Do you care if your kids eat high-fructose corn syrup?
There is an epic battle being fought in science labs, Congress, on the TV airwaves and in your kitchen over the use of high-fructose corn syrup in everyday products, such as ketchup.
High-fructose corn syrup has been demonized by many as the reason our children are so obese. But it has also been cleared of any wrong doing by respected scientists.
Regular folks are protesting the ingredient on Facebook. The companies that produce and use corn syrup have defended their product in high-profile TV ad campaigns. (The ad goes something like: You’re not serving high-fructose corn syrup? Well why not? What’s wrong with it? Silence from the other person cause they don’t really know. They’ve just heard it’s bad.)
Some of companies are calling uncle and are removing it from their products.
The theory being that even if it’s not truly bad for you, if the perception is that it’s bad then why not just go ahead and replace it with real sugar. Well the reason is cost. Sugar costs about 40 percent more to use in a product than corn syrup.
Despite that cost increase, products like Hunt’s ketchup, Gatorade, several Kraft salad dressings, Wheat Thins, Ocean Spray and some Pepsi products are examples of companies switching back to sugar. (Some companies are absorbing the extra cost at least for now, just to get the high-fructose corn syrup label off their products.)
From The New York Times story:
“High-fructose corn syrup is singled out because it is still one of the biggest sources of calories in our diet and because it is made from corn — a lavishly subsidized crop that appears, in one way or another, in so much of our food….”
“According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, more than half of all Americans — 53 percent — now say they are concerned that high-fructose corn syrup may pose a health hazard, up from 40 percent in 2004….”
“Leading scientists, however, say that the product, made when various chemicals convert corn starch into syrup, is not any worse than sugar. Both sweeteners are made up of roughly equal amounts of glucose and fructose, they say….”
There are some advocates that still think corn syrup is the cause of obesity – they claim that our bodies don’t know how to metabolize it in such large quantities.
“In the recent Princeton study that gave support to his side, one group of rats was given access to high-fructose corn syrup, while another got sugar-sweetened drinks. The study found that rats that gulped lots of drinks with high-fructose corn syrup gained more weight than those that had the sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.”
So where do you stand on the high-fructose corn syrup battle? Do you care if your kids are eating it? Did you realize it was in so many products – like ketchup and salad dressings? (I didn’t.) Are you confused enough by the argument that you would prefer it just be taken out to avoid any risk? Or do you feel like there’s not enough scientific support that it is bad to make you willing to pay more for sugar-based products?
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88 comments Add your comment
JJ
May 19th, 2010
2:19 pm
Thanks Twinmom……
Tiger Ochocinco Mellencamp
May 19th, 2010
2:21 pm
“rats that gulped lots of drinks with high-fructose corn syrup gained more weight than those that had the sugar”……SHOCKING!!!! If you gulp lots of drinks laced with sweeteners, you’ll gain weight??? Where has all this information been hiding….how can we just be hearing about this groundbreaking study in 2010?!?
Seriously, if letting your kids eat tons of processed food with artificial sweeteners and preservatives might create disadvantages to a healthy diet is news to you, you’ve been living under a very large nutritional rock. What does a parent expect eating food that someone else mass produces over preparing their own food with ingredients from scratch?
And REALLY…is it just me…or given all we know about the absolute nutritional evil of soft drinks, isn’t even having soft drinks in your house for young children to acquire a taste for tantamount to offering them cigarettes?
TechMom
May 19th, 2010
2:22 pm
@JATL I read that article about pesticides and ADD/ADHD and was flabergasted. I know I try to get my son to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables but then to find out even they could be more of a catalyst for the symptoms than junk food is a little unnerving. I do have a small garden but don’t grow everything and only grow stuff during the summer so we of course resort to the grocery store produce the rest of the time. Makes me wonder what exactly is good for humans to eat anymore.
JJ
May 19th, 2010
2:35 pm
Techmom – hit up some of the local farmer’s markets. They are sprouting up everywhere (pun intended…LOL)!!! Suwanee has a great one, now open Saturdays and Tuesday afternoons 4-7, Snellville just started one this year, and I believe Lawrenceville has one too.
Tiger Ochocinco Mellencamp
May 19th, 2010
2:47 pm
@yet….
Pepsi website nutritional label for a 12 fluid oz of pepsi….
calories – 150
sodium – 30 mg
carbs – 41 g
sugars – 41 g
protein – 0
Corona Extra nutritional label
Calories – 148
Sodium – 0 mg
Carbs – 13 g
Sugars – 0 g
Protein – 1 g
Seems to me that on a nice summer day when I’m bbq’ing, I’m better off having that six pack of corona than a 6 pack of Pepsi. the added benefit is that I tend to get real sleepy after a six pack of beer and stop drinking, whereas my pepsi swigging counterpart just gets hopped up on the sugar high and tends to have a few more pepsis than I do beer! ;-)
LONG LIVE BEER!!!!
