By now, everyone has seen the commercials. The ones where someone offers someone a bite of their delicious sweet treat and the other person recoils back in horror like they just asked them to try some meth. "Dude, that has high fructose corn syrup! Don't you know what that stuff does to you?"
The other person just stares blankly. "What does it do?"
"You know, well, um, it causes...I dunno."
Cue the music. "It doesn't do anything. Eaten in moderation it's fine!"
Commercial, you FAIL!
So what IS the deal with high fructose corn syrup? What is so wrong with it that they had to launch a whole campaign to convince people that it's okay to eat?
If all of a sudden, the water company in your area started running ads saying, "Don't worry - the water's fine," wouldn't you get suspicious like, "Hasn't it always been fine? What's going on?"
I've been trying to make everything healthier for my family's sake, cutting out fats, limiting sodium intake and anything with HFCS. But this stuff is in EVERYTHING - ketchup, barbecue sauce, bread, juice, etc.
What's the deal? According to the Mayo Clinic:
So far, research has yielded conflicting results about the effects of high-fructose corn syrup. For example, various early studies showed an association between increased consumption of sweetened beverages (many of which contained high-fructose corn syrup) and obesity. But recent research — some of which is supported by the beverage industry — suggests that high-fructose corn syrup isn't intrinsically less healthy than other sweeteners, nor is it the root cause of obesity.So basically what they're saying is, the research is shady. I'm doing my best to get rid of the high-fructose corn syrup. You can too, Mama! Here are some tips:
- Start looking at the labels of foods you regularly buy. If it's processed, it might just have it, so watch out.
- If you find that your favorite food does in fact have HFCS, see where it falls in the ingredients list. Is it the first item? That's bad. Closer to the end? That's better, but not great.
- Make your own. I've discovered that almost all the pre-made BBQ sauces (that make life so much easier!) have HFCS in it. Looks like I'll be hitting up the Food Network site for the Neely's BBQ sauce recipe.
- Swap stuff out. If you have to change brands of your favorite juice to get the kind without HFCS, then make a substitution somewhere else. Do you really need brand-name frozen veggies if the store brand tastes the same? Learn the prices and you'll find that you really can afford to feed your fam more nutritious food.
Have you all been thinking about cutting out the HFCS? Let me know in the comments!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI'm not necessarily trying to cut HFCS specifically, but considering that sugar raises insulin, I choose not to take in refined sugars very frequently (anymore). Essentially, I dont limit myself on most things vegetable, fruit, meat, or saturated fat, so I have significantly eliminated store bought processed foods, refined sugars, and high-Omega-6 foods like ~most~ commonly found vegetable oils.
The name of the game is inflammation, so its important to find balance, get enough HDL so that if you do have inflammation the cholesterol will be carried away by it, and consume a better ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 since most of the American diet is highly Omega-6 biased. My eating habits consist of lean meat (as much from grass-fed sources as I can get my hands on without paying too much), plenty of vegetables, very small amounts of grain now and then, and fresh fruit for my sweet tooth. And don't be afraid of whole milk(more fat, same sugar as SKIM ==> drink less of it), grass-fed lard (check your butcher or urban market), and grass-fed butter (Kerry Gold, Organic Valley Pasture Butter).
On one hand I'm disgusted that food producers have so little imagination that they often pile sugar on sugar to make a tantalizing product, but I am thoroughly opposed to a government organization (or government-backed organization) that tells us what is "safe" without any allusion to common human physiology. Its always eat more of this, eat less of that. People do not learn about eating well from them, and for whatever reason people also do not learn not to trust governments or public interest groups after being lied to for decades. (Food pyramid, I'm looking at you and your backbone echelon of carbohydrates)
Great blog, TP!