I was watching tv the other day and saw this ad:
It’s the Corn Refiners Association latest attempt to defend their product high-fructose corn syrup. The ad shows a couple having a picnic in the park. A girl offers her boyfriend a bite of a popsicle. He says, “Don’t you love me?”
She says, “Of course I do. Take two bites.”
And he says, “But there’s high-fructose corn syrup in that and you know what they say…”
“What?” she says.
Then he just sits there with his mouth open… “um…”
She calls him silly; it’s just corn. It’s just like sugar. Same calories. Perfectly safe, in moderation.
Silly.
Not silly. If that boyfriend could have spit out the words there are plenty of arguments to be made. Like…
1. High-fructose corn syrup is not the same as sugar. It may be sweet like sugar, but to the body the two are not the same at all. Unlike sugar which is glucose that is easily burned up and used, fructose gets metabolized as fat. It all goes through the liver and the body stores what it can’t use. So when you consume 120 calories of fructose, 40 end up stored as fat.
2. We’re consuming way too much of it. HFCS is cheap – a lot cheaper than sugar. So food manufacturers use it and it winds up in just about everything on the grocery shelf. Take a look next time you’re shopping. Check the bread, salad dressings, crackers. I bet it’s in there.
As for it being safe in moderation, OK, but the numbers are anything but moderate. On average we’re consuming 65 grams of HFCS per day. Before it came on the market in 1975, 20 grams per day of fructose was average.
So we’re consuming more, the body’s storing it as fat, and wait it gets better….
3. HFCS disrupts the release of hormones that regulate appetite. Now studies are showing that fructose doesn’t trigger leptin – a hormone that’s released to tell them brain the stomach is full. So HFCS leads to major overeating. There’s another connection between HFCS and fat.
That’s right. What do you have to say to that girlfriend?
