Fructus syrup - not the fructose in fruit but the man made sort from corn

[ivykaty44]

Been told to avoid this for sake of liver. So have wittled down chocolate to kitcat. I have found most nestle foods contain fructose syrup as do kelleogs cereals and breakfast bars, areo hot choclate has been ditched.

I am struggling with...
Ice cream - today we got frost bite trying to find ice cream without - yes I could make and am happy to receive recipes for vanilla only

But does anyone know which ice cream doesn't contain fructose syrup and is vanilla or chocolate would be ok?

pretty please

I don't understand "not fructose in fruit but the man made sort from corn"

if you mean what the Americans call Corn Syrup, the thing they call corn is what we call sugar-cane. So what do you mean by "man-made?"

How did you find out it's bad for the liver?

I think OP is referring to High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is made from corn and has a lot of health concerns. It can be labelled as simply fructose syrup I believe.

It tends to be labelled as Glucose-Fructose Syrup in the UK, if that helps at all.

Really?? Do Americans call sugar cane corn? What do they call corn then?

They call sweetcorn maize and corn wheat?

I think the real answer to your question is 'don't buy sugary foods'... High Fructose Corn Syrup ('Glucose Fructose Syrup' or 'Corn Syrup' in the UK) is a cheap/nasty ingredient that makes its way into practically every American processed food, savoury as well as sweet, because it's heavily subsidised. In UK products 'corn syrup' tends to mostly appear in cheap sweet foods. I'm not sure what impact it's meant to have on the liver... mostly the dominance of this very highly processed syrup in the States is believed to be triggering insulin-related problems, obesity, diabetes etc. Was it explained to you exactly what liver problem you're trying to avoid?

I think, therefore, that you should swap sweet foods for things like fresh fruit. And avoid processed foods completely in favour of natural, whole-foods, which are not formulated and which therefore can't contain corn syrup

High Fructose Corn Syrup is derived from sweetcorn. Starts as glucose and is then converted enzymatically to the far sweeter fructose. Granulated/crystalline sugar is usually derived from sugar beet which is high in sucrose. Cane Sugar is made using sugar cane, often sold as brown sugar - also high in sucrose.

Sugar is sugar, surely?

Interested in the avoiding fructose for the sake of the liver- please could you tell me more?

Corn syrup is made from maize (sweet corn) not sugar cane. The jury seems to be out a bit as to whether it really is the monster food it's sometimes made out to be, but it does seem to make it's way into a huge amount of stuff here in North America. This is partly to do with subsidies and trade tariffs. In the States corn is very heavily subsidized. On the other hand the EU previously had large subsidies on sugar production which meant that the West Indies and other sugar cane producing countries got preferential treatment.

I spend a lot of time looking for icecreams with short lists of ingredients that I recognise (I live in Canada). Generally you need to look at the more expensive brands, and I would suspect that in general European brands might be more inclined to use sugar rather than Corn Syrup. If you look at most of the online grocery shopping sites they give ingredients, which whilst time consuming at least avoids the frostbite!

"Sugar is sugar, surely?"

Not really. There are lots of different kinds with different properties and effects on our bodies. Sucrose, lactose, glucose, fructose etc. Fructose is extremely sweet, for example, so a small amount produces a significant physical response. When present in fruit we can cope with this intense sweetness easily because it's part of a total parcel which includes fibre, vitamins and so forth. When it is artificially derived from sweetcorn glucose extract and put into processed foods, our bodies react differently. The problem Americans have is that HFCS is so widespread in every processed foodstuff that they are 'overdosing' as a population and no-one's totally sure what that does to health long-term.

Example
Heinz Tomato Ketchup in the US contains TOMATO CONCENTRATE FROM RED RIPE TOMATOES, DISTILLED VINEGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, SALT, SPICE, ONION POWDER, NATURAL FLAVORING

Heinz UK Tomato Ketchup contains Tomatoes (132g per 100g Ketchup), Spirit Vinegar, Sugar, Salt, Spice & Herb Extracts (contains Celery), Spice

Thank you- I didn't know that. And can you shed any light on the liver element?

