Why You Should Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

Yesterday I wrote about the surprising prepared/processed/packaged foods that may contain corn syrup or its derivatives. Today I want to touch on why high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) might be harmful for your health.

The last time I wrote about high fructose corn syrup and sugar, I unexpectedly received a large package by snail mail from the corn growers association containing a lot of printed propaganda about the goodness of corn derivatives and how the human body cannot tell the difference between corn syrup and cane sugar. Sweet is sweet, they say.

Don’t fall for it. We have had the wool pulled over our eyes for too long and our population is paying the consequences.

I was not convinced that high fructose corn syrup is the same as sugar because I know that:

* High fructose corn syrup is many times more concentrated than natural sweeteners like sugar. The dose you receive from a soda or candy made with HFCS is intensified and sweeter than it would be from cane sugar..

* It would be hard to eat anywhere near as much corn or sugar as you take in with a small amount of high fructose corn syrup.

* HFCS spikes blood glycemic levels, forcing the pancreas to work overtime producing insulin to process it all. When the pancreas can’t keep up with the demand for insulin, you get Type II Diabetes.

* According to Michigan researchers, brain cells develop insulin resistance, just as body cells do

* Since at least 88% of all corn grown in the United States is now Genetically Modified (GMO), the odds are unavoidably high that the high fructose corn syrup in that packaged food is concentrated GMO corn extraction.

* In a fascinating article in the September/October issue of Psychology Today, Nikhil Swaminathan examines the plight of the bees and how it reflects on human health. He discusses how Round-Up Ready (TM)  GMO corn leaches the Round-Up (TM) organophosphate-based chemical pesticides into the kernel, contaminating all of the corn derivative products added to our processed foods. The toxins accumulate with every ingestion of products containing high fructose corn syrup. The stark truth: bees fed high fructose corn syrup laced with organophosphates died. Researchers in Montreal looking for organophosphates in the urine of preschoolers found detectable levels of organophosphates in 96% of kids tested. Basically, everyone is being fed these poisons through our food supply.

* Exposure to the organophosphates used as pesticides with Round-Up Ready (GMO) corn  can lead to measurable cognitive deficits in children, hormone disruption, and heightened hypersensitivities, likely due to the additive effects of multiple exposures. The EPA only looks for single exposure limits, but since the toxin can be found in so many additives, typical eaters in our modern society likely receive many exposures over the course of a single day.

At some point, each one of us could inadvertently cross that invisible, personal, toxin threshold that sends our bodies into constant reaction. Until you get there, you really don’t know how lucky you are to have your health and not feel miserable within your own skin almost every day. Once you arrive at this dreadful place, it is a long, arduous climb to cross that constantly lowering threshold again and regain a state of health.

I’ve been there and it resulted in three years of constant hives. A good day would be thirty hives, and a bad day three hundred. So many days were miserable because I was so uncomfortable inside my own skin. I feel lucky that I was able to heal and survive beyond the hives; I remember researching online and finding posts from people who had been suffering with hives for 17 years or longer. It took a lot of effort for me to clear out enough toxins from my life and my body to surmount my threshold and return to health, and I learned a lot about clean and healthy living in the process.

My advice: avoid high fructose corn syrup whenever possible and find out your own particular hypersensitivities.

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