Did you know…your favorite soda may contain a dangerous and illegal substance?
If you haven’t cut soda out of your diet yet, the frightening results of Dr. Michael Goran’s research just might prove to be the final straw that convinces you to do so immediately.
Dr. Goran analyzed samples of Coke, Pepsi and Sprite, and found all three had fructose dangerous levels much higher than the legally approved FDA limit.
“Some companies are not only using illegal levels of fructose in their products,” wrote Frank Herd and Linda Bonvie in an article for Live In The Now, but they’re sneaking in a much more dangerous sweetener: HFCS-90.”
Chances are you’ve heard the bad news about high fructose corn syrup (HCFS) and even diet soda and why it’s so bad for us, But HFCS-90 is even worse—much worse. This highly controversial sweetener contains 90% fructose—close to twice the legal limit for use in foods and beverages.
Clinical studies prove excess amounts of fructose can cause fructose dangers such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Sweet as Sugar? Not Quite
Dr. Michael Goran, director of the Childhood Obesity Research Center (CORC) and professor of preventative medicine at the University of Southern California, considers high fructose intake as a risk factor for diabetes and other medical issues. “The only information we have is that industry says sodas and beverages are made with HFCS-55,” Goran said in an interview, “which suggests that 55 percent of the sugar is fructose. That’s an assumption that everybody makes.”
Goran set out to verify the fructose dangers content of major soda brands to “get a better handle on how much fructose people were actually consuming every time they open a can of soda.”
In 2010, after extensive research, Goran discovered fructose dangers levels in popular beverages could be as high as 65 percent.
Industry Claims Proven to Be Lies
The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) lobby claims that HFCS-90 is “virtually the same” as sugar. But hard scientific facts utterly disprove claim.
Researchers from Yale University recently published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on the effects of glucose compared to fructose.
The study group was made up of 20 participants, all healthy, non-obese adults. Each underwent two separate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sessions to monitor changes to cerebral blood flow and brain activity. Comparison showed that the glucose, but not the fructose, sparked feelings of satiety and fullness.
Fructose had no impact on satiety or fullness. Rather, it spiked cerebral blood flow and lit up the hypothalamus, insula, and striatum—areas of the brain that control appetite and reward processing.
Experts say this data indicates fructose dangers is most likely to increase hunger, resulting in excess food intake and potential obesity.
Selling “Corn Sugar”
Perhaps the most disturbing element of all this is that the CRA sponsored an advertising blitz to convince consumers that HFCS-90 and sugar are essentially equivalent.
Natural sugar, or sucrose, contains 50% fructose and 50% glucose. As mentioned before, HFCS-90 has 90% fructose.
One commercial went so far as to state that “high fructose corn syrup” is a misleading name, as the sweetener is “actually low in fructose.”
The commercial went on to suggest “corn sugar” would be a more apt name, although the FDA flatly rejected that exact suggestion.
Even the notoriously conservative FDA seems to believe that high fructose corn syrup is dangerous. Soda drinkers, it may be time to kick the habit. And we would all be wise to read all of our labels carefully.