High Fructose Corn Syrup Again In the News

Now that the Food and Drug administration has declared trans fat unsafe, consumer groups already have their next target in the cross hair for elimination, or tighter regulation. This target is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and there is a lot of anticipation that there will be success. Those of us with diabetes won't feel hurt if they are successful in removing it from foods.

#1. It is a highly processed ingredient shrouded in secrecy.

#2. It causes damage to the liver and spikes the blood glucose for people with diabetes.

#3. The corn processors spend millions on lobbyists, TV ads, and highly paid advocates in an attempt to convince consumers that their product is safe.

#4. As health concerns escalate, food companies, supermarkets, and restaurants will voluntarily remove this ingredient.

#5. Some communities are banning or restricting HFCS to halt the ever-increasing medical costs associated with HFCS.

#6. When lawsuits start multiplying and claiming HFCS causes serious health damage, the product will become less prevalent.

As clinical evidence against HFCS mounts, independent researchers are going on record to alert consumers about its health risks. This includes Dr. Robert H. Lustig, Dr. Mark Hyman, Chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine, and Dr. Michael Goran, Director of the Childhood Obesity Research Center.

Citizens for Health has filed a petition asking the FDA to take action against food and beverage manufacturers that use HFCS concentrations above approved limits, and to require accurate HFCS labeling information. This is the one area I feel will be the greatest help and reducing the amount of HFCS in our foods.

HFCS Does Not Increase Liver Fat

This is one study that we must question. The doctor doing this study is heavily influenced by his position since, “He is an advisor to the food and beverage industry and has received unrestricted educational grants from the Corn Refiners Association.”

Since high fructose corn syrup is a product of industries represented by the Corn Refiners Association, we know that this study is quite likely biased and may well be rigged in results.

Rigged, yes, in a study only lasting 10 weeks, we must question the validity of the findings. This is not a length that would give other than the findings reported. A study lasting for one year or more would have given more trustworthy results, but would have done more harm to the participants.

Therefore, I can only say this is another junk science study and done by a person heavily indebted to the Corn Refiners Association. This is another of those studies that should have never made it into print. The study was done by James Rippe, MD, professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Central Florida and a paid consultant for the Corn Refiners Association.

Fructose May Affect Hunger Cues

More research on high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) keeps coming. Some of these are becoming more difficult for the corn refiners and corn producers to refute and even their experts are more careful in what they say. This is because they don't want to be caught in a misstatement and most are recycling old arguments to divert attention from more and more studies showing the damage caused by HFCS. Even if we want them to give up and admit defeat, they will not and will continue to recycle old arguments.

This study is more scientific in nature even though not a lengthy study since measurements were done in recording reactions in the hypothalamus, which helps to control appetite. The participants were not told which type of sugar solution they were given, fructose or glucose. Blood samples were also taken to check hormone levels that control feelings of hunger and fullness. The study participants were asked how satisfied they felt.

In as quickly as 15 minutes, people showed changes in brain flow and activity. After the glucose drink, the body seemed to recognize and respond to the extra calories with increases in glucose and insulin. This blunted the hunger and brain activity slowed in the hypothalamus. However, after the fructose drink, the hypothalamus activity stayed active with little increase in insulin. The study participants reported they felt hungrier. Other hormones known to regulate hunger, such as ghrelin and leptin were unchanged after either drink.

Of course, James Rippe, MD, professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Central Florida and a paid consultant for the Corn Refiners Association, the group that represents manufacturers of high-fructose corn syrup says, “When consumed together, as they almost always are, balance each other out and would likely have no effect on hypothalamic blood flow. Any suggestion that this artificial experiment has implications for human nutrition or obesity is unwarranted speculation.”

At least the authors of the study made no such statements and only alluded to the possibility that fructose may affect hunger cues. Even Rachel Begun, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics just stated that we need to try to limit added sugars in all forms. She was not involved in the study.

HFCS Denied Name Change to 'Corn Sugar'

Score one for those that opposed the name change by 'big corn'!  The Food and Drug Administration on May30, 2012, officially announced the denial of the request of the Corn Refiners Association for the name change from high-fructose corn syrup to corn sugar.  For those desiring to read the technical reasoning the link is here.

I am happy the decision went against the corn industry and kept the current name in place.  Many of us with diabetes know what this does to our blood glucose levels and that we need to avoid products containing this. There are many that believe that HFCS is a large factor in our obesity epidemic. There are studies for and against, and I firmly believe many are agenda driven.

The above being said, apparently the corn industry is thinking about continuing the advertising and doing other questionable activities. I have noticed several products on grocery shelves in the last week that do not list high fructose corn syrup, but definitely list corn syrup. Since I was looking, I checked many of the canned items, and refrigerated foods. Since this was before the FDA ruling, I was surprised to see corn sugar listed on a couple of products. Also seen were corn products, corn byproducts, and cornstarch. I would expect these and admit I was even more surprised to see corn byproducts on an ingredient label with high fructose corn syrup.

Now on to some serious information. This article has put some reality into our problems with high fructose. Even though is is from the animal model, the researchers have declared the findings have relevance for humans. The finding is that diets high in fructose impair cognitive function. Then in the next sentence, they state that if the diet is supplemented with the correct intake of omega-3 fatty acids, the fructose impairment is reversed.

Coauthor Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, PhD, from the UCLA Brain Injury Research Centre, Los Angeles, California, states, "High fructose consumption can induce some signs of metabolic syndrome in the brain and can disrupt the signalling of the insulin receptors and reduce the action of insulin in the brain."

Then he adds, "On the other hand, consumption of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly decosahexanoic acid [DHA], seems to protect against the effect of this high fructose consumption. That was the most interesting thing for us, to find that these changes in the brain that the fructose was triggering, the poor learning and the other molecular changes, could be buffered by omega-3 fatty acids."

