Dear Pooja,
On various foods, from packaged foreign mayonnaise to even chocolate syrup that you add to milk, I find this common ingredient as an additive – high fructose corn syrup. I have read that this ingredient can cause health problems such as diabetes and so on in the long run. Please tell me more about this suspect ingredient.

 

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the hidden adversary that has crept its way into so many of our packaged foods ranging from baked goods to dairy products, carbonated beverages and almost every sweetened product in the market today. HFSC is sweeter and cheaper than cane sugar and thus used so widely in so many commodities. But this is bad to the last drop. Corn industry promotes that corn sugar is the same as cane sugar when it is not. The biochemistry breakup of cornstarch is very different in the glucose-fructose combination of cane sugar – where it is very easy for the body to break up the HFCS and easily increase blood sugar levels leading to more lipogenesis (fat storage) in the liver. Thus increasing incidence of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, and more. It is also claimed that HFCS has high levels of mercury that can be toxic to us. All in all HFCS is not natural food product and if you read it on labels you can be sure that the product is not a whole real fresh food full of fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidant and if you want to stay healthy then stay away from multiple products rich in high fructose corn syrup.