detail of image from the New York Times
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One culprit that is increasing the incidence of diabetes is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). This concoction is a cheap sweetener, much less expensive than regular sugar. Food processors everywhere are using it. It is in regular bread, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, crackers, breakfast cereal, cookies, catsup, soft drinks, juice, and any number of food products. A few days ago I bought some vegetarian sushi and found it also contained high fructose corn syrup! This concoction does something strange to our system and fools our bodies into becoming insulin resistant.
A team of noted scientists, headed by Chi-Tang Ho* found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS are up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds, such as methylglyoxal, than a diet soft drink control. Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage."
"Other foods that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup: Coke, Pepsi and Snapple iced tea to Dannon yogurt and Chips Ahoy cookies. It also lurks in unexpected places, like Ritz crackers, Wonder bread, Wishbone ranch dressing and Campbell's tomato soup."(from NYT)
*Chi-Tang Ho (Chinese: 何其儻; born 1944) is a Chinese-born American food scientist. He received his PhD in organic chemistry in 1974 and immediately started working professionally as a researcher and professor in the food science department at Rutgers University. He is now director of the food science graduate program at Rutgers.
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