High Fructose Corn Syrup

#1

What do you think of foods containing High Fructose Corn Syrup? If the product is low or zero carbs is it safe to consume such foods?

(Joey) #2

I guess it depends who you ask…

I’m assuming you have a reason for hanging out on a keto forum. Health issues? Concern over current metabolic state? Weight loss issues?

Whatever you’re likely trying to accomplish, HFC is going to work against your success. That makes it a bad idea - it’s a synthetic non-food manufactured ingredient. The less you consume, the better.

So now, just how little did you plan to consume? Little enough to make it irrelevant as a trace ingredient? And toward what end … continuing to extend your struggle with “sweetness”?

How necessary is it for your to do so?

Without your grasping these particulars, it’s hard for you to make an informed decision about consuming HFC syrup. A simple recommendation for how much to consume without knowing any other details would be: none. :vulcan_salute:

(Robin) #3

Hard no, for me. Unhealthy, but just as important… it can create cravings for more sweets.

#4

I was getting tired of drinking nothing but water and seltzer. Ive been drinking some diet soda occasionally and other carbonated drinks with zero carbs but some artificial sweeteners added. I eat little to no sugar or carbs.I dont crave sweets or carbs. Only occasionally have a half slice of toast.

(Joey) #5

I guess I’m not following … If you don’t crave sweets, why are you drinking artificial sweets? Seems like a disconnect of some sort. :wink:

#6

I believe PBS just did an in depth story on the negative affects of sugar especially high fructose corn syrup. Stay away. It’s poison. I always look at ingredients of products. I am so disgusted how many HFCS.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #7

Neither high-fructose corn syrup nor sucrose, which it is intended to replace, is low or zero-carb. High-fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose and 45% glucose, whereas sucrose, table sugar, is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Given that fructose is the source of the sweet taste of sugar, HCFS is cheaper to put in products than sucrose, because it takes less to give the same sweet taste. Nutritionally, they are pretty equally disastrous.

I assume you are from the U.S. In that case, if the nutrition panel says 0 g of sugar per “serving,” but either sugar (under one or more of its couple hundred names), glucose, or fructose appears in the list of ingredients, then you can assume that the amount of sugar per “serving” is 0.4999999999 g. They are allowed to put 0 g as long as the amount per “serving” is less than 0.5 g. And the manufacturer is allowed to make the “serving” size arbitrarily small enough to be able to put 0 g of sugar per “serving.”

So in such a case, I multiply 0.4999999999 x the number of “servings” I plan to eat, and see what the result is. In other words, if the “serving” size is 0.5 tsp and I plan to eat 6 tsp, I multiply 0.4999999999 x 12 to get the actual amount of sugar in the quantity of product I am realistically going to eat.

If this all sounds too complicated, then the easiest thing to do is to avoid eating the product.

(Pete A) #8

Poison.

(Alec) #9

Very bad…. Avoid.

HFCS is a carb, so any food containing it by definition cannot be zero carb.

#10

I don’t eat such things. And it’s obviously not zero carb if it has this very obvious sugar…

Safe… Well, my body can handle sugar to some extent. I just prefer my sugars coming from proper food items.

#11

What do you consider sugar from “proper food items”?

#12

Vegetables, I presume.

#13

Stick to them then and forget about added SUGAR.
But yep it is a question WHY you drink diet soda. There are so many other options for drinks.
I use tea and egg milk every day because yep, water shouldn’t be fun but it still may get boring for some of us, first world problem and I don’t even live in first world… But one can flavor their water with many things. I used lime lately. In late spring I probably will use lemon and mint or linden flower… But obviously there are zillion options. I love coffee with cream but I quit coffee for a while.
What I never desire is something sweet to drink. It’s nice here and there but it must be very subtly sweetened, sodas wouldn’t have a chance. But I actually worked on lowering my sweetener consumption for years… It’s not food and it felt wrong to eat them all the time. Drinks are fine non-sweet. Of course, it’s my attitude, others may use sweetener multiple times a day if it works for them especially if it’s a crutch or variety they wouldn’t get easily in other ways. I need dessert and variety but they don’t need to be sweet, thankfully.

Sweeteners don’t do anything noticeably harmful to me (I still want to avoid them most of the time for reasons but that’s my own thing) but they cause problems for others. It seems they don’t trigger desire for sweets in you, that’s good. They can interfere with other things, people talk about that sometimes… But it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it to use them

But if you bring one of the worst sugars here, the stuff that is in processed things… We won’t say it’s all fine and dandy on keto… Even my sweet toothed high-carber SO wouldn’t touch it if possible. He has his natural sugars and one sweetener used in moderation.

So… Do whatever you think right but HFCS is a lousy item on any woe especially on a very low-carb one as far as I know.

