Food Culture With High Fructose Corn Syrup Essay

I grew up playing the game “Candyland”, and I dreamed of finding the golden ticket and living in Willie Wonka’s factory. I was also given a Gatorade after every sporting event I ever played in so what could be so bad about sugar? Sugar, real and artificial, can be found in almost every product we consume and although sugar is a simple carbohydrate that the body uses for energy, its impact on our body is far from simple. The consumption of sugar has been linked to a host of chronic health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The addictive nature of sugar is also a significant problem that leads to the other detrimental effects listed above. Sugar has also been useful to help preserve goods, fuel fermentation, balance acidity, and add flavor to other foods. Whether it’s cereal, spaghetti sauce, or yogurt, sugar is everywhere and has become unavoidable in our daily diets. As Americans, we have become accustomed to the sweet addictive taste of sugar, and our dependence on excessive amounts of sugar in its different forms has become alarming to many health experts. In analyzing preference and dependency with sugar, I will trace the addictive nature and major risks sugar has placed on society.

The past fifty years has seen a spike in the consumption of sugar, that number totaling a tripling increase. However, sugar is not the only risk factor here, alcohol and tobacco can also be attributed with the spike, albeit not as prevalent as sugar. The biggest question that Lustig et al. poses to its’ readers is this: “What aspects of the Western diet should be the focus of intervention”? (par. 3) The current USDA has been deemed “boogeymen” of diets, as well as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Lustig et al. all believe that our attention should be turned towards “added sugar”, which is a sweetener that has fructose in it. Perhaps the biggest controversy from the past fifty years has been none other than a severe culprit that experts know as high fructose corn syrup or HFCS.

There are many different types of food out there in the market and in order to know what to choose from people must start with reading the labels. Pollan says:“ AVOID FOOD PRODUCTS CONTAINING INGREDIENTS THAT ARE A) UNFAMILIAR, B) UNPRONOUNCEABLE, C) MORE THAN FIVE IN NUMBER, OR THAT INCLUDE D) HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.”(Page 494) In his point of view, most food are processed and will not be considered to even ca,k as food since it has not met his expedition. I agree that high-fructose corn syrup is bad and contribute

Farmers need their cows to be tremendously obese because the cows would produce more meat for the farmers to sell. Therefore, the meat that is sold at the supermarket is not one hundred percent natural. Another manufactured substance is sugar also referred to as high-fructose corn syrup. Man has made a whole new variation of sugar that is cheaper to produce but also completely artificial. “Using a glucose isomerase, the starch in corn can be efficiently converted to glucose and then to various amounts of fructose. The hydrolysis of sucrose produces a 50:50 molar mixture of fructose and glucose. The development of these inexpensive, sweet corn- based syrups made it profitable to replace sucrose (sugar) and simple sugars with HFCS in our diet, and they now represent 40% of all added caloric sweeteners. (Bray, Nielsen, and Popkin)” The United States farmer produces approximately twelve billion bushels of corn every year, but only exports about twenty percent of the total, and the rest is made into products, such as high-fructose corn syrup. All of the processed food is extremely bad for our health, but since it is the cheapest in the supermarket it would take a lot to have a healthier diet.

We eat every day, rarely thinking about what’s going into our bodies. Take soda, for example, when was the last time you read the label before taking a sip? For me, it is never. One of the first ingredients listed on the can is HFCS or high fructose corn syrup. This ingredient is a secret additive to many products in today's market. High Fructose Corn Syrup is one of the cheapest to make and hardest to get rid of in the body. Since its introduction to food products in the 70's it has slowly been added to most foods, even ketchup.

The American diet is based mostly in processed food which contains enormous amount of sugar. The excessive consumption of sugar can cause diseases such as obesity, heart diseases, alzheimer, liver diseases, diabetes and others. One of the problems with the consumption of sugar is that people get sick progressively without the knowledge that it is caused by sugar. In addition, sugar is an addictive food and life without it is almost impossible. As a result, processed foods are cheaper than healthy food. It is hard to avoid processed food when Americans do not have time to cook because of their life style. Americans need to know the way to change their diet and improve their lifestyles. Americans sometimes forget about the amount of sugar that a soda or flavored drink contains. These drinks are tasty, but it will not satisfy thirst. Sugar is equally dangerous and has the same health effects than smoke cigarettes. Consume sugar in excessive amounts per day have a significant effect in Americans ' daily life. Americans should be aware of the diseases caused by their eating habits, therefore; they should be more conscious of what they eat and change their diet.

David Zinczenko's article "Don't Blame the Eater" discuses with regard to a series of health-related topics involving food that most people and, particularly, young individuals eat today. The article is meant to raise public awareness concerning the risks associated with consuming particular foods. These respective risks are generally ignored because companies selling the products refrain from emphasizing the exact effects that consuming their food can have on someone's health. The reality is that cheap foods are an appealing alternative for young people who are more concerned about the quantity than the quality of the foods they eat.

