High Fructose Corn Syrup Commercials Cause Controversy

October 08, 2008 ↓ 1 Comments

The Corn Refiners association recently produced television commercials saying that High Fructose Corn Syrup is okay to eat (in moderation). They’ve backed this up with a website that calls HFCS natural.

The commercials say, “It’s made from corn, has the same calories as sugar or honey, and, like sugar, it’s fine in moderation.”

Here are the commercials:

People on YouTube have responded with their own home-made commercials. Some of them are below. I did not create these videos and some of the videos can be offensive. Watch with caution. You can search YouTube.com if you want to see more.

The Accidental Hedonist has a list of foods containing HFCS. Check it out and see if your favorite foods are on there.

CBS news found that funding for the HFCS commercials came from the companies who use HFCS in their foods. Estimated costs for the commercials are $20-30 million dollars! (See article.)

On the website Sweet Surprise, they say that high fructose corn syrup offers numerous benefits. Let’s look at the benefits that they list on their website:

“It keeps food fresh,”
That means that bread manufacturers can let their product sit on supermarket shelves for a longer amount of time.

”...enhances fruit and spice flavors,”
Enhances? Don’t they mean that it sweetens?

”...retains moisture in bran cereals,”
Again, so companies can keep their products on the shelf for longer and thus sell more product.

”...helps keep breakfast and energy bars moist,”
Those breakfast bars are simply candy bars falsely interpreted as health food. They’re crap!

”...maintains consistent flavors in beverages and keeps ingredients evenly dispersed in condiments.”
Important for ketchup sales. Did you know that children are the No. 1 consumers of ketchup? They devour more than half of all ketchup in the United States—roughly 5 billion ounces annually.

On HFCS Facts they say, “After studying current research, the American Medical Association (AMA) today concluded that high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute more to obesity than other caloric sweeteners…” American Medical Association (AMA press release, June 17, 2008).

“There’s no substantial evidence to support the idea that high fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity.” Walter Willett, Ph.D., Chairman of the Nutrition Department, Harvard School of Public Health (The New York Times, July 2, 2006).

Whatever form it takes, sugar is a substance that needs to be reckoned with. You can join the debate (there’s a lot of changes happening on the High-fructose corn syrup Wikipedia page) if you want, but I am simply going to continue to avoid HFCS foods altogether.