Do you Believe Corn Syrup TV Commercials?

Lucky Charms, cereal for kids: whole grain oats, sugar, modified corn starch, corn syrup, dextrose, gelatin, yellow 5&6, blue 1, red 40. Artificial flavor. Sugar. Oat flour. corn syrup. corn starch. salt. trisodium phosphate, color added, artificial flavor. vitamin E added to preserve freshness. + vitamins

Have you seen the latest tv commercials from the Corn Refiners Association in United States?

Here's a brief synopsis of one: A kid is having cereal for breakfast. His brother joins him and calls the kid a doofus because he's eating cereal with corn syrup. The kid with the cereal retorts with So What? and several great reasons for eating corn syrup. His brother steals the cereal bowl from the kid and starts to devour it.

Cute commercial. Alas, I have no money and no access to kid actors to make my own commercial about corn syrup, so instead, I collected some info about why I think consuming corn syrup is NOT a good idea for breakfast or any other meal.

Fact from the commercials: "Corn syrup is made from corn" and "is natural"
High Fructose Corn Syrup is manufactured from corn starch in vats using genetically modified enzymes.

Did you know? Corn syrup is banned in Europe.
On top of that, some corn syrup is manufactured using mercury-grade caustic soda and is routinely contaminated by mercury. Mercury accumulates in the body, and is especially damaging to women and their future children, as it causes brain damage and lowered IQ in the fetus. Granted, the amounts are small, but -- read it again -it accumulates in the body.

And what food was tested to have more mercury levels than any other from the study? Quaker Oatmeal to Go

Source: Not So Sweet: Mercury in HCFS (A Study by Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy, published January 2009)

Fact from the commercial: It's nutritionally the same as sugar
True. Both sugar and high fructose are refined sugar mixtures - primarily glucose and fructose.

But why is fructose so bad? Cells in our body can metabolize glucose, but only the liver can metabolize fructose. Because it is metabolized by the liver, fructose does not cause the pancreas to release insulin the way the body normally does, and fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar.

Unlike fruits, which have fructose packaged with vitamins, minerals and fiber, refined sugars like corn syrup leech the body of nutrients in order to digest it and metabolize it.

Source: Weston A. Price Foundation and The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup

Nephrologists (kidney specialists) at the University of Florida, found that fructose consumption raised blood levels of uric acid, which can foster “metabolic syndrome,” a condition of insulin resistance and abdominal obesity associated with heart disease and diabetes.

Source: The Endocrine Society

Translation: There is a link between diabetes and fructose consumption.

Fact from the commercial: It's natural
To me, natural means: Present in or produced by nature. Genetically modified foods created in vats by scientists are not natural. You will not find corn syrup oozing out of corn.

Fact from the commercials: It's just fine in moderation
Anything is fine in moderation, even cyanide, but the reality is that corn syrup is in so many foods that it requires constant vigilance to detect it -- it's in ketchup, in "healthy" energy bars, in cereals, in bread crumbs, in "healthy" salad dressings, in cookies, in sausage, and of course, in so many beverages.

Here's another interesting study that demonstrates that corn syrup, when combined with carbonated beverages, is not innocuous at all:
"Researchers have found new evidence that soft drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) may contribute to the development of diabetes, particularly in children. In a laboratory study of commonly consumed carbonated beverages, the scientists found that drinks containing the syrup had high levels of reactive compounds that have been shown by others to have the potential to trigger cell and tissue damage that could cause the disease, which is at epidemic levels."
Source: Press release by the American Chemical Society

Want to eat something natural? Try these tasty breakfasts:
Garbanzo Wonder Salad
Bacteria Breakfast! Kefir with Cranberry Walnut Pecan Raisin Trail Mix
Açai Fruit Smoothie
Winter Red Quinoa with Wild Berry Tea

Photo by headexplodie used under the Creative Commons license