High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Links to Poor Health and False Advertising

The simple sugars ingested within a daily diet have an effect on the processes within one's brain.  In a weight gain study conducted by Yale, researchers found that Fructose ineffectively suppressed food seeking behavior.  Whereas, glucose showed that brain activity was suppressed in regions that control one's desire to eat.  Even though these forms of simple sugars can be found in many of our daily foods.  The real concern is the overabundance of those consuming high amounts of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  It is often found in many of our soft drinks and processed foods, that bring along increased health concerns such as obesity, heart diseases, and even diabetes that exponentially increase with the ingestion of HFCS.  

Not only does HFCS increase certain health risks, it also decreases neural activity.  UCLA did a study involving rats. Before the start of the experiment the rats were trained in the same maze for five weeks. Both groups of rats consumed food with a high fructose content; although the second group was also given omega-3’s after each meal.  On the sixth week they were tested on the maze.  The rats who consumed omega-3’s after their meals completed the maze much faster than their counterparts which were much slower at completing it.  The rats with omega 3 deficient diets showed a decline in synaptic activity.  They also demonstrated higher triglyceride levels along with raised insulin and glucose levels.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is often accessible through products such as candy, soda, fast food, and overall processed foods, a popular portion of the American diet. This is in part due to: friendlier prices, they are easier to get as far as accessibility, as well as being cheaper than in comparison to whole/unprocessed foods. The consumption of HFCS not only decreases neural activity, it also has a negative impact on the consumer’s physical health such as: diabetes, obesity, hypertension, heart disease, stroke and even high blood pressure.  The truth about HFCS can be muddled with the different types of advertisements out there, which can be slanted in certain directions to promote a companies product.  It is becoming harder to decipher what is real versus what is not.  However, if people don’t spend time to gain the necessary knowledge, they may begin to build their knowledge from false advertisements.  Improve your life and the life of those around you by increasing your knowledge.  Educating yourself will give you the ability to make better decisions along with more intelligent thoughts on the subject matter; nonetheless, knowledge is power.