While the Corn Refiners Association attempt to dispel myths on www.sweetsurprise.com by quoting research studies showing no metabolic difference between HFCS and sugar, they fail to mention the studies that challenge those claims. Some studies have showed a link to HFCS and kidney damage, increased insulin resistance, and fatty liver.
Either way, research will always yield two sides of the story, especially when one side is funded by an invested party or parties. While there is a lot of unknown, let’s stick to what we do know, such as where HFCS is typically found. It’s not in your organic Kashi cereal or your dry roasted almonds. It’s found in sodas, cookies, cakes, dressings, sauces, and virtually any processed food. I avoid HFCS not because I’m afraid of its direct effect on my weight and metabolism, but because the ingredient HFCS serves as a warning flag that this is a highly processed, most likely calorically dense, artificial and nutrient deficient food.
Let’s also not forget the copious amounts of corn consumed by our nation through our livestock in addition to our foods. Corn is cheap and farmers are subsidized by the government to grow it. The abundant amount of fields dedicated to growing corn affects the biodiversity of the soil, depleting it of nutrients and its arability and increases the need for toxic pesticides and fertilizers.
Of course, consuming sodas, cookies, cakes, etc. without HFCS will still have a negative effect on your health. But I rather not have the added negative effects associated with processed and sometimes genetically modified corn that can wreak havoc on our health as well as the environment.
So changing the name to corn sugar or not, it still carries the names of the two things we simply consume too much of.
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