Nation’s beef with corn grows

By BRIAN SODOMA

VIEW ON HEALTH

It is public enemy number one in the nutrition world today. Professors, researchers and the film world have taken their whacks at corn, the highly government subsidized stalk that seems to make its way in some form or another into about a fourth of the food found in the grocery story; that’s a statistic cited in the documentary film, “Food Inc.”

But taking out our obesity rankings on the husk that could may not be completely fair. Is it true that the obesity epidemic has spiked since 1980, when we started seeing high fructose corn syrup in soda as opposed to good old-fashioned table sugar? Yes. Has the same sweetener been found in a shocking number of foods from oatmeal to granola bars to cereals to other drinks and snacks to boot? Certainly. And are we getting fatter as a result of it? Absolutely.

Geri Lynn Grossan has helped thousands of people learn how to lose weight and keep it off. After 25 years as a registered dietician, she has seen many waves of diet crazes and warnings against certain types of food. Even though she’s leery to jump on bandwagons, the Las Vegas-based nutrition coach says the recent concern over corn and its related additives in foods has its merits.

Like table sugar, Grossan says high-fructose corn syrup is particularly dangerous for its ability to very quickly raise blood sugar levels, which ultimately causes increases in insulin. As many know, these body changes create a sort of use-it or store-it scenario where if the body can’t use all the glucose, it stores it as fat. Hence, we’ve seen the consistent warnings over the past decade against excessive carboyhydrate consumption.

Grossan says it’s obvious that even in its natural state, humans have a difficult time digesting corn. In short, it ends up in the stool looking the same as it did on the plate.

Some attribute this inability to digest to the fact that humans tend to not chew corn as much. Other say the shell on the corn makes it difficult to assimilate, while others point to the human body not producing the correct enzymes to effectively break it down and assimilate nutrients.

Trudy Ekstrom, a valley nutritionist, says corn in its natural form is best used for learning how quickly ones body is digesting food, something she affectionately refers to as “transit time.”

BEYOND ITS NATURAL STATE

The idea behind creating high fructose corn syrup first surfaced in the 1950s. However, it took until the late 1970s for researchers to figure out how to mass-produce it and began rapidly introducing it into food products thereafter. Soda companies, Pepsi and Coca Cola, introduced it around 1980, replacing standard sugar that had been in the products up until then.

Dr. Carla Wolper, a nutritionist at the Obesity Research Center at New York’s St. Luke’s Hospital, remembers when soda companies were transitioning to the new sweetener. Wolper, who had a friend working for Pepsi at the time, claims the goal behind using high fructose corn syrup was to maintain carbonation in a two-liter plastic bottle so they could offer more soda for a lower price.

“Prior to that point, you only had soda in 32-ounce bottles and they were all glass,” Wolper recalls.

With the introduction of high fructose corn syrup, the expert says, soda companies drastically reduced the price of their products and were able to offer more bang for the consumer buck. Wolper says, this time-frame directly corresponds to when the obesity epidemic officially began its surge. But she also says, corn byproducts began being found in other snacks like chips. Thus, more varieties and bigger bags hit the market too.

But Wolper also says, scientifically, the consumer is being mis-informed by these simple, albeit true parallels. Researchers often point to corn and corn syrup as being high glycemic on the Glycemic Index, which in the past decade has become the anti-carboyhydrate world’s go-to barometer for pointing to sugary foods that are helping Americans tip the scales.

Like Grossan explained earlier, high glycemic foods tend to push more glucose into the blood stream more quickly forcing the pancreas to produce insulin, none of which is good for our bodies.

“It’s the spike in glucose and insulin that you really need to avoid,” adds Ekstrom.

But Wolper also asserts that the spikes are there for almost every type of sweetener out there. Sure, some are better than others, but high fructose corn syrup is certainly no better or worse than the regular white table sugar found in soda in the mid-20th century.

“All of it when it gets into the body gets converted into glucose whether it’s honey, maple syrup, white, brown sugar, all of it,” Wolper says. “The only thing wrong with corn syrup is that it’s cheap.”

DE-BUNKING THE INDEX

Wolper adds that the Atkins diet craze in the late-90s and early part of this past decade has allowed consumers put too much stock into the glycemic index.

