Thursday, February 28, 2008

HFCS

High fructose corn syrup is no longer a food. It has been reduced and refined to drug form. Quite literally. This is becoming common knowledge, and I am thrilled with that! But it still is very much a part of our every day diets as Americans.

From Wikipedia:

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is any of a group of corn syrups which have undergone enzymatic processing in order to increase their fructose content and are then mixed with pure corn syrup (100% glucose) to reach their final form. The typical types of HFCS are: HFCS 90 (used almost exclusively in the production of HFCS 55) which is approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose; HFCS 55 (most commonly used in soft drinks) which is approximately 55% fructose and 45% glucose; and HFCS 42 (used in other a variety of other foods, including baked goods) which is approximately 42% fructose and 58% glucose.[1]

The process by which HFCS is produced was first developed by Richard O. Marshall and Earl R. Kooi in 1957[2] and refined by Japanese researchers in the 1970s. HFCS was rapidly introduced in many processed foods and soft drinks in the US over the period of about 1975–1985.

Does this sound like a food? It isn't something that has been reduced to a concentrate... it is something that has been reduced beyond that. Well beyond that, and added with other highly processed corn sugar products to make something as potent as sugar, but at a 200th of the cost.
It wouldn't exsist in nature.

First post

I have thought and thought about this. I have researched nutrition for years. I minored in it when I was in college. Throughout the years I have used my knowledge for various people to help them gather new ideas and information. Now that I am rekindling my interest, I am finding that my research is becoming pigeonholed to the local movement. Which is fine for me and my family, but it makes my research bias, and not as easily shared.


So I am creating this blog for people to ask questions so I have more to research. Of course, there will be things I already know... but there will also be things that stump me, and spawn a new off shoot of interest in other nutrition venues so that I can broaden my knowledge base again.

You are all welcome to pose questions to me regarding nutritional ideas, fads, personal nutrition issues, cravings and anything else that fits in or around those categories. The more the merrier, as it will keep my research refreshed and new, and I will appreciate that. I look forward to chatting with you all. :)