Nutrition

New Research: High Fructose Syrup May Increase Cancer Risk

Every sweet-tooth has their favorite fix when it comes to sugar, but it turns out we aren’t the only ones who favor one kind of sweetener over another: recent research reveals that cancer cells thrive most off of fructose.

Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles found that fructose-fed pancreatic cancer cells divided and proliferated with much greater intensity than their glucose-fed counterparts. This discovery, published in the journal Cancer Research, offers and explanation to the link other studies have found between pancreatic cancer and fructose intake.

While science has long recognized the connection between sugar consumption and cancer growth, this new finding reveals that not all sweeteners are made equal. Unfortunately, cancer’s favorite sweetener is also our own.

Fructose makes the majority of its appearances as high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener used in candy, soft drinks, breads, cereals, and a variety of other foods. Health experts have warned consumers against high fructose corn syrup for quite some time, and even politicians and health regulators have expressed concern over the sweetener’s role Americans’ increasing health and obesity issues.

While sugar of all types has been linked to weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, U.S. high fructose corn syrup consumption increased 1,000% between 1970 and 1990—and has only continued to escalate—making it the most common sweetener in food products today.

In order to help pay for programs addressing the obesity-related diseases resultant from high fructose-rich soft drinks, states such as New York and California have levied a tax on sweetened soda. Attempts were made to establish a Federal soda tax, but opposition from the American Beverage association (whose members include Coca-Cola and Kraft Food) squelched the initiative.

Nonetheless, the researchers at University of California Los Angeles hope their findings will encourage governmental action towards diminishing high fructose corn syrup use, paving the way for a healthier future for our nation.

The Masked Return of a Dangerous Sweetener

The nation’s most commonly used artificial sweetener, Aspartame, has gotten a bad rap over the years. More than 10,000 official complaints have linked the sweetener, which is found in chewing gums, soft-drinks, table-top sweetners, breakfast cereals, and sugarless jams, to numerous adverse reactions. Complaints range from headaches, mood alterations, gastrointestinal symptoms, and even hallucinations.

Artificial  sweeteners counteract natural weightlossSo, what better way to fix the problem than giving the controversial sweetener a make-over—reintroducing it under a pernicious pseudonym that makes it sound deceptively natural: AminoSweet.

The most controversial food additive in history, Aspartame was only approved by the FDA after strong political and financial pressure overturned health-concern arguments against the artificial sweetener. Furthermore, according to Mercola.com, aspartame was previously listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent!

The additive has been shown to cause cancer in lab rats, and according to Mercola.com, there have been more aspartame-reaction reports to the FDA than for all other food additives combined:

In fact, there are over 10,000 official complaints, but by the FDA’s own admission, less than 1 percent of those who experience a reaction to a product ever report it. So in all likelihood, the toxic effects of aspartame may have affected roughly a million people already.

While a variety of symptoms have been reported, almost two-thirds of them fall into the neurological and behavioral category consisting mostly of headaches, mood alterations, and hallucinations. The remaining third is mostly gastrointestinal symptoms.

Furthermore, in addition to wreaking havoc on our health, aspartame doesn’t even do what it claims to. Below is the full story from Mercola.com:

The sad truth is that diet foods and drinks ruin your body's ability to count calories, and in fact stimulate your appetite, thus boosting your inclination to overindulge. . .

If you suffer from sweet cravings, it’s easy to convince yourself you’re doing the right thing by opting for a zero-calorie sweetener like aspartame. Please understand that you will do more harm than good to your body this way. . .

As mentioned earlier, almost two-thirds of all documented side effects of aspartame consumption are neurological.

One of the reasons for this side effect, researchers have discovered, is because the phenylalanine in aspartame dissociates from the ester bond. While these amino acids are indeed completely natural and safe, they were never designed to be ingested as isolated amino acids in massive quantities, which in and of itself will cause complications.

Additionally this will also increase dopamine levels in your brain. This can lead to symptoms of depression because it distorts your serotonin/dopamine balance. It can also lead to migraine headaches and brain tumors through a similar mechanism.

The aspartic acid in aspartame is a well-documented excitotoxin. Excitotoxins are usually amino acids, such as glutamate and aspartate. These special amino acids cause particular brain cells to become excessively excited, to the point that they die.

According to the researchers, consuming a lot of aspartame can disturb:

  • The metabolism of amino acids
  • Protein structure and metabolism
  • The integrity of nucleic acids
  • Neuronal function
  • Endocrine balances

Furthermore, the ester bond in aspartame breaks down to formaldehyde and methanol, which are also toxic in their own right. So it is not surprising that this popular artificial sweetener has also been found to cause cancer.

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