The study is published in the May 1 issue of the Journal of Physiology.

I am sure we will see more studies on HFCS and more agenda driven studies as the corn industry wants to preserve their stranglehold on the cheap product added to many foods.

Big Sugar Suing Big Corn Over Name Change

This is one battle where I hope the Sugar Industries win. Yes, as a person with type 2 diabetes, both are not good for us, but what the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) is trying to convince the US Department of Agriculture to allow needs to be stopped.

The CRA wants to change the name from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to corn sugar. If I was them, I would like to get rid of a product name that has garnered such a bad image. However, with people being aware of this change, if they are successful the bad image should remain. I know that I will not stop my attitude because of a name change. I do live in a large corn producing state and grew up on a farm, but I do not appreciate what the corn organizations are doing to attempt to cover up a product that is so damaging to the health of our country.

Consumers are doing the right thing by avoiding the product and not purchasing food products containing HFCS. Sugar had the same molecules as HFCS, Sucrose (aka, table sugar) contains one molecule of fructose and one molecule of glucose, which are bound together chemically. HFCS also contains one molecule of each, but they are not bound together chemically.

“Unlike its cousin sucrose, when we ingest fructose, it is directed toward the liver. It does not go through some of the critical intermediary breakdown steps that sucrose does. For years nobody knew what this meant, but eventually cell biologists figured out that fructose was being used in the liver as a building block of triglycerides. Being overwhelmed by an excess of fatty acids, the liver releases them into the bloodstream. Muscles find themselves bombarded by these fats and they develop insulin resistance.”

The above is what the Corn Growers Association and the Corn Refiners Association do not want you to know. "Whether it's corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can't tell the difference. Sugar is sugar," one ad says. Reading the quote from above shows the difference and how dangerous HFCS is to our health. We need to be relentless in our opposition regardless how they try to camouflage it.

I am surprised at a statement by author Andrew Weill when he states that the corn product “is a marker for low quality food and has no place in a healthy diet.” He is correct, but this also is a marketing ploy to confuse consumers as well. Either way, this argument will be aired in court, and hopefully the Corn Refiners Association will not succeed.

For more information read the following from Yahoo News, my previous blogs here and here. Also read thisblogger and the information from the two websites of the Corn Refiners Association here and here. For a very controversial study read this press release here in Medscape. The advertisements big sugar is referring to can be viewed here. And I need to thank Scott Strumello, who alerted me to this on Dec 19.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Not The Same As Sugar

According to the National Corn Growers and their web site http://www.cornsugar.com/, sugar is sugar. They have petitioned the USDA for a name change from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to corn sugar which to date has not been granted. The sugar industry is considering a law suit to prevent the change and you may read about this here.

Sucrose (aka, table sugar) contains one molecule of fructose and one molecule of glucose, which are bound chemically. HFCS also contains one molecule of each, but they are not bound together chemically. HFCS is also used in more foods than sugar would ever be used. This is the primary reason many of us with type 2 diabetes try to avoid it at all costs. This means that we avoid most highly processed foods because it has been added, whereas sugar itself, often would not have been added. True, some processed foods do add sugar, but not as often or in the quantity of HFCS.

I still detest the ads the corn industry uses promoting HFCS when they say sugar is sugar. Although the corn industry claims this they are wrong as pointed out above. Sucrose must go through several intermediary steps to be broken into separate molecules of fructose and glucose. The fructose in HFCS does not need these steps and heads directly for the liver where is starts being used in the liver as a building block of triglycerides.

Because the liver is flooded by an excess of fatty acids, the liver releases them into the bloodstream. Now the muscles find themselves facing an overdose of these fats and the cells develop insulin resistance. With the increase insulin resistance comes an increase in visceral adiposity in overweight/obese adults. Not a pretty picture about what HFCS does to us.

Read what the corn industry does not want you to know here. More information on HFCS can be read here, and about fructose from fruit here.

Is Corn the Culprit for the Rise of Diabetes?

Corn not only is part of the rise of diabetes, but the dramatic increase in obesity. Corn is in just about every food we consume. Whether it is corn sugar, corn solids, corn alcohol, cornstarch, corn oil, or just plain ole high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), we are exposed to corn based foods every day. Consider the corn that the beef, the pigs, the lamb, the chickens, or the turkey consumed. We just can't get away from corn.

Most of us would use a lot less sugar if it was cane sugar or beet sugar, but the corn industry has convinced food manufacturers that people will not consume their product unless HFCS or corn sugar sweetens the product. Even the USDA promotes corn-based products. This is as bad as the promotion of “healthy whole grains”. If the farmers produce it, it has to be good for us. Phooey, and double phooey! It is harmful to our health and healthy well-being.

People are beginning to worry about all this packaged concealed sugar. This has given the corn industry cause for worry as HFCS has taken to blame, and now they have petitioned the USDA for renaming HFCS as “corn sugar”. If it is true that HFCS is just sugar and ours bodies cannot tell the difference, as their advertising proclaims, we as consumers need to be as concerned and careful about it as we are of sugar.

Since corn is present in most packaged foods and fast foods, we should attempt to avoid these foods when possible. It may not be possible to avoid all corn products, but most products should not be on our grocery lists. The products like HFCS sweetened soda drinks and most packaged foods should not be on the menu if you are trying to lose weight.

If you doubt what others and I are writing about, do some earnest label study for a few months. Take some of the foods you have on hand at home and read the labels. Many will have HFCS, corn solids, corn oil, or other corn products listed as an ingredient on the label.

Read the following articles for discussions even more definitive that mine. Read this one, and this article. To read what the corn industry is saying and view some of their video ads here.