High fructose corn syrup is a ubiquitous sweetener in an amazing number of food products in the United States. Walk into most any supermarket and start reading ingredients labels to find out for yourself. It's commonly found in pop, yogurt, bread, soup, crackers, cookies, ice cream, and dressings. It's so common that it's believed the average American consumes 60 lbs of the stuff every year.

Beginnings

Starting in the mid-1970s HFCS began replacing sugar in many US products. There were several reasons for this, both political and chemical. The government began giving large subsidies to the US corn industry as well as imposing high import taxes on cane and beet sugar. Another reason producers started using HFCS in so many products is that it thickens products (like candy and dressing), is easy to transport, helps to keep bread fresh by retaining moisture, and because of subsidies it proved to be cheaper than regular sugar.

Obesity

America's obesity epidemic really started to get out of control around the same time HFCS became more prominent in food items. Of course, many other changes in American diet were taking place at that time as well, including the higher consumption of more processed foods. Proponents of HFCS have argued that HFCS is very similar to regular sugar, which is to say that it contains nearly equal parts of fructose and glucose. The truth is that these two sugars are bound differently in sugar and HFCS. The sugars are not bound together in HFCS allowing for rapid absorption by the GI tract. In regular sugar they are bound together requiring an extra step to metabolise.

A study released in 2010 draws a firm link between HFCS and obesity. There were 2 groups of rats; 1 group was fed rat chow and sugar water, the other group was fed rat chow and HFCS diluted with water. They both consumed the same total number of calories and the HFCS group actually consumed less sugar than the sugar group. Within 4 weeks the HFCS mice were already obese and had developed fatty livers among other symptoms. This is the first time HFCS has been directly linked to obesity.

Your Plan

Despite the ubiquity of HFCS in so many products it's actually very easy to avoid if you are careful. I haven't consumed any (or if so, in very minute quantities and rarely) for many, many years so I know it's possible. The first thing to do is avoid heavily processed and junk foods and many standard pops made by Pepsi and Coca-Cola. The next is to always, ALWAYS read food labels. If you don't know what an ingredient is it's probably not good for you. And thirdly, if you can afford it, shop at natural food store such as Whole Foods or Vitamin Cottage. Those stores do not even stock products that have HFCS in them making it easier to find foods that are OK to eat.