And The Foods With The Highest Amounts
By: Heidi Wagenbach
For the longest time, we would tease my grandmother for how exaggerated and overly attentive she was about keeping the foods she ate healthy and without high fructose. As a woman who suffered from multiple health issues for as long as I can remember, we couldn’t blame her, but we also couldn’t resist whenever we picked up a ketchup bottle to say: “High fructose corn syrup! Oh, noo!” She would glare at us as we squirted a portion onto our plate.
I’d like to think that I come from a family who eats well and had a good experience growing up being exposed to nutritious options. We avoid fast-food and frozen meals, and don’t eat desserts every night. We exercise daily and don’t drink soda or go to Starbucks for a 300+ calorie frappuccino to get our caffeine fix. Life is short and you gotta enjoy yourself so yeah, we indulge in the occasional treat here and there like a couple handfuls of potato chips. Even then, we know our limits.
But there are unknown, hidden dangers in the foods Americans eat, and one of them being this artificial substance that seems to be making its way into our diets more and more. While simultaneously seeing new trendy diets like keto and veganism emerge, the U.S. is also suffering from a spike in obesity and diabetes. Why? A combination of sedentary lifestyles and bad foods. Being aware of what we eat is important.
History of High Fructose Corn Syrup
High fructose was originally introduced in the U.S. in 1970 after the price of sugar increased from applied tariffs. It was produced by Richard O. Marshall and Earl R. Kooi in 1957 after they created the enzyme glucose isomerase. High fructose is made from corn, which is milled into corn starch, then into corn syrup. Finally, the enzymes are added to turn the natural glucose into fructose. From there, high fructose was introduced to many processed foods in the U.S. from 1975-1985.
High Fructose Corn Syrup Is One Of The Leading Causes Of This Epidemic
According to the article 6 Reasons Why High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Bad For You, by Healthline, a main issue of consuming high fructose is because it adds an unnatural amount of glucose to your body. Glucose is a basic carb (found in foods like rice) and is transported by your entire body and is what is used during exercise for energy. However, high fructose needs to be converted into glucose before your body can use it, meaning it filters through your liver (then your risk of fatty liver disease or diabetes spikes). Seeing that society has changed in our consumption of various foods, table sugar and high fructose are more prevalent as opposed to only having a small amount from fruits/veggies years ago. Fruit does have fructose (albeit, an acceptable, natural amount); to reach the excessive amount of sugar found in high fructose-laden foods, a person would have to eat an extreme amount of typical, natural sugar. Below is a chart of the different amount of sugar in various foods. By comparing the amount in strawberries as opposed to Skittles, you can clearly see the healthier choice.
High fructose corn syrup also promotes visceral fat, which surrounds your organs and is the most dangerous type of body fat, leading to obesity, weight gain, heart disease or all three. Research states that the average person consumes over 500 calories per day from sugar.
Other serious illnesses, such as inflammation and cancer, are also driven by eating too much high fructose corn syrup, therefore leading to a shorter life expectancy. Another tidbit about high fructose is that there are no essential nutrients, or what is known as “empty calories.”
Foods That Have High Fructose Corn Syrup
High fructose has become so wide-spread because it’s cheap, based on the claims stated in this article: 20 Foods With High-Fructose Corn Syrup. The following shows a limited list of foods, some obvious, some not so much, that have high fructose as an ingredient.
- Soda: one 12oz can contains almost 50g of added sugar
- Candy: literal sugar bombs, companies display this on the ingredient list most often as the first to be read on the package
- Sweetened Yogurt: some flavored, low-fat yogurts contain almost 40g of added sugar
- Salad Dressing: 1 tablespoon has 3g added sugar
- Frozen Foods: such as pizza/TV dinners
- Breads: make sure to read the nutrition labels
- Canned Fruit: 1 cup contains about 45g of added sugar and strips the fruit of any nutrients through the peeling/preserving process
- Juice: rivals soda in the amount of sugar per serving
- Granola Bars: even though there are healthy ingredients like nuts and fruit, companies sweeten them with high fructose, totaling to about that of a candy bar
- Breakfast Cereal: 10g or more per one serving
- Barbecue Sauce: 11 grams of sugar per 2 tablespoons
- Chips, Cookies, Crackers: look for the ones without added sweeteners
- Coffee Creamer: resort to milk or drink coffee plain
- Energy/Sports Drinks: water or sugarless green tea is a much healthier and quenching alternative
What You Need To Know
Avoiding sugar and high fructose corn syrup is the best way to ensure a healthy lifestyle, or if you are going to treat yourself, it’s best to only do so once in a while. Save cake and ice cream for specific celebrations. Some of the above products are advertised as “healthy,” however in certain cases, that’s not true. If you’re concerned about you or your family’s intake, be sure to read food labels, pack lunches when heading to work or school, and incorporate exercise into your daily routine. Like anything, high fructose corn syrup is bad for you when it’s given in large portions frequently, so it’s optimal to eat as naturally as often as you can to help your mind and body endure for a longer time.