http://www.care2.com/greenliving/high-fructose-corn-syrup-that-sweet-sweet-bully.html
High Fructose Corn Syrup: That Sweet, Sweet Bully
Quick! What is wrong with nuclear power??! How about DDT??! Or vinyl off-gassing??! Well, your inability to respond quickly, succinctly and in a rapid-fire sound bite has just destroyed your credibility and rendered you ignorant and labeled you as a lefty-liberal whiner. Sorry, you lose!
This is the intended message of a new crop of pro-HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup) advertisements paid for by the Corn Refiners Association and created to shame the public into quiet subservience and passive consumption of the countless high-fructose corn syrup-laden products that dominate the supermarket. The two commercials are basically the same in theme and concept and consist of aggressively obnoxious people being admonished in their uninformed condemnation of high-fructose corn syrup, by individuals that seem a lot more appealing and conversant.
The first commercial is the more insidious of the bunch, consisting of two mothers at, what looks like, a child’s birthday party. Mom One spots Mom Two pouring out glasses of punch from what looks like a jug of anti-freeze and arrogantly chides “Wow, you don’t care what the kids eat, huh?” To which Mom Two politely asks her to substantiate her condemnation of high-fructose corn syrup, and of course, Mom One can’t deliver or recall exactly why high-fructose corn syrup is so bad for you, thus rendering her a red-faced dope. Mom Two negates Mom One’s befuddlement with the statement that high-fructose corn syrup is “made from corn, doesn’t have artificial ingredients and is fine in moderation.” (Note: antagonist Mom One is white, and protagonist Mom Two is black–is there a racial subtext here?
The second commercial is less relevant to parents, but is no less insidious, in that it equates love with feeding your partner high-fructose corn syrup, as in, “I feed you high-fructose corn syrup because I love you.” The basic structure is the same, this time with a couple on a picnic as the woman assumes the role of high-fructose corn syrup booster in opposition to her callow boyfriend. The end result being that he looks like an idiot, and she looks sweet and sensible. All of which is summed up by a congenial voice over reminding you to, “Get the facts, you are in for a sweet surprise.”
The cynical conceit of these ads are that if you can’t recall at a moment’s notice, all, or any, of the reasons something is negative or undesirable, then your concerns are wholly irrelevant, and you should just shut your mouth, and only open it to receive a generous serving of high-fructose corn syrup. The logic behind these ads assert that because high-fructose corn syrup is “natural,” as it is derived from corn, then it is wholesome and safe, much like natural radon gas, lead and tobacco.
So, as the commercial encourages you to “get the facts,” I felt obliged to offer up a crib sheet for those of us adverse to consuming high-fructose corn syrup, but unable to deliver a snappy rationale when pressed. Feel free to print this out and carry it around in your wallet, purse, or along with your medic-alert bracelet.
Facts: High-fructose corn syrup is a sweetener produced by processing cornstarch to yield glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. It is primarily used as a preservative and sweetener in a multitude of food products. You should avoid it because of the following:
1. High-fructose corn syrup has been linked directly to obesity, diabetes and metabolic dysfunction.
2. High-fructose corn syrup elevates triglycerides levels, which can lead to heart disease.
3. High-fructose corn syrup is simply empty calories with no nutritional value whatsoever.
4. The environmental footprint of high-fructose corn syrup is exceedingly large.
5. High-fructose corn syrup is the hellion child of the corn lobby’s satanic forces.
OK, so the fifth one might not be totally accurate, but it does drive the point home. And for extra credit you could mention that consuming high-fructose corn syrup in moderation is becoming near impossible, seeing as nearly everything from sliced bread to salad dressing now proudly contains the ubiquitous ingredient.
I encourage everyone to get the facts, stay vigilant, and don’t hang out with people (or lobbyists) willing to bully you into eating highly processed sweeteners.
Eric Steinman is a freelance writer based in Rhinebeck, N.Y. He regularly writes about food, music, art, architecture and culture and is a regular contributor to Bon Appétit among other publications.
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100 comments
add your comment »"This statement is absolutely untrue....The process of selecting the seeds from the best plants is called natural selection."
It's only natural selection if it occurs without human intervention. When humans start changing it to suit their needs (which often involves doing something natural selection would NOT do, because it reduces the organisms fitness value without extensive human attention), it is NOT natural selection. It is artificial selection.
"As a scientist..."
As a scientist, you should know the difference between natural selection and artificial selection.
"When you genetically modify a plant in this unnatural way you are inserting a gene that is foreign to the natural genome of the plant."
What do you think happens when cross-pollination occurs in nature as a result of natural selection? Yep. That's right. Foreign genes are introduced.
Bottom line is nothing I said is wrong. A lot of things you said were wrong however. Artificial selection and natural selection are not the same thing (there are different forces acting on them, even though the mechanism is the same). And through cross-pollination, nature does genetic engineering all the time.
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thanks...
Kabin
Konteyner
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why do we all allow our foods & drinks to be poisoned with this?
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I feel obligated to report the following study that reveals that nearly half of all commercially available High Fructose Corn Syrup contains mercury, which is not good:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831.html
Kind of tips the scale in favor of boring old sugar.
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Great article, I passed along the info to my friends (who many of them are big processed food eaters.) Thanks ;)
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My husband thinks I'm nuts because I hate corn syrup (I won't touch anything that has it, not even ketchup).
Having passed by corn manufacturing plants for much of the first half of my life, and having to deal with the smell of corn processing (similar to burnt rubber), you too might think differently. It can't possibly be good for you if that's the smell it makes during processing.
Just as margarine is worse for you than butter, use real sugar (the unbleached types from the islands is amazing) if you're going to use sugar. Simple syrup is easy--dissolve 1-4 parts of sugar per cup of water depending on how sweet something needs to be. Honey, agave syrup, maple syrup, even molasses--there are so many better replacements!
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amen to this article. the truth is out there ... we just need everyone to realize it. PEOPLE. Make your own food from scratch using local and seasonal ingredients. you MUST make food spending a top priority and cut the other crap out. We need to help get healthy food into low-income communities. It's time to do all we can to rally against the corporate morons who put this CRAP in mass-produced food. It has no place there. It's not food if it was created in a f--ing laboratory. Buy organic, and wash the hell out of it if it isn't. Those ads made me FURIOUS. Also recommend: Omnivore's Dilemma, King Corn, Future of Food. Very enlightening and informative. Keep your eyes open. Stay awake. And help others less fortunate. Now's the time to reclaim our bodies from corporate greed. Sorry if this sounded soapboxish ... i guess it was ... i just care too much about humanity to see it plunged down the toilet from eating garbage like hfcs ... .it's also about individual responsibility, though: realizing that you need to be informed about what's really behind what you eat, and taking steps to circumvent the whole machine that plays into you eating crap: then you need high-priced medical care, and so on. the whole damn thing is connected. it's so scary.
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Real sugar tastes so much better.
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This is why I don't watch TV! Thank you for the info and pointing out that just because people are dumb doesn't mean individuals are!
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This quick witted article made my day. What would make it even better is to add a few statistics/sources to your list of reasons why corn syrup should be avoided; it might strengthen the argument for those who would want to dismiss the claims and not bother to do research. The fifth point might not have "proof" to back it... but how true it is. Great writing!
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