Label-conscious consumers are skipping over high-fructose corn syrup in favor of products sweetened with natural alternatives like cane sugar, honey, and fruit juice. Finding HFCS-free items takes work, but the Corn Refiners Association worries that consumers are increasingly up to the challenge. They recently launched a “major marketing campaign” to defend their chemical concoction. Are you paying any attention to the sweet brouhaha?
High fructose corn syrup has become a favorite target of the health-conscious as an alleged cause of America’s obesity boom. A typical 2-liter bottle of soda contains 15 ounces of corn syrup, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Whether it’s really at fault is open to debate.
The Corn Refiners Assn. contends that high fructose corn syrup is just as natural as table sugar and honey. Others say it’s not natural at all, because it is manufactured through a chemical process and does not occur in nature by itself. The Center for Science in the Public Interest called the corn refiners’ campaign “deceptive.”
We prefer real sugar, and eagerly greet Passover as the holiday with the Kosher Coke. How about you?
Consumers are raising cane over corn sweetener [The Los Angeles Times]
(Photo: Getty)
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@silentluciditi: I meant that I want totally unsweetened tea, but thanks. I was questioning why people can’t drink tea that isn’t full of sugar.
Cyanide is natural. Woo.
@johnva:
Ah, I see… and understand. I don’t sweeten tea I make at home, and when buying stuff to bring home to drink I lean towards Tea’s Tea (they have great unsweetened green teas, and come in 20 oz. bottles and huge liter bottles), or if it must be sweetened, ‘O’ organics or Archer Farms, as I have found they are less sweet than any of the major brands I listed. All of those (especially Snapple and SoBe) are insanely sweet, as if they’re trying to compensate for the change from HFCS. In SoBe’s case I think it’s sweeter than soda!
@silentluciditi: Yeah, Itoen (the makers of Tea’s Tea) is great stuff, and I was happy to see it become available in the U.S. (I had it in Japan quite a while before I first saw it here). I just think it’s weird how super-sweet beverages totally dominate the U.S. market. I can only conclude that either a) they sell better because Americans actually like to drink syrup water, or b) they sell better because sugar has a sort of “addictive” quality to it, in that it makes people get amped up and then crash. Either way, no wonder we’re a nation with epidemic levels of diabetes and obesity.
While they sell a lot of sweetened beverages in Japan, the unsweetened teas and stuff appear to be just as popular, if not more so, and there are a lot of unsweetened choices besides just water. I’d say the ratio there is about 50/50. Here I’d say the ratio of sweetened to unsweetened drinks in most stores is like 95:5.
@Captain_Collide: Because giving a damn what you put in your body makes you an “elitist health-nut hippie”, obviously.
@johnva: Lipton also bottles unsweetened tea.
Corn syrup is in damn near everything, from pasta sauce to rice mixes. I even found it in sausage at the supermarket. SAUSAGE!!!! It is evil, and the sooner it’s gone the better.
@PsychicPsycho3: I have the flip side. When I got married my wife made me get rid of all the HFCS and in the first month I droped about 15 lbs.
If nothing else, sugar cane just TASTES better.
When I lived in Texas, there was this stuff you could buy at little roadside stands in East Texas called “moonshine syrup.” It’s as thick as honey but almost clear colored. Its ingredients are “corn syrup” and “cane syrup,” that’s it. So maybe it’s like the best of both worlds: more naturally produced corn product fused with the old-timey goodness of pure cane sugar.
Even better, it’s usually sold with other sugar cane products like sorghum (kind of a sweeter, thinner version of molasses) syrup and pure ribbon cane syrup. My mother-in-law used to put a pitcher full of sorghum syrup on the breakfast table every morning, even if we were only having cereal or fruit!
I can feel my teeth rotting now just thinking about it all.
*waves hands in general agreement with the 89% I just voted in agreement with!*
HFCS = chemically processed (gods know how, since you can’t get them to actually come clean about it; and are you really willing to trust them?), tastes icky, fattening.
I avoid it whenever possible. Will NOT drink any “juice” that’s second ingredient is this glarp!
Then again, I have bad reactions (migraines, dizziness, nausea) to a lot of sugar “substitutes” (honey, cane juice and stevia being the only exceptions), so I’ve stayed away from it on general principles since I knew how. I probably deserve less credit for my choice than people who avoid the stuff JUST because they’re being smart about their health.
I will take credit for keeping it away from my kid as much as possible, though. *That’s* not easy.
Being allergic to corn, I do my damndest to stay away from HFCS. Also, when I am craving a soda, there’s about 5 shops in this town with Mexican coke (real sugar).
Costco has CocaCola made in Mexico with Real Cane Sugar. It’s superior by far! It’s a more delicate sweetness that doesn’t leave your mouth feeling all sticky and slimy like regular Coke. Also has slightly more earthy, natural taste that comes through with the absence of HFCS. If you have a slightly less refined palate, you won’t be able to taste the difference however.
