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About three years ago, my wife and I decided to stop eating high fructose corn syrup. At the time, it seemed like a minor step; however, looking back, I realize that, in that one moment, I transformed from a regular consumer into an insane health freak. While cutting out any type of food is a major step, HFCS was particularly difficult. Unlike meat, cheese, peanuts, or any of the other easily-detectable foods that people cut out of their diets, HFCS lurks in literally thousands of foods. Within a few days of quitting, I found myself obsessively reading labels and cutting out dozens of other foods that I had always taken for granted. I suddenly became one of those people, the ones who read the ingredients on blister packs of preserves at the diner, then sigh and eat their toast with just butter.I don't mean to make it look like cutting out HFCS has been nothing but misery. In the months following our decision, my wife and I lost a lot of weight, discovered tons of new foods, and ended up enjoying the opportunity to reconsider our diet. While I'm sure that cutting out HFCS isn't responsible for all the health benefits that we experienced at that time, it seems more than coincidental that my nasty headaches went away, we' started getting sick a lot less, and we stopped experiencing major energy crashes. Nowadays, I occasionally notice a stale taste in foods when I eat out, generally followed by extreme sleepiness about an hour later. While I haven't done a double-blind taste test, trial and error has convinced me that HFCS is the culprit.
Recently, the Corn Refiners Association announced that they are launching a $30 million advertising campaign that is aimed at convincing consumers that HFCS is a natural compound, fundamentally the same as honey. Of course, unlike honey, HFCS is the product of a complex, chemical-intensive refining process that takes place in an industrial setting, but why quibble? Strangely, the FDA has agreed with them. Unfortunately, rather than convince me that HFCS is all-natural, the FDA's stance has made me seriously question the integrity of the federal government when it comes to food purity.
While HFCS is probably not responsible for all the crimes that I have heaped upon it (I admit, for example, that there is no hard evidence linking it to leprosy, trench foot, or violent defenestration), I'm still keeping it out of my diet. To be honest, having avoided it for three years, I haven't missed it. Moreover, I am still not convinced that pickles and ketchup need to be artificially sweetened or that I need to eat several pounds of fake sugar every year!
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7-10-2008 @11:56AM ToriB said... HFCS was created in a LAB. How in the world is that natural? Is margarine (which is just a few molecules short of PLASTIC) natural too? At this point the FDA is a JOKE. How can you police an industry when the ones doing the policing are the ones who need to be policed? (i.e. when there are industry insiders keeping watch over the industry)
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7-10-2008 @12:23PM Laura K said... While I'm not as militant about it as I could be, I avoid HFCS, too, and generally think it is the devil. It rankles me to think about the money going into this stupid advertising campaign, and to realize that the FDA is such a weak little girly man of an organization. Sigh. I guess it's time to step up the grassroots education of the peoples about where the food comes from, since we sure can't trust the governmentt to do it.
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7-10-2008 @12:54PM osvadocadet said... It baffles me how corrupt some government organizations can be?!?! (Wait a minute I already knew that ...silly me) ... this is not news that the FDA has its hand in the same jar as the major food marketers .. yes I said marketers because their sole purpose is to make as much money as they can, without regard to the amount of lives they are impacting in a negative way.
HFCS is dangerous ... isn't it a wonder that suddenly diabetes rates are sky rocketing and honestly I don't think people are eatting any less healthier than five years ago. The fact is that the body can tell when it ha stoo much "sugar" ... eat a batch of your grandma's home made cookies and I can bet you that no matter how good they taste, your body will call it quits even if you want more. HFCS on the other hand doesn't allow the body to realize its insulin levels are increasing ... so here you continue eating or drinking that favorite commercial drink even when you already have way to much "sugar" in your body. And it is incredible how many foods have it ... even the self proclaimed healthy choices. Even GATORADE.
I have been an avid "fitness freak" for two years now, and Gatorade was my drink of choice for the first year ... I was near two hundred pounds (not all muscle) but hey I was getting heavier which was my goal. I read an article which described the dangers of HFCS and I eventually cut it out of my diet (including the sport drink I drank as is it was water). Gradually my body dropped nearly 20 lbs and I was a bit bummed because I worked hard to put on that weight. But guess what? I was less tired than before .. I was stronger than I was at 200 lbs (and by no means was I remotely close to fat) .. by stamina is up and I get ill less frequently.
The bottom line is reagrdless is HFCS is natural or not (but we all know that is BS) it is as dangerous as lets say the naturally grown poppy.
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7-10-2008 @12:56PM Ozzy13 said... It baffles me how corrupt some government organizations can be?!?! (Wait a minute I already knew that ...silly me) ... this is not news that the FDA has its hand in the same jar as the major food marketers .. yes I said marketers because their sole purpose is to make as much money as they can, without regard to the amount of lives they are impacting in a negative way.
HFCS is dangerous ... isn't it a wonder that suddenly diabetes rates are sky rocketing and honestly I don't think people are eatting any less healthier than five years ago. The fact is that the body can tell when it ha stoo much "sugar" ... eat a batch of your grandma's home made cookies and I can bet you that no matter how good they taste, your body will call it quits even if you want more. HFCS on the other hand doesn't allow the body to realize its insulin levels are increasing ... so here you continue eating or drinking that favorite commercial drink even when you already have way to much "sugar" in your body. And it is incredible how many foods have it ... even the self proclaimed healthy choices. Even GATORADE.
I have been an avid "fitness freak" for two years now, and Gatorade was my drink of choice for the first year ... I was near two hundred pounds (not all muscle) but hey I was getting heavier which was my goal. I read an article which described the dangers of HFCS and I eventually cut it out of my diet (including the sport drink I drank as is it was water). Gradually my body dropped nearly 20 lbs and I was a bit bummed because I worked hard to put on that weight. But guess what? I was less tired than before .. I was stronger than I was at 200 lbs (and by no means was I remotely close to fat) .. by stamina is up and I get ill less frequently.
The bottom line is reagrdless is HFCS is natural or not (but we all know that is BS) it is as dangerous as lets say the naturally grown poppy.
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7-10-2008 @1:01PM mork.the.delayer said... HFCS is the devil.
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7-10-2008 @1:09PM Kearns said... Can't we just make it illegal?
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7-28-2008 @1:08PM excentric said... You're kidding, right? You're just figuring out that the FDA and other agencies have lost any shred of integrity they may have once had? Have you seen all the recalls lately?
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7-10-2008 @1:53PM Harlan said... Boy, this is a tricky one. The problem is that the molecules that are in HFCS are natural: fructose (found in fruit) and glucose (which is part of your metabolism). In fact, if you combine those two sugars, you get sucrose, or table sugar! Is the process used to make HFCS natural? Well, no, but it could be, if you wanted to. Agave nectar is mostly fructose.
The real question is whether it's harmful, and there the evidence is pretty clear. Fructose seems to contribute to obesity and diabetes.
I'd be perfectly happy for the FDA to keep calling HFCS "natural", as long as they slap a warning label on it that says "Eating too much fructose has been shown to contribute to obesity and diabetes."
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7-10-2008 @1:49PM W. Graves said... Im just waiting for the hover chairs to be FDA approved (wall-e here we come!)
Im pretty sure the crash after HFCS does induce headaches, i get them alot :(. Like most government organizations it bends to industry powers cant really fault them for that, oh wait.
"For it is FDA's job to see that the food we eat is safe and WHOLESOME..." pulled straight from the FDA site, if you can prove HFCS is wholesome then sir i bow to your chart modding powers.
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7-10-2008 @1:50PM Carolyn said... Can you provide an official link related to this ruling?
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7-10-2008 @1:58PM Daemon_of_Waffle said... Is hfcs always labeled hfcs? Are there other names or forms it could be listed as on labels?
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7-10-2008 @2:30PM Susan said... I'm trying to remove HFCS from my diet as well...and that of my family's. When we eat at restaurants I'm not as stringent, but that's because I haven't yet figured out exactly how to go about it.
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7-10-2008 @2:45PM Jen_25 said... Un-real! I too have become a health nut for the past year and half now and it is the best decision I have EVER made. I am healthier, feel better, have more energy and most certainly look better!
But truly, I can not believe that the government would actually approve this... HFCS is the cause for soooo many American's being over-weight, although not the only reason (obviously).
Rent the movie King Corn, it's a great documentary that delves into this very topic!
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7-10-2008 @3:39PM Karen said... I too would appreciate all tips in removing HFCS from the diet. I've warned the family that I'm going militant August 15!
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7-10-2008 @3:46PM Gobo said... It's incredibly difficult to avoid HFCS while shopping at mainstream supermarkets. Sure, I can go to Whole Foods and buy things made with agave nectar, but the reality is that most people's budget can't afford that kind of luxury every day. But as long as HFCS is as cheap as it is, it'll be hard to avoid.
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7-10-2008 @4:25PM gohanman said... Agave syrup might not be any better for you. I don't think there's any consensus yet what makes HFCS bad, but high fructose content is definitely one of the leading theories. Agave syrup has even more fructose than HFCS...
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7-10-2008 @4:49PM Nova said... I took it out of my diet a year ago and I've never looked back. It's actually not that hard to remove it from your diet and after like a month you don't miss it. Seriously the amount of soda/sugary drinks this country drinks is like another meal and a half the well all eat everyday. You don't need to go to whole foods to stop eating HFCS, and it will actually save you money. Cook your own food and save money. Cut out junk food snacking from your diet, if you don't buy them, you don't eat or miss them. Drink ice tap water with lunch and you'll actually save like 5-10 bucks a week. Plus losing 15 pounds of fat to go with it wasn't a bad thing.
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7-10-2008 @4:48PM Penn said... I'm so glad that I live in Canada. The corn industry isn't nearly as heavily subsidized, and HFCS isn't nearly as ubiquitous. We get other problems, but at least not that one to the same extent.
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7-10-2008 @4:48PM Bruce Watson said... Carolyn-
Here's a link to a PDF of the subsequent District court ruling. Basically, the case involved a woman complaining that Snapple, which claims to be natural, contains HFCS. Underneath all the legalese, the loophole that the FDA used was, basically, that they were too busy and overextended to make a ruling about what, exactly, constituted "natural."
http://www.corn.org/FDAdecision6-13-08.pdf
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7-10-2008 @4:51PM Nick said... Just to play the devil's advocate for a moment:
As far as I can tell, HFCS isn't, in and of itself, worse that other sweeteners. It has almost the exact same ratio of fructose to glucose as table sugar (sucrose) or honey. The HF bit refers to the fact that it has more fructose that normal corn syrup.
The real problem is that HFCS is incredibly cheap, because of corn subsidies. This is the same reason that corn derivatives in general are so widely used in processed foods. Because HFCS is so cheap, it is an inexpensive way for food processors to make foods "taste better".
As a result, over the past thirty years or so, America's consumption of table sugar has remained more or less unchanged, while our consumption of HFCS has grown exponentially. This means that our overall sugar (table sugar + HFCS) intake has increased dramatically. This is the core problem. If tomorrow, by magic, all HFCS in the USA was suddenly replaced with sucrose or agave syrup, there would probably be little to no change in people's health.
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