Today let’s talk about High-Fructose Corn Syrup. By now you’ve probably heard it’s bad and to keep away from it. But I thought it might help you, to know why.
Sugar is sugar is sugar. Carbs convert to sugar. Wine converts to sugar. Pasta converts to sugar. When you eat healthier carbs like brown rice or whole grains, the sugar processes slowly and so you don’t get as much of a spike in your glycemic index. And by the way, that spike is what causes inflammation which leads to disease.
WHAT ABOUT WHITE SUGAR AND HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CHEF?
Glad you asked. According to articles I’ve read, that spike is 10 times higher when you eat processed sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.
WELL, WHAT IS HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CHEF?
According to Wikipedia it’s a sweetener made from corn starch and while it’s sweeter than sugar and easier to use, it’s just not healthy for you.
What I have learned over the years is that sugar and high fructose corn syrup process differently. The Medical Daily Pulse explains it this way:
One of the most infamous and controversial sucrose replacements is the manmade sweetener known as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It’s made by milling corn down until it turns into corn starch, which is then further processed with water and bacterial and fungi-derived enzymes that break down into short chains of glucose or corn syrup. Add another bacterial enzyme to convert the glucose and you finally have HFCS, which is significantly sweeter than glucose.
Glucose, on the other hand, is considered the body’s energy source. It’s also called blood sugar because it circulates throughout the body and can be used immediately for energy or stored in muscle cells or the liver as glycogen for later use. When it’s digested, glucose provides satiety signals to the brain that fructose cannot provide because it isn’t transported to the brain, telling the body it’s satisfied with what it just consumed. But because glucose isn’t as sweet as fructose, and because of continued consumption, the modern palate has become accustomed to higher levels of sweetness.
So with High-Fructose Corn Syrup, your glycemic index spikes TEN (count ’em) 10 times as much as sugar that might be in a fruit or vegetable.
And processed sugar is no picnic either. Look at the sentence. Processed. Any time you see that word you should immediately think: Body cannot digest.
It’s a tough life with a society that is always promoting sugar.
But here’s the good news: your stomach has ‘flora’ that craves the sugar. And if you go a week or two without it, that ‘calling for it’ lessens and eventually disappears all together. Sugars from fruits become as much if not more satisfying and that’s how it goes.
According to a CNN Report talking about gut bacteria: ……. an outsize number of less-beneficial flora — which proliferate with a diet high in sugar, fat, and processed food — can cause gas, discomfort, bloating and inflammation. The flora can also emit chemicals that compromise the intestinal lining, says Lita Proctor, of the Human Microbiome Project at the National Institutes of Health.
They say it takes 21 days to break a habit. I’m not sure if my craving of sugar is a chemical craving caused by flora or a habit. But I am going to try and not take in any additional sugars, as a start.
Where are you starting at, in this new year?
Happy Healthy Eating,
