In this series, I am going to look at the Conspiracy effecting our food supply and the things we eat.  In this article I will address High Fructose Corn Syrup.

What is it?

First, off, it’s not natural.  It’s made in a lab.  As I’ll highlight later in the history section, it was first produced in the 1950’s, but didn’t catch on until the 1970’s.  But what is it?  To answer this, I’ll compare it to other known sugars.  The two sugar basics are glucose and fructose.  Without getting into the Chemistry, at least not yet,  they both are monosaccharides made up of C₆H₁₂O₆, but their make-up is different enough to alter how our body handles them.  Glucose is turned into high-energy compounds.

Fructose on the other hand has to be metabolized in the liver.  The liver turns some of it into glucose and lactate, for cellular consumption, but also turns some of it into glycogen (aka a storage form of glucose), once that’s full it turns the rest into fat, and about 1% into plasma triglyceride (fat released into the blood stream).  Fructose is

 

considered sweeter than glucose.  Also worth noting, fructose does not induce an insulin production the same way glucose does.  Side note, two common disorders related to glycogen are diabetes and hypoglycemia.

A quick word on Insulin

I’d like to make it clear, I’m not a medical professional or nutrition specialist.  Simply someone who does his own research.  With that said, what I’ve learned is that the pancreas produces either insulin or glucagon based on your blood sugar levels.  But lets be clear, it’s based on glucose levels (not fructose).  So if your blood sugar is high, more insulin is released.  This promotes greater absorption of glucose out of the blood, by muscles, red blood cells, and fat cells, normalizing blood glucose levels.  Conversely, when blood sugar is low, more glucagon is released.  This tells the liver to release the glucose it has stored into the blood stream, increasing blood glucose levels.  If the body doesn’t have enough storage, the body can make it from protein.

Insulin resistance

If the liver has enough glycogen, it turns the rest is into fat in the liver as well as around other organs and the waist.  Once fatty the liver overproduces glucose (among other potentially harmful compounds).  This in turn increases blood glucose levels, sparking the pancreas to increase insulin production.  As this process continues, all cells, especially the liver, become more resistant to insulin and it takes more to encourage cellular absorption.  This fatty liver condition is known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease which may result in insulin resistance and type II diabetes.  One side effect of insulin production in the body is the release of leptin.  Leptin is the body’s signal that it is full.  Recall that fructose does not cause the body to release insulin.  Therefore Leptin is also not released.

What about fruit?

This does not mean that Fructose is all together bad.  Fructose is naturally found in fruit, which are still very good for you.  Fruit is naturally low energy dense, holds lots of water, and requires a fair amount of energy to eat.  According to this site here, it is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating whole fruit, my bane however, is fruit juice.  I’ve heard you should go easy on the fruit juice.  Personally I like high pulp, partially for this reason and partially for the fiber.  Ninja blenders are great for fresh fruit smoothies including the pulp.

Corn Syrup

Corn syrup is not High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Both start life as corn starch.  However, corn is naturally low in fructose meaning regular corn syrup is mostly, if not exclusively glucose.  To make it sweeter, the corn syrup undergoes further enzymatic processing to convert between 45 and 90% of the glucose into fructose.  So from this standpoint, go ahead and use corn syrup, but keep in mind it’s the blood glucose level we are trying to maintain to prevent diabetes.   A good table comparison can be found here.

Other Sugar

Table Sugar

The next question is, how does it compare to regular table sugar.  Regular table sugar is 50/50 glucose, fructose.  One possible advantage that table sugar has over high fructose corn syrup is that the glucose and fructose are bonded together (disaccharide) creating what we call sucrose,C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁.  This bonding prevents the fructose from going directly to the liver, the science is still unclear if this is a significant difference, but imperatively, the obesity problems seem to correspond with an increased use of high fructose corn syrup.  One thing to keep in mind with regard to table sugar, modern industrial refinement involves bleaching and crystallization in order to produce the white odorless product we are use to.  As sucrose naturally comes from either cane or beet sugar, it naturally contains vitamins and minerals, which are unfortunately removed during the refining process.  One more word on sucrose.  The Sugar beet industry, back in June 2008, unanimously voted to go 100% GMO.  For this reason alone, you should avoid sugar beet sucrose.

What I find interesting is that science can’t find any health difference between sucrose and high fructose corn syrup, but humans have been using sucrose (cane or beet) for centuries and honey and fruit for millennium, but it’s only been the last 50 years that we’ve had an obesity problem.  If today’s table sugar is just as bad as high fructose corn syrup, then I suspect it’s in part the use of GMO’s and the rest, the newly refined industrial process.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Poisons

Mercury

You’ve all heard the phrase, mad as a hatter?  It actual comes from the fact that early hatters or hat makers would use the heavy metal, mercury, to soften the material.  This mercury would be absorbed in the skin and eventually cause mental health problems, in other words, it would literally send them mad.  As a result, we’ve tried to remove mercury from anything that could come in contact with human tissue.  Have you heard that pregnant women should not eat sea food?  This is because of the large amount of mercury previously used in industry that has now found it’s way into our sea food chain.  From my limited understanding of the subject, shark is especially prone to high levels.  Being at the top of the food chain itself, it consumes a large amount of effective fish, itself becoming highly concentrated.  But what does mercury have to do with high fructose corn syrup?  According to Mark Hyman, MD, the process for extracting high fructose corn syrup utilizes chloralkali which contains mercury which leaves trace amounts in our food.  Hear more in the video below:

He goes on to mention that it contains a large number of unidentified chemicals as well.

Learn to use moderation and common sense in matters of health and nutrition.

