. Thereby what could be healthy about this sugar is destroyed by the amount that high fructose corn syrup delivers.

Now, the next question, why is it in every food?

Sugar, extracted from sugar cane, has very high tariffs in America, and thus to keep prices down companies feel they need to use lower quality sweeteners. However, there is also a more sinister reason. High fructose corn syrup inhibits leptin secretion (according to Wilt Alton at lewrockwell.com).

Leptin is the chemical that let's the body know that it is full. With America's obsession over sweets and over eating, one can easily find a correlation between high fructose corn syrup and obesity.

If you are into natural food, losing weight, or really taking care of your body, you should definitely avoid high fructose corn syrup. Find products that use real sugar, or have no sugar (like plain yogurt) and add fruit or other natural sweeteners to enhance the flavor. You can cut the calories and better your body just by avoiding this dangerous and wide spread ingredient.

Sources:

Information about inhibiting leptin, as well as reversing the sugar in HFCS is here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/alston/alston13.html