Health & High Fructose Corn Syrup

Yesterday, Carmen covered 5 fitness myths that I hear and see a lot of people doing. It makes me question whom they’re seeking guidance from. In many instances, it’s the ‘big guy’ in the gym, the one who talks the most and comes across almost overly confident, or some Pinterest post. I’m not saying these sources never know what they’re talking about. All I’m saying is be careful where you get your health advice.

In her post, Carmen mentioned that a lot of people think they’re healthy, well on their way to a healthy lifestyle, workout properly, and even eat well – even if they’re plainly wrong. People may be healthier than they were previously, but that doesn’t make them healthy. For example, do you think going from eating pizza and fast food every day to eating frozen tv dinners or lean cuisine makes you healthy? I hope you said no. This may give you the appearance of being healthy because you’re eating a ‘well balanced meal’, but by no means is this the epitome of eating healthy. How about this: do you think going from eating out most days of the week to eating virtually only processed pasta and protein? Although I may argue that this on the ‘right track’ to being healthy, this by no means is this healthy.

There are many fad diets out there, some of which i mentioned in one of my first articles Fast Weight Loss. They may work temporarily, however they are almost never a long term, healthy way of eating. Our diet is simply the food that we consume on a day-to-day basis. So, we must choose our diet based on HEALTHY food

s that we like to eat. To me, this is the only way that you’ll stick to a HEALTHY ‘diet’. What is a healthy food you ask? One in which is minimally processed (if at all), has no high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and has lower amounts of sodium and other preservatives. A general guideline while at the grocery store is to shop on the perimeter of the store and avoid going inside the aisles. Also, look at the ingredient label: the fewer the ingredients, the better. And if you can’t pronounce many of the ingredients on the label, that’s usually not a good sign.

I had a roommate a few years ago who was just about as conscious as I was about going to the gym and eating healthy. He was a mechanical engineer and did his due diligence when it came to researching foods and their effects on the body. Where this habit came from, I’m not sure because his parents weren’t the same. He told me that after discussing the negative effects of HFCS to his parents, they immediately went through their entire food supply and threw away everything with this ingredient on the label. Does this sound like an extreme reaction to you? It may but to be honest, it was the correct decision and right course of action. Here are some interesting effects of HFCS.

Weight Gain – Need I say more…
High triglycerides – The massive amounts of sugar consumed via HFCS (15 teaspoons per can of soda) will cause a spike in blood triglyceride levels. Overtime, your triglyceride levels will rise.
Direct line to liver – The processing of HFCS breaks the natural bond of fructose and glucose, allowing the sugars to target the liver faster, which increases lipogensis or the production of fat.
Diabetes – Lipogensis leads to a fatty liver and can lead to Type 2 diabetes.
Poison – During the production of HFCS, many chemicals are used which end up on our dinner table. Chloralkali for example contains Mercury. Chloralkali is used during HFCS production and ends up in the foods we eat…
Cancer – HFCS has been shown to promote cancer…enough said.
Leaky Gut Syndrome – This just SOUNDS bad. With this, the walls in your digestive system are compromised, allowing damaging compounds to enter your blood stream (bad bacteria, unprocessed particles, and protein, to name a few).

Although consuming HFCS on the rare occasion may not per se be bad for you, many Americans do not consume HFCS on the rare occasion- they consume it in nearly every food in their diet. Our bodies are quite sensitive to HFCS and it takes very little of it to have a significant, negative effect. Why, you may ask? It has been shown that fructose if the most damaging form of sugar. High FRUCTOSE corn syrup is primarily…you guessed it… FRUCTOSE.

You want to get rid of your HFCS, however like your sweeteners? Try these:

Raw, local Honey
Coconut sugar
Stevia
Maple Syrup
Blackstrap Molasses