High fructose corn syrup may be perfectly healthy for humans, but for Fido it may be deadly. High-fructose corn syrup is a common sweetener in human foods such as sweetened drinks and processed foods, including ketchup, salad dressings, crackers and even bread.
While it is chemically similar to table sugar, there are questions about whether the body handles high-fructose corn syrup differently than table sugar.
Some experts suggest that there is insufficient evidence that high-fructose corn syrup is a killer, while others suggest otherwise. Do you want to take a chance with your canine friend who depends on your good judgement about the foods he or she eats?
Here are 5 reasons high fructose corn syrup will kill your pet:
1. Sugar in any form causes obesity and disease when consumed in pharmacologic doses.
Cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup are indeed both harmful when consumed in pharmacologic doses of 140 pounds per animal per year.
2. HFCS and cane sugar are NOT biochemically identical or processed the same way by the body.
High fructose corn syrup is an industrial food product and far from “natural” or a naturally occurring substance. It is extracted from corn stalks through a process so secret that Archer Daniels Midland refuses to allow independent investigators to examine the process. The sugars are extracted through a chemical enzymatic process resulting in a chemically and biologically novel compound called HFCS.
3. HFCS contains contaminants including mercury that are not regulated or measured by the FDA.
Poisoned sugar is certainly not “natural”.When HFCS is run through a chemical analyzer or a chromatograph, strange chemical peaks show up that are not glucose or fructose. What are they? Who knows?
4. Independent medical and nutrition experts DO NOT support the use of HFCS in our diet, despite the assertions of the corn industry.
The corn industry’s happy looking websites www.cornsugar.com and www.sweetsurprise.com bolster their position that cane sugar and corn sugar are the same by misquoting experts.
5. HFCS is almost always a marker of poor-quality, nutrient-poor disease-creating industrial food products or “food-like substances”.
The last reason to avoid products that contain HFCS is that they are a marker for poor-quality, nutritionally-depleted, processed industrial food full of empty calories and artificial ingredients. If you find “high fructose corn syrup” on the label you can be sure it is not a whole, real, fresh food full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants.
So if you want your dog to remain healthy, keep them away from high-fructose corn syrup. Check the labels of any commercial dog food you are considering and avoid any pet foods containing high-fructose corn syrup, high-fructose corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn sweetener, corn sugar, corn sugars, refined sweeter, natural corn syrup, isolated fructose, maize (a native word for corn) syrup, or glucose/fructose syrup.