As I sit here in my bed eating cheerio squares– which, for those of you who don’t know are made of cake batter, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, cheerios, and one full can of sweetened condensed milk –I start to feel like that mother in the commercial, who cannot answer the other woman as to why high fructose corn syrup is so bad for all of us. I mean, it’s made from corn right? Actually, according to the website SweetSurprise.com high fructose corn syrup is in fact made from corn. (Of course then there’s the question of whether this corn is genetically modified or “enhanced”?– but we’ll save that for another day.) Here’s how it’s done:
The corn wet milling industry makes high fructose corn syrup from corn starch using a series of unit processes that include steeping corn to soften the hard kernel; physical separation of the kernel into its separate components—starch, corn hull, protein and oil; breakdown of the starch to glucose; use of enzymes to invert glucose to fructose; removal of impurities; and blending of glucose and fructose to make HFCS-42 and HFCS-55.2
The problem with this procedure is, that by the time HFCS has been created there is little left in the compound reminding us of the corn from whence it originated. When it has finally reached our mouths it is by that point a complex sugar, just as bad, if not worse for us than regular table sugar. Yet as a society we cannot get enough of it. which is why this commercial is irrelevant. While the woman says HFCS is good for you in small amounts, the fact of the matter is that HFCS cannot be found in small amounts. It’s everywhere!
Think back to the commercial for a second. I feel as though it’s safe to assume that some kind of party was going on in the background. Now what is usually found at– say, a 12 year olds party, whether it be birthday, pool, or slumber? That’s right, most likely cake and ice cream, and/or popsicles, and/or brownies and cookies, and/or candy from a pinyata. And what do all of these foods have in common? They all most likely contain High Fructose Corn Syrup! I can see why the woman wasn’t worried about the HFCS from the juice. I mean really, after you’ve fed your kids all that other junk food what’s a few glasses of some sugar compound going to do to them? From yogurts, to crackers, to juice drinks, to bread, high fructose corn syrup has found it’s way into almost everything we Americans consume. In an article by The New York Times, American adults ate 40 pounds of HFCS in the year 2007– 40 pounds! Think of what kind of an example this sets for the children of America. It just goes to show that how too much of a good thing, can sometimes become a very bad thing indeed.
Many people associate the rise in obesity and diabetes over the last 30 years to the creation and production of HFCS. And while there has been no “official” data recorded to prove this theory, many consumers are now switching from HFCS back to sugar. However some professionals don’t think there’s enough of a difference between the two products to matter health-wise.
Dr. Robert H. Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco Children’s Hospital, said: “The argument about which is better for you, sucrose or HFCS, is garbage. Both are equally bad for your health.
Both sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are made from glucose and fructose. The level of fructose is about 5 percent higher in the corn sweetener.
Dr. Lustig studies the health effects of fructose, particularly on the liver, where it is metabolized. Part of his research shows that too much fructose — no matter the source — affects the liver in the same way too much alcohol does.
In the end, I agree with the Author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Michael Pollan. He has three simple rules to eating: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Therefore, if you don’t always eat organic, or natural, and you are eating processed foods with HFCS, then the second rule counter balances the first. A little bit of HFCS in your diet won’t kill you, especially if you exercise regularly (hence one of the many reasons why I’m on the crew team– I can eat pretty much anything I want). So join the ban of people cutting back on HFCS and sugar, and try a salad every once in a while. Go GREEN!
The scary thing about HFCS is that it is literally everywhere from pasta sauce to peanut butter, not just sweetsIts a cheap way to make foods taste better without using actual herbs and spices and it’s actually kind of sickening when you realize just how many unnessasary simple carbohydartes we consume as a culture and most the time without even realizing it!
The thing that really stuck me about that comercial when i first saw it last summer was that they even admitted that in SMALL quantities HFCS isn’t bad for you, just like everything else in moderation won’t kill you, but you did bring up a valid point that we don’t consume small ammunts of HFCS at all. Moderation just isn’t in the American language.