It appears that nowadays everyone from the president to the guy at the McDonald’s counter is talking about obesity and how to deal with the issue. Countless shows and investigative journalism are flooding the airwaves covering many aspects and faces of obesity none however offering much of an explanation on how we got here. 1 in 5 Americans is overweight or obese and the trends are pointing upward.
No longer than 5 decades ago, the majority of our population used fruits and vegetables rich in natural sugars – aka glucose – as a source for sweetness. However in 1975 the food processing industry adopted a new standard – High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) – a sweetener devastating to our health but exponentially cheaper to produce than nature sugars and get this – as a bonus it is also 20% sweeter pound for pound. With the introduction of HFCS sweeteners in everything from mac and cheese to juices and salad dressing, the food processing industry has basically modified drastically our lifestyle and our intake of fructose.
If one is now rto look at the trend of obesity over the last 3 decades, one would notice the direct correlation between the new HFCS introduction and the obesity trend in U.S. There is a little bitter truth that The Corn Producers and Refiners of American (CPRA) won’t tell you – this is killing your liver!
The average American consumes about 142 lbs of sugar wether it is glucose of HFCS a year. Most media outlets sponsored by the CPRA will tell you that it is natural and it is organically grown but hey so is cocaine and I don’t see anyone jumping on consuming 142 lbs of cocaine each year.
And lets go into this – organic? really? All corn used for productions of HFCS, and I mean all is genetically modified which comes with its own bill or risks.
So here is the bad news, we are obese because of the food available today in our grocery stores, because the way the processed food is made and because of the Corn Producers and Refiners of America. I fyou really want to get some sweetness in you rlife look out for the processsed sugars like HFCS and its derivatives. Avoid them and try to find alternatives to them. Your liver will not only tell you “Thanks a lot” but will actually be there when you’re 80.
If you must have it – sugar that is – use natural substitutes rich in glucose and not fructose such as honey, sative plant extracts, sugar cane extracts (limited) , and control the intake of sweeteners.
