High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) // Memory Loss

It’s no secret these days that processed food is not good for you. Even the most hard-headed Americans who love their Jif and their Mrs. Bairds and their Blue Bell are starting to admit that yeah, natural food is probably the wiser choice, and yeah, chemicals aren’t so good for our bodies, but THEY’RE STILL BUYING AND EATING IT. And I’ve heard it all, “But corn syrup comes from corn, and corn is natural.” Lemme let you in on a little secret: that’s what they want you to think. But something is not ‘natural’ anymore after it has been genetically altered and sent through machines and mixed with other things. Once the chemical compounds of the natural product have been altered and blended with other substances, their not ‘natural’ anymore. Ok, so now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk specifically about high fructose corn syrup, one of the main controversies in the food and health worlds in the past year or two. How it transforms from corn to this health monster:

Corn syrup is derived from corn obviously, and corn is a grain. Most grains contain glucose, which is in the form of carbs, and is why grain causes insulin spikes in the body. Also, the glucose is what turns to fat in our bodies when it’s reserves overflow and go unused (when we don’t exercise.) The corn syrup undergoes a chemical enzymatic process that converts some of it’s glucose to fructose which gives it it’s desired sweetness. There’s different glucose to fructose ratios for different foods, which have different effects on our bodies. Regular table sugar is also a combination of glucose and fructose but it’s natural balance of the two makes it sound a tad bit more appealing, although sugar is arguably no better for you than HFCS. (I’ll be doing a post soon on the negative effects of sugar as well.)

Ok, let’s get to the main points here. Firstly, there’s a higher tax on sugar that makes HFCS a cheaper and more appealing choice for inclusion into our foods, so that doesn’t help the matter. Secondly, HFCS is now in everything from mayonnaise to fruit juice to bread to chili….the list goes on, and its SIX times sweeter than cane sugar. It’s mindboggling why HFCS is in foods that aren’t even expected to be nor supposed to be sweetened. And because of this fact, even if we try to regulate our HFCS intake by staying away from sweetened foods, we are inevitably still taking in way too much from other regular foods. (And the same goes for sugar.) We now have to read the ingredients on literally everything to make sure we don’t buy things that contain HFCS, because 95% of our foods contain it.

Alright, so what’s so bad about HFCS? Why do I need to stay away from it? Well an extremely recent study of lab rats at UCLA revealed that HFCS has an insanely negative affect on brain function, synaptic activity, and specifically on memory. Over a six week span of time, they fed one group of rats a water/HFCS solution while another group was given a solution containing Omega-3 fatty acids (known to boost brain function and increase serotonin levels.) All of the rats had learned a specific maze before the study began, and after the six week period, the HFCS group of rats could barely remember the maze at all, and were also much slower at trying. The other group succeeded of course, with flying colors. Admittedly so, rats are much different than humans, but studies like this just go to show that processed chemicals are not good for living organisms. The HFCS also made the rats less resistant to insulin, which not only decreases brain activity, but causes the body to become insulin resistant and store fat much faster than normal. Insulin regulates how the cells in our body use and store sugar, but it also can penetrate a “blood-brain barrier” causing brain dysfunction.

So on top of all the sneaky suspicions about HFCS that have arisen in the past couple years, this discovery that it actually harms the brain as well as the body is a new finding. The good news is, the experts at UCLA conclude that building up your body and brain’s DHA resources (Omega-3’s) can actually counteract some of the effects that fructose may have had on your body all these years. A daily serving of salmon, walnuts, or flaxseed oil/meal or just some high-quality DHA/Fish Oil capsules will be good for your brain and your body in the coming years, and will help fight off disease.

Isn’t it nice to have all of this knowledge and know what you can do to save your health? Let’s discuss your take on the issue by commenting below.

Peace!

For a delicious Omega-3 fatty acid-filled bread recipe, click here.

Read more about the study here: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/this-is-your-brain-on-sugar-ucla-233992.aspx