Wayne
May 19th, 2010
2:55 pm
My SIL swears that kids don’t get hopped up on sugar. I offered up my kids to prove her wrong. She won’t take me up on it for some reason…
JJ
May 19th, 2010
2:57 pm
Tiger – HERE HERE!!!!!
HB
May 19th, 2010
3:03 pm
Whiskey…hahaha! Come to think of it, most processed/refined corn I consume probably does come from my occasional indulgence of my favorite libation — Jack and Coke!
Tiger Ochocinco Mellencamp
May 19th, 2010
3:09 pm
@HB….that coke in your whiskey is really bad for you! I recommend it sans coke!
motherjanegoose
May 19th, 2010
3:20 pm
@ Twin MOM, I have to have my coffee too and use GASP Sweet and Low. My chiropractor is adamant about Splenda. I am sure she does not like the pink sweetener either. She is even fussy about Crystal Lite in water! Guess it would be better to just drink plain ( unbottled) water but I need my caffeine in the a.m.!
jd
May 19th, 2010
3:21 pm
Love it Tiger, about to head that way myself…Miller time!!
Uconn
May 19th, 2010
3:32 pm
if you are looking for wheat bread without HFCS then you could try Nature’s own lite wheat bread. Also I just checked it, it has only 1 gram of sugar per serving. I know wheat thins stopped using it as well and Post Raisin Bran doesn’t have any either. Sigh… The only reason I know this is because I am a sugar magnet… I don’t need to eat, just look at it and it ends up on me :D …
HB
May 19th, 2010
3:36 pm
Good tip, Tiger — I’ll try that next time… :)
How sweet do most people drink their coffee? I understand if someone like TwinMOM has to be super careful about sugar intake, but for the rest of us, I think we’d be better off adding the 16-32 calories from a pack or two of sugar than drinking the chemicals. The difference in calories between Coke and Diet Coke is much greater, but then again, you have to think if there’s that much sugar to replace in the regular Coke (I think it’s close to 10 tsp per can!!), then how much of the chemical junk are you replacing it with? Yuck!
Uconn
May 19th, 2010
3:37 pm
Its hard to give up the Diet Cokes and such… I have started adding Crystal light to my water and its ok… Nothing like a Diet Coke sometimes… But I have cut back to only 2-3 per day… I know thats still alot but compared to the 6-8 I was drinking….. :D
JJ
May 19th, 2010
3:56 pm
I have FINALLY weened myself off coffee!!!!!! maybe a cup here and there, but no longer a daily need for me. I generally start my day off with a big glass of water (have to take those pesky blood pressure pills)……but by the time I get to work, I would crave a cup of coffee, loaded with sugar and creamer. NO MORE!!!! WOO HOO……it’s been just a little over a month now since my daily coffee intake…..
Tiger Ochocinco Mellencamp
May 19th, 2010
4:03 pm
@UConn…you might find once you wean yourself of the sweets like JJ did, the sweets really taste like crap! I grew up on Jif and Skippy Peanut Butter. Let me preface this diddy with the fact that I LOVE peanut butter. I switched to that all natural chunky peanut butter, you know the kind that have two ingredients, peanuts and salt, about a decade ago. I swear eating the other stuff now tastes like I’m biting into a spoonful of peanut flavored sugar….really skeeves me out now.
jan
May 19th, 2010
4:10 pm
Instead of this – why do I not see, “Are you concerned that your child is not getting enough excercise and activity?” If you have posted that I apologize for not seeing it. Parents are too concerned about what goes into their childs mouth instead of getting their child off their butt playing video games.
Uconn
May 19th, 2010
4:21 pm
@Tiger ….. Oh how I have tried to break the sugar habit… I have heard it takes 2 weeks for your body to stop wanting the sugar. I went 3 days before I thought that I was going insane…. Everything looked like a doughnut … LOL…. Seriously, I *have* learned the word moderation and what it means…. I also know that I have to run … EVERYDAY to make surre I stay healthy… Its a small trade off really… Personally for what its worth… I would rather real or turbinado sugar as opposed to HFCS…
TwinMomFromPS
May 19th, 2010
4:36 pm
UConn – it is very true – it takes about two weeks to cut the sugar craving. It is hard, but you can do it – I am proof, and you will be surprised at how much weight you will lose once you break the sugar habit. I’d spent YEARS trying to figure out why, even with exercise and watching what I ate, it was excruciatingly hard for me to lose weight. Once my doctor discovered that I was insulin-resistant and put me on a low-sugar diet, the weight almost fell off (I initially lost 20 pounds in two months).
It’s hard, but it’s worth it.
Uconn
May 19th, 2010
4:40 pm
@Twinmom Thats awesome…sounds like me… no matter what I do… the weight hangs on for a free ride… :D … I am going to have to look into that …
motherjanegoose
May 19th, 2010
6:35 pm
JJ…good for you!
