I know I feel much better when I don’t consume HFCS and my digestive system thanks me for not eating it. I started avoiding it years ago, but it was in everything, so I had to get really picky about what I eat. A big problem is that many artificial sweeteners upset my system as well. So I’m happy to see companies switching back to sugar, although I avoid a lot of that, too. The nice part is having things taste like they are “supposed” to again, like I remember from when I was a kid, instead of tasting like ass. I don’t know why but HFCS even tastes different to me, and I dislike the flavor.
High-fructose corn syrup first started trickling into our food supply about 40 years ago; by 1984, it was flowing from just about every soda fountain in the country. These days HFCS accounts for almost half of all the added sugars in the U.S. diet, but the corn Niagara may soon be over. Last week, PepsiCo became the latest manufacturer to turn its back on America’s sweetener, introducing three new soft drinks—Pepsi Natural, Pepsi Throwback, and Mountain Dew Throwback—sweetened with a “natural” blend of cane and beet sugars. Next week, Snapple will roll out its most expensive advertising campaign ever to promote a “natural” line of tea drinks brewed with “real” cane sugar. Pizza Hut, Kraft Foods, and ConAgra have also made the switch in recent months. Not even a $30 million multimedia campaign from the Corn Refiners Association has done much to reverse the trend.
The case against HFCS comprises the three cardinal claims of food politics: Like other villainous ingredients—trans fat and artificial food dye come to mind—high-fructose corn syrup is accused of being at once unhealthy, unnatural, and unappetizing. (These might be described as the Hippocratic, Platonic, and Epicurean tines of the foodie movement.) While none of these claims is completely wrong when it comes to corn sweetener, none is quite right, either.
Our fear of high-fructose corn syrup seems to have arisen from some very real concerns over the health effects of fructose, one of its principal components. The ingestion of glucose, another basic sugar, is known to stimulate the release of body chemicals that regulate food intake. Fructose, on the other hand, does little to suppress your appetite, and it seems to be preferentially associated with the formation of new fat cells. A growing body of research has led some scientists to wonder whether the increased consumption of fructose over the past few decades might be responsible for rising rates of obesity.
via The decline and fall of high-fructose corn syrup. – By Daniel Engber – Slate Magazine.
6 Responses
Being a diabetic I watch my blood sugar very closely and thankfully it is well controlled but HFCS accidently consumed can upset the balance for days. I am truly glad to see it losing its panache. Yeah, its up front costs are cheap but the long term costs are going to be with us for a long time. I’ve avoided it almost from the beginning but every once in a while I get an accidental dose and I can instantly feel the results. Baad stuff.
I’ve seen some slick ads on TV telling me HFCS is just as dandy as other sugars. I assume these ads are paid for by those with something to gain, i.e., HFCS sellers. I try mightily to keep this stuff out of my body.
Don’t get me started on one of my rants about fuel vs. “food” either. So little corn is used for food in this country (HFCS is not food), that using it as a fuel deprives no one of a meal as far as I can tell (unless it’s livestock, and those creatures should graze).
Let’s just get rid of ALL the man-made additives at once. Food should taste like food, not some substance somebody cooked up in a lab…or their garage!
Yeah, a lot of the brushfires turn out to be related to land not being grazed anymore, too! And the animals in feedlots raised on corn are not as lean and healthy as grass-fed animals. Ruminants are NOT meant to eat corn!
I seldom eat corn, but late summer Cape Cod sweet corn on the cob is hard to resist, so I eat a few ears each season, less than a dozen total, I’d say.
Well, but you’re not a ruminant, either. People can eat corn just fine. Anything eaten in its “whole” form has lots of fiber too which is good for us.