I read two articles recently about sugar, and what it does to your body, especially sugar in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup. I’m telling you, it made me want to give up sugar for life (although I’ve done that many times already). Not that I EVER consume HFCS, but sugar is another matter.

There’s sugar – the pure, white, super-sweet, refined stuff that most of us know as sugar, and then there are all the unrefined or natural forms of sugar: agave nectar, brown rice syrup, sucanat, date sugar, maple syrup, molasses, honey, and so on.

As far as the body is concerned, it’s all sugar. Ask any diabetic if you doubt it. Also, and I don’t have any real scientific data to back this up -  I think that sugar interferes with digestion, and compromises the immune system. It does that to me, and besides, all the other health nuts agree with me!

My theory is that sugar, being empty calories, strips good stuff from the digestive system on the way through, preventing us from absorbing the vitamins, enzymes and minerals in other foods. Sugar also upsets the natural acid/alkaline balance and acidifyies the body, creating conditions like IBS, Leaky Gut Syndrome, Candida etc.  Maybe the healthy sugar alternatives, having their own nutrient packages, don’t do that, but I wouldn’t bet the farm.

Pete Sedesse, May 25 2010 on Helilum:

“There are many dangers to having too much sugar in your diet. One major concern is with the amount of calories they cause you to eat. This is because not only is sugar high in calories, but it often is consumed in foods that are digested rapidly, leaving you feeling hungry quickly. Excess sugar intake is also a contributor to developing diabetes, especially in children. Sugar also leads to the development of obesity because as the body is using the sugar as energy, it is storing carbohydrates.”

So that’s how sugar makes you fat. Does it make any difference if you eat small amounts of sugar in foods such as home baked desserts with whole grains, dried fruit, nuts & seeds? Foods with complex carbohydrates will digest more slowly, compared to ice cream, or sugared drinks, but the sugar will still add to the calorie count, and will still be empty calories in your diet.

Pete Sedesse tells how to replace sugar in your diet:

“Foods high in sugar will also cause you to feel hungry because they are digested very rapidly.  Once you eat, the sugar is absorbed by the body, and your stomach is left empty.  An empty stomach causes your brain to make you feel hungry.  The answer to this problem is fiber.  Fiber is a part of many foods that is not digested.  Because the body cannot digest fiber, it sits in your stomach and small intestines longer and prevents your stomach from feeling empty.  Foods such as oatmeal, fruits and vegetables are all high in fiber and will keep you feeling full longer.”

And then there’s high fructose corn syrup, which the food industry has renamed “corn sugar” because people were freaking out about it. There has been a big campaign promoting the harmlessness of corn sugar, formerly known as HFCS.

Pete Sedesse has this to say about HFCS:

” Fructose is a strange sugar as far as metabolism goes.  It contains the same amount of calories as glucose, but it is not recognized by the brain as an energy source when dealing with hunger.  The result of this is that your blood can be flooded with fructose which is being used as energy, but your brain can still be telling you that you are hungry because it is detecting low glucose levels.  It is for this reason that foods like Coca Cola are so dangerous.  You are consuming huge amounts of calories in the form of high fructose corn syrup, but your brain is not getting the message and is telling you that you need to consume more food.”

So much for the harmlessness of HFCS (aka corn sugar).

Another article, in VegSource, referred to a Princeton study published last year, in which some rats were fed HFCS while others were not. (I know, animal research – ick):

“A study from Princeton published in the February issue of the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior (PDF) shows that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), used as a cheap sweetener in everything from Coke to Progresso Soup, is not the same as table sugar, namely for the way that it makes you gain 48% more weight.”

“Since HFCS was introduced into the American food supply as a cost-effective sweetener, the population’s obesity rate has shot up from 15% in 1970 to nearly 33% today.”

I suspect that popular foods such as Big Macs and Doritos have also had something to do with the obesity rate. Would it be as high without the soft drinks? Probably not.  I don’t doubt that HFCS is just plain evil, while regular sugar isn’t far behind.

Here’s the problem for me: I’m a sugar addict. That’s right, sugar is addictive, and I was born a sugar addict. I feel so much better when I eat no sugar at all, and I’ve stayed off it for as long as three years.

