Corn Syrup

A couple of months ago, based upon a hunch, we eliminated corn syrup and corn sweeteners from Ben's diet.  And I mean all corn syrup, not just High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).  I could not believe the results.  It was probably the second biggest change in Ben since actually starting the Feingold Program and getting him off artificials and preservatives.  His temperament became much more even - not nearly as many highs and lows.  While it's hard to pinpoint exactly what behaviors changed, I can look back very easily and say things got way better after we eliminated the corn syrup - we just had so many more GREAT days in a row.

Corn Sweeteners are not forbidden on the Feingold Diet.  But so many parents have seen the effects it has on their children and many avoid it.


If I was telling any new Feingold family my tips for success, I would have them take out corn sweeteners right off the bat.

Ben has only accidentally had a corn sweetener once since we eliminated it.  I cooked up some Whole Foods Tater Tots (yes, we're a tater tot family, mostly because I LOVE THEM!).  I didn't realize until after we ate them that they contained dextrose.  About ten minutes after lunch I tried to do homework with Ben, and I could not believe the trouble we had.  Ben literally could not keep his eyes still to read his homework.    His eyes were jumping all over the page (and this was after we had already had so much success with vision therapy).  In addition, he was very, very angry and frustrated.  Homework became a screaming match.  I realized what the cause was, tapered off the homework for the day, and we resumed it the next day.  By then, without the reaction from the dextrose, we did in ten minutes what we had screamed about for thirty the day before.

Because I love to learn, I decided to look up some information on corn syrup.  I was very surprised at what I found.  First, corn syrup came into play as a cheaper alternative to actual sugar.  Since the early 1900's the US Government has subsidized our homeland sugar industry, and placed sugar quotas on imports of sugar from other countries where it can be grown much more efficiently - to the tune of $3billion a year to American taxpayers in subsidies and artificially high sugar prices.  There are some interesting articles out there on how this happened and how it still occurs today.  Basically, even though we could import sugar for much cheaper, we are subsidizing American farmers to grow sugar even though the climate and conditions are not necessarily ripe for it.

Corn syrup is created in a process that I do not begin to understand - even after rereading the Wikipedia link several times.  It is all natural, but it undergoes a chemical process.  That's about all I know.  Oh, except I know what it does to our son, and it ain't pretty!

Corn syrup and HFCS can be found in many different prepared foods, drinks and juices.  Minute Maid Lemonade contains corn syrup, many granola bars and candies, marshmallows, etc.  Often times you can spot it in an ingredients list just by looking for words that end in "-ose" like dextrose or glucose.  The Feingold food list also identifies any foods with corn sweeteners.  We found it was very easy for us to eliminate because there are so many choices now that do not contain corn syrup - we didn't even miss it.  Some brands, like Coke, use it in their soda in the US, but not in countries like Mexico where they use real sugar instead.  I read that when Coke and Pepsi simultaneously announced the switch from real sugar to HFCS in 1984, it decreased the US sugar consumption by more than 500,000 tons per year (equal to the quotas of 25 of the 42 countries allowed to import sugar to the US)(read more here).

I am so glad we found this link to corn syrup and Ben's behavior.  I even wonder, and will test, if some of the foods we thought were causing reactions early on in our journey were actually just blamed for reactions that may have been caused by corn syrup in the first place.  I've since found a corn syrup substitute recipe that I use in my homemade marshmallows and for my Easter ham recipe, and you can find the substitute here.  It is super easy with only four ingredients!

I am ceasing to be amazed when I research these food issues and find that government meddling is typically at the root of the matter.  Special interests (in this case the US sugar industry) spends big money lobbying to get bigger money back in the form of subsidies and protection rights, causing corporations to look for cheaper alternative ways to get their product to market for a price we consumers want to pay, and we blindly go through life eating the crap they serve us because there is not nearly enough education about what we are being served.  And then we wonder why obesity is on the rise in our country.  Perhaps instead of revising the food pyramid we should work on getting the FDA to actually protect us or at least educate us on what we eat!

Incidentally, I looked up "images for corn syrup" and this is what came up.  Hysterical! Apparently even giraffes have to watch out for corn syrup!