By CHRISTOPHER McCLINTOCK
For Brentwood Home Page

Avoid THIS ONE FOOD….

To improve your running I can’t stress enough the importance of nutrition. The next few weeks I will focus on how good and bad nutrition can make or break your running.

If you can avoid one thing……

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS): HFCS is regular corn syrup that has been treated with an enzyme that converts glucose into fructose (which is sweeter). "The final product is a combination of glucose and fructose, usually either 42 percent fructose or 55 percent fructose, with the rest mostly glucose. The 55 percent HFCS is often used to sweeten soft drinks, and the 42 percent HFCS is used in baked goods.

Some experts believe that the higher proportion of fructose to glucose creates unique harm. It's easier for fructose to be made into fat than for glucose to be made into fat. Additionally, there's a relatively strong literature showing negative consequences of fructose compared to glucose with respect to raising fatty substances. It's also been suggested that the rise in obesity in the United States is related to the rise in HFCS consumption. However, most evidence suggests that the metabolic effects of sucrose and HFCS are pretty similar.

Therefore, it's been argued that adding HFCS leads to an increased consumption of foods that are less nutrient dense, leading to greater calorie consumption and eventually weight gain.

Here’s the thing, it is in so much of our “shelved foods” (food in the isles of a grocery store, and not around the edges) that it may take a while to find the finds without it. But watch your waistline decrease and your endurance increase with a lack of HFCS in your diet.

Two foods that are examples of high in HFCS are ketchup and many breads. To make a change, you can switch to organic brands.  Even Kroger has their own brand without HFCS.
Examples of drinks with HFCS include soda and ready-to-drink sports drinks. Switch to powders to mix your sport drinks because the powder does not have HFCS.

Here’s to eating your Personal Best.