Corn Syrup Controversy: A Sticky Situation

You know what’s stylish? Looking good, sure. Feeling good, absolutely. Being healthy is stylish.

I will be the first to admit that I’m not an expert when it comes to health and nutrition. I’m not a doctor. I’m not a scientist. I’m not a nutritionist. But I have some common sense when it comes to what I put in my body. There have been a few exceptions to this (undergrad late nights at Buddhist Biker Bar… I don’t like to talk about it).

In any case, I try to be mindful of what I eat and how it makes me feel. I subscribe to the “you are what you eat” school of thought. My opinions on health and nutrition may be anecdotal…they may ring true for me and me alone (every body is different). But it doesn’t take a rocket scientists to know the difference between healthy choices and not-so-healthy choices when it comes to what we eat, drink and feed to our children.

This is why I couldn’t help but cringe when I happened to catch the following commercials on cable TV last night:

Really? Who are they trying to kid? I realize that corn farmers have to feed their families, but this Campaign for Corn Syrup is laughable in my opinion.

The US has a raging obesity epidemic going on. People across the world are dying of hunger and, God bless us, Americans can barely fit into our pants. Sugar is a huge contributor to this problem. Sodas, juices and processed foods are packed with sugar in multiple forms, and instead of reaching for natural, low-calorie snacks and beverages, we grab packaged foods, many of which contain HFCS, because they are fast and easy. High fructose corn syrup often hides in seemingly healthy products (certain varieties of breakfast cereal, ketchup, granola bars, yogurt, canned fruits and salad dressings) so label checking is paramount if you’re keen to avoid it.

[source: Romanlily]

A quick Wikipedia search gives the following explaination for how high fructose corn syrup is made:

High-fructose corn syrup is produced by milling corn to produce corn starch, then processing that corn starch to yield corn syrup which is almost entirely glucose, and then adding enzymes which change the glucose into fructose. The resulting syrup (after enzyme conversion) contains approximately 90% fructose and is HFCS 90. To make the other common forms of HFCS (HFCS 55 and HFCS 42) the HFCS 90 is mixed with 100% glucose corn syrup in the appropriate ratios to form the desired HFCS. The enzyme process which changes the 100% glucose corn syrup into HFCS 90 is as follows:

Cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called oligosaccharides.
Glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose.
Xylose isomerase (aka glucose isomerase) converts glucose to a mixture of about 42% fructose and 50-52% glucose with some other sugars mixed in.

While inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry and used only once, the more costly glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it, allowing it to be used repeatedly until it loses its activity. This 42-43% fructose glucose mixture is then subjected to a liquid chromatography step where the fructose is enriched to approximately 90%. The 90% fructose is then back-blended with 42% fructose to achieve a 55% fructose final product. Most manufacturers use carbon absorption for impurity removal. Numerous filtration, ion-exchange and evaporation steps are also part of the overall process.

Wow…for those of you who are still reading, does this sound like something you want oozing through your internal organs? Sheesh, my eyes glaze over just looking at all these hard-to-pronounce words. Clearly high fructose corn syrup doesn’t grow in nature. Cavemen didn’t eat it. Even the F.D.A. says HFCS is not natural. I, for one, don’t want it coursing through my bloodstream in any dosage.

For anyone still hot-and-fired to eat corn syrup by the pound (USDA reports that the average American consumes over 60 pounds of corn syrup per year), here is a recent Washington Post article explaining why high fructose corn syrup is bad for the environment. It makes the case that steering clear of high fructose corn syrup can positively impact our planet.

I realize that most things won’t kill you if enjoyed in moderation. That said, our overall health and well-being is the sum of the many small choices we make throughout the years. I’ll choose to pass on the high-fructose corn syrup, thank you. These commercials (irresponsible in my opinion) failed to convince me. Are you convinced?

[Top photo source]