Tuesday, September 14, 2010

High Fructose Corn Syrup By Any Other Name Would Still Be Too Sweet

I've been eating a healthier diet lately, becoming more vigilant about what I put in my body. You can often find me at the grocery store, reading labels of processed foods, trying to avoid additives and sweeteners that aren't good for my body. One of the most dangerous of these is high fructose corn syrup, which your body processes in different ways than regular cane or beet sugar, which in turn alters the way metabolic-regulating hormones function. It also feeds cancer cells.
So, being a prudent shopper, I should have the right to decide what I ingest, right? Not if the high fructose corn syrup industry has it's way.
Now they want to change the food label for high fructose corn syrup to the more pleasing 'corn sugar'. Why? because consumption of high fructose corn syrup in the US market has fallen 21 percent in the last ten years as more and more consumers are avoiding it in the diet. Even First Lady Michelle Obama says she doesn't want her daughters eating food with it in it's ingredients. Meanwhile, the industry has opened up new markets in Mexico and other emerging economies.

2 comments:

libhom said...

Thanks for warning people about the possibility of deceptive labeling in this case.

Tom Harper said...

I've heard terrible things about High Fructose Corn Syrup. But corn sugar -- hmmm, that sounds safe enough. And yummy too. I think I'll go get me some.