High fructose corn syrup is stealing your health and making you gain weight!

The very first time I learned high fructose corn syrup was bad for you was while reading a book called The Abs Diet by David Zinczenko. In his chapter, “Your Weight Is Not Your Fault,” he covers how HFCS is leading to obesity in the lives of many people.

Before you begin to think that this post doesn’t apply to you because you don’t consume HFCS, let me ask you a few questions. Do you eat ketchup or barbecue sauce? What about Pop-Tarts? Do you enjoy soda? Well, guess what? All of those things are full of high fructose corn syrup. As a matter of fact, once you make the decision to remove HFCS from your home, you will be surprised at how many items have it!

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Quitting High Fructose Corn Syrup

Once I learned that this substance is literally killing humans and destroying their bodies along the way, I decided to do something about it. My household will be high fructose corn syrup free! And it is, but it was no easy task to accomplish. I could not believe how many items had HFCS.

But don’t be discouraged! Many people believe that everything has HFCS and that you cannot avoid it, but that’s simply not true! You don’t even have to stop eating your favorite foods! All you have to do is create your own food at home compared to allowing a factory to create your foods for you.

Processed foods are the ones that contain high fructose corn syrup. It’s not a natural substance and was created by man. If you focus on eating natural foods that were created for us to eat, you won’t have to worry about avoiding this substance.

What Is High Fructose Corn Syrup?

High fructose corn syrup is a modified version of corn syrup. While corn syrup is a sweetener for foods, high fructose corn syrup is used more often because it’s cheaper to produce. It’s a chemically altered sweetener where the fructose-glucose ratio is 55:45 instead of 50:50.

Fructose is sweeter than glucose, so increasing the amount in a sweetener is brilliant! Since it’s cheap to produce, soda companies were able to jump from 12 fluid ounces to 20 without much out of their pocket. But in the effort to make more money, they’re harming innocent and naive people.

While naturally occurring fructose in fruits is not a bad thing, high fructose corn syrup is anything but natural. After all, it’s created in a lab.

Because of this, the body doesn’t recognize it and cannot properly digest it. High fructose corn syrup has led to so many diseases found in the American culture today including heart disease, cancer, inflammation, leaky gut, fatty liver disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, and so much more.

How Does High Fructose Corn Syrup Affect The Body?

Consuming an average of 140 lbs per year of sugar no doubt leads to dangerous side effects. High fructose corn syrup is now more than 40% of sweeteners added to foods and drinks. About 20% of our calorie intake comes directly from sugars, including HFCS. In only 20 years, the use of this substance increased more than 1,000% and is a major factor of our obesity epidemic.

Inflammation

One of the side effects of high fructose corn syrup is inflammation. This deadly substance can lead to whole-body inflammation which is proven to increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer. Also, there is a higher chance of triggering other inflammatory diseases such as gout.

Leaky Gut

Leaky gut is a condition where holes are punched into the intestinal lining. Ouch! Toxic bacteria and partially digested proteins easily make their way into your bloodstream. (Ewww!)

This triggers inflammation which we’ve just covered. High fructose corn syrup is proven to lead to a leaky gut. [9]

Fatty Liver Disease

Normal sugar is digested throughout the entire body, but fructose is only processed in the liver.  By eating such large amounts, the liver desperately tries to get rid of it by converting it to fat. Over time, this can cause alarming health problems like fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.

Fatty liver disease affects around 70 million people in this country. Also, fatty liver disease can lead to liver damage, diabetes, and obesity.

Weight Gain

High fructose corn syrup does not provide us with the nutrition and vitamins we need. Therefore, we continue to crave food after we eat it. Have you ever felt that way? You want to eat, but you’re not really hungry. So you go looking through the cabinets trying to find something interesting, only to still be hungry 30 minutes later. It’s a dangerous snack cycle.

 

Did you know? Research proves that people are now consuming more than 500 calories per day from sugar. This is about 300% more from 50 years ago. [8] It’s no wonder why 93 million Americans are obese. [1]

In a 3 week study, it was found that too much fructose and sugar led to a 27% increase in liver fat. [6] Another study proved that fructose caused more weight gain than other meals with the same amount of calories! [5]

Mercury

Mercury is poisonous and can kill people when eaten in large amounts. In 2009, researchers detected mercury in 9 out of 20 samples of HFCS. Some short term effects of mercury poisoning are nausea, chest pain, headaches, eye irritation, and vision problems. Long term effects are fatigue, loss of appetite, forgetfulness, and anxiety.

As much as 570 micrograms of mercury have been found in each gram of HFCS. That’s more than half! Then, take into consideration that Americans consume as much as 50 grams of HFCS per day. [2]

Cancer

Uht oh! The C word!

Q: Does high fructose corn syrup cause cancer?

A: In 2010, the America Association for Cancer Research found that HFCS promotes the growth of cancer cells. It can trigger mass production of pancreatic cancer cells. Cancer patients should avoid high fructose corn syrup for it can possibly stop the production of cancer cells. [3]

Heart Disease

Heart disease is the number one killer in America, accounting for 23.4% of all deaths. [10]

High fructose corn syrup increases the production rate of bad cholesterol and triglycerides. This causes a huge risk for heart disease. Combining these two cause arterial plaque build-up. This not only leads to heart disease but hypertension and even stroke!

Diabetes

When carbs are consumed in a healthy body, insulin increases to guide into them into cells and out of the bloodstream. However, regular high consumption of HFCS can lead to insulin resistance. [7] Over time, this results in high insulin and blood sugar levels.

These high insulin levels could possibly lead to tumor growth. [4]

You And Your Family Are Worth Protecting

Don’t you agree? Knowing what this stuff does to an adult, I wouldn’t dare to give it to my children. It’s worth mentioning that heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are all on the list of Top 10 causes of death in America. [10] Although there are many dangerous side effects of high fructose corn syrup, you can still win.

What can you do? Begin reading the nutrition label. Go through your cabinets and fridge right now and try to find as many things you can that have high fructose corn syrup under the ingredients.

If you need help understanding a nutrition label, I’ve written an easy and simple guide for reading the nutrition label. No matter how overwhelming eating healthier may seem, you are not alone. I’m with you every step of your journey and will help you any way possible. Your health is worth it!

Did any of these dangerous side effects of high fructose corn syrup surprise you? Please, share this post to inform others of this deadly disease.

References:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
2. https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-069X-8-2
3. http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/70/15/6368
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14713323
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19381015
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22952180
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15723702
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2935122/
9. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/high-fructose-corn-syrup-dangers_b_861913
10. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282929.php

 

Thanks for sharing!