I could give up Cokes and any type of soda for the rest of my life. If I have to give up coffee, you will NOT want to be around me. I could even drink my coffee black but I need my morning caffeine….2-3 cups. I like my sweet tea too!
shaggy
May 19th, 2010
7:09 pm
Tiger: We agree about beer and Colorado. Sorry for the harshness yesterday. Go back to yesterday’s blog. It must have been the corn sweetener.
G.R.I.T.S.
May 19th, 2010
7:52 pm
im of the ‘eat natural stuff’ sure real butter and real sugar arent great nutrients-but they do add flavor and if you have to have something of that sort then go for the real thing-just use moderation…even if you are very active and eat healthily the fake manmade substitutes will hurt you!
G.R.I.T.S.
May 19th, 2010
7:53 pm
wow jj….thats awesome….i get scared at the thought of no coffee!!! thats amazing that you quit..how did you do it? cold turkey or stop a little at a time…i get a terrible headache and vacciliate between cant sleep and all i want to do is sleep when i try to stop!
JJ
May 20th, 2010
8:29 am
GRITS – it was a slow process. I don’t eat breakfast, never really have, except on weekends. I realized the first thing going into my body was 3 cups of coffee, with sugar and cream in each cup. So I cut back to two cups, then one cup, and now, it’s maybe once a week, if that.
I do drink a lot of Lipton tea, the tea bags you put in hot water. I drink about 5 of those a day, while at work, no sugar, no creamer, just straight tea. Tea has antioxidants which is better for me, than the three cups of sugar/creamed coffee.
Now on the weekends, it’s water, water water, and the occasional coke. Once in a while, I’ll drive over to Dunkin Donuts and get a large cup of coffee Saturday mornings. But I haven’t done that in a few weeks.
Becky
May 20th, 2010
8:57 am
I don’t drink that many sodas as an adult, but as a child, we drank Cokes all day long..I don’t drink coffee at home on the weekends or any during the summer (to hot)..
@Tiger..Your comparison for the beer and Pepsi is a good one, but I would still rather have the Pepsi..I’ve never been a beer fan..
JJ
May 20th, 2010
9:40 am
Oh, give me a COLD beer on a hot summer day…..outdoor activities just scream out for cold beer.
FCM
May 20th, 2010
12:48 pm
JJ cold beer, Sangria, a Mai Tai. Any of those on a hot day. Unless it is YARD WORK outside…then only a beer satisfies.
FCM
May 20th, 2010
12:49 pm
Ahhh Becky but how much of the Table of the South do you drink? I give up the coffee for sweet ice tea when the temps go near 90
FCM
May 20th, 2010
12:50 pm
er Table Wine of the South
JJ
May 20th, 2010
1:39 pm
I’m sorry, but I cannot stand sweet tea.
CCF
May 21st, 2010
4:44 pm
Companies have called uncle despite the fact that the much-maligned ingredient high fructose corn syrup has been, as you say, “cleared of any wrong doing by respected scientists.” I just wish other consumers had figured this out.
David
May 24th, 2010
12:56 am
Well, it isn’t so much the HIGH fructose corn syrup as it is the massive amounts of corn being used…. Now…. are the farmers using the “M” brand corn seed that is ROUND UP READY? and when was the last time you saw a worm in the corn you purchase nowadays? Think about it. Respectfully submitted,
David S
May 25th, 2010
1:29 pm
Let’s be clear. Sugar costs what it does because the GOVERNMENT has imposed import tariffs on sugar. On the world market, sugar is dirt cheap. Just not in america. At the same time, GOVERNMENT subsidizes the corn and refined corn products industry to the tune of many billions per year (thank clowns like Tom Harkin and other jerks from corn-producing states). Processed food producers have been forced to use the horrible corn by-products because of cost pressures, not free choice. Thankfully many consumers are pushing back and forcing them (the market, not the government) to bring back sugar. The candy industry in america is virtually dead, with nearly all major companies having moved to Canada to purchase sugar at fair market prices.
GOVERNMENT once again is at the root of the problem. Big surprise.
Stacy
May 27th, 2010
4:02 pm
WOW…it seems like the only thing people care about these days is if you are skinny or obese. WHAT ABOUT OUR INTERNAL HEALTH???????? Just because a child is active and skinny doesn’t mean they don’t have to eat healthy to feed their organs! HFCS is CHEMICALLY MAN MADE…Sugar is natural!
NativSol Mama
May 27th, 2010
4:30 pm
For those parents dealing with children with ADHD, check out the Feingold diet. http://www.feingold.org
itkonlyyou99
June 3rd, 2010
10:16 pm
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Sean
June 4th, 2010
2:19 pm
When I was a kid, there were one or two fat kids in my class. Now??? Also, do your homework about the mercury that is a byproduct of HFCS. Alzheimer’s and Autism is epidemic in this country, I wonder why?