She gives the example of white bread being pointed to as one of the primary example in the carbohydrate-fat storage connection. But most people usually mix something with fat or protein when eating a straight carbohydrate like bread, Wolper says. She gives the example of lunchmeat or peanut butter being added. Those items directly reduce the glycemic response of the food; most all nutritionists can agree on that point. Even ice cream, because of the fat and protein in the cream, can have a reduced glycemic response. Add nuts to a sundae and it betters the response further. The same goes for any food that may have corn syrup in it for a sweetener. If balanced with a protein or fat, the glucose load is reduced.

Wolper argues that America has gone crazy with its portions and the population has become more sedentary. Those are the true reasons for America’s obesity epidemic.

“The cheapness of high calorie food in America is what’s making America fat,” she adds. “What this comes down to is excess calories. But you’ll never find a book published on counting calories. Publishers won’t do it. They want a gimmick.”

Ekstrom adds that lower glycemic sweeteners like fructose, which is naturally derived from fruit, is often overlooked in people’s diets. Many assume since it’s natural, that they can overload on it.

“There are people who take so much fructose in their protein drinks to make it palatable. You can become diabetic on that,” Ekstrom adds. “Yes, it’s better than the other ones (like corn syrup), but you can’t just take it as a gold standard.”

THOSE POOR FAT COWS

Where corn has had its most deleterious effect is in cattle, many agree. Cows, like humans, have a difficult time digesting corn as well. But it is not this fact alone that has caused the problem. It is more the change in farming environment that’s the problem, according to Wolper. Today, it is more common to see cows raised on feedlots where they are clustered into pens, a departure from the wide-open ranges of the past, where cattle roamed and lived on grass, which their bodies have the enzymes to properly digest.

Wolper explains that the economics of the situation have created more “efficiencies” that have allowed farmers to need less land. In feedlots cows are eating corn from bins and are clustered together for long periods of time. Farms are smaller and don’t need to grow as much grass for cows since they are filling up on corn. The result through the years is fatter, unhealthier cows with more health problems of their own, now riddled with steroids and hormones, being passed along to the plate of the American consumer.

“The cows are close together. Like any environment like that, they’re going to be getting each other sick. That’s why farmers are shooting them with antibiotics. Then they’re adding hormones to fatten them up,” Wolper adds.

This is why Ekstrom tells her clients to buy organic, “if your wallet can take it.”

ADDICTION

With portion size, not just carboyhydrate intake, becoming a more known direct link to the obesity epidemic, the notion of food addiction has come into play. Some experts claim that America is food obsessed and many wonder if sweeteners like corn syrup are to blame as an addictive element.

“People know that food is addictive. Processed foods light up receptors in the brain like heroine or cocaine,” adds Grossan.

Wolper tempers that sentiment by explaining eating something like chocolate or a sweet food releases some dopamine into the brain, not unlike drug use, having sex or any other enjoyable experience.

“Truthfully, we can become addicted to any pleasurable experience,” she says.

But she goes on to further explain that drug addiction should not be classified on the same level as food addiction.

“Drug abuse wears out the body’s mechanism for producing dopamine. … We don’t overextend dopamine-producing cells when we eat. It’s just not quite the same level,” she adds.

Grossan, however, doesn’t believe that corn syrup caution and the addiction suggestion is being overstated.

“I don’t think it’s overblown at all. If you look at how obese our general populations has become. … Food is so processed and refined. So much of it quickly raises blood sugar,” she adds.

SUGGESTIONS

Whether it’s corn specifically to blame for the obesity epidemic or not, nutritionists do find common ground on many lifestyle suggestions. Grossan and Ekstrom recommend using lower-calories sweeteners when possible. Grossan recently came across “Just Like Sugar” which is locally manufactured and uses an extract from orange peels. She also uses Stevia as a sugar replacement as well. Ekstrom recommends xylitol.

Obviously, the nutritionists recommend exercise. Wolper says it’s the key factor that distinguishes between those who have gained weight back after a loss or kept it off. She points to the National Weight Control Registry web site as an example.

In it, volunteers who have kept weight off tell their stories about what they’ve done to do it. Being regimented about including exercise in one’s life is a common theme among the thousands of success stories, Wolper notes.

“Inactivity is the key to the cascade towards diabetes,” she adds.

With more corn in our food than most of us may even know, many still argue against its overuse, given that it’s not even easily digestible in its raw form.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a 2006 release, showed that the average American consumed 1,674 pounds of corn in a year.

Wheat came in second, albeit at only 225 pounds.

“Corn isn’t bad, we’re just eating too damn much of it,” Wolper adds.