by
Dr. John M. McDonough
www.theweightlossresource.com
Summary
Two much fructose, I believe, can lead to heart disease and excess weight. These are not trivial health problems. By far, the biggest culprit in stacking the deck against the American public has been, and still is, the incredible growth of the use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The average intake of HFCS of an American in 1963 was 0 grams. The average intake of HFCS per American today is more than 60 pounds, that is, 27,000 grams.
Linus Pauling was the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes. One was in Chemistry, and the other was the Nobel Peace Prize. When Pauling says something about Chemistry, it only makes sense to listen to him. In his book How to Live Longer and Feel Better (W.H. Freeman and Company, © 1986), he discusses the role of fructose in our health. He points out that, until a couple of centuries ago, people consumed about 8 grams of fructose per day, mainly from fruits and honey. After our common sugar (sucrose), derived from sugar cane and sugar beets, became readily available, our intake of fructose rose to about 74 grams per day. (When we ingest sucrose, it splits into 50 % glucose and 50 % fructose.) The glucose simply becomes a part of our general pool of glucose, which is derived from many of the foods we eat. Some, but not all, of the fructose, on the other hand, is converted to acetate, which, in turn, is partially converted to cholesterol.
Pauling quoted some experimental work by Winitz et al., in which the subjects were given two very controlled diets. The only difference between the two diets was that one included glucose as the only carbohydrate, while the other used 75 % glucose and 25 % sugar (sucrose) as the sources of carbohydrate. That 25 % sucrose would lead to fructose, which would be lacking in the glucose-only portion of the study. In the glucose-only portion of the study, the cholesterol levels of the subjects dropped dramatically. When the subjects were then given the glucose-plus-sucrose diet, their cholesterol levels rose just as dramatically. The subjects were once again put on the glucose-only diet, and, once again, their cholesterol levels again plummeted.
Pauling's point was that sucrose ingestion in our times leads to elevated cholesterol levels, because of the resulting fructose. The point that I am trying to make here is that our dietary sources of fructose today are almost infinite, over and above sucrose, fruits and honey. Look at the list of ingredients on any of the foods you buy, or look at the list below. You'll find high fructose corn syrup on a staggering range of them. Our processed food producers have elected to give us a superhighway to high cholesterol as a nation. It's bad enough that we consume too much sugar (sucrose). These folks are trying to make us into mainliners, giving us a shot of the bad stuff directly. Why? Profits! And, in part, your tax dollars at work - to the detriment of your health!
The reason that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has become such a dominsant factor in the US diet can be traced directly to politics and corporate welfare. Since 1816, the sugar industry has owned enough politicians to ensure that they gained a protectionist position regarding imports of sugar, and they also receive subsidies in the billions of dollars per year. These things have allowed the American sugar industry to keep the price of sugar much higher than the average retail price of sugar paid by the rest of the world. They get to charge us more, and our tax dollars make it easy for them to take us to the cleaners, both coming and going.
What's that you say about Free Trade and the Global Market? Get serious. Those are political slogans, not facts!
In a rare moment of serving the American people, Congress dropped the sugar quotas in June of 1974. Reagan re-instated the idea of sugar import quotas in May of 1982. I'm not taking a partisan stand here, because both Democrats and Republicans have sold out the American people on this topic.
On November 6, 1984, the two largest soft drink manufacturers in the US, CocaCola and Pepsi, made public the fact that they weren't going to take it any more. They were going to replace the artificially high priced sucrose by HCFS in the US. In other countries, where the price of sucrose was more reasonable, such steps weren't necessary. But they weren't going to become victims of the crazy US corporate welfare schemes in favor of the sugar industry.
Over time, they were joined by many, if not most, of the other US manufacturers that used sucrose in their products. In one sense, you can't blame them. On the other hand, look around. In my opinion, the use of HCFS is an important factor in the overweight/obesity crisis that we are facing in America today. I realize that there are indeed other factors, but the preponderance of HCFS is certainly one of them - an important one. I realize that a one-to-one correspondence between the consumption of HFCS and the frequency in obesity in the US, from 1966 to the present, is not a proof of causality. But do you really believe it's just a coincidence?
In order to understand how your tax dollars at work have helped to create the High Fructose Corn Syrup problem, you may want to visit these references:
http://www.fff.org/freedom/0498d.asp
And the candy makers want to help get more subsidies (paid by taxpayers) in order to lower their sugar costs:
http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_04/b4018072.htm
Since it seems well established that a high cholesterol level is one (of several) risk factors for cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks and strokes, it would only make sense to try to keep our cholesterol level down in a normal range. This is not a condemnation of cholesterol. We absolutely need cholesterol to function. In addition to what we ingest, some of our cholesterol is manufactured by our own liver. But we certainly don't need these massive amounts of fructose, which push our cholesterol levels way up.
