High fructose corn syrup - the great debate

Another consequence of the corn legislation in the 1970's - that started paying farmers by the bushel they produced - was that the farmers began producing more corn than America and other countries can ever consume (we give away massive amounts of our corn to impoverished nations).  With so much excess corn the industrial food companies started to engineer new ways to use the extremely cheap commodity and one of the worst products created was high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  Because of the high import tariffs on cane sugar, HFCS is a much cheaper sweetener, which means that industrial food companies can use it in much larger quantities than natural cane sugar and still make larger profits. 

Our bodies are designed to crave certain flavors: sweet, fat and salt.  These flavors are not abundant in nature.  Fruit is only sweet when it is at its ripest, fat is a rarity and is only consumed through eating meat and salt is even more rare.  The industrial food companies know that we crave these things and engineer their food to be as sweet, salty or fatty as possible so we will keep eating more and more of their product.  HFCS is a large component of the food addiction that the industrial food system creates.

It is not yet a scientific fact that HFCS reacts differently in our bodies than does natural cane sugar but studies are being done that show early signs of increased weight gain and in some cases HFCS is contaminated with mercury from the processing of the corn.  I know from personal experience that HFCS definitely contributed to my weight gain but it is unclear whether it was because I am now consuming less sucrose/fructose or because HFCS directly increased my weight gain.  I have not increased my exercise (I'm pretty sedentary) and have not lessened my calorie intake dramatically over the last 3 months but I have lost around 12 pounds and the same with my husband.  Since late January of 2011, James and I no longer consume any HFCS.  We buy the pure cane sugar mexican coke - I have a coke addiction like most midwesterners but have reduced my intake to one 12 oz. bottle every few days as a treat, James likes it with his whiskey. ;-)  We don't buy packaged processed bread - look at the bread label next time you buy sandwich bread and you would be amazed at the ingredients.  I have a hand-me-down bread machine and with only yeast, flour, honey, salt and water I get fresh toasty bread in about 3.5 hours.  Compare those 5 ingredients to the 40 or so ingredients in the grocery store bread whose main ingredient besides flour is HFCS.  I'm sure most people could find a cheap bread machine someone has in their garage or in a yard sale.  It is definitely worth having unless you are much more ambitious person than myself and can make bread the old fashioned way!

Another good rule of thumb is that if you see HFCS on the package of a food product, don't buy it!  HFCS is the number one indicator that a food is highly processed and it probably also contains stabilizers, preservatives and other empty calories.  Be careful though, industrial food companies are smart and have started labeling HFCS as "corn sugar."  There is currently a lawsuit brought by the cane sugar companies against the corn companies for false advertising.  The cane sugar advocates say the corn people are distorting the scientific facts and trying to fool people into thinking corn naturally produces sugar.

If a food label has an unpronounceable ingredient in it - don't buy it.  If it's not something you would cook with in your own kitchen why eat it from an industrial kitchen?