I think it may be used here but nowhere near as extensively as in the US. It's cheaper here for manufacturers to use sugar.

High fructose corn syrup usually only has a little more fructose then sugar, it's agave the so called healthy alternative that you really have to watch for. We don't really use high fructose corn syrup but there are fructose based sweeteners on the market touted as "healthy alternatives" like agave and some of those will also be found in "healthy" products.

lots of good websites such as BFFM, Mike Geary, Dr Mercola have some very interesting articles on HFCS and recommend we avoid it like the plague. must say i haven't seen it on many labels. and yes, sherrie, agave is touted as the latest healthy sweetener and even sold in health food stores:confused::( actually, i get quite amazed at the ignorance of health food stores based on what they stock. would love to run one myself. would have trouble stocking the shelves, i think:D

sorry, forgot to add. the real baddie about HFCS is it's chemical composition and what it does to our bodies. if i find it again i will post it for you. it was quite interesting.

In the US - high fructose consumption actually has been found to result in increased severity of fatty liver disease (which roughly 30% of the australian population have). severe fatty liver disease = cirrhosis, high risk of T2Diabetes, increased risk of cardiac problems, varicose veins in the oesophagus and increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Also a lot of people with digestive issues have fructose malabsorption (not to be confused with fructose intolerance). This doesn't just relate to the sugar "fructose" but also fructans which are in some less likely culprits such as wheat, green beans, artichokes etc

We don't use High Fructose Corn Syrup in Australia. I can't remember now why it started in the US as a replacement for sugar, but we didn't go down the same path here.

Glucose syrup and rice syrup get used a lot here in australia as does corn syrup........apart from fructose they use sulphor dioxide in its manufacture but it does not get labelled on the packaging because it is less than 10 parts per million and is generlaly not added by the end manufacturer but by the supplier.

There is a consideration that under 10 parts per million that the amounts are negligible....and because most people react over this amount they think it is sufficient to only label when the amounts exceed this.

However for those of us who react at amounts lower than this....well its just our bad luck.

So if you are reacting to any one of these syrups it may be a hidden reaction you havent thought of.

Kind Regards

Elizabeth

I wonder if this is why a lot of fruit used to give me a 'windy' pain? Particularly granny smith apples, which I love.

More then likely, fructose malabsorption is very common especially in IBS, it all depends on the percentage of fructose to glucose in the fruit. Glucose is needed to digest the fructose so if the fructose is higher then you won't be able to digest it properly. Fructose malabsorption