Which is why I love Trader Joe’s – most of their TJ branded items don’t include HFCS. This includes cereal bars, BBQ sauces, juices, etc. It makes a big difference.
@Aristeia
Huzzah. This is my position exactly. I do not understand why it is in such a minority among people I consider pretty bright.
@Triterion: I had a Mexican Coke today with real sugar. I could not believe how much lighter the texture felt in my mouth. It has been years since having Mexican Coke and it was sooo good, I don’t usually drink soda, but an occasional Mexican Coke will be a nice treat.
The things we avoid in my household:
HFCS and other things made with corn as a base (breads, cereals, tortillas)
cinnamon/cassia
MSG
sweets
At least one of three of us does badly with at least one of these, due to some form of allergy or intolerance. This doesn’t mean no one in the household consumes these, but they don’t go on the general shopping list because someone has to avoid them (cinnamon is the only thing totally banned from the house because even a whiff makes my whole head puff up).
Good ol Canadian Coke. I live in Washington and whenever I take a trip up to Canada, I buy a couple of more cases of Coke.
While I prefer real sugar, there are plenty of good uses for Corn Syrup. Especially when I’m making candy. The corn syrup keeps the accidental crystalization down.
I’m agreeing with alot of folks, there IS NO difference between how your body handles HFCS and Cane sugar or honey. Your body breaks all sugars down into glucose before being absorbed. The folks that are losing weight by avoiding HFCS are doing so because they’ve more than likely cut out tons of excess calories, as opposed to it being that evil HFCS.
It disgusts me too that most food has HFCS in it despite the fact that it probably doesn’t need it at all. However, Food Inc has focus groups to please after all.
Earlier this year Independent Lens on PBS aired a documentary about the nations corn and corn products called King Corn. The guys in the documentary even called a lab to get instructions on how to make HFCS in their home. There was even a scene in it where a couple farmers said they wouldn’t eat corn from their own fields because the government pays them to grow crap corn. Some pretty good viewing if you can find it.
Whoa, Hoss! If you’re dumping HFCS because you prefer the taste of sugar, go in peace. But if you’re dumping HFCS for sugar because you think you’re improving your health, better reconsider. Sugar, HFCS, honey, fruit juice concentrates and, yes, agave nectar all have the same two basic sugars: fructose and glucose. And except for agave, they are there in the same ratios (agave has considerably more fructose than the others). The unavoidable fact is that once these sweeteners reach the blood, they’re processed identically.
Are fructose and glucose processed differently? Sure, but that really doesn’t matter as long as we sweeten our foods with one of the sweeteners above. They’re interchangeable and all bring the same amounts of fructose and glucose into the blood for processing. Bottlers such as Jones Cola or LIV or Juicy-Juice who make a big deal out of replacing HFCS with sugar or agave nectar or stripped fruit juice concentrates to provide a more “healthy” product are disingenuous when they do so. These other sweeteners are handled just the same way as HFCS and are no more nutritious or healthful.
If you want a different metabolic result, you’ll have to use a sweetener from a different category like sugar alcohols or high intensity sweeteners. But just keep in mind that these have their own health baggage and many have severe use limitations.
Here’s a novel concept: Concerned about how much sweetener you’re eating? Don’t eat so many sweets. Better yet, eat less of everything.
One more thing: this is a horsesh*t poll. I cast my vote for “If I’m gonna eat a caloric sweetener, it doesn’t matter to me or my body whether I eat sugar or HFCS.”
@mzhartz: check your ingredients lists for “maltodextrin” – it’s a corn product
real sugar? not cane sugar, thanks. That’s only half a step worse than HFCS. It pisses me off that Whole Foods puts cane sugar into damn near everything they sell and it really shouldn’t be used for anything other than ethanol.
Agave has a much lower glycemic index. I wonder if it could ever be as cheap to produce as cane sugar and HFCS, and if it’s just gov’t subsidies that keep HFCS cheap.
PopTarts don’t have to be a thing of the past. Make your own with jam and pie crust dough.
My kids were born corn sensitive. Any corn product (CS, HFCS, CStarch, Modified C Starch, Sure-Jell, etc.) and they developed bloody diaper rash within 2 hours. Even Ci-Ci’s pizza isn’t safe for them!
Quick notes from a biochemist:
Sucrose — table sugar — is glucose-fructose in structure. The major metabolic path for energy in the body is for glucose, which fructose gets folded into quite easily and quickly. Meanwhile, fat metabolism for energy takes time to start, and the body prefers not to burn amino acids. Carbohydrates require extra energy to convert into sugar to burn, and are basically sugars anyway.
Now, there is one health reason to avoid HFCS that’s valid: overexposure to corn is strongly suspected to be a major cause of allergies. This is thought to be also why peanut allergies are on the rise.
As for the rest? Look, the rise in obesity is likely due to a
combination of overeating & poorly-defined terms. The definition of obese in current use — the BMI — happens to cover not just the fat but also body-builders and some types of professional athlete. According the BMI, Arnold Schwarzenegger is obese.