The Enemy is in Your Food: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Until the 1970s, we ate sugar made from beets or sugar cane. It was not until recently that sugar produced from corn began to rise in popularity--corn sugars, such as corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, dextrine, and high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is the culprit we will be examining, and its effects on the poor quality of health America seems to be experiencing.

High fructose corn syrup can be made in different ways, such that it can have equal amounts of glucose to fructose, or up to 80 percent fructose. Fructose is the sugar in fruit. It's usually a good thing.

In 1980, the average consumption per capita of fructose and sucrose was 39 pounds to 84 pounds, respectively. In 1994, the average person consumed 66 pounds of sucrose and 83 pounds fructose. In 14 years, the average per capita consumption of fructose increased 44 pounds, while the average per capita consumption of sucrose decreased only 18 pounds. We are eating more and more sugars, and more and more of them are coming from fructose in the form of corn based sweeteners.

So, why is this such a problem? Pure fructose, without fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, or anything, when consumed, depletes the body's stores of nutrients in order to make itself usable by the body. In nature, this does not happen, because pure fructose is never naturally occurring--it is always bound in a fruit, with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and glucose, all of which prevent it from wreaking havoc. High fructose contains a high percentage of fructose, much of which is not bound to anything to prevent it from causing havoc in the bloodstream. High fructose corn syrup has been linked to elevated LDL cholesterol levels (low-density lipoprotein. The bad kind of cholesterol.), and an increase in the incidences of blood clots in individuals whose diet is high in high fructose corn syrup.
It has also been shown to prevent the white blood cells from defending the body from invaders, though to what extent is relatively unclear.