Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Toxic stuff in our food.

All dangerous food ingredients such as artificial flavors, preservatives, and colorings should be avoided as much as possible. They all have a negative effect on your health.
These are only a few of the hundreds of chemicals hiding in the foods that we eat. Yet out of these hundreds, the following may be the most dangerous.

High Fructose Corn Syrup:
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), at the top of the list of dangerous food ingredients, is made by treating a large quantity of glucose (a sugar) with an enzyme that changes part of the glucose into a much sweeter fructose. HFCS is cheaper than cane sugar and it is inexpensively produced. The American government spends billions of dollars per year subsidizing corn production from which HFCS is made. Without the fiber and other natural nutrients of fruit and vegetables, HFCS is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. 
Food manufacturers began using this dangerous food ingredient in the 1970s. Before then almost all of our sugar came from sugar beets or sugar cane. But manufacturers found out that deriving sugar from corn, especially HFCS, is much cheaper. 
The per capital use of HFCS in 1970 was ½ pound. By 1997 the average American use of HFCS was an astounding 97 grams per day! This equates to 78 pounds per year! Today its use has increased tremendously, contributing to this country's rising obesity epidemic. A study published in the 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that the consumption of HFCS increased 1000% from 1970 to 1990!

The product which contains the greatest number of grams of HFCS is soft drinks. It is also found in candy, ice cream, frozen yogurt, Popsicles, fruit bars, ketchup, pasta sauce, soups, and hamburger buns (this list is by no means exhaustive!) When food manufacturers first began using HFCS, they didn't realize its negative impact on the body. It has no nutrients (it is devoid of enzymes, vitamins, and minerals.) It also leeches micronutrients from the body. That was then. But since then food manufacturers have discovered that HFCS not only make consumers fat, but it also increases their hunger tremendously.
How does it do that? HFCS does not cause the protein leptin to be released to signal the brain that your stomach is full. At the same time it doesn't suppress ghrelin, the substance that tells you that you are hungry. The result? You continue to eat. HFCS is the food and beverage manufacturers' dream come true! dangerous food ingredients
A research team tested eleven different sodas containing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and found that they each had high levels of carbonyls. Carbonyls are found in the blood of diabetics. They are thought to cause tissue damage, and play a part in complications associated with diabetes. dangerous food ingredients
Test results also show that one can of soda has 5 times as many carbonyls as diabetics have! dangerous food ingredients

High fructose corn syrup is hidden by food and beverage manufacturers under many names. Some of these names are: chicory, inulin, iso glucose, glucose-fructose syrup, and fruit fructose.
In a 24 year time span, from 1977 to 2001, America's consumption of sweetened drinks containing HFCS shot up by 135%! A study was conducted by the University of California at Davis to find out the results of HFCS on two groups of overweight and obese individuals.
Both groups were told to eat as they normally do. They also were told to drink three specially prepared beverages a day. One group was given beverages sweetened with glucose. The other was given beverages sweetened with fructose but with the identical number of calories as the glucose-sweetened drinks. 
According to Kimber Stanhope, MS, RD, lead author of the study, "...the fructose subjects gained intra-abdominal fat (in the area around the abdominal cavity), whereas the glucose subjects did not."
This study included a post-prandial measurement (triglycerides were measured after eating.) The fructose group had double the levels of post-prandial triglycerides. The fructose group experienced a decrease in post-prandial triglycerides.
"Within just two weeks, the overweight men and women in the study who were assigned to drink the fructose-sweetened beverages had developed more adverse lipid profiles" (Kimber Stanhope.) 


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