Hfcs and belly fat
Hfcs and belly fat
The first thing you may wonder is what the heck “HFCS” stands for. It stands for High Fructose Corn Syrup and the words themselves don’t sound too bad. Unfortunately, it is what this HFCS has at the core that makes it a disaster for the belly fat fighter. HFCS at the core is glucose. HFCS was developed in the 1970′s as a sort of sugar substitute and over the years it has gradually taken over more items that once contained sugar. In this case, adding the sugar would have been better than HFCS. This product, hidden within many common foods, is glucose before it ever hits the body system. As a result, the body has excess glucose to process. The health problems accomplished by this excess glucose ranges from diabetes to the common fat belly. Scan the labels of some common food items in your household and you will find HFCS listed in the full name form “High Fructose Corn Syrup”. A quick survey of food items on hand during the writing of this article revealed that HFCS was the number two ingredient in many food items including ketchup. It is also in the top three of several health-food items. HFCS is increasingly being used as the dominant sweetener. When you consider what Wikipedia.org says about HFCS “there is a direct relationship between the increasing obesity in the U.S.A. and the use and consumption of HFCS for sweetening of foodstuffs and beverages,” it becomes apparent the belly will suffer from excess HFCS. Fortunately, the consumer can do two things to avoid HFCS. First, look for this item as an ingredient and avoid those foods if possible. Second, the consumer can support products returning to natural sugars. Since the dangers of HFCS to obesity have been brought to the attention of manufacturers, some of them have made significant changes. Although many of the old products containing HFCS are still on the shelves, such companies as Coca-Cola has started leaving HFCS out and so has Sobe. Others like Dr. Pepper have never had HFCS in the Dublin, Texas plant. Unfortunately, the Dr. Pepper sitting on the desk beside this writer’s computer does have HFCS in it. It must not have been made in the Dublin, Texas plant. The next time you are shopping for food or drink items, take a moment to read the ingredients. It may surprise you to find foods without HFCS and foods with it. When you find the foods without it, purchase them and consider sending the manufacturer a letter of thanks. Companies standing up against the use of HFCS need all the encouragement they can get.
