HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP


By Linda Joyce Forristal, CCP, MTA
Think of sugar and you think of sugar cane or beets.
Extraction of sugar from sugar cane spurred the
colonization of the New World. Extraction of sugar
from beets was developed during the time of Napoleon
so that the French could have sugar in spite of the
English trading blockade. Nobody thinks of sugar when
they see a field of corn. Most of us would be
surprised to learn that the larger percentage of
sweeteners used in processed food comes from corn, not
sugar cane or beets.

The process for making the sweetener high fructose
corn syrup (HFCS) out of corn was developed in the
1970s. Use of HFCS grew rapidly, from less than three
million short tons in 1980 to almost 8 million short
tons in 1995. During the late 1990s, use of sugar
actually declined as it was eclipsed by HFCS. Today
Americans consume more HFCS than sugar. High-fructose
corn syrup (HFCS) is produced by processing corn
starch to yield glucose, and then processing the
glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. It
all sounds rather simple—white cornstarch is turned
into crystal clear syrup. However, the process is
actually very complicated. Three different enzymes are
needed to break down cornstarch, which is composed of
chains of glucose molecules of almost infinite length,
into the simple sugars glucose and fructose.

First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to
produce shorter chains of sugars called
polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is industrially
produced by a bacterium, usually Bacillus sp. It is
purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers. Next,
an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains
down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose.
Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is produced by
Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one
would likely see little balls of Aspergillus floating
on the top.
The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, is very
expensive. It converts glucose to a mixture of about
42 percent fructose and 50-52 percent glucose with
some other sugars mixed in. While alpha-amylase and
glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey
glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar
mixture is then passed over it. Inexpensive
alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are used only once,
glucose-isomerase is reused until it loses most of its
activity.

There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid
chromatography step that takes the mixture to 90
percent fructose. Finally, this is back-blended with
the original mixture to yield a final concentration of
about 55 percent fructose—what the industry calls high
fructose corn syrup. HFCS has the exact same sweetness
and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from cane or
beet sugar but it is obviously much more complicated
to make, involving vats of murky fermenting liquid,
fungus and chemical tweaking, all of which take place
in one of 16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt.
Yet in spite of all the special enzymes required, HFCS
is actually cheaper than sugar. It is also very easy
to transport—it's just piped into tanker trucks. This
translates into lower costs and higher profits for
food producers.

The development of the HFCS process came at an
opportune time for corn growers. Refinements of the
partial hydrogenation process had made it possible to
get better shortenings and margarines out of soybeans
than corn. HFCS took up the slack as demand for corn
oil margarine declined. Lysine, an amino acid, can be
produced from the corn residue after the glucose is
removed. This is the modus operandi of the food
conglomerates—break down commodities into their basic
components and then put them back together again as
processed food.

Today HFCS is used to sweeten jams, condiments like
ketchup, and soft drinks. It is also a favorite
ingredient in many so-called health foods. Four
companies control 85 percent of the $2.6 billion
business—Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Staley
Manufacturing Co. and CPC International. In the
mid-1990s, ADM was the object of an FBI probe into
price fixing of three products—HFCS, citric acid and
lysine—and consumers got a glimpse of the murky world
of corporate manipulation. There's a couple of other
murky things that consumers should know about HFCS.
According to a food technology expert, two of the
enzymes used, alpha-amylase and glucose-isomerase, are
genetically modified to make them more stable. Enzymes
are actually very large proteins and through genetic
modification specific amino acids in the enzymes are
changed or replaced so the enzyme's "backbone" won't
break down or unfold. This allows the industry to get
the enzymes to higher temperatures before they become
unstable.

Consumers trying to avoid genetically modified foods
should avoid HFCS. It is almost certainly made from
genetically modified corn and then it is processed
with genetically modified enzymes. I've seen some
estimates claiming that virtually everything—almost 80
percent—of what we eat today has been genetically
modified at some point. Since the use of HFCS is so
prevalent in processed foods, those figures may be
right. But there's another reason to avoid HFCS.
Consumers may think that because it contains
fructose—which they associate with fruit, which is a
natural food—that it is healthier than sugar. A team
of investigators at the USDA, led by Dr. Meira Field,
has discovered that this just ain't so.

Sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. When
sugar is given to rats in high amounts, the rats
develop multiple health problems, especially when the
rats were deficient in certain nutrients, such as
copper. The researchers wanted to know whether it was
the fructose or the glucose moiety that was causing
the problems. So they repeated their studies with two
groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and
one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group
was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous
results. The male rats did not reach adulthood. They
had anemia, high cholesterol and heart
hypertrophy—that means that their hearts enlarged
until they exploded. They also had delayed testicular
development.

Dr. Field explains that fructose in combination with
copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes
with collagen production. (Copper deficiency, by the
way, is widespread in America.) In a nutshell, the
little bodies of the rats just fell apart. The females
were not so affected, but they were unable to produce
live young. "The medical profession thinks fructose is
better for diabetics than sugar," says Dr. Field, "but
every cell in the body can metabolize glucose.
However, all fructose must be metabolized in the
liver. The livers of the rats on the high fructose
diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged
with fat and cirrhotic."

HFCS contains more fructose than sugar and this
fructose is more immediately available because it is
not bound up in sucrose. Since the effects of fructose
are most severe in the growing organism, we need to
think carefully about what kind of sweeteners we give
to our children. Fruit juices should be strictly
avoided—they are very high in fructose—but so should
anything with HFCS. Interestingly, although HFCS is
used in many products aimed at children, it is not
used in baby formula, even though it would probably
save the manufactueres a few pennies for each can. Do
the formula makers know something they aren't telling
us? Pretty murky!

About the author
Weston A. Price Foundation Board Member Linda
Forristal is the author of Ode to Sucanat (1993) and
Bulgarian Rhapsody (1998). Visit her website at
www.motherlindas.com.




Artificial Colors

So, the FDA says it's okay, what's the problem? What's
the big deal? Colors Certified by the US Food and
Drug Administration are derived from petroleum,
acetone or coal tars! You think it's just a little bit
here and there. Artificial colorings can be found in
everything as wholesome as yogurt to, of course,
candy. Petroleum and Tar do not qualify as something
you could label as food at all. And, every little bit
adds up. See what colors are in your foods and you
decide how much tar and petroleum is okay to ingest.

There are studies that suggest artificial color have
an affect on our children's behavior and of course,
they can have an affect on our health and how our
bodies function. Some people are allergic to some
artificial colors. And other studies link tumors to
certain colors. How do you keep it all straight and
avoid the wrong colors? Best to just skip the
artificial colors since data on tumors or carcinogenic
side-effects don't come out until it's too late.
Unsafe colors in personal care products add health
risks to our lives every day. Some contain impurities
like lead acetate, toxic to the nervous system. Some
commonly-used colors and dyes are allergens,
irritants, and some are known carcinogens.







____________________________________________________
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs