The Effects of High Fructose Corn Syrup, Trans-fat, and Sugar on an Individuals’ Health

In our society, food has always held a special place in our hearts. Food is a necessity for our lives, but eating too much of certain foods can leave us with a lifetime of problems. Obesity has been a huge trend in America, and it is not a trend that we should be okay with. According to the State of Childen Obesity, Texas is the tenth highest obesity rate for adults at an estimated rate of thirty-five percent, and it is the seventh-highest obesity rate for young adults, between the age of ten to seventeen. There are many factors that can affect your health through the consumption of foods. Eating food may be easy, but it is actually quite difficult for some people to consume the right amount of food, and it causes many health problems. For example, the effects of high fructose corn syrup, trans-fat, sodium, and sugar can lead to a terrible outcome on your health. (on health relate them to obesity and epidemics in the us and south texas).

High fructose corn syrup can have major effects on individuals’ health. High fructose corn syrup an artificial sweetener made from corn syrup. If you eat a lot of high fructose corn syrup, it can lead to insulin resistance, obesity, type two diabetes, and high blood pressure. Many people drink lots of high-fructose corn syrup because it is the main ingredient in most soft drinks. Consumption of beverages containing fructose is between 135 percent back in 1977 and 2001. In addition, there are more negative effects high-fructose corn syrup can cause in a person’s body such as liver damage, links to cancer, mercury poisoning, tooth decay, and many more. Many people should avoid over-exposure to fructose, because of a long list of problems that may come with this product. Thus, having a high fructose diet can have a terrible effect on one’s health.

Trans-fats are to be considered the worst type of fat anyone can eat. There are two types of trans-fats, naturally-occurring, and artificial trans-fats. Naturally occurring trans fats are foods people may eat every day like milk and meat products. Artificial trans-fats are products like industrial processes that add hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid, like cookies and cake. Trans fats are able to raise your cholesterol levels and can affect your health terribly. Eating these trans fats can make an individual to have a stroke or develop heart disease. Type two diabetes can also occur as well when consuming these types of fats. Foods that contain trans-fats it would be foods such as, frozen pizza, crackers, cakes, cookies, and the list goes on. If we eat too much of trans-fat foods, we can mess up our cardiovascular system if not careful. There has been evidence made in the United States of artificial trans-fats in restaurants. This banning is to ensure public safety for the people, so no unhealthy products go into their systems. Thus, trans fats can lead to a great amount of obesity and other health problems.

Sodium can cause serious health problems. Personally, I hate the overconsumption of sodium. I’m very careful about my sodium intake. A huge example of sodium is salt or baking soda. “A person needs sodium to work properly because it helps with the functions of the nerves and muscles and it also helps keep the right balance of fluids in the body. Your kidneys control how much sodium is in your body. If you have too much and your kidneys can not get rid of it, sodiums build up in your blood. This can lead to high blood pressure. High blood pressure can lead to other health problems”. Thus, sodium can be good for your health because sodium is a necessity, but ingesting too much sodium can lead to lifelong health problems.

Sugar is probably one of the greatest weaknesses for us. Though it tastes so delicious, sugar can have many negative effects on the body. Sugar can affect a person’s brain when consumed too much. Eating sugar gives your brain a feel-good chemical called dopamine, which leads to many wild sugar cravings, like a child who is obsessed with candy and sugary goods. Sugar can greatly affect your teeth, sugar in candy contains bacteria that can causes cavities making a person’s teeth rot. Sugar is able to raise a person’s blood sugar levels fast like a boost of energy. However, after the boost, your sugar levels tend to drop leaving a person’s body anxious or jittery. Sugar also is one of the main causes of obesity, eating to much sugar can lead you to gain a lot of weight and causes health problems, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Thus, eating an abundance amount of sugar can cause someone to become obese and have many health problems.

Through personal experience, I have seen the outcomes of when you eat an abundance of food in an unhealthy manner. My whole family has suffered from diabetes and high cholesterol, and they are currently going to dialysis, because they did not watch the way they ate and their physical activity rate, and because it was genetics. The youngest person who is suffering from diabetes is my niece, who is the same age as me, be we are different because she is overweight. When my family received the news that she was borderline to having diabetes, they made a slight change in their diet but did not take it seriously and at the next doctor’s appointment, she was diagnosed with diabetes. Last year, my oldest brother of the age of 38, passed away but he was suffering from his health for a long time. His diabetes and high cholesterol put him in a wheelchair and it was hard to live for him, many days and nights he would be frustrated with his health, until his last day of life. Diabetes is a constant battle in my family and a battle that I do not want to fight. I watch what I eat a little bit more and do more physical activity, but not as much as I would like to. A battle with your health is a very hard battle to fight, but I am determined to avoid that battle while I am still young and growing.

To conclude, eating too many foods that have high fructose corn syrup, trans-fat, sodium, and sugar can affect your health in a bad way, thus we all have to watch what we eat and stay active, so we can avoid many health problems.