Turpentine baths

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is Synthetic

Yes, fructose is a natural sugar in fruit and other plant organs. It is also one of the two monosaccharides (single sugars) that make up sucrose, which is common table sugar. The other monosaccharide in sucrose is glucose.

How, then, can I say that HFCS as synthetic? It is because HFCS is not the predominant sugar in corn syrup. Corn syrup naturally produces glucose, not fructose. High glucose corn syrup is what is natural. Unfortunately, it is not very sweet.

Biochemists have come to the rescue of the food industry by devising 10 easy steps for converting high glucose corn syrup into HFCS. Some of these steps require enzymes and some require caustic reagents. This means that the end product, HFCS, is a synthetic food additive.

The good news is that the food industry has a cheap, government subsidized source of syrup (i.e., corn) that can be converted into the sweetest of all the sugars - fructose. This is why HFCS is the darling of processed food manufacturers who think that our food should be sweeter.

Which foods are those? Just a short list of the kinds of foods that contain HFCS may surprise you. Take a look here to see what I mean:

• Baking and Cooking Ingredients (brownie mix, pancake mix, cake icing)
• Beverages (fruit juices, colas and other sodas, chocolate, lemonade)
• Bread (all kinds, including whole wheat and multigrain, bagels, buns)
• Breakfast Cereals (sweetened and seemingly unsweetened)
• Breakfast Pastries / Waffles / Bars
• Candy and Childrens Treats
• Condiments (ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, dill chips, mustard, cocktail sauce, pickle relish)
• Cookies and Cakes (nearly every brand)
• Chocolate
• Crackers
• Dairy (yogurts of all kinds)
• Fruits and Vegetables - Canned
• Granola Bars (and other health bars)
• Ice Cream
• Jam, Jelly, Syrup, Spreads, Peanut Butter
• Pastries
• Salad Dressings
• Sauces
• Snacks and Chips
• Soups

Good thing that HFCS has been classified 'generally recognized as safe' (GRAS) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 1976. Otherwise, we'd be in trouble.

Too Late - We Are Already in Trouble

A recent YouTube video of a presentation by Dr. Robert H. Lustig, MD, University of California San Francisco, offers a 1.5 hour seminar on the problems we have metabolizing fructose. Dr. Lustig explains these problems with great detail from human biochemistry and physiology. It is fascinating. (You can find it easily in a Google search.)

In case you don't have the time or the background to watch and understand Dr. Lustig's explanations, below is a summary of one of the most important parts of his commentary. In it he compares the outcomes of chronic alcohol exposure to those of chronic fructose exposure. Here is what you can expect from both:

• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Cardiomyopathy/Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Dyslipidemia (abnormal amounts of cholesterol and/or fats in the blood)
• Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas)
• Obesity

Plus these highly similar outcomes:

• Fetal alcohol syndrome / Fetal insulin resistance
• Addiction (alcohol) / Habituation, if not addiction (fructose)

By the end of his presentation, Dr. Lustig is referring to fructose as a poison. All of the metabolic explanations certainly support this claim.

HFCS is the nearly ubiquitous source of processed dietary fructose. It is a poison.

The Mercury Bonus

In 2009, a report by David Malinga, MD, published on the website of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), noted that 17 of 55 products containing HFCS had detectable levels of mercury. Apparently one of the caustic reagents used for converting natural corn syrup into HFCS is what is called mercury-grade caustic soda (i.e., sodium hydroxide or lye).

This report has created a controversy and an argument between U.S. corn refiners and the IATP. The FDA and other government agencies overseeing this issue basically have no comment. Indeed, before this report came out, the FDA was unaware that HFCS might be contaminated with mercury at all. Interesting, isn't it?