Why I don't eat High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

So I've had a bias against High Fructose Corn Syrup for quite a few years. Many of you know this. I think it started back in my sophmore year of high school when I read a "How to be a Vegetarian" book my mother gave me to make sure I was getting enough nutrients without eating animal flesh....

Since then I have cringed at the idea of eating High Fructose Corn Syrup, checking every label before I buy bread or cookies or anything really. Though I admit, it's hard to avoid; it seems to be in everything. I hadn't thought that much about why I had this strong bias until Glenn's mother asked me the other day "what's so bad about it?" This made me really stop to think. What is so bad about it? (besides the fact that it's hiding in everything from soda and ketchup to bread and cake mix.) I started to explain to her that high fructose corn syrup is unhealthy for our bodies because the chemical composition of corn starch is significantly changed during processing, which changes the molecular bonds that then become unstable in our bodies when we ingest it...I realized that I had confused this explaination with partially hydrogenated oils, my other arch nemesis, and realized that I needed to re-examine where I got this firm conviction from.

One thing I was confident in saying before researching more was that any corn in this country that is not organic, is most like genetically modified, an industry that I do support nor want to ingest food produced from it.
But that wasn't enough. I had to find more research to back up my claim that HFCS is much more unhealthy than cane sugar, and very dangerous to eat, cancer-causing even. That's right, I'm still going to keep my bias, I don't need HFCS in my life or my bloodstream; but I do need to feel more educated about it.

So of course I looked it up on Wikipedia! Yay. Okay, I know that Wikipedia is not the end-all know-it-all, but you have to admit, it is pretty great. And it did have a pretty balanced explanation of the controversy I thought. That's where I found this really well-written article about the issue from the SF Chronicle "We're drowning in high fructose corn syrup, do the risks go beyond our waistline?" You should read it.

After doing my research, here are some things that I found unappealing about this stuff:
-Dulls taste buds (may not be true, but I definitely think it has a funkyboring phony taste).
-Possibly metabolizes differently in the body than sucrose
-It's in so many foods that you don't even know you're eating it- added sugar=added calories=added fat and added risk of degenerative diseases.
-Our society is consuming too much sugar in our diets!!
-"Loading high fructose corn syrup into increasingly larger portions of soda and processed food has packed more calories into us and more money into food processing companies"
-USDA reccomends only 10-13 teaspoons of added sugar per day; one can of soda has can have 13 teaspoons of sugar in the form of (HFCS most of the time in the U.S.)
-Research done by the American Beverage Association (almost all of whom use HFCS in their sodas) and corn refiners association (hmmmm) says that HFCS does not behave differently in the body on metabolism or satiation than sucrose (table sugar). Hmmmm.
-The U.S. has import quotas and tariffs on sugar, which is supported with campaign financing funded by agricultural corporations, namely Archer Daniels Midland, one of the leading sellers of HFCS and other additives. This keeps sugar prices high, which makes sweeteners from corn (an industry already highly subsidized by the U.S. government) cheaper and more attractive to most food and beverage manufacturers, thus giving more profit to those corporations in the industry at the expense of the heatlh and pocketbooks of us consumers. lame.

So you can come up with your own conclusions that work for you, but here are my personal reasons for not wanting to eat it:

-Precautionary principle- HFCS may cause degenerative diseases or other health problems, why take the risk? I don't need it in my life and I still want to be healthy in 50 years!
-I don't need more sugar in my bread, or in my bagels, or english muffins, or hotdog buns, or juice, or cereal, or peanut butter, or ketchup or anything else they're lacing with HFCS.
-I most certainly do not want added sweeteners to my fruit juice!! I think that's my biggest pet peve with HFCS, you think you're drinking something healthy and it's got extra sweetner, as if fruit need extra sweetness...That makes me mad. As for soda. I don't need soda. period. And if/when I were to drink soda, I would choose one with REAL sugar because it tastes better. That's right. I've tried it, it's better. ( Go to Senegal, or any European Country, or any other country that doesn't have a high sugar tariff and doesn't produce excesses of corn subsidized by the U.S. government to support rich corporations profiting off of corn products then using them to control poorer countries' through GMO "food aid", and you'll taste what soda is supposed to taste like because they still use cane sugar.)
--As mentioned earlier, I do not support what the Genetically Engineered (GE) or Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Industry stands for and do not want to eat corn that is produced by it (which HFCS almost definitely is ).
-I like Michael Pollen's* philosophy: "If your great great grandmother didn't eat it, neither should you" and "if you can't pronounce it, or don't know what it is, it's not food and you shouldn't eat it" or "If it has more than five ingredients, don't eat it"

I can pronounce high fructose corn syrup, I think I know what it is and don't think it has more than five ingredients, but honestley, I barely have the patience to type out all four words and now that I know what it is (a fake imitation of the natural chemical make up of cane sugar that is highly processed thus eliminating any minerals or nutrients that may have been present) I'd rather eat the real stuff in as unrefined a form as possible, and not in excess.

I think the message here is, whether it's sugar or HFCS, it is clear that we need to eat less sweet additives in our diets in order to be healthy happy people into the future. I still like the "word of wisdom" I learned in the Mormon church which says "moderation in all things." As far as sugar goes, I'm still working on that one, but you can be sure I'm going to be trying extra hard to keep HFCS out of my life and out of my esophogus for good.

Any suggestions on cutting out the sweets?

* I'd like to read his book "The Omnivore's Dilemma"- it talks a lot about the corn industry including HFCS and the history of food and nutrition in our country.
I've heard him speak, he's really down to earth, interesting, intelligent and funny. Put it on the list.