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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Sweeteners / What is Karo Syrup and is it Healthy?

What is Karo Syrup and is it Healthy?

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Karo Syrup's Sticky History
  • Karo for Formula?
  • GMOs, Glyphosate and Preservatives

Karo syrup is a highly processed sweetener that is toxic and best avoided in all culinary situations. This is especially the case for well-meaning but misinformed parents seeking to make a safe and nourishing homemade baby formula.

dark karo syrup bottle wooden background

Karo Syrup’s Sticky History

Karo syrup is a mild, sticky sweetener made from commercial cornstarch.

The Corn Products Refining Company of New York and Chicago originally developed it in the early 1900s for use as livestock feed. (1)

Karo syrup paved the way for high fructose corn syrup, one of the most popular and yet unhealthy, inflammation-producing sweeteners in processed foods today.

The fact that Karo has been around for over a century does not mean it is safe or healthy, especially for babies and children!

Karo for Formula?

By the mid-1900s, Karo syrup had evolved from animal feed into light and dark syrups for human consumption.

It even became a favored primary ingredient for baby formula!

Shockingly, doctors would direct mothers to blend Karo with water and canned evaporated milk to feed baby on demand.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, dark Karo used to be a recommended constipation remedy for children as well.

My own mother can attest to this foolishness. Her seven children were born during this era.

The doctor’s note below is from 1960. It shows that mothers were to feed their newborns every 3-4 hours with formula made from:

  • 13 ounces evaporated milk
  • 10 ounces water
  • 2 tablespoons (dark) Karo syrup
karo syrup indicated on doctor's note for baby formula

GMOs, Glyphosate and Preservatives

With commercial baby formula shortages growing around the world, desperate parents seeking to make their own are reviving the use of this unhealthy mixture not realizing the dangers to their baby.

Karo syrup of decades ago was bad enough.

Today, manufacturers use genetically modified corn to make Karo syrup.

This GMO crop is heavily sprayed with glyphosate (Roundup).

This herbicide is known to disrupt normal gut function, contributing to the development of autoimmune diseases according to Dr. Stephanie Seneff of MIT. (2, 3)

In addition, the toxin sodium benzoate is used as a preservative. Among other concerns, The Lancet published a study that found sodium benzoate to be a potential trigger for ADHD regardless of the child’s mental health history or age. (4)

Under no conceivable circumstances should babies be consuming Karo syrup!

This PhD nutritionist baby formula recipe using grassfed milk (or whole milk yogurt) is a much smarter and safer choice that mimics breastmilk most closely.

Note to self…Karo is not safe for adults either!

For dessert recipes such as pecan pie that misguidedly call for this toxic sweetener, organic brown rice syrup is a better alternative to consider (though not perfect).

dark karo in glass bottle white background


References

(1) An Overview of Syrup in America: A History of Karo, Maple, and Other Syrups

(2) Glyphosate. The Silent Killer

(3) Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases II: Celiac sprue and gluten intolerance

(4) The Poison Squad

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Category: Healthy Living, Sweeteners
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (4)

  1. Lamias

    Mar 16, 2023 at 5:32 am

    Your article is very nice,but my opinion it is very wrong. If we talk about a few years ago, parents were not so educated, they used to accept what the doctor used to say as correct. Because of him Today one of my friend is not able to walk properly. It has been years since he face this disease 30 years and we also do Gynecomastia treatment.
    Thank you for listening me carefully.

    Reply
  2. Ethan

    Jul 6, 2022 at 1:18 pm

    Thank you very much for your article, it is very interesting information! When I was a kid, my mom boiled this syrup into gummies with a special recipe for supposedly better appetite for me and my sisters. But my opinion is different .. I think that it is very harmful and not desirable for use by either children or adults.

    Reply
  3. Terri

    May 11, 2022 at 10:53 am

    I have one of those recipe cards given my mother when she left the hospital after I was born. I believe my mom breastfed some of my other siblings, she did not breastfeed me. She said her mother asked her why she didn’t breastfeed. She replied that she thought the doctor knew best. She overcame that erroneous idea later but I’m the product of karo syrup milk and antibiotics from constant ear infections. It took me years to realize milk and I do not get along well, I wished my mother knew that when I was a baby, it would have saved me a lot of grief that I still am dealing with 60 years later.

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope

      May 11, 2022 at 12:30 pm

      I am so sorry to hear this story Terri. You are brave to be speaking out about it … hopefully a parent considering using this stuff for their baby will decide not to based on you sharing your experience.

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