It Looks Like High Fructose Corn Syrup Manufacturers Are Getting A Little Nervous
The Corn Refiners Association is sick and tired of people expressing uncertainty about the dubious heath benefits of high fructose corn syrup, so they're running some commercials featuring aggressively annoying people getting schooled on the "facts" about our most omnipresent sweetener. All we managed to glean from the commercials is that not consuming high fructose corn syrup makes you rude. In the first one, one mom walks up to another (who is pouring some sort of pink liquid from a jug) and says, "Wow, you don't care what the kids eat, huh?" What a jerk.
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Comments:
1) What are the proven harms in eating it?
2) They don't say it is rude for saying anything. It seems they are asserting that claiming it's harmful without any support is stupid. That is stupid.
I don't eat the shit because I think the US government props up huge corporations with subsidies for the poison. Then they stick it in everything, including my fucking bread.
"... what, that it's made from corn???!!"
Rude AND ignorant. Come on, pick me, I know the answer! Advertising...making people believe anything big corporations want. Hope my parents see it so next time I make a decision not to eat something with high fructose corn syrup they try that line on me. I sure wouldn't say, "uhhh...ummm...that...."
Awesome. Just avoiding being a green counter-culturist hipster is enough for me; actually giving us some facts is a bonus.
Well at least its "fine in moderation"... you know like alcohol, and fish high in mercury.
They come across like the public information films in the Simpsons. I half expected Troy Maclure to pop in:
"Hi, I'm Troy Maclure and you may know me from such films as "what could possibly be wrong with highly processed and refined artificial sweeteners" and "Tobacco, it's a natural leaf"."
I avoid it because it tastes gross. Real sugar for me, please.
everything in moderation...
From what I've read the biggest problem is that because HFCS is concentrated that people consume it in larger doses, leading to a stronger chance of (wilford brimley voice) type 2 'betus'.
@sir_eccles: Well said, if I could I would moderate +1.
I saw these over the weekend and my first thought was "wow, it really must be that bad if they're doing the anti-information campaign". In a way it assures me how bad the stuff must be.
Too bad you can't eat it in moderation because they pump it into everything.
So they say if I don't want to eat the damn thing (which is hard, because it shows up in everything) I'm an idiot? Thanks HFCS!
If everyone in the US were to take these commercials to heart and truly consume HFCS in moderation, the corn refiners would be in huge trouble. Because it's in freaking EVERYTHING.
@B: Second. Does any one else notice that products made with real sugar and even potato chips made with sun flower oil or whatever just taste better?
Whole Foods makes non-diet soda that uses cane sugar instead of HFCS... it's not bad, but it's feel-your-teeth-rotting sweet, so you end up not wanting much.
@ornj: I'm sure most everyone here will attest to that. I can definitely taste the difference, but it's not enough that I actually care. I do hate the fact that it's in everything us Americans consume. Like others said, why the f*ck does my bread need to have HFCS in it?!
It would have been awesome if that woman whacked the other one in the face with the jug.
...I think Hostess needs to start using this for Twinkies...
Guy: "Want a twinkie?"
Girl: "No way man, you know what they say about trans-fats"
Guy: "What?"
...and then just have the girl stand there with a dumb look on her face.
It could work for anything... cigarettes, salt, weed, cell phone radio emissions, cosmic rays...
We're already "dumbing down" everything else on TV, this is just the next logical step.
Am I the only one who noticed the "better than thou" woman in the first commercial is Buffy's roommate in Season 4? Lol.
Anyone else notice that the "in moderation" part in the first video is almost [i]sotto voce[/]?
And as others have said, try shopping the mainstream brands and consuming in moderation and you won't be eating much.
In my experience the people who avoid HFCS also make a point to be as condescending as possible to people who don't. I fully support these ads, not because I think HFCS is a great thing, but because people should mind their own damn business and let others consume whatever they want.
Our government has price controls on domestic sugar (to keep prices high) and places caps on imported sugar.
This forced food manufacturers to look for lower cost substitutes, which just happen to be grown right here in the USA.
Because the body does not respond chemical to HFCS in the same was as sugar and related substances, there is increasing data to suggest that HFCS is a significant factor in the rise in obesity and diabetes rates in our country.
@Chongo: I believe that is it - fructose is a simple sugar so is broken down more "easily" and therefore affects the blood sugar levels. Sending those levels on a roller coaster can play havok with the body's attempts to regulate it. (I am an engineer not a doctor. This is my understanding from undergrad biology and reading Atkins' book.)
PEOPLE-
VERY FEW EDIBLE THINGS ARE BAD FOR YOU IF TAKEN WITH MODERATION.
The problem is most people don't know what "Moderation" means.