#14

My sugars come from eggs, liver, dairy on a good day… But yep, vegs and fruits are more proper than some almost zero calorie weird processed drink :smiley:
Fruits are almost always very sugary but it’s all about amounts. My rare sweet drink has fruit juice and a glass contains only a few grams of sugar at most. I find the liquid coming from even my canned quince (I only use fruit when pressure canning them) way too sugary so I use very much carbonated water with it :slight_smile: The result isn’t particularly sweet, more like a subtly flavored mineral water I suppose. Didn’t really drink such things in my life but saw they exist…

#15

“I need dessert and variety but they don’t need to be sweet, thankfully.”

What do you eat for dessert?

(Pete A) #16

Me either. Sweet and low everyday for 40 years.

I can only say they haven’t killed me!

#17

It varies. Egg milk with vanilla, sour cream, whipped cream, quark with sour cream and maybe some flavoring but my best is a whipped egg and cream thing with gelatin, the original recipe said “marshmallow” but I added yolk and later cream and of course no sweetener :slight_smile: It’s lovely, fluffy, a bit jelly-like on the bottom and just sweet enough for me. It’s not easy to pull off a proper carnivore dessert (flavorings aside, they are like spice and I totally allow them) but this last one is great at it.

#18

I am going all in with a very specific answer from me on this.

food. if I turn and read high frutose but it is still 0 carb on label-----lets say ‘sausage package’ I buy yes I will buy and try.

I have ‘gone thru tons of products from the shelves’ to find those that suit my non-sweet taste but if label says some high frutose or sugar and whatever and I like it, I am fine with no sweet taste, yup I am gonna enjoy it but more rare, bought for me products are not my food focus. real steak. real pork I cook. real chicken etc so any ‘buy’ products must go past a very big do I like it, no sugar taste for this ol’ gal. I walked this path alot by now LOL

IF I TASTE BIG sweet I will not buy that ever again. Key to me personally is I can’t ‘taste’ sweet in a product and if I do then I ‘re-addict myself’ very fast.

so that is how I roll on labels and made for me food with high frutose or even ‘fake sweeteners’ in something etc.

I taste sweet. Gone. No sweet in a product, 0 carb and meat of course I will eat easilly if it is high fructose or just some sugar added or cured or but TASTE is my issue on any food that passes my lips.

drinks, same. no sweet taste simple as that for me and a very personal way I must roll.

(Ohio ) #19

I apologize to admins if this isn’t legal. I’m not smart enough to paraphrase this.

“The Immunity Fix” Dr. James DiNicolantonio
Pg: 117

“Overconsuming added sugars can also lead to copper deficiency, which further contributes to fatty liver and insulin resistance. . important message is that added fructose, found in things like table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, are more harmful than starch or glucose when it comes to insulin resistance and impaired glucose tolerance.

• High fructose consumption. The body can store glucose only as liver glycogen (about 100-150 grams worth) and exceeding that limit will increase the conversion of glucose and fructose into triglycerides. That disrupts the Randle cycle in a similar way.

During a calorie deficit, fructose can also be converted into glucose but some of it will still inevitably become triglycerides. Natural fruit is fine in moderation but it can still promote metabolic syndrome, especially in regards to elevated triglycerides, when consumed in excess. To not cross that threshold, a few servings of low- sugar fruit (i.e., berries) a day is safe. Fructose-sveekened beverages are linked with insulin resistances.”

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #20

This I didn’t know. I imagine the conversion would take a fair amount of energy, plus a source of carbon, because fructose is a five-carbon ring, and glucose is a six-carbon ring. I suspect that gluconeogenesis from amino acids would still be a more efficient reaction, so fructose to glucose would be more a matter of necessity than preference.

The skeletal muscles can also store glycogen, and do, when they have more glucose than they know what to do with (as on a high-carb diet, for example). The difference is that muscles cannot share their glycogen, whereas the liver stores it for the purpose of sharing it.

I wonder, however, about that bit about a limit on liver glycogen, since Robert Lustig talks about the liver’s ability to store great quantities without damage. The fat produced de novo when the liver’s ability to deal with ethanol and fructose is exceeded does cause damage, however. But on the other hand, the liver seems to be able to take dietary carbohydrate, convert it to triglycerides, and package it into VLDL for delivery to the adipose tissue.

However, as Lustig also points out, it is difficult to eat too much whole fruit, because of the fibre content. That is why he advises eating whole fruits, as opposed to juicing them. Even a small glass of apple juice, for example, contains enough fructose to overwhelm the liver, whereas eating the equivalent in whole apples would be difficult, because the fibre is so filling. Also, the presence of the fibre in the digestive tract helps slow the absorption of the fructose to a rate that the liver can handle.