GMO

I will not be going into the specif dangers or research with regard to GMO’s in this article, but for this article I will simply point out that as of 2015 an acceleration of adopting Herbicide-tolerant GMO corn has occurred, resulting in 89% of the corn grown in the U.S. as HT-GMO.  Insect-resistant GMO corn has been available since 1996 and as of 2015 makes up 84%.  This is according to the Economic Research Service of the USDA.

A History and Conspiracy

Conspiring men in the last day

When I started this article I was primarily going to focus on the health dangers of high fructose corn syrup, with perhaps a brief mention of my own theories, but while I was doing some additional research I made the following discoveries.

In the Doctrine and Covenants 89:4 of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Lord reveals:

Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—

The word of wisdom is the code of health that Latter-day saints strive to live by.  It is generally associated with the Mormons not drinking coffee or alcohol, but it has another side to it also, one of recommended foods.  What I find interesting is the reason stated by the Lord for revealing this law of health.  Specifically “In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days”.

The History of High Fructose Corn Syrup

As you will see, the history of high fructose corn syrup is highly coupled with the history of five companies.  I am going to focus on the largest, Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), for reasons that may become clear later.

1920  –  In 1920 the US Department of Justice brought suit against the National Linseed Oil Trust for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Several co-defendants were named, including the Archer-Daniels Manufacturing Company. The suit alleged all of these companies were acting in collusion to raise prices, citing a spike in linseed oil costs between 1916 and 1918, when the price rose from $.50 per gallon to $1.80… Wikipedia  ADM would again be brought up on charges in 1993, fined in 1997, and settled in 2005.  They were brought again on charges in 2013 for failing to prevent illicit payments (bribes) made by it’s foreign subsidiaries to Ukrainian government officials.  In the last nearly 2 decades, they’ve been the subject of environmental law suits related to air pollution.

1950s –  High fructose corn syrup was developed by the Clinton Corn Processing Company.

1970s – First marked by the Clinton Corn Processing Company, together with the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.  As a result of high sugar tariffs and the beginning of trade embargo’s on Cuba (specifically brown sugar), by the late 70’s, industry was starting to replace sucrose with high fructose corn syrup, especially the cola industry.  By 1972 Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) had also expanded into producing high fructose corn syrup.  In 1970, Dwayne Andreas becomes the chief executive officer of ADM.

1980s – ADM buys out Clinton Corn Processing as well as a plant in Montezuma, NY.  They also entered the crystalline dextrose market.  ADM introduces Golden Gluten, an animal feed produced at it’s corn sweetener plant in Cedar Rapids IA (but that’s an article for a different day).  ADM lobbies for agricultural subsidies and price supports for sugar and ethanol.

1990s – ADM further expands it’s business into crystalline fructose, sorbitaol, and maltodextrins.  By 1995 the libertarian think tank Cato Institute claims that ADM has cost American’s tens of billions of dollars in higher prices and higher taxes.

2000 – Before 1970 only about 5-10% of the sugar consumed by Americans came from fructose, and most of that was fruit, vegetables, milk, and meats.  By 2000 however, that number had grown by 25%.  At this same time, obesity rose.

The Conspiracy

One thing I like to do is connect the dots.   In a recent LDS conference

President Thomas S. Monson  said “There are no coincidences”.

So far I’ve shown that high fructose corn syrup is not good for you.  While it may have experienced humble and honest beginnings, I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that something this bad is subsidized by congress, has found it’s way into most of our food, and health problems continue to increase year after year.  To fully understand the extend of this particular conspiracy requires you to know the former CEO of ADM.  Dwayne Andreas became the CEO of ADM in 1970.  Two years later they marketing their own high fructose corn syrup.  By 1980 they have purchased the plant responsible for the development of high fructose corn syrup.  Since then they have managed to increase the fructose quantity from 45% all the way up to 90% (while they combine the two for between 55 and 65% known as HFCS-55 found in most foods today).  ADM today is the largest processor of farm commodities in the U.S.

Upon further investigation I discovered that Mr. Andreas just happens to be the most prominent political campaign donor no one has heard of, having contributed millions of dollars to both parties.  He has been linked to illegal campaign fundraising associated with the Watergate scandal.  He’s been charged, but acquitted for similar illegal contributions to Hubert Humphrey.  When someone likes this appears in my research, the first thing I suspect is the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR).  According to several sources he is a member of not just the CFR, but also the Bilderbergers and Jimmy Carter’s Trilateral Commission.

The current president and CEO of ADM is Patricia Woertz.  She was previously Executive Vice President of Chevron Corporation.  She is listed as the 85th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2014, back in 2010 was listed as #3.  Under her leadership, 2014 marked the best year in the history of the company with the company becoming a world leader in BioEnergy (Ethanol).  She is a member of The Business Council, which was created during the great depression by FDR.  She has attended at least one exclusive state dinner with President Obama.  In 2011 she served on President Obama’s export Council.  She does not appear to be a member of the CFR at this time.  ADM continues as a corporate member of the CFR.

Summary

High Fructose Corn Syrup is very bad for you ->  It’s leading producer is ADM who has been associated with price fixing, lobbying for subsidies, and advancing the processed corn market ->  ADM’s former CEO was a leading campaign contribute to many big-wigs in DC, has been investigated for campaign finance fraud, and is a member of the one world government organizations (I suspect a pretty senior member) -> Congress continues to pass corn and sugar subsidies, trade embargo and tariffs on foreign sugar, resulting in the U.S. paying some of the highest prices for sugar world wide -> the FDA finds GMO food is healthy -> Corporations seeking cheaper sugar, uses high fructose corn syrup -> Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, metabolic disorders, and cancer are all on the rise in the U.S.