December 05, 2007
Cool ideas
High fructose corn syrup is on the way out, finally.
At the beginning of 2007 I made the resolution to stop consuming as much High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and Trans Fats as possible. These two nasties are in food everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I've pretty much stopped shopping at traditional grocery stores and do as much shopping as I can at Trader Joes. It turns out that I don't have to read the labels at Trader Joes -- they've already figured out that HFCS is evil and I've seen it in only a few of their products. They still sell soda's that have plenty HFCS in them, but soda's haven't been part of my diet for a while, so those are easy to avoid.
Now a small grocery in Seattle has declared itself free of HFCS:
There are no Wheat Thins at PCC Natural Markets, no boxes of Kellogg's Raisin Bran, not even any Sara Lee whole grain bagels or Oroweat cracked-wheat hot dog buns.
What customers will find is almost unheard of: a supermarket free of products containing high-fructose corn syrup.
Three cheers for PCC! I hope that Trader Joes will follow suit and nuke the remainder of HFCS products on their shelves.
Posted by Mayhem at December 5, 2007 02:23 PM
High fructose corn syrup is not any worse or better than cane sugar. The HFCS used in soft drinks and other sweented products is typically HFCS 55, which is 55% fructose and 45% glucose which is nearly the same as the 50/50 fructose/glucose of cane sugar (sucrose).
You should also know that while refined vs unrefined sugar may change the flavor it makes no real difference in terms of health effects: brown sugar, white sugar, raw sugar, natural sugar, and evaporated cane juice are all just sucrose -- there is no metabolic difference.
Some products like Vitamin Water have been touting crystalline fructose as a more healthy replacement to HFCS. Crystalline fructose is basically pure fructose which is usually gotten from corn -- so it's basically HFCS 100.
Pure fructose isn't as terrible as it sounds since there are pluses and minuses to using pure fructose. It tastes sweeter than glucose so when used on it's own they don't need to put as much in. It also doesn't cause the big glucose-response insulin rush that sugar(or HFCS 55) does due to the fact that fructose slowly gets converted to glucose. Both of those things are good, but unfortunately fructose also gets converted to fat more readily than glucose and it monopolizes the liver and may do other not so healthy things, which basically gets rid of any of the benefits.
The short of it is that if you want to improve your health you should limit all your simple carbohydrates: this includes all forms including HFCS, sucrose, honey, crystalline fructose, maltose, etc. Basically, you want your saccharides to be poly rather than mono or di.
The current health fad to get rid of HFCS won't do anything to improve health if it's replaced with a equal amount of other sugars (sometimes they use even more). All it's going to do is make things more expensive since HFCS is fairly cheap to produce (thanks to the government subsidized corn industry).
Transfats on the other hand are really worse than most other forms of fat.
> High fructose corn syrup is not any worse or better than cane sugar
I would disagree -- there is plenty of bad press for HFCS. And given the process by which starch is turned into sugar is nasty. In my overall trend to eat less processed crap that people pass off as food these days certainly precludes me consuming HFCS.
Personally, I know my body has been happier since I've stopped consuming it. And I am not opting for artificial sweeteners -- I think those are worse than HFCS.
And as you suggested, my plan for next year is to cut down on refined sugars as much as possible. And enriched flour. Fuck all that processed crap!
Not only is HFCS worse than sucrose it has invaded our food supply. Courtesy of the Corn
Refiners Assoc., go to www.corn.org/NSFC2006.pdf P29-30 list all the foods and products that
contain HFCS. A few surprises even for me:
soups, whole wheat bread, cough syrups. What irks
me is when HFCS 55 is said to be "very similiar"
to sucrose since HFCS has a fructose: glucose
ratio of 55:45 and, of course, sugar is 50:50.
This is patently misleading. If you do the math
correctly, 55/45=12.2% excess fructose in every
can of soda. It is the fructose moiety that over time is damaging to your body. And considering that the average teen chugs one to two cans of pop daily, that is a lot of extra fructose the body is forced to assimilate with all sorts of health hazards: obesity,hyperinsulinemia,Type II diabetes; elevated triglycerides, CVD.
Why is it that in Europe a Coke is made with real sugar and still served in 6 oz glass bottles and in the US Coke is only sweetened with HFCS and we guzzle liters? Could it be the HFCS?
Colin was spot on saying that because of Corn subsidies HFCS is dirt cheap compared to sugar. So the entire country changed over because it was cheapers. Healthy consequences be damned!
Sad. So sad.
I've had two cokes this year. Both of them in London and even then I can't say I miss them!
I switched over to shopping mostly at Trader Joe's for similar reasons. Two and a half years ago I had new dietary restrictions that I had to pay attention to and Trader Joe's makes it so easy...like you said, most of the time you don't even have to check the label. TJ's food has never betrayed me, and the best part is it's cheaper anyway! I have no idea why people buy the crap at regular grocery stores.
> I have no idea why people buy the crap at regular grocery stores.
YES!!
I've been thinking exactly the same thing for the whole year. I guess most people can't find their "trusted" brands at TJs and are not adventurous enough to try something new. More for us. :)
Oh and TJs has this assumed reputation of being more expensive than other stores. Fools!
