"High-Fructose Corn Syrup" is worse than "Sugar"

I'm an All-American, born and raised. One thing about being raised in America, for me, is that I have been told what is nutritious to eat and what to make sure you include in your diet so you remain "healthy". Now recently, more than ever before, I grow more and more skeptical about what the FDA and USDA and what they claim to be true or false about the foods we eat. These departments all have special interests with the gain of the largest controlling food distributors in the United States. When you look at these interests, and think about how these entities are supposed to keep us "safe" it can cause mixed feelings to a skeptic (like myself).

A few months ago, when I was back in the U.S. I began seeing these commercials on T.V. (ironically paid for by the Department of Agriculture) that had some field of dreams plot and an actor that resembled Kevin Kostner, smiling as he said that corn sugar is the same as sugar, "Your body can't tell the difference, "Sugar is Sugar" he said. And that was the end of the commercial..... Unfortunately, I don't believe the science behind high-fructose corn syrup is that simple... Now I haven't always been a skeptic, in fact only in the past year have I began to question these issues. But it wasn't until I left to vacation in Peru, where I currently am, that I noticed there are hardly any obese people here. How odd for a country that eats french fries, greasy sausage, fried meat, rice w/ butter and bread, nearly every meal. How weird that with every meal most Peruvian's consume beverages high in sugar, inca cola & coca-cola included, and for the most part, I have seen people either really skinny or carrying an extra 20-30 lbs tops.

If you live in America, you have probably seen, like myself, a large number or "morbidly obese" 300+ pounders walking around. You see it every day, all the time, in plain sight, and that's just above average "fat" for me eyes. I have seen 500 pound women and men walking around, or using electric wheel chairs through the mall because their knees are shot.

The first thing I did after arriving in Peru, and noticing the vast difference of weight averages here, is walked into the local super market, and started looking at ingredients.

In America, 95% of the food in stores are heavily processed with one of dozens of corn additives and bi-products (chemically altered corn products) believe it.... You will always find a very tiny section of the wall in a huge store that says, "organic". Of course the food is priced 2-3 times higher.

Back to Peru....
After examining everything from ice cream, to cookies, packaged donuts, cereal, Peruvian candy bars, chocolate milk, frozen waffles, soda (coca cola), and anything else I could think of that would be highly processed in the states, I was hard-pressed to find foods that were heavily processed or processed at all. Even Coca-Cola had 100% pure sugar in it's soda. Most of the sugar in Peru comes from Brazil, the world's largest sugar exporter @ 20% of the world's supply. It is more than likely cheaper for companies to use natural products in there foods in a 3rd world country than it would be to import bi-products.

Now to the research I found:

According to Scientist's at Nutrition research centers, High-fructose Corn Syrup is worse for you us than real sugar. According to these scientist's research, high-fructose corn syrup is passed directly to the liver that release enzymes instructing our bodies to store these sugars as fat. Research also indicates that this "fake sugar" does not stimulate insulin production (which creates a sense of being full) which people may intern eat more than they normally would w/ real sugar. Last but not least, vital chromium levels are lowered by corn sugar, which is likely to contribute to type 2 diabetes. Becoming obese in general can cause type 2 diabetes as well.





Unfortunately, the pyramid is a sham, the government lies to us, and the largest food distributors in America, will do anything possible to save 1 penny per product, even if it sacrifices the health of those who eat it.

I suggest that if you struggle with being overweight, you should cut corn additives out of your diet completely,  and see if this helps.

I hope this was helpful, it's a topic I take pretty seriously.

Devon