The battle is on. Which is worse for you will soon be decided in court. Yes, you heard it right! This week a federal judge will start the deliberations.
To many that live a healthy lifestyle sugar in any form is not a desired part of their diet. We have heard for years how sugar is a zero when it comes to nutrition. The corn industry has been trying to compare their product, HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), to Sugar by saying it is just as healthy. While the sugar industry has been fighting these claims by debunking the health aspects of HFCS. Well once and for all the facts will be declared in a Los Angeles federal court this week.
I know this is funny to many of you. One type of sugar calling another unhealthy when both have problems. A line was drawn in the sand when the corn industry made a move to patten the name “corn sugar”, which is what they want to start calling HFCS. With the bad press that HFCS has received in the last decade something had to be done. Sales of items with HFCS were dropping as consumers became more aware of the health issues involved in consuming it. HFCS in ads has been compared to table sugar with claims that it is “nutritionally the same as table sugar” and claiming that “your body can’t tell the difference.”
Table sugar is mostly glucose, sugar that the body uses as energy and stores as fat when more is consumed than can be used at any time. HFCS is fructose in a very refined and highly concentrated form, which is also stored as fat. Fructose differs from glucose in that before the body can utilize it the liver has to process it. Consuming large amounts of HFCS puts a high demand on the liver and in the process can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. We talk about this more in the article, Fructose: Is it Killing Your Liver?.
HFCS has been becoming more of a negative sweetener as its problems have surfaced. Many of those in the health crowd moved to Agave Nectar thinking it was a healthy sweetener that gave escape to the issues of HFCS. Later it was revealed that infact Agave Nectar contained a higher concentration of fructose than even HFCS, making it a very bad choice for people desiring a healthy lifestyle. (More info is presented in, Agave Nectar: Natural or Not?.)
Keep in mind that all sweeteners should be consumed in moderation. If you are looking for a sweetener that has a much healthier ground to stand on, I would suggest Stevia. Stevia is a naturally low in calorie sweetener that has some great properties. Read more in, Stevia: The Sweet Leaf. And How To Use It.
Share what you do when needing that sweetness added to foods.
About Jeff
Grrr I hate that this stiff becomes for sale without any proper proof its what we should be eating and that it doesn’t do us any harm in the first place.
We like honey, grade B maple syrup, coconut sugar and Sucanat the best. Stevia is great too, especially if you’re trying to keep insulin low. The less processed the best. Most processed sugar has had all the minerals removed and most of it is GMO (sugar beets). Corn is also mostly GMO, if it’s not organic. So both should be avoided if you don’t want to be part of that big experiment. We have also found it helpful to remove all sweetners and fruit for 30 days or so. Lent is a great time to do this sugar reset. That will reset your sweet meter to be more sensitive to less sweetness.
Great job Laura, if you want to really reset your sugar meter, remove all grains along with the fruits and sugars for the 30days.