10 Reasons why HFCS is dangerous

High fructose corn syrup can cause obesity

The current media debate about the benefits (or lack of harm) of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in our diet misses the obvious. The average American increased their consumption of HFCS (mostly from sugar sweetened drinks and processed food) from zero to over 60 pounds per person per year.

During that time period, obesity rates have more than tripled and diabetes incidence has increased more than seven fold. Not perhaps the only cause, but a fact that cannot be ignored.

The sugar fructose — formerly embraced by the food industry as a supposedly safer alternative to glucose — appears to cause molecular changes in the body that promote uncontrolled heart growth and increase the risk of heart failure, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and published in the journal Nature.

Fructose fuels abnormal heart growth

Unlike glucose (which the brain uses for fuel), fructose does not cause significant increases in blood sugar levels or insulin activity. For this reason, scientists have assumed that fructose would not increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in the same way as glucose would. This has led to an increased quantity of fructose in processed foods, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup.

But research has also shown that the liver converts fructose into fat more readily than it does with glucose. This can lead to a fatty liver, obesity, high blood pressure, high levels of blood fat and even insulin resistance. These are all symptoms of a condition known as metabolic syndrome… a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

The new study found that a diet high in fructose may also increase the risk of heart failure, at least in those already at risk of the disease. That’s because when a person suffers from high blood pressure, their heart starts to grow in order to be able to pump harder. This can lead to a situation in which the heart has more muscle than the body can supply with oxygen (heart muscles use enormous amounts of oxygen to fuel their continual contractions).

In the absence of oxygen, muscles gain energy from a process known as glycolysis, in which they split apart glucose in order to generate ATP, the fuel source for cells that normally must be produced using oxygen.

In the new study, the researcher found that in the absence of oxygen, heart muscles produce a molecule known as HIF, which is a sign of abnormal growth processes such as cardiac enlargement or cancer. The researchers found that, in the heart, HIF causes cells to produce ketohexokinase-C (KHK-C), an enzyme that plays a key role in metabolizing fructose. The presence of KHK-C also causes glycolysis to ramp up, which in turn increases the production of HIF and KHK-C, and the heart’s reliance on fructose. This positive-feedback loop has no built-in shutoff switch and can lead to pathological heart growth and eventually to cardiac failure.

The researchers also found that samples taken from heart surgery patients were, as expected, high in both HIF and KHK-C. In addition, mice with high blood pressure who had their KHK-C enzyme inactivated did not experience cardiac enlargement.

What the Science Says About HFCS

Let’s examine the science and insert some common sense into the conversation. These facts may indeed come as a sweet surprise. The ads suggest getting your nutrition advice from your doctor (who, unfortunately, probably knows less about nutrition than most grandmothers).

Having studied this for over a decade, and having read, interviewed, or personally talked with most of the “medical and nutrition experts” used to bolster the claim that “corn sugar” and cane sugar are essentially the same, quite a different picture emerges and the role of HFCS in promoting obesity, disease, and death across the globe becomes clear.

Last week over lunch with Dr. Bruce Ames, one of the foremost nutritional scientists in the world, and Dr. Jeffrey Bland, a nutritional biochemist, a student of Linus Pauling, and I reviewed the existing science, and Dr. Ames shared shocking new evidence from his research center on how HFCS can trigger body-wide inflammation and obesity.

Here are 5 reasons you should stay way from any product containing high fructose corn syrup and why it may kill you.

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