Famous Death Row Last Meals
Debunking Beer Can Chicken: A Waste Of Good Beer, And Dangerous
Photo: trimmer741, Flickr
Corn-syrup bashing has become one of the primary food-related preoccupations of the current era. First, a Princeton University study reported that lab rats gained more weight if fed a diet of corn syrup rather than plain old white sugar. Then obesity experts traced the rise of childhood and adult fatness at least party to humongous, "Big Gulp" servings of soda pop -- which contain large quantities of corn syrup.
Despite remonstrances on the part of agri-food giants like Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and Corn Products International that their corn syrup remains wholesome and good for you, the public perception of corn syrup has increasingly become one of suspicion and even fear.
A new piece in the Chicago Tribune by senior business and economics correspondent Greg Burns reports that food companies are quietly reformulating their products to remove corn syrup and replace it with white sugar. They are doing so with little fanfare, because to make a big deal of it would draw the public's attention to the fact that many products -- and the list is shockingly large -- still contain corn syrup. Just about any label you look at will reveal corn syrup in some proportion or other, whether it be baked goods, frozen dinners, bottled sauces, or soft drinks.
As Burns points out, the popularity of corn syrup first arose among food manufacturers because government subsidies given to domestic corn growers, and tariffs placed upon imported white sugar, made corn syrup much cheaper than sugar, and hence amped up manufacturers' profits.
Now, soft drink giants like Pepsico have developed a multi-pronged approach by developing new "healthy" product lines (bottled waters, sports drinks, vitamin waters), racing to formulate better artificial sweeteners, and replacing corn syrup with sugar in some product lines. Expect, at least, many more niche products, which give consumers more choice when it comes to how healthy they want their food to be.
Kim Kardashian's Baby Looks Just Like ...
Las Vegas Court Officials Accused Of Covering Up Sex Assault [VIDEO]
Like Father, Like Son!
Oklahoma man allowed to sue state over native american rain god on license plate
Living in a Van Was the Best Financial Decision I Ever Made
LOOK: Teen Was 'Shamed' By TSA Officer For This Outfit
Walmart vs. Costco: How Do They Really Compare?
Groomers Lose Dog, Claim Not Responsible
Chris Brown's Girlfriend Sure Knows How To Wear A Bikini
Microsoft E3 2013 Xbox liveblog!
The Story Behind Shapewear: From Girdles to Spanx
WATCH: Up To 15 7-Elevens Raided
Gene Wilder on Today's 'Dirty' Movies and Why 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' Is 'an Insult'
Cut the Cost of Car Repairs by Replacing Your Tires -- Savings Experiment
Axl Rose Doesn't Look Like This Anymore ...
7 Myths of Long-Term Care
Tamra Barney Gets Married, See Her Dress!
EPIC FAIL
Woman Sentenced To Die At 16 Is Now Free
Helen's Secret Surgery
Jennifer Aniston's Wedding Postponed?
Kim Kardashian Clearly Misses Her Bikini Body
LOOK: Can You Decipher This Girl's NSFW Yearbook Message?
Investigation Underway After Throat-Grab Photos Surface
PHOTOS: Former Bond Girl Hits The Red Carpet At 70
'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Star Arrested
And Miss USA Is...
PHOTOS: Ireland Baldwin Does NOT Look 17
LOOK: Dads And Babies Napping!
5-Year-Old Girl Takes On The Westboro Baptist Church
It's A Girl For Kimye!
WATCH: Archaeologists Discover 1,200-Year-Old 'Lost City' In Cambodia
4-19-2010 @2:47PM h said... Corn syrup or High Fructose Corn Syrup? Completely two different things.
Reply
4-19-2010 @4:26PM Frank said... "Then obesity experts traced the rise of childhood and adult fatness at least party to humongous, "Big Gulp" servings of soda pop -- which contain large quantities of corn syrup."
This is one of my pet peeves: we confuse our "food issues" when we discuss things. In this case we're lumping in the overconsumption issue with the HFCS/"pure" food issue.
And while to some extent there are related issues, but they are not the same.
There is no doubt a "Double Big Gulp" gluttony issue, in which we are consuming way too much (see also: Cheesecake Factory, Supersizing), but it is a separate issue of the quality of ingredients. I mean, it's pretty indisputable that soda with sugar in these quantities would be pretty terrible for you as well...
If we're ever going to "win the war" on the bad food habits of our modern world, we need to define the battleground.
Reply
4-19-2010 @4:43PM Chris Brown said... Too true. Just like people look for a magic pill to lose weight, they look for a scapegoat to blame their obesity on such as HFCS instead of their own fault of overeating and lack of portion control.
4-19-2010 @5:13PM cybele said... Like H said, please correct this post. There's a huge difference between Corn Syrup and High Fructose Corn Syrup.
A food blog ought to not only know the difference but report on it.
If you'd like to test it out, make your own soda some day with cane sugar, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup. You might not be able to tell the difference between HFCS and Sugar, but most people can tell the difference between glucose syrup and sucrose.
Reply
4-19-2010 @4:45PM dale said... If people weren't buying the products, the companies wouldn't make them.
Unless your plans are to take all of our rights away and not allow people make simple decisions for themselves like what they would like to eat, this continuous obnoxious finger pointing towards people who choose to eat more unhealthy than others will go nowhere.
The fact is that we have a lot more poor people in this country than rich. Poor people are unable to afford to eat as healthy as rich people because poor foods are cheap and readily available in poor communities for that fact.
It comes down to minding your own business and not making wide claims and judgements of people no matter what the topic is. Stop buying products for you own home if they aren't good enough for you. That's as much as can be done.
Reply
4-20-2010 @12:17AM jptech said... about 89. lbs too late, if you ask me.
Reply
4-20-2010 @3:49AM irenelenna said... The right foods are the best solution for you to manage blood sugar use this free meal planner http://bit.ly/cMc1i8
Reply
4-20-2010 @9:43AM R C said... Hope you realise the Princeton report was flawed..
There was weight gain seen in the rats with access to 12 hour water (sucrose vs hfcs), but the rats that had 24 hour access to water (no sucrose vs hfcs) had statistically no weight gain. They didn't test 24 hours of hfcs vs sucrose so you can't draw any real conclusions from it either.
Reply
4-29-2010 @12:39AM Tammy Hart said... Portion control is certainly the underlying cause of obesity, and especially what portions of what foods. From an article on SpeakPeople.com:
"The typical American over the age of two consumes more than 300 calories daily from sugar and other caloric sweeteners. That's 19 teaspoons (75 grams) a day! One-sixth of our calorie intake is coming from a food ingredient that provides absolutely no nutritional benefit!" (http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=486)
We have to reprogram the way we think about food. It's not just for pleasure; it's to fuel our body. So just like we wouldn't put rocks on our gas tank and expect the car to last very long or take us very far, we have to stop putting bad things in our bodies and expect to live long, healthy lives.
Reply
5-10-2010 @4:30PM Glen said... I'm sorry, if I have a hotdog and there's HFCS in the bun, the hotdog, the relish, and the ketchup, that's just too much of one ingrediant.
Reply