Treats 4 Tots

[Sara & Ashlin]

A lot of sweet snacks on the shopping market shelves these days contain a dangerous form of sweetener called high fructose corn syrup. This ingredient is used by many food manufacturers because it is very cheap to produce and twice as sweet as less dangerous sugars such as sucrose and glucose. It helps to keep the monetary prices of these foods low, but at what price to our health?

Fructose has no enzymes, vitamins, and minerals and robs the body of its micronutrient treasures in order to assimilate itself for physiological use.

Fructose browns food seven times faster than glucose, resulting in a decrease in protein quality and a toxicity of protein in the body. This is thought to play a role in accelerated aging and diabetes. In some cases it even has mutagenic and/or carcinogenic properties.

Research shows that fructose causes a general increase in both the total serum cholesterol and in the low density lipoproteins (LDL) in most of the subjects. This puts a person at risk for heart disease.

There is a significant increase in the concentration of uric acid when increasing amounts of fructose are digested. An increase in uric acid can be an indicator of heart disease.

Fructose ingestion in humans results in increases in blood lactic acid. In extreme elevations the result can be metabolic acidosis, which may result in death.

Fructose interacts with oral contraceptives and elevates insulin levels in women on "the pill."

The balance of minerals in the body is very important for the function of vitamins, enzymes and other body function. Fructose-fed subjects lose minerals. They have higher fecal excretions of iron and magnesium than subjects fed sucrose.

Fructose is not metabolized the same as other sugars. Instead of being converted to glucose which the body uses, it is removed by the liver.
Because it is metabolized by the liver, fructose does not cause the pancreas to release insulin the way it normally does. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. This may be one of the reasons Americans continue to get fatter.

Fructose inhibits copper metabolism. A deficiency in copper leads to bone fragility, anemia, defects of the connective tissue, arteries, and bone, infertility, heart arrhythmias, high cholesterol levels, heart attacks, and an inability to control blood sugar levels.
http://www.mercola.com/2002/jan/5/fructose.htm

Everyone should avoid over-exposure to fructose. Commercial fruit juices and any products containing high fructose corn syrup aremore dangerous than sugar and should be removed from the diet.
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html

Again, this is just a matter of reading labels. You'll be surprised to find that a lot of breakfast bars contain HFCS (even All Bran, Nutrigrain and oat based snack bars that you typically would consider healthy.) Here are some off the shelf products I've found that are high fructose corn syrup free: Welch's fruit bites (made with fruit puree), Smuckers 100% fruit spread, Polaner All Fruit, Fig Newmans, Healthy Valley snacks (cookies and crackers ..... And all of these things I bought for less than $3 apeice at Wal-Mart (aside from the Welch's snacks, but those are 24 pouches for $3.50, which is a great value considering the quantity.)

And stop drinking regular sodas, which are almost unanimously sweetened with HFCS. Think of your insides as a dishwasher. Would you want to wash your dishes in soda? And how clean would they get? Our bodies need a lot of water to cleanse the toxins we injest and produce in the process of living. I used to be a 3-Coke-a-day-er, so I DO understand the addiction. You too can break the cycle.

[Treats 4 Tots]

Here is another article about high fructose corn syrup...

http://www.organicstyle.com/feature/0,8028,s1-37-0-0-1111,00.html