Sweetener not yet off the hook - Read food labels to reduce high-fructose corn syrup

High-fructose corn syrup, once considered the "Frankenfood" fueling America's obesity epidemic, recently earned a presidential-style pardon. The American Medical Association concluded last June that this much-maligned sweetener was no worse than sugar. Recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a group of noted nutrition experts who've studied this processed sweet stuff agreed.

Even if you don't read medical journals or follow the headlines, you've probably seen those pro-HFCS commercials on TV, paid for by the Corn Refiners Association, featuring smiling moms reassuring each other that HFCS is perfectly safe and natural. Natural? So is cyanide. Not that HFCS is the equivalent of cyanide. But we don't think HFCS has a clean bill of health.

Even if it were the same as sugar, who said sugar was a great item to add to food? Further, almost all of the reports that found that HFCS was the same as sugar were funded by groups that profit from sales of HFCS, including sodamakers. And we believe that these studies didn't answer everything. The most important question remains: Do big doses of fructose trigger obesity in ways that go beyond all those excess calories?

Yes, we said "fructose." We don't mean the quantities found in fresh fruit, which come packaged with fiber and lots of nutrients. We're talking about the nutritionally empty megadoses added to soda, commercial sweets and baked goods. And we're also talking about all the little hits you're getting from foods that don't even seem sweet, such as ketchup and salad dressing.

A growing stack of research suggests that getting too much fructose in your diet interferes with leptin, an important digestive-system hormone that tells your brain that you're full and should stop eating.

In a new University of Florida lab study, animals that ate a high-fat, high-calorie diet that was also high in fructose became leptin-resistant and gained more weight than animals that ate a similar diet, minus the fructose.

Truth is, HFCS isn't the only source of excess fructose in the

American diet. Table sugar has roughly equal amounts of fructose and glucose.

Why HFCS comes under such fire is because the food industry's been pumping more and more of it into foods since the 1970s because it's cheap, mixes easily into beverages and enhances flavor and shelf life.

The result: We eat 1,000 times more HFCS now than when Richard Nixon was president: an average of 63 pounds a year! Plus, we're eating and drinking more sweets than ever before. As a result, 10 percent to 12 percent of our daily calories now come from added fructose, according to researchers from Emory University.

Obesity isn't the only hazard, of course. Other research suggests HFCS and sugar raise diabetes risk.

The bottom line: Getting the obvious and not-so-obvious sweeteners out of your diet will save you hundreds of calories a day — and remove a substance that could be flipping metabolic switches without your permission.

Here's how:

--Say no to soda and other "liquid candy." The calories alone are enough reason to stop: A single 18-ounce soda, sweet iced tea or fruit drink can pack 200 or more calories, courtesy of the 15 teaspoons of sugar-like sweetener, usually HFCS, these beverages contain. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston found that teenagers who stopped drinking sugary beverages lost a pound a week, without making any other changes in their diets.

--If you're breaking a serious soda habit, transitioning to an artificially sweetened, zero-calorie version is a good steppingstone on your way to healthier drinks, as in water, unsweetened tea, black coffee or skim milk.

--Rein in that sweet tooth. Candy and commercial baked goods — including cookies, pies and cakes — account for 30 percent of the fructose in the American diet and for the booming sales of supersized hospital gowns.

--Read labels to find hidden HFCS. Check the ingredients of all the processed foods you buy for HFCS (as well as other sweeteners you don't need, like rice syrup). You'll find it in many breads, sweetened yogurts and condiments. Only buy the brands without 'em or that don't have them in the first five ingredients.

Once you start label watching, you'll see that HFCS is everywhere. Except, we hope, in your kitchen.

The YOU Docs, Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz, are authors of the "YOU: Being Beautiful: The Owner's Manual to Inner and Outer Beauty." To submit questions and find ways to grow younger and healthier, go to www.RealAge.com, the docs' online home. Distributed by King Feat

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