There is more bad news about HFCS. When we consume sucrose, the glucose produced then, in turn, produces a hormone called leptin. Leptin, which is produced in the fat cells, is the hormone that tells us when we've had enough to eat. Fructose does not produce leptin. So, when you're hungry, and you eat or drink something containing HFCS, you will tend to remain hungry, and consequently, you may easily overeat.
There is another hormone called ghrelin. This is the hormone produced by your stomach to tell you that you are hungry. Sucrose, by way of its product glucose, suppresses the production of ghrelin, telling you that you are no longer hungry. Fructose does not suppress the production of ghrelin, so you remain hungry. Once again, the tendency is to overeat.
For more information on the hormones that affect your weight, hunger and satiety, please see my report on Hormones and Excess Weight.
What can we do to help ourselves in this sea of cholesterol-breeding high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)? Although it would be very difficult in our society to completely eliminate HFCS from our diets (unless we could use a time machine to take us back to the 1960s), we should do our best to avoid those products. For example, I love cookies. I have noticed that most cookies contain HFCS. I simply look for those brands (there are a few) that don't contain the high fructose corn syrup.
Cookies are just one example. It sometimes seems that high fructose corn syrup is everywhere. For example, you will find it in most cold cereals, most crackers, most pancake syrups, most fruit punches, many canned fruits, many jams and jellies, some barbeque sauces, most commercial breads, and the list goes on and on. There are a few things we can do to minimize our consumption of HFCS, however. You can choose pure maple syrup over the cheap pancake syrup. You can read the labels on canned fruit and select only those without HFCS. You can read the ingredients on the cereal boxes, and select one of the brands that shows more interest in your health than in their bottom line. You can carefully select jams, jellies or preserves that favor the integrity of their product rather than stoop to the use of HCFS. You can seek out those bakeries or house brands that refuse to adulterate their bread with this cheap sweetener.
Granted, it's a lot of work at first. Eventually, however, you can build a list of items that will help you to minimize the damage that our food processing industries are doing to our health. As a general rule, the higher the degree of processing, or the more lengthy the list of ingredients, the lower the quality of the food product. And if you'd like to get an idea just how pervasive high fructose corn syrup is in the American diet, take a look at this list:
http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2005/06/09/foods_and_products_containing_high_fruct .
I think you'll be shocked at how many foods contain HFCS.
The liver can convert glucose somewhat, and fructose much more so, to triglycerides. These in turn lead to increased levels of low density lipoproteins (LDL, the bad cholesterol) and reduced levels of high density lipoproteins (HDL, the good cholesterol).
In other words, high fructose corn syrup can lead to overeating, obesity, elevated triglycerides and high cholesterol with all its increased cardiovascular risks. Does it have any good points? Yes, it's cheap!!!
As mentioned above, all soft drinks made in the US since the 1980's are made with HFCS. The same manufacturers use sucrose in other parts of the world. You can thank your Washington politicians for selling out your health on this, whatever branch of the Corporate Party they may belong to.
Incidentally, if you think you can beat the system by drinking diet soda, think again. In a recent study (reference 1 below) in Circulation (a journal of the American Heart Association) researchers found that in the Framingham Heart Study, those who drank 1 or more soft drinks per day were at higher risk of developing the metabolic syndrome. This is true whether they drank HFCS sweetened soda or diet soda - that made no difference! To see a definition of metabolic syndrome, see my article on the Metabolic Syndrome.
I believe that the case could be made for a good correlation between sugar consumption and cardiovascular disease. I also believe an even stronger correlation could be made between the consumption of high fructose corn syrup and cardiovascular disease. Time will tell whether or not I am correct.
And then there's the matter of the epidemic of excess weight in our country. In 1966, there was no high fructose corn syrup in the US. Most people were not overweight, either. Back then, the average American didn't eat even 1 oz of HFCS annually.
Today, HFCS is the dominant sweetener (55 %) in the US, with sales of over $4.5 billion per year. Nowadays, the average American eats more than 60 pounds of HFCS per year. Look around. Most Americans are now overweight. Yes, it's true that we don't get enough exercise. It's also true that we eat too much — and part of that overeating is due to HFCS. To understand why this is true, please see my article on Hormones and Excess Weight.
In the final analysis, the only person who will look out for you on this subject is you!
Reference 1. Circulation. 2007; 116: 480-488
The author of this article is Dr. John M. McDonough, who frequently writes on topics involving nutrition, weight loss and fitness. You can find other related information on the website at:
www.theweightlossresource.com