March is National Nutrition Month. In today’s guest post we look at whether we should avoid corn sugars in our diet as well as food storage.
Should You Avoid Corn Sugars in Foods?
Written by Dan Vale
All kinds of sugars, especially High-Fructose Corn Syrup, when consumed in excess, can cause tooth decay, obesity, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, a fatty liver, and inflammation. In addition, excessive sugar consumption also can cause mental problems such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. as well as learning, and memory problems. These conditions are bad enough to have during normal times.
The stress brought on by a disaster, however, can aggravate many of these conditions. Also, during a disaster, medical help and even medications might not be immediately available.
The difference between corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup
You may wonder, “What’s the difference between corn syrup and High-Fructose Corn Syrup, and why is High-Fructose Corn Syrup the worst corn sugar?” Regular corn syrup is primarily glucose suspended in water. High-Fructose Corn Syrup has about 55% of this glucose converted into fructose. Furthermore, new studies show that excessive amounts of fructose are more damaging to us than an equal amount of glucose
This article will discuss mainly corn sugars, which food manufacturers add to many foods. Unless you read food labels carefully, you are more likely to consume too much corn syrup, especially High-Fructose Corn Syrup, which makes the food taste sweet. This sweetness, of course, appeals to your sweet tooth weakness.
According to the Mayo Clinic, The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting all sugars to no more than 100 calories a day for women and 150 calories a day for men. An average person burns and thus needs between 1,600 to 2,500 calories per day. Men usually burn more calories than women. Thus, sugars should comprise no more than about six percent of your daily calories.
One way to cut back on corn syrup is to cut back on or eliminate some of the many foods that have corn syrup, and especially High-Fructose Corn Syrup, added to them by food manufacturers.
Foods that usually contain HFCS
Below is a list of some of the foods that usually contain High-Fructose Corn Syrup:
- Candy and candy bars
- Soda
- Salad dressing
- Sweet yogurt
- TV dinners
- Some breads
- Canned Fruit
- Juice drinks
- Boxed dinners
- Granola bars
- Breakfast cereal
- Store-purchased baked goods
- Sauces and condiments such as ketchup and barbecue sauce
- Snack foods such as chips, cookies, and crackers
- Cereal bars/cereal
- Nutrition bars
- Coffee creamer
- Energy drinks and sports drinks
- Jams and jellies
- Ice cream
HFCS are called other names
Other names for High-Fructose Corn Syrup, however, are:
Fructose
Fructose syrup
Natural corn syrup
Isoglucose
HFCS
Maize syrup
Tapioca corn syrup
Fructose isolate
High maltose corn syrup
Glucose syrup
Fruit fructose
How to cut back
The easiest way to cut back on foods with added corn syrup, especially High-Fructose Corn Syrup, is to do most of your grocery shopping around the perimeter of your supermarket. That is where most of the natural foods are sold. Examples of natural foods are unprocessed fruits and vegetables.
Fruits, for example, also contain some sugar, but fruits contain plenty of fiber, nutrients, and antioxidants. Thus, it is hard to eat too much sugar when eating fresh fruit.
Too many people have the attitude that they can eat what and as much as they want to eat, and then, they can burn off the excess calories when they exercise. Exercise helps in weight control and has many other benefits. However, exercise cannot undo the harm of toxic food, and an enormous amount of exercise is needed to burn off excessive calories of even healthy food.
During a marathon run of 26.2 miles, for example, a runner burns about 2600 calories. An average Thanksgiving dinner, however, contains about 3,000 calories. Thus, exercising without carefully selecting the quality and quantity of foods you eat is like going through life with one hand tied behind your back.
The final word
Should you avoid foods containing corn syrup, especially High-Fructose Corn Syrup?
Yes, you should avoid corn syrups because it is hard to measure the amounts you are eating when you consume foods that have them as additives.
Yes, avoid these foods because their corn syrups in excess can do great damage to your body and even to your mind.
Yes, because you should want to be healthy during normal times and at your best during disasters.
About the Author:
Dan Vale has a Bachelor Degree in Physical Education. He won the Mr. Delaware Bodybuilding Contest in 1968 and earned his karate Black Belt in 1973. He has had a lifelong interest in physical fitness. Furthermore, for over seven years, he wrote 785 of articles for the Examiner Online Newspaper. Most of these articles were written in his capacity as the Baltimore Prepper Examiner. To see his Amazon books, visit his Amazon author page.
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