SUGARS: ARE THEY ALL CREATED EQUAL?
America has become a nation of
overweight people. Studies show that despite low cal, low carb, low fat foods
we are not getting any better at managing our weight. The newest glaring light
of who’s to blame has fallen squarely on the shoulders of high fructose corn
syrup or HFCS. How convenient if that were truly the culprit.
As those selling natural sugar
products demonize HFCS, the truth is that scientists see little dietary benefit
in swapping processed sweeteners for natural ones. According to The American
Medical Association, the fact is that HFCS, and sugar both contribute to
increased risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses. My
personal opinion, we want to pick the fly out of the ointment, when we really
need to throw out the whole jar.
HFCS filtered into our food chain
about forty years ago and by 1984 was the chief sweetener used by almost every
soda manufacturer in the country. Corn was in abundant supply and therefore
cheaper than cane sugar. The proponents for now ending the use of HFCS say the
process involves using enzymes in a complex series of chemical reactions that
may leave behind traces of toxic residues such as mercury. Others say that
fructose is more readily converted to fat by the liver leading to unfavorable
lipid profiles, Insulin resistance, fatty liver disease and diabetes. The
statistics I could find to support such claims were sketchy at best. One
statement comparing HFCS to glucose stated that HFCS is worse for you than
glucose, at least taken pound for pound. Hello.. does that tell you anything?
Are you consuming pounds of HFCS regularly? If you are, the problem is more
than just corn verses beet sugar.
Most nutritional experts advise
prudent health conscious consumers to decrease their intake of sweetened
products period- including those containing HFCS. The nutritional content of
HFCS as well as glucose offers only empty calories with no micronutrient value.
Frankly, reading studies produced
about the current and ever so popular artificial sweeteners such as NutraSweet
/Equal or Splenda/sucralose should raise far more health concerns that HFCS
verses cane sugar. I regularly advise my clients suffering with unknown joint
or muscle pain, symptoms of fibromyalgia and arthritis to stop their use of
products containing artificial sweeteners, that if they must drink soda they
would be better off to switch to sweetened drinks (in minimal amounts) than to
use artificially sweetened drinks.
It would be interesting to know if
soda sales and other sweetened drinks have fallen off due to the economic
downturn, or if the soda manufacturers got a better deal on cane sugar this
year. Or, as more and more high schools ban soda machines they’ve launched a
campaign to eek their way back in, by putting a new face on an old calorie
high, nutrient empty food?
If your diet is squeaky clean, lots
of fruits, veggies, smaller meat portions and plenty of good high quality water
knock yourself out with your one pop as an occasional treat- no harm done. Till
next time, Rebecca.
7/2/09