America's fastest growing crop is taking over the world. Corn is popping up everywhere and not just from on the farm. Americans are consuming more and more corn than ever and most of them don't even know it. Corn and corn products are being added to more and more of our foods. Pop, ice-cream, peanut butter, salad dressing and many other grocery store favorites are full of corn products like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
Food and beverage companies are using the HFCS in place of other sweeteners because its much cheaper than other options and is sweeter than natural sugar so they need less of it. High fructose corn syrup is also more conveniently shipped because it is a liquid. To give an example of how much more HFCS or corn products we are ingesting on a regular basis, in 1970 only 1% of sweeteners were made with HFCS, whereas in 2000 42% of sweeteners were made with or contained HFCS. So with almost everyone in North America being affected by this popular sweetener whats really in it and are there health risks?
HFCS is made from corn, after the corn is milled the remaining starch is turned into a liquid. By adding enzymes to the syrup fructose is created. Glucose syrup is then added to the concoction and voila! High fructose corn syrup. The mix is usually 45% glucose and 55% fructose.
Studies suggest that there is a link between HFCS and the growing cases of obesity and type 2 diabetes in North America, but the question is being argued from both sides. U.S. studies suggest that the amount of HFCS in soft drinks (equal to 15 tea spoons of sugar in some drinks) popular with children are adding to the youth diabetes and obesity problem in America. These problems can lead to many other health risks in the future like cardiovascular disease. Also drinks sweetened with HFCS have really high levels of reactive carbonyls, which are thought to cause tissue damage (reactive carbonyls are also found in the blood of people with diabetes). Reactive carbonyls are present when the fructose and glucose molecules aren't properly "bound" or connected. This can't happen with natural sugar as the two are bound together in one sucralose molecule. People are also arguing that HFCS is unhealthy simply because it's a genetically modified food product (it's produced with genetically modified enzymes) and there is no proof at all we should be eating genetically modified foods in the first place.
Unfortunately, the mass production of HFCS doesn't only affect our health. Corn takes up 27% of America's total farmland and the hybrid seeds used today need more fertilizers, and pesticides. The use of which causes major damage to the ground water as the chemicals absorbed into the earth over time. Also, the creation of all the pesticides pump tons of carbon into the air and require fossil fuels. Proof of just how bad the production of HFCS is for the environment is found in the Gulf of Mexico, where there's a dead zone (an area where nothing will grow) the size of New Jersey. This was caused by fertilizer runoff coming down the Mississippi from the corn belt, starving the ocean plants and animals of their oxygen. In the end High Fructose Corn Syrup is bad for everyone. Neither our planet or our bodies can keep up with its production and ingestion. Something has to change in our diets before the obesity epidemic gets worse and affects more and more people. And before the pollution in our oceans goes too far. Once a dead zone is created it can take hundreds of years to get life back in the area.
Is corn really worth it?
www.scientificamerican.com
www.nutrition.suite101.com
www.cbc.ca/health
www.slate.com/id/2218599
www.newyorktimes.com article America's Diet: Too Sweet By The Spoonful
www.michealpollan.com
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