Buy Walking VideosHigh Fructose Corn Syrup: Is it as bad as they say?
Have you seen the commercials advertising High Fructose Corn Syrup? I hadn’t until The Diet Blog showed them to me. Here they are:
Both commercials repeat the same mantra:
“It’s made from corn, doesn’t have artificial ingredients and, like sugar, it’s fine in moderation.”
HFCS is just as safe as sugar? That’s the best they can do? Moms all over the world have been warning their kids of the dangers of sugar for decades. It all smacks of baloney to me.
The Diet Blog did the research and has the facts about HFCS for you here:
Here are their Take Home Points:
- Implicating a single food in causing weight gain or disease is folly and takes the focus away from the big picture of our diets.
- We eat way too much high fructose corn syrup. Even if it isn’t an independent factor in our growing waistlines and poor health, it is at the very least displacing healthier food choices.
- Calories still do matter – fructose levels do not seem to make a difference within the context of a reduced calorie diet.
- Rather than taking a magnifying glass to every ingredients list to find the “evil” ingredients, focus instead on eating minimal ingredient foods.
- Oh, and those commercials are correct in that it probably isn’t any worse for you than table sugar, but I would love to hear how they define “moderation”. (Hint, it’s not 78 lbs a year).
Personally, I have been avoiding anything sweetened for a while now. When I lowered my carbs, all sweeteners, artificial or not were cut out of my diet and now things taste far too sweet for me most of the time.
Whatever your stance on HFCS, make sure you know the details so that those smug moms and girlfriends (like in the commercials), won’t be able to give you a lecture about how “safe” it is.
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September 24th, 2008 at 3:53 am
Corn syrup is in lots of foods. I discovered this reading labels while trying to avoid CS. There are only one or two bottled salad dressings without it. Had to switch to oil and vinegar.
September 28th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I have been concerned about what is in my conveneince foods, and I was dismayed to see how many different pasta sauces contained corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup. When I make if from scratch, I dont’ add any type of sweetner-Why do they need to add it?
October 11th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
A lot of food items (sauces/dressings) that you’d think don’t need HFCS, have it included in the recipe for it’s preserving properties.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I truely believe that HFCS along with many other (man made) food sources and chemicals that are put into water supply are to blame for the seamingly widespread cancer epidemic. These foods are slowly killing us from our birth to however old we live to be. The big companies know this but basically dont care as long as their pockets get padded nicely. The more nutritionally deprived we are, the more numb and dumb we become and more easily convinced that there is nothing wrong with the food we consume. Maybe Im wrong. Maybe millions of women these days are just supposed to get ovarian cancer in their teen years and obesity and heart failure is just a natural way of our bodies wearing out and breaking down. Maybe?
October 16th, 2008 at 9:12 am
High Fructose Corn Syrup is an extremely processed substance made with genetically modified enzymes. Fructose may be naturally occurring, but it is by no means good for you, and many studies have shown it has very negative effects in large concentrated doses.
In other words, these ads are merely trying to help out the Corn Refiner’s Association. Turn off the TV and do some research if you want the facts.
October 17th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Our family has done everything we can to not consume either corn syrup or HFCS. We decided, after much research, to try an experiment. We watched our 8 year old transform from a calm, happy child into a wild, angry one in less than 10 minutes after consuming a root beer containing the HFCS. Since removing this toxin from our diets both our children are perfoming better at school and we all feel better in general. We are convinced that many cases of ADHD and ADD are food related and that HFCS is the biggest offender. My kids (11 and 8) are diligent about checking the labels of all food products (without our prompting) we buy to make sure they are corn syrup and HFCS free. We think our kids are so receptive to cutting out so many of their favorite foods is because my husband and I have done the same. It’s heartbreaking that the food industry has introduced this chemical into the majority of American’s diets. This is not a product that is heavily used in other countries only the USA, and we are the fattest nation and have the highest percentage of ADD and ADHD and diabetes… and the food industry says there is no conection????
October 18th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
It seems a good idea to limit your intake of high-fructose corn syrup,but it seems to be put into a lot of things.
October 20th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I was very sick for a long time and finally figured out it was HFCS that was causing it. I am sick right now because I ate at Subway today and the chicken breast has CS in it. I throw up, I shake, I get very tired but am unable to sleep, I am hot and cold at the same time, the glands in my neck swell and make me feel like I’m chokeing, I cannot even keep water down, my head hurts, I have no energy to move or do anything, and all this will last for 6-12 hours depending on how much I ate. It only takes a small amount to make me sick. I figured out what it was about a year ago and rarely get sick now because I am careful, but I still get it from unexpected places. Do yourself a favor and never eat or drink it again.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
HFCF is really bad for us. When it is part of my diet, I have many nights of sleeplessness and that restless leg syndrome along with it as of today. In the late 70’s they started putting HFCS in the foods. During that time I was in school and was more unable to stay still in school I was not disruptive but kept fidgeting and my grades fell because of it. That would be considered ADD or ADHD. I’m not diagnosed with it, but it is that Idea. Keeping it out of my diet I begin to feel normal, but then again what is normal. Juicey Juice had commercials on the air and pushed the HFCS as a bad chemical. I do not see those any more nor do I see the one with the natural fruit. What I do see now is the HFCS is good for you and is made of corn. I laughed at that one. Ha! Ha! Check this out! You can buy Corn Syrup in the grocery stores. If corn is such a great sweetner by its self why do they put HFCS in the stuff? Go Figure! HFCS is the major cause of ADD & ADHD, Diabetes and other ailments along with other chemicals that they use in the foods. Stay away from it. I’m trying to.
November 18th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
my son is ADHD. When he was five i realized syrup was causing him to be extremely angry for two days after having it. He is eight now and i just tried pure maple syrup, and it does not have that effect on him, thank God! its all because there is no high fructose corn syrup!