High fructose corn syrup is a by-product derived from corn and a sweetener used in a plethora of food items, such as beverages and processed food. High fructose corn syrup differs than table sugar in composition: high fructose corn syrup is made of either 55% of fructose and 45% glucose, or 58% fructose and 42% glucose, while white table sugar is composed of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Although there is a small difference between the compositions, the body metabolizes high fructose corn syrup differently than table sugar, which contributes to a myriad of health problems such as obesity, liver scarring, and diabetes. Therefore, high fructose corn syrup is detrimental to our health and can cause severe damage to our bodies.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the main sweetener in most juices and sodas that are commercially available today. It is also a main if not the main ingredient in almost all processed food. What exactly is this substance and why is it bad for you? The sugar that is found in high fructose corn syrup is derived from corn most of which is genetically modified, is extremely sweet, seventy five percent sweeter than sugar, and far cheaper to produce than sugar from sugar cane. Prior to the 1970s most of the sugar that was used was derived from sugar cane. Fructose is a nutritionally dead substance and even worse, it leeches nutrients from the body.

It’s in the food, the beverages, almost everything sweet. It has not only influenced Americans’ lifestyle, but is responsible for acute and chronic health problems that plague America as a whole. The consumption of added sugars has skyrocketed in the last few decades and has literally become a part of our lives, responsible for our deadly addiction, before you know it, you may become another suspect of this killer. In Nanci Hellmich, of USA Today, “Eating too much added sugar may be killing you”, Hellmich attributes sugar is not only causing us to become fat, but also is slowing killing us from within. Sugar is killing people because it is responsible for increasing the risk of health complications, growing prominence, and America’s obesity epidemic.

Nutrition has value beyond school beyond school in everyone's lives, I know this because in the topic dehydration in point one it is stating that your ability to perform academically and physically will improve if you are well hydrated were as if you are dehydrated then it is harder to perform well in both ways. Nutrition is also valuable beyond school because eating healthy things such as fruits a vegetables can improve your overall health such as your weight blood system and just regular energy for everyday life. I know all of this information from because myself I remember doing a project about it in 6th grade and from my own experiences. On another note about High Fructose Corn syrup or (HFCS) is very bad for you body from what I learned in the topic High Fructose Corn syrup, and from all of the points it states

One way which is a false belief is through the consumption of sucralose. This consumption of artificial sweeteners and can lead to higher risk of death at a younger age. Artificial sweeteners, though they seem like a safe and healthy choice, present large risks for drug resistance, reduced insulin sensitivity, and destruction of gut bacteria. With this I quote Empty Pleasures by Carolyn de la Peña, “NutraSweet, Splenda, and their predecessors have enjoyed enormous success by promising that Americans, especially women, can "have their cake and eat it too," but Empty Pleasures argues that these "sweet cheats" have fostered troubling and unsustainable eating habits and that the promises of artificial sweeteners are ultimately too good to be true” (Empty Pleasures). The effects of artificial sweeteners like Sucralose, Saccharin, and Stevia, are all artificial sweeteners that are up to 2,000 times sweeter than actual sugar. In conclusion Sucralose is a terrible chemical that we commonly believe to be healthy for the prior reasons with problems with health, other options besides for sucralose, and ways to benefit in our schools, educationally and health related, are necessary to remain a well rounded, balanced

High fructose corn syrup has taken over the modern American diet in a detrimental way. High fructose corn syrup is used all over the world, as a sweetener because it is the easiest to work with plus the materials to make it is cheap. In America, high fructose corn syrup has replaced table sugar in the food making industry because of the subsidies of corn, which makes high fructose corn syrup the cheapest.

Lindsay, very good post you mentioned that most people are unaware of the negative health consequences related to highly processed foods but did you know they are those same people who are educated and is unaware that there is an eating disorder called “Orthorexia Nervosa” which is an eating disorder or obsession with “healthy foods” or “pure foods”. Now, this so-called disorder has not been recognized clinically but it is making its way around the nutritional sector, my friend suffers from this food obsession psychologically and it is taking a toll on her natural life and body. As a child her mother kept telling her about “bad and good foods” and she lived her whole life eating what she consider healthy foods and it is tearing her body apart,

Many concerns have been raised about potential health problems of HFCS. But there is insufficient evidence to say that HFCS is less healthy than other types of sweeteners. HFCS is a corn-based sweetener and because of its low cost, it is used widely in candies, baked goods, and soft drinks. In general, Americans consume too much soda and other sugary beverages. In conclusion, I believe over consumption of added sugar of all kinds, not just HFCS, is bad and can contribute to weight gain and other related health