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I've been fiercely opposed to
the chemically-altered and highly sweet high fructose corn syrup for years, and it's amazing to me that, as long as
it's been known to have serious affects on health, contributing to rising obesity and diabetes rates, it's still
ubiquitously available in foods. It's super sweet, and it's cheap.
Kate Hopkins from the Accidental Hedonist is, like me, a long-time member of the anti-HFCS camp. She's developed an exceedingly well-researched answer to a reader's question on how to argue the HFCS case when many corn industry marketing folks rave about how "natural" the product is.
It's not really a tough debate when you look at the actual facts. High fructose corn syrup is "not a naturally occuring product, and I don't mean that in the same way I mean that All-Purpose Flour isn't a naturally occuring product. I mean it in the sense that HFCS must be made in a controlled environment, and enzymes not natural to corn products must be purposefully introduced to cornstarch in a very specific order for HFCS to exist." Kate goes further to describe the actual chemical process that takes place.
Even more damning is that the FDA, despite being pretty much in the pocket of the corn industry, only describes HFCS as "generally regarded as safe." According to the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, "This is used to describe the FDA philosophy that justifies approval of food additives that may not meet the usual test criteria for safety; however, these additives have been used extensively and have not demonstrated any harm to consumers."
However you come out on the debate, it's important that you are educated enough to be able to identify which of your commonly-consumed food products contain the ingredient. Kate points to a list of the common fast food products containing the substance, which I find highly useful.
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12-27-2005 @9:17AM David T said... This is my real beef with HFCS- if it weren't for the fact that we subsidize corn growing (and thus every product manufactured from the over-production of corn, including HFCS) with tax dollars, and for the fact that sugar in the united states is higher than the world price of sugar because we have a quota on how much can be imported into the United States in order to appease sugar growers in Louisiana and Florida, we wouldn't actually use HFCS instead of just using sugar. All of our regular sodas use HFCS because of this, and they don't taste as good. I had a regular coke in Toronto where they use real cane sugar, and I could tell the difference. There have been studies that HFCS causes an increased risk of Type II Diabetes.
We only have our government to thank. /end rant
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12-27-2005 @11:04AM T. Allen said... HFCS makes me ill. I actually have to read labels, and avoid anything that lists HFCS as its prime ingredient. Which includes almost every bottled soft drink available. too bad. I guess I'll stick with my unsweetened iced tea. Not only will I avoid diabetes, but I won't get fat either.
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