I think this advertising will backfire, because it will get people to Google "High Fructose Corn Syrup" or just the letters "HFCS" since Google will do both the abbreviation and full word of it, and you see the top results of sites that talk about how bad it is/can be for you. Not enough people know what HFCS is, so this will get them to read it in greater detail.
The sponsored link is to the HFCS "Facts" site, but most don't pay attention to that link and they will notice all these links below showing how bad it is/can be for you. Great work though "Corn refiners" on making people aware of the product and how it will start the downfall.
I'm a supertaster. I can taste the HFCS in some things, especially soda.
Solution? I don't eat or drink anything with a clear "corny" taste. If I can't taste it, I don't worry about it.
I just avoid any food additive that is best expressed as an acronym, or that one cannot buy off the shelf at my grocery store.
We can buy sugar, honey, even little packets of NutraSweet or Aspartame. Not so with HFCS. That tells us something right there, yes?
HFCS is like BASF-- we don't make the foods you eat, we make them mysterious.
Moral of the story:
Everyone who doesn't eat corn syrup is a racist.
@emis: That's precisely the problem with HFCS. If something has too much sugar in it, your stomach rebels and you're sated. Sugar intake is halted. Puppies rejoice.
Same thing with HFCS and you're not sated, instead shuffling towards the grocery isle, groaning, "Moooore..."
The sad part about this commercial? I let my kids drink kool-aid at a church function one time, and my mother-in-law used the whole "I guess you don't care about your kids" line on me. For the exact same reason.
Most mysterious place I've found it (so far) has been in a can of kidney beans. So I rinse all the beans now. But I'm sure I'm still getting some grams of sugar regardless. Then I eat them while wearing my tinfoil hat!
I wish I could have been there when they were filming that commercial, I would have gone on for 15 minutes on what bad about HFCS...
@emis: When I saw this commercial for the first time, not knowing what it was, I swore he was going to say "You know, make you fat", to which she was going to lay him out.
@sir_eccles: Actually, IIRC, they did have a sugar reference. Homer was warming up to Flanders, and they were having a picnic. Maude didn't want the kids to have sugar and Marge says something like, "Why would the sugar council tell me something wrong?".
If the corn industry is motivated to defend HFCS (which is of course obvious and the position taken by many of the current posters), is it not equally likely that various "Green" grocers/producers (specifically, those using cane sugar and other not-HFCS sweeteners) are equally motivated to attack HFCS?
A few of the positions (not all) here seem to be solely/primarily "the corn industry says HFCS is not so bad = HFCS IS bad," but if we accept that argument as acceptable to this debate, why are "Green" (just using a sloppy catch-all term here) grocers/producers absolved from the same critique) i.e. "the Green industry says Cane Sugar is not so bad = Cane Sugar IS BAD."?
I would contend both sides are equally motivated to attack the other position/ prop up their own position, for the sake of EVIL PROFITS.
"It's made from corn"
"So's ethanol and you don't see me eating it."
@celestebai: Don't you make Kool-Aid with regular sugar? Or have things changed that much since I was a kid?
The website says it is "Nutritionally The Same as Table Sugar" which is untrue. It is made of the same components and same ratios of fructose and glucose, but in table sugar it is chemically bonded while HFCS it is its individual components. There is a difference.
Uhhh.....A spoon full of HFCS will make the medicine go down? (Sing with the Mary Poppins(sp?) tune)
When we first saw this my wife and I were asking what the heck that was all about and laughing hysterically. We had the same thought as sir_eccles.
Just read a good article on this. Basically HFCS doesn't trigger insulin and leptin release because the enzyme is designed for glucose not fructose, so you don't fee sated and therefore will eat more food while intaking the same amount of sugar calories because you haven't triggered the cascade. [www.naturalnews.com]
Also, does the corn industry REALLY need to advertise, aren't they making enough money already and having supply problems cause food prices to rise?@
I bet cigarette companies wish they thought of the "fine in moderation" tagline.
@Micromegas: I work in an environment where I'm in contact with hundreds of moms and kids, and I've never met one who is sanctimonious about HFCS.
Personally, I try my best to avoid it. When I was drinking soda (two cans per day) over a period of a year, I began to gain weight in areas of my body where I do not normally gain weight -- in my upper body and my face. I'm small-boned and naturally thin, with a tendency to carry any excess weight in my hips and thighs, but on high doses of HFCS I looked puffy and bloated. After I cut that shit out, I lost 20 lbs in about 6 six weeks. Seven years later, I gain and lose the same 5-10 lbs, but I've never had the puffy-weight problem. Just my own experience, YMMV.
I think there has been some recent buzz that indicates that HFCS interferes with appetite control. Apparently, if you consume real sugar, your body knows when you've had enough and shuts down your hunger cravings. But this isn't the case with HFCS.
Sorry, I don't have any articles to link. I heard it on news blurbs a few weeks ago.
My husband and I saw those ads over the weekend on TLC and were laughing hysterically.