HFCS: WHAT WOULD THE TOOTH FAIRY MAKE OF THIS?

THE FAIRY TALE

Perhaps I should watch more television. I only heard about this advert recently: Two archetypal Moms are at a children’s party and one offers the other a drink. Mom One, who has a deer in the headlights innocence to her demeanor, declines saying that the drink contains HFCS (high fructose corn syrup.) Mom Two, who looks by far the savvier of the two, pounces on this declaration, asking Mom One what is wrong with HFCS, adding that it is all natural and contains no preservatives. When Mom One cannot find anything to say to that, she accepts a big delicious glass of pink stuff. The commercial’s message conveys: “Exactly, if you can’t explain what is wrong with it, then there is nothing wrong with it. Eat High Fructose Corn Syrup and support American Farmers. It is the only patriotic thing to do.”

This advert was produced by the Corn Refiners Association in response to attacks questioning the health effects HFCS has on people. They are just trying to protect their industry from sniping, interfering, researching special interest groups who are utterly obsessed with the healthy physical and mental growth of our children and their ability to procreate in the future. Silly.

Is High Fructose Corn Syrup really a great innovation that keeps American agriculture alive, is totally natural, and sweetens everything from cookies and bread to beverages and pasta sauces to bacon and catsup, cheaply? Even some “health” products like “natural sodas” and protein bars contain HFCS. Should the consumer blindly trust the claims of an association who invented the manufacturing process for HFCS during the dwindling days of corn as the major ingredient in margarine? Or, should consumers know facts surrounding HFCS, in order to make informed choices about whether or not to consume products containing this ingredient?

Over the next couple of months we will look at how it HFCS manufactured, how it impacts the environment, and what research has dredged up about it regarding human health.

HOW GREEN IS MY CORN?

HFCS is produced with corn that is grown in the Corn Belt. It is estimated that 80% of non-organically grown corn is genetically modified; it is grown as a monoculture requiring large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Runoff of chemical fertilizers and pesticides into the Gulf of Mexico is thought to be the major cause of the “Dead Zone” of water in the Gulf that is equal in area to the state of New Jersey. In the Dead Zone, there is no life, not even the existence of the microorganisms that convert CO2 to Oxygen.

HFCS is obviously not the only reason that corn is grown in a fashion so deleterious to our land, our wildlife, and our oceans. Ethanol, corn for livestock, and that yummy ear of corn at the BBQ are all members of the same death squad. We will talk more in the future about monocultures and industrial farming.

BUBBLE BUBBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE

Once corn is harvested, it is turned into cornstarch, and then processed into glucose, which is further processed to yield a high percentage of fructose. Three different enzymes are employed in these processes. They turn the almost infinitely long chains of glucose molecules present in cornstarch into the simple foreshortened chains of glucose and fructose. (When chains of molecules in food are short they are more easily disrupted or contaminated, which makes them more likely to harm the body.)

The first of the enzymes used in the manufacture of HFCS is alpha-amylase, which turns cornstarch to shorter chains of sugar called polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is an industrially produced bacterium, usually Bacillus sp. It in itself is a genetically modified substance.

The next step is to break the polysaccharides down to even shorter chains to yield the simple sugar glucose, with an enzyme called glucoamylase. This enzyme is produced by a fungus, Aspergillus, in a bubbling fermentation vat.

The final enzyme, glucose-isomerase, is used over and over again because of its extreme expense. It converts glucose into a mixture of about 42% fructose and 50-52% glucose with the balance of the result being made up of other sugars. Glucose-isomerase is also a genetically modified ingredient.

The next manufacturing step takes the sugar slurry to 90% fructose through chromatography. Finally the stuff is back-blended with some of the original mixture to yield a crystal clear liquid with a fructose content of approximately 55%-- the product known as HFCS.

So far, we have a substance that causes extreme damage to the environment and is anything but naturally produced. Next month we will find out more about HFCS and alternatives to it.

Namaste.