Buy Walking VideosWhat’s Up With High Fructose Corn Syrup?
I’ve heard both sides of the argument. I’ve heard that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a benign sweetener that is less expensive for soda and snack makers to use to sweeten food. I’ve also heard that it is processed differently in our body than cane sugar, causing the so-called “obesity epidemic.” What’s the truth?
The Accidental Hedonist has a write up about the research and the controversy that sums it up pretty well.
“The truth? Well, the truth is that we don’t know the truth. No one can say for certain that HFCS is better or worse than cane sugar. When we look to the Corn folks for information, all they point to is the fact that the FDA has allowed the use of HFCS, so it has to be safe, right?”
“Of course, that’s a bit disengenuous on the Corn folks’ part, because the FDA has NEVER tested HFCS, nor accepted any outsourced test results. The have deemed HFCS as “generally regarded as safe”, which essentially means that No one has been reputed to have died of the stuff.”
“Any excess of sweetener is a bad thing, whether it’s sugar or HFCS. The question that no one seems to be willing to answer is “Which is worse – Too much sugar or too much HFCS?” Until this question is answered, any indictment of HFCS is premature.”
Instead of checking to see whether your soda contains HFCS or cane sugar, limiting your intake of soda is probably the best bet until we are able to find the truth. Fill your glass with water and you won’t go wrong.
Via: Boing Boing: Is high-fructose corn syrup the devil? Yup.
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May 25th, 2006 at 5:34 am
I think it’s not the corn syrup it’s self but sugar is sugar and many people glance over the label in the back not realizing that there a couple kinds of sugars in their food. Maybe it just needs to renamed sugary corn syrup. Even health food sugars are sugar. Well molasses has minerals but it’s still a form of sugar.
May 26th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
…and why do we see so much “corn syrup” used in foods in the states??
It’s the government’s imposed tariff on imported sugar keeping the price of sugar in the U.S. 50% higher than anywhere else in the world; along with the government’s heavy subsidization of domestic-grown corn — and thus “corn syrup” that’s responsible: We’re all paying to make it extra-cheap for junk-food producers to buy corn syrup; while simultaneously driving the price of natural sugar sky-high…all for the sake of keeping a handful of farmers & sugar plantation-owners happy. (Not to mention keeping Central American corn farmers dirt poor, since they can’t compete with the heavily-subsidized U.S. corn farmers.)
Isn’t government intervention wonderful?!
sh(A)ne