But I always fall off the wagon. It doesn’t make me fat, because I don’t ever eat all that much sugar, even on my worst days, when I’ll go through half a bag of chocolate chips, or a dozen oreo cookies. Plus I’m eating my healthy vegan diet at the same time.

What sugar does to me is it gives me indigestion, and weakens my immune system, so I get sick. I’m convinced that if I never ate sugar again, I’d probably never catch another cold. I’m knocking on wood as I say that, because I live with grandchildren who eat a small amount of sugar (never HFCS), and bring home every virus circulating in the school system.

But still, it’d be an interesting research project, wouldn’t it? With no rats! To compare a group of adult men and women who eat a healthy vegan diet and no sugar, with a group who eat a healthy vegan diet including sugar, for several years. Study the incidence of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, etc. and see who wins. I already know the outcome. The non-sugar eating vegans will win hands down.

Depressing. I can just hear those little candida organisms cheering down there in my leaky gut.

Processed foods contain health hazards including genetically modified organisms, high fructose corn syrup, TVP, MSG and various ingredients which are other names for MSG

 
Humans have been processing their food in various ways for thousands of years, right? Freezing, drying, preserving and canning come to mind.

So what’s the problem? I recently sampled a brand of veggie burger which shall remain anonymous as there isn’t much to choose between the various brands.

I found the veggie burger tasty, then I dug deeply into the ingredient list. My research strengthened my resolve, never to eat a “processed food” that has more than three or four ingredients, ones that I know are safe for me to eat.

Take a look at the long list of ingredients on most packages of processed foods, and you won’t find much actual food. What food there is has had the life processed right out of it, beyond recognition. Then there are all the ingredients whose names we can’t pronounce, and hidden ingredients the manufacturers don’t want us to know about.

The 100% hidden ingredient in processed food is genetically modified organisms or GMOs:

The main GMO crops are soy and corn, abundant in most processed foods in various forms: e.g. HFCS or high fructose corn syrup, TVP (soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate), soy sauce, preservatives and flavor enhancers like modified corn starch, xanthan gum, yeast extract and maltodextrin.

Jeffrey M. Smith, Institute for Responsible Technology, Explains Why GMOs Are Bad For You:

“Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are the result of laboratory processes which artificially insert foreign genes into the DNA of food crops or animals. Those genes may come from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans. Although banned by food manufacturers in Europe and elsewhere, the FDA does not require any safety evaluations. Most Americans say they would not eat GMOs if labeled, but the U.S. does not require labeling. GMOs are not safe, but have been in the food supply since 1996 and are now present in the vast majority of processed foods in the US.”

“Genetically modified foods are linked to toxic and allergic reactions, sick, sterile, and dead livestock, and damage to virtually every organ studied in lab animals. (See summary in Jeffrey M. Smith’s book Genetic Roulette)

For more information on GMO’s, browse our Non-GMO Articles Index.

Another common ingredient,  mostly hidden, in processed foods is MSG:

That’s right, even if MSG isn’t listed on the processed food label, chances are very very good, it’s in there, and lots of it. How else could they get us to want to eat that stuff?

According to MSGTruth, the following, present in many processed foods, contain MSG: autolyzed yeast  extract (found in many processed AMERICAN foods), TVP or textured vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, soy sauce, carageenan, dough conditioners (e.g Microgard), mushrooms (naturally high in free glutamate), “natural flavors” (may contain up to 20% msg).

The Fit Shack tells why MSG is so bad for us and makes us fat:

“I first learned a little bit more about MSG while reading the book “You On A Diet“. There is a small side line about it on page 117 that states that MSG may influence the body’s metabolism in a negative way. It “over stimulates the glutamine receptors of the brain”, which means that it heightens the salty and sweet tastes of the dish containing MSG, while at the same time, it dampens the bitter and sour tastes. Interestingly enough, MSG “may cause us to eat more” (Remember my post on HFCS? It does the same thing), and it can also cause higher levels of insulin to be produced.”

1. MSG stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin. As mentioned above, “You On A Diet” pointed this out, however on MSGTruth, it is made a bit clearer to me. You see, MSG stimulates the pancreas to release insulin into the blood stream even when there are not any carbohydrates in the dish for the insulin to act on.

Your blood sugar ends up dropping because of this flood of insulin, and then you end up hungry again an hour or so later. Reading this gave me a “Wow” moment because of that saying “No matter how much Chinese food you eat, you still end up hungry an hour later.” I never connected this with the additive MSG. This really gives you something to think about, especially if you are working on losing weight.

2. MSG tricks your body into thinking that the food you are eating is nutritious, even if it is not. The reason for this is that your taste buds detect the free glutamic acid that is in MSG. In “taste bud language”, this translates to “hey, there’s protein in this food I’m tasting!”. Therefore, your brain gets the signal that the food you are eating is actually nutritious, while more than likely, it is not.

The pervasive pairing of fat and salt:

Processed food, including fast food, often is loaded with fat and salt, because that’s what makes it taste so good. It’s also what makes you fat, clogs your arteries, and aggravates high blood pressure, putting you at risk for diabetes, heart disease and stroke. If you have a lot of processed foods in your diet, chances are very good that your intake of fat and salt is far beyond the recommended daily limit. 2400 mg of sodium is 100% of the RDA. So is 16 grams of saturated fat.   There is no RDA for trans fat – i.e. you shouldn’t eat any if you can help it.    In comparing a daily omnivore menu with a vegetarian menu - both reasonably healthy – we found that adding a hamburger and fries to  an otherwise reasonable healthy daily diet boosted fat and sodium into the danger zone. Substitute more processed and fast food at other meals, and you could easily get double or triple the RDA for fat and sodium. Read the labels, or save yourself the trouble and just say no to processed food.

And then, there’s High Fructose Corn Syrup:

Even though the veggie burgers I sampled didn’t have high fructose corn syrup, it’s in so many processed foods, I had to talk about it.

We all know by now that HFCS is bad for you, but we’re a little fuzzy on the details, and we don’t realize how widespread it’s use in processed foods. And HFCS is also a hidden food, often listed only as “sugars”. I searched onHFCS and here’s what I found out:

First of all, High Fructose Corn Syrup is made from GMO corn. See Institute for Responsible Technology for why this is bad. Second, during the manufacturing process,HFCS is contaminated by mercury, which puts you in danger of mercury poisoning if you eat a lot of processed foods containing HFCS. Children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable.

An excellent article, by Christopher R. Mohr, MS, RD, LDN provided a lot of useful information about HFCS.

Common Foods High in HFCS

• Regular soft drinks
• Fruit juice and fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice
• Pancake syrups
• Popsicles
• Fruit-flavored yogurts
• Frozen yogurts
• Ketchup and BBQ sauces
• Jarred and canned pasta sauces
• Canned soups
• Canned fruits (if not in its own juice)
• Breakfast cereals
• Highly sweetened breakfast cereals

Problems Caused by Too Much HFCS

• It can lead to higher caloric intake
• It can lead to an increase in bodyweight
• It fools your body into thinking it’s hungry
• It increases the amount of processed foods you eat, thereby decreasing your intake of nutrient-dense foods
• It may increase insulin resistance and triglycerides

Here’s Chris Mohr’s advice on how to avoid HFCS:

If HFCS is one of the first ingredients listed on a food label, don’t eat it. Make a mental list of the worst culprits, such as regular soft drinks and many highly sweetened breakfast cereals. HFCS alone won’t make you fat, but when HFCS is high on the ingredient list, the food is not the best choice. As part of a lifestyle that has many of us eating too much and moving too little, we’re putting our health at risk if we don’t choose our foods carefully.

So what’s the answer? It’s easy. Avoid HFCS by reading food labels and shopping the grocery store’s perimeter: Produce is on one side, seafood, meat and poultry on another, and dairy products, eggs and bread on the third. Avoid the center aisles, which are mostly stocked with highly processed foods.

The more you stick to fresh whole foods and avoid commercial and highly processed foods, the less HFCS you will consume.

Savvy Veg Note: Eating a healthy vegetarian diet with lots of fresh fruit and veg, nuts & seeds, legumes and whole grains, is a great way to avoid not only HFCS, but also GMOs, MSG, and excessive fat and salt.