In A Decade It Will Be Illegal, Today It’s In Everything – High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Please don’t believe commercials funded by companies who profit off of high-fructose corn syrup. This caloric sweetener is especially common and fattening. High-fructose corn syrup’s (HFCS) high sweetness and low cost makes it one of the most ubiquitous ingredients in food products. Combine this with the guidance to avoid calories and natural foods containing fat, and we end up unintentionally eating 10,475% more high-fructose corn syrup than we did in 1970.

Grams of HFCS Eaten Per Person Per Day

“Studies in human subjects have shown that fructose ingestion results in markedly increased rates off de novo lipogenesis [converting carbohydrates into body fat].” – S.S. Elliot, University of California

HFCS Consumption vs. Other Caloric Sweeteners

Eating all that high-fructose corn syrup is particularly harmful. To use the example of a clogged drain, think of eating high-fructose corn syrup as pouring quick-drying cement down your drain. Rats fed high-fructose corn syrup consistently get fatter and sicker than rats fed the exact same amount of sugar. The problem gets worse. Beyond leaving us hungry, clogged, and overweight, high-fructose corn syrup makes other food fill us up less. High-fructose corn syrup does not have low Satiety. It has negative Satiety. It leaves us hungrier than if we did not eat it.It alters our baseline levels of Satiety hormones and drives us to eat more and more over time.

“Prolonged consumption of diets high in energy from fructose could lead to increased caloric intake or decreased caloric expenditure, contributing to weight gain and obesity as a result of reduced insulin and leptin signaling in the brain” – K.L. Stanhope, University of California

As if this wasn’t enough, studies at Princeton University show: “Laboratory rats given a high-sugar diet and then withdrawn from sugar experience changes in both behavior and brain chemistry similar to those seen during withdrawal from morphine or nicotine.” Related research reports: “We have clearly shown sugar addiction in rats…causing brain and behavioral effects analogous to a little dose of amphetamine [stimulants].” In short, added sweeteners are clinically proven to be addictive.

When you switch to a SANE lifestyle, you will experience the effects of sweetener addiction for the first couple of weeks. You feel like you are going through withdrawal because, well, you are. It takes the body a couple of weeks to overcome the chemical dependence caused by the sea of sweeteners we have been led to eat. But the switch is worth the effort. After all, who wants to be an addict?