High Fructose Corn Syrup

How do we change what we eat? When most of our food contains traces of high fructose corn syrup, it seems like we are forced to eat this way, while these food companies continue to profit on our health. Majority of our people are unable to afford health insurance because it’s seems like the same people don’t want the Americans to be healthy. The food companies heavily markets to individuals who have low income and lack of knowledge. Therefore majority of our unhealthy population are the ones who are in the poverty level. Many people think that just because it’s inexpensive, it does not mean it’s good for you. High Fructose Corn Syrup is an “artificial” sweetener. By definition it means; made by human skills. High fructose corn syrup was developed in the 1960’s and began being incorporated into the things we drink and slowly but surely replaced the natural sugar. Since it was produce much cheaper than sugar that derived from cane and beets, the wonderful government began subsiding the corn companies.
According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, more than half of all Americans are concerned that high fructose corn syrup. “High-fructose corn syrup makes up about 50% of the sweeteners used in the USA but worldwide it's only about 10%”. Every day we eat. We eat home cooked meals or fast food rarely thinking about what’s going into our bodies. Most of the time one of the first ingredients listed on a can of soda or canned fruit is some form of HFCS or high fructose corn syrup. The ingredient is widely known, as a secret additive to many products in our grocery stores to preserve shelf life. High Fructose Corn Syrup is one of the cheapest to make but yet it is the hardest for the body to rid of. Since its introduction to food products nearly forty years ago, it has slowly been added to most foods you feed your family. Many researchers seen the rise of obesity at the same time the high fructose corn syrup was developed. But yet they continued to ignore it because profits were being deposited into their bank accounts. In the account of our health forty years later, Americans have become larger and with more health conditions compare to the other parts of the world. Corn diet, is what we should call it. Since many of our foods contain corn in one form or another. In recent years, you may have notice that some food labels say that it contains natural sugar or it’s made with less high fructose corn syrup. They are also saying that high fructose corn syrup and sucrose, also known as table are made up of about the same amount of glucose and fructose. The American Dietetic Association says the two sweeteners are “nutritionally equivalent” and “indistinguishable” once absorbed in the bloodstream. This statement lacks information, regardless of which association it’s coming from. It is very obvious that the research of HFCS danger effects on the body have not been thorough.
High fructose corn syrup is an artificial sweetener, but our Food and Drug Administration sees that it is still safe for the general public to consume. The lack of research puts a lot of American at health risk. Chemically altered, unnatural, genetically designed, these are the things that Americans should begin recognizing onto what they are putting into their bodies. Even the cattle is being fed corn product for example, cattle’s do not eat corn as their main diet. Normally they are fed grass, roaming open grasslands. But since it is cost effective to serve corn to the cows, they make it okay. So many foods that we ingest contain corn, how sad is this?
A team of research from Princeton University indicated that high-fructose corn syrup prompts more weight gain than sucrose, at least in rats, even then the animal eat the same number of calories over all. They speculate that the body metabolizes the calories in high fructose corn syrup differently than the same amount of calories in regular sugar, prompting the body to pad on extra pounds. Despite the research was on rats, have they not noticed the American weight gain in the past 40 years along with the introduction to high fructose corn syrup. Some say that the research is inconclusive because it was done rats rather than actual human beings. We are in a world where we can scientifically look into really what is really going with our bodies, and it seems like someone don’t want lose out on their profits.
If you can’t pronounce what it says, don’t buy it! But in reality how of us really do pay attention to what is on the label, especially when you are hungry and at the grocery store. Everything you see in those aisle seem safe to eat.
This section right here is a personal and it’s about a friend, I met back in 2001. He appeared to be healthy because he was thin. We have a perception that thin people are healthy, but they can be just as unhealthy as overweight people. He actually lived with my family for about 8 months in 2003. In that time, I questioned about his eating habits, he was always eating, excessive thirst, he was a smoker, and alcohol drinker. These were signs that lead to his health condition today. I recently spoke to him because I got message that he was admitted to the hospital. He told me that he was diagnosed with diabetes in 2010, and in May of this year, he was diagnosed with a Congestive Heart Failure. He is in the hospital because he needs to start dialysis right away. I wished him good luck and asked him to call me back to let me know how he does with the dialysis. A few days after speaking to him, I began thinking about him. By the end of the week, I sent him a text message that very morning, I didn’t get a respond. At about late afternoon on that day, I called his phone and it was disconnected. I called the hospital and the nurse told me that only immediate family can call his room or visit. I felt like I was too late, so I email his sister. She responded to my email an hour later, this is what she tells me, “He had complications during his procedure and they had resuscitate him, they have him on life support until he is able to breathe on his own.” I was in tears at this point, but I was able to contact his girlfriend and she provided me with up to date info with his condition. So far he is still in the hospital and is struggling to get back to a healthy level.