Some are calling it the ultimate fast food. It seems that the enzymes required to break it down may respond by becoming overactive which can lead to weight gain.
Fructose enzymes turn fructose into energy. The more fructose containing foods you eat each day, the more fructose enzymes you manufacture. That, according to the experts, is not good for your waist line and overall health.
Some contend that eating too much HFCS [ High Fructose Corn Syrup ] causes an accumulation of abdominal fat, which doctors describe as the most harmful kind. It also escapes the attention of the bodies appetite control mechanisms and allows us to load up on the calories. We continue eating when we would otherwise stop. The fructose has tricked us into eating more than our body needs. Highly regarded Dr. Andrew Weil says unequivocally that, " High Fructose Corn Syrup is definitely bad for you and it's also bad for the planet and I believe it is a major driver of the obesity epidemic."
Not everyone agrees that HFCS is a major cause of obesity in our country. The American Corn Growers Association sure doesn't. They claim HFCS is no worse than regular sugar, Although they want to change the name to corn sugar. The USFDA has it on the GRAS list [ Generally Recognized as Safe ] which doesn't make it less fattening. The American Medical Association [AMA] says that more independent research is needed [ the operative word here is independent]. And the Mayo Clinic says that the research is evolving.
None the less, this is incontrovertible: The extra calories provided by cheap corn and corn derivatives in the early 1970s created about 200 extra calories of energy per day per person. We didn't ignore them, we ate them. That's equivalent to 10 pounds per person per year. By 1985 all sugar consumed by Americans had risen from 128 pounds per year to 158 pounds per year. Did we just decide as a society one day to eat more sugar?
If we were to construct a graph showing the rise in obesity from 1970 through today, and we simultaneously plotted the track of the use of HFCS, it would be no surprise [ or accident ] that the two tracks coincided. According to Michael Pollan we have taken about 539 million bushels of annual corn harvest and turned it into 17.5 billion pounds of high fructose corn syrup.
In his best selling book The Sugar Fix, Dr. Richard J. Johnson says that, " What you don't know about fructose and HFCS could kill you. Cutting back on the fructose in your diet could save your life and shrink your waistline. Table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup [HFCS]-the primary sources of fructose-are staples of our food supply, and are even found in foods that aren't necessarily sweet, like breads, soups, ketchup, and salad dressing. These sweeteners are linked to health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and joint and abdominal pain. They may also increase your risk of liver and kidney disease, premature aging. and certain types of cancer."
