High-Fructose Corn Syrup: Feast or Famine?
June 29th, 2009 | by Michelle | Published in Carbohydrates
Have you seen the commercials? My favorite depicts a couple sitting in the park, blanket spread beneath them; the woman offers her man a bite of a popsicle, two in fact, that’s how much she loves him. He balks and says, “…it’s got high-fructose corn syrup in it…[and] you know what they say about [that]?” “What?” she says. He doesn’t remember and can’t answer, and she laughs at how silly he is. Then she lays out the facts: “…it’s made from corn, has the same calories as sugar…and it’s fine in moderation”.8 (Two Bites Commercial)
You can probably guess that I’m going to disagree. That’s my gut reaction anyway. If I’m fair, though, high-fructose corn syrup is an outstanding example of the confusion at the heart of much of the nutrition world. Depending on whom you ask, high-fructose corn syrup can be shown to be the root of all evil or just another delightful way to sweeten our foods. So which is it?
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Fifty years ago, the average American household spent twenty percent of their income on food. Today, this figure has fallen to just ten percent.1 At first glance this appears to be good news. It implies that we are spending fewer dollars on food yet still feeding our families. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. The mere fact that we are spending less of our income on food belies bigger issues, and those issues have implications for our personal health, our health care system, our environment and even our foreign relations.
As a people, we are aware that the amount of food that we eat has an impact on our waistlines, our long-term health and our budgets. What we don’t always consider alongside this concept of quantity is the question of quality. Does eating organic food really matter? Why should I care what a cow eats before I eat it? What difference does it make whether this salmon was caught in a stream or raised on a fish farm? Let us explore these questions primarily as they relate to our health, our budgets and the well-being of the planet we call home.