blindness, during the last 200 years. It took years for doctors and scientists to
connect these emerging diseases to nutritionally empty grain products. Once the
connection was made, the food industry simply added vitamins and minerals to
processed grain foods instead of promoting wholegrain foods. Ironically, this
“enrichment” process was used to market these unhealthy products. Enriched
carbs suddenly became the good guys— despite the fact that they are behind
many of the plagues of modern society, like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and
cancer. Scientists who diagnosed patients with these diseases in the 19th and
early 20th centuries hadn’t even heard of the hormone insulin or the dangers of
its excessive secretion.
The Culture of Sugar and High-Fructose Corn Syrup
The process of producing granulated sugar by pressing the juice out of sugar
cane and boiling it into crystals was developed in India about 500 BC. The
Arabs introduced it to Spain, and from there it continued westward. Refining
sugar was expensive, but by the end of the 19th century, sugar refineries were
quite profitable. At that time, there were more than 30 sugar factories in
operation in the United States, and Americans began to consume sugar in ever-
escalating quantities. Given our biological affinity for fruits and sweets, it
became apparent that the sweetness source—whether natural or manmade—
didn’t matter to our primitive brains. We were becoming addicted to the stuff.
Although Americans’ taste for sugar and honey remained relatively constant
until the early part of the 20th century, the introduction of high-fructose corn
syrup (HFCS-55) helped it accelerate.
High-fructose corn syrup was invented when food technologists learned to
make sweet syrup from corn starch by boiling it with acid under high pressure. It
is much cheaper than sugar and prized by food manufacturers because of its
viscosity and lack of crystallization. Although HFCS-55 is identical to table
sugar (sucrose), it’s actually much worse because we consume it in such massive
amounts. The fructose present in high-fructose corn syrup can also be used by
the liver cells; however, if unused, it’s converted into fat. Problems associated
with high-fructose corn syrup include increased LDL (bad cholesterol) levels,
leading to increased risk of heart disease; an altered magnesium balance, leading
to increased osteoporosis; and an increased risk of diabetes.
Also at the turn of the 20th century, carbonated beverages, such as soda pop,
became popular. Just 100 years ago, people drank only water when they were
thirsty. A can of regular soda contains about 40 grams of high-fructose corn
syrup, or approximately 9 teaspoons of sugar! How many cans of soda do you