I hadn't heard that HFCS specifically affects the liver which is why I asked the OP. However, if a patient had obesity-related 'non-alcoholic fatty liver disease', for example, the doctor may stipulate that they should eliminate products containing HFCS (processed & sugary foods) as a way to improve their diet and lose weight

Glucose can be used by pretty much every cell in the body but fructose can only be metabolised by the liver so if you eat a lot of it then some of it will stick around in the liver.

Meant to say some of it will stick around in the liver as fat.

Americans do not call sugar cane "corn" -- we call it "sugar cane."

Both corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup are made from corn.

well there's a thing!

To answer the liver question:

What we generally call sugar (from sugar cane or sugar beet), is sucrose.
Chemically speaking, sucrose is 1 molecule of fructose + 1 molecule of glucose.

The body metabolises glucose for energy (i.e. fuel for muscles, organs etc.), whereas fructose can not be metabolised in the same way and is broken down in the liver and mainly turned into cholesterol!

The latest medical research has shown that most dyslipidaemia (high cholesterol) in humans is actually caused by alcohol (ethanol) and fructose (both are metabolised in the same way by the liver).

In addition to raising the blood cholesterol levels, both can cause steatosis of the liver ("fatty liver syndrome") and cirrhosis!

It is now widely believed (among endocrinologists and other specialists) that the obesity and T2 diabetes epidemics are the result of an increase in sugar and alcohol in the average person's diet, and the prevalence of these conditions correlate almost exactly with the introduction and use of high-fructose corn syrup since the 1970s in western diets!

This is why obesity is less prevalent in countries where fizzy drinks, fruit juices and processed foods are less commonly consumed.

thanks, vit.

I drink hardly any alcohol but like sugar in my tea and porage.

Would there be any advantage to my liver and chloesterol from using glucose instead?

BTW I think my misapprehension might have come from a cookery book which has US and UK conversions and might have said something like "1 cup corn syrup (8 fl oz. golden syrup) which gave me the idea they were the same thing.

thanks bran - but the tub of green and blacks we picked up had corn syrup - I guess it may depend on the flavour.

As for the reason why I have an endocrine illness and this was a suggestion long term to not exacerbate the illness long term, I am lucky to not be over weight.

As for the ice cream - any ideas anyone - please? Take a look at the different supermarkets and let me know?

ivykaty I had a look at Waitrose and all the high end vanilla icecreams have sugar rather than corn syrups/glucose-fructose. Generally if you go organic you should be OK - products with fewer ingredients in general are usually a better bet for more 'natural' ingredients. Duchy Original Vanilla Icecream, Green and Black Organic Vanilla Icecream, Yeo Valley Organic Madagascan Vanilla Ice Cream, Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream, Waitrose Seriously Creamy Madagascan Vanilla Ice Cream all have no nasties in them, although they aren't cheap!

OR Beechdean Classic Vanilla Ice Cream, Mackie's Traditional Dairy Ice Cream, Devon Clotted Cream Ice Cream Waitrose all seem to be OK for corn syrup (although they do have other things in them that I'd prefer not to eat personally!)

All from an Ocado search :)

nooka - thank you for looking, I shall make a note of the brands you mentioned in the first paragraph and try them - I only want a scoop with some fruit, so a small tub should last a long time

Not really wanting the other weird and not so wonderful things they want to put in to other brands either

Yes, things like seaweed don't strike me as idea pudding ingredients! We're going to get an icecream maker this summer, as even the posh brands here have loads of additives. Looking at Ocada made me feel quite envious

HFCS is 55% fructose, "sugar" is 50% fructose. I'm not sure how switching to sugar actually helps reduce the amounts of it you have? Okay there's that 5%, but seriously?

Granulated sugar is sucrose, a crystalline disaccharide of fructose and glucose derived from beet or cane. HFCS is far more heavily processed and uses enzymes and heat treatment to convert glucose to fructose.

One little warning sign comes from bees.... Orchard Bees are transported around the USA in order to pollinate crops. When suppliers switched to feeding their orchard bee colonies with cheaper HFCS solutions as an alternative to nectar or sugar/water solutions in winter months it coincided with a sharp rise in the incidence of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). One third of the bee colonies in the USA have died and HFCS is increasingly believed to be a contributory factor. IMHO if a creature that lives on sugar finds it difficult to survive on a product that claims to be a 'type of sugar', there's a problem.