High Fructose Corn Syrup —User Beware!

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The following information was taken from the magazine Alternatives by Dr. David Williams and is paraphrased so that I can share the key content of that article with you for your own information.
Several years ago the food industry began using the sweetener high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Many in the health industry praised the use of fructose, saying it didn’t cause the rapid swings in blood sugar like common sugar. One of the “benefits” of HCFS – that it doesn’t stimulate the release of insulin- may be just another of its problems. The release of insulin is one of the signals the body uses to monitor food intake and body weight.
Researchers at Louisiana State University and the University of North Carolina now report that HCFS consumption has increased 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, “far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group.” It now represents 40 percent of caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages and is the primary sweetener now added to soft drinks. And data from the Department of Agriculture links the rise in obesity and Type 2 Diabetes directly to the increase of HCFS.  Avoid HFCS like the plague it is!
Also keep n mind that soft drinks aren’t as harmless as they seem. In addition to their HFCS sweetener, you have the acid problem. The sweetener causes acid wastes after metabolism and adds to the phosphoric acid already in the soft drinks, and all this acid has a direct connection with the loss of minerals used to form health bones, teeth and muscles & tissues.
Recently it was reported at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in New Orleans that soft drink consumption may be linked to the increase in esophageal cancer that has been occurring in this country over the last 30 years. Since most cancers are linked to what we eat and drink, researchers began looking for major dietary changes over the last 50 years and found that during that rime soft drink consumption has increased by more than 450 percent!
In 1946 average soft drink consumption per person in the US was 10.8 gallons. In 2000 that increased to 49.2 gallons. During this same period, esophageal cancer has risen by 570 percent and is still rising!
Researchers then compared these trends worldwide and found that esophageal cancer has increased only in those countries where soft drink consumption has also increased. Countries where the annual consumption of soft drinks is below 10 gallons per person haven’t seen any increase, while countries with increased consumption all have corresponding increasing rates of esophageal cancer.
This certainly doesn’t prove that soft drinks cause esophageal cancer because there are a lot of other factors that have changed during this time too. However, I’m betting that if we watch closely we’ll see researchers find more clear links to the increased acid exposure of soft drinks. Here’s why;

Dr. Mohandas Mallath, head of the digestive diseases department at Tata Memorial Hospital in India, explains that carbonated soft drinks cause distension of the stomach and can trigger reflux of stomach acid into the lower part of the esophagus. Drinking a cup of water will only distend the stomach by a cup, whereas drinking a cup of carbonated soda can distend it twice that much. Dr. Mallath found that consumption of 350 ml (about one 12 oz. can) of carbonated soft drink a day results in 53.5 minutes of acid exposure that over the entire year would subject the esophagus to an additional 32,100 minutes of acid exposure.
A lot of folks think that drinking bottled fruit juices is a much healthier choice for them and their families. Because it’s not carbonated I’d say it’s an improvement over the soda, but that’s about all. I’d suggest that you look at the labels closely. Almost all of these list HFCS as their main component (first on the list of ingredients).
Need another reason to put down that can of soda?
The Nutrition and Healing team has already covered the connections between soft drinks & Alzheimer’s, cancer, aging, & all-around cell damage.
But here’s one more shocking side effect: drinking huge amounts of soda can lead to muscle weakness & even paralysis, according to Greek doctors.
Drinking 2 to 9 liters of soda per day can cause a chronic depletion of potassium. Now, 2 to 9 liters sounds like a lot (NINE!?), but the editorial that goes with the study comments that there’s not much doubt that tens of millions of people drink at least 2-3 liters per day.

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