An American sweet problem: High Fructose Corn Syrup ?

If you watched the 2009 Soderbergh film "The Informant", and expected a "Ocean's eleven" kind of subtle comedy.. probably you were disappointed. But you may remember the film brings a subtle introduction to  how Corn and its by-products have become an integral part of everything that people eat and drink on daily basis in America.

It also brings a whole new awareness to something called "high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)" an omnipresent (like god ?) food ingredient used as a direct cheap substitute for natural sugar in almost every processed food & drink item sold in America (e.g., soda, juices, yogurt, mayonaisse, pasta sauce, even bread and ketchup). Never heard of it? check the label on the soda can next time.  HFCS is some 20 percent cheaper than sugar, thanks to US government policies on heavy corn subsidies and trade barriers to import natural sugar from other countries. 

Now wonder what's the implication of this thing to our daily lives?  there's an significant on-going debate and extensive research going on trying to determine if there is any correlation of  the introduction of this new substance since 70's in to american diet and to the obesity crisis in America. 

Over the past thirty years US consumption of HFCS has increased by over 1000 percent. In fact, the average American eats an astounding 58 lbs of high fructose corn syrup per year per 2009 study of US Dept of Agriculture.

There are arguments on both sides... on one end corn producers, and food products industry arguing that there's no conclusive evidence that corn syrup does any more damage than natural sugar, where as the opponents and activists claiming the corn syrup as one of the primary causes for obesity, diabetes, and increased tri-glyceriods because it does not exactly behave as equivalent to natural sugar in our body. 

That does make one wonder why would it take long to prove one way or the other...all it needs an experiment (in a grossly simplified scheme) to feed the exactly same kind of diet for two groups of people, one diet prepared with sugar, versus another prepared with this corn syrup stuff and observe if there was any difference in obesity levels over a period?  right ??

Finally, that's what exactly was done by a Priceton University research team, and they published in Mar 2010 that they have found conclusive evidence on their tests in lab rats that the high fructose corn syrup based diet did lead to obesity than the regular sugar based diet.

Ofcourse, still the jury is out trying to determine the impact on humans whether HFCS is bad or not.. (check links in bottom, you will see it's a battlefield out there). 

But there's no smoke without fire !.. big manufacturers are now starting to sell no corn syrup based foods (see photo), which tells a message that there's finally a switch being considered to avoid this stuff.

Ofcourse it might start initially as part of a phony green marketing strategy, where a company provides healthier option at a premium as alternative while still continuing to sell the unhealthy alternative at low-price, but atleast should open doors for others in the right direction..

Bottomline :  next time you are stuffing your grocery cart in processed foods section, think twice and pay attention to that ingredients list .. it's worth the time,  and remember you always have a choice ! 

There do exist food products that do not come with ingredients list, but still arguably the best for you and the planet...yup, i am referrring to those green and colorful things in "natural produce" section of your super market.. called vegetables and fruits.  

Side note : Ofcourse, this corn syrup usage is a primarily american phenomena and if you are living outside US there's a chance you might be lucky in not getting exposed to this.. but with globalization, the processed foods intake portion as percent of daily diet is significantly increasing in the developing countries as well, so it's only a matter of time when it becomes relevant..

Links and sources :
Is This Disguised Sugar Affecting Your Diabetes? The Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup, DiabetesHealth.com
High Fructose Corn Syrup: How Sweet It Is?  HuggingtonPost.com, Apr 2,2010
4 Reasons to Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup, Discovery.com
High Fructose Corn Syrup Linked to Liver Scarring, Duke University Medical Center research, Mar 18, 2010
Americans Must Find Better Options for Sweet Cravings, Healthnews.com, Aug 2009
High-Fructose Corn Syrup: Not So Sweet for the Planet, Washington Post, March 2008
Sweet Surprise, Corn-Refiner's Association
Misconceptions about High-Fructose Corn Syrup: Is It Uniquely Responsible for Obesity, Journal of Nutrition, 2009
High-fructose corn syrup: everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Dec 2008
The Type of Caloric Sweetener Added to Water Influences Weight Gain, Fat Mass, and Reproduction..., Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine Vol.234, No.6, 2009
Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity, American Society for Clinical Nutrition, 2004