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.