This supplement may lessen the toxic effects of HFCS

Have researchers discovered an “antidote” to America’s most dangerous food additive?

Still reeling from its failed propaganda campaign, the Corn Refiners Association definitely will NOT like this.

You know the campaign…It’s the one where they tried to convince moms that giving their kids high fructose corn syrup is like giving them hugs.

Well, moms are too smart for that. But even if you’ve sworn off HFCS, it can sneak into almost any diet — if you eat out or eat any prepared foods.

It’s everywhere — I even found it in my soup(!)

Luckily some new research has just come out about two supplements that can lessen (some of) the bad side effects of HFCS.

Antidote to a sweet poison

First, the bad news:

In a 12-week study by researchers from two universities in Turkey, rats who drank water with added HFCS developed serious health problems that could lead to heart disease.

These included high triglycerides and VLDL, which is very low density lipoprotein, as well as high cholesterol, insulin and glucose.

That’s a real set-up for diabetes and stroke if I ever heard one. And the rats aren’t the only ones getting sick from HFCS. Guinea pigs are, too — and that’s us.

Now for the good news:

The researchers found those harmful effects could be “practically prevented” (and those are their words) by giving the test rats a resveratrol supplement.

The results were so exciting that the scientists even said adding resveratrol to food products with HFCS is a good idea. (I sure don’t see that one coming any time soon…)

Meanwhile, researchers at a Chinese university came up with another possible antidote: betaine — a supplement made from, of all things, sugar beets.

When they added betaine to the rats’ diet, it protected their kidneys from the damage caused by eating high amounts of fructose.

While the Chinese researchers used a supplement, foods like shellfish, spinach and wheat are also very high in betaine.

Despite the mounting evidence that this HFCS is more poison than food, the FDA still allows companies to dump billions of gallons into our food every year.

And it doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.

Over the past few years, I’ve been seeing more and more studies come out showing just how bad HFCS is for us. But I doubt that even a thousand more studies will change the FDA’s position on this Franken-sweetener.

So until that magic day when the FDA comes to its senses and bans this stuff once and for all, adding a resveratrol supplement to your diet (or your kids’ or grandkids’) might not be a bad idea.

Side benefit: It would kill the FDA to know that their inaction could be increasing sales of a supplement.

Sources:
“Study: HFCS and vascular dysfunction” preparedfoods.com