One of the sweetest presentations at this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference had to do with high fructose corn syrup. The presenter was John White, White Technical Research. John does work for the Corn Refiner’s Association and greeted people in their booth.
John caught my attention during his presentation when he said that all the negative information you’ve heard about high fructose corn syrup is completely wrong. Whoa. All of it? Yep. There is a huge amount of factual and scientific information on the subject. He calls it a mythology that has taken hold that wants to portray HFCS in a bad light. It is basically the same as regular sugar. Plain and simple. People just want to find something to blame for weight issues and the reality is that they’re consuming more of everything. You can’t lay the blame on HFCS.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with John White here:
Find good information on HFCS on Twitter: SweetFacts
Editor’s Note: This is the second of two posts reviewing comments made about corn and corn products in booklets distributed by the Girl Scouts of America. Click here for the first part.
For the past few years, people have been talking about high fructose corn syrup. At the grocery stores, on television and even on Facebook, people seem to enjoy bashing HFCS. When questioned, most cannot quite explain why they object to the corn based sweetener. They may reference “some study” or spew off another half piece of misinformation, but the truth is clear. A lot of people turn anti-HFCS because of propaganda and food elitist hype.
Now, even the Girl Scouts are buying into the hoopla. In “Sow What? It’s Your Planet-Love It!”, the publication used for girls looking to learn about their food during their “senior journey,” the Girl Scouts blast corn and corn-based products from livestock to ethanol. Then, they join in the anti-HFCS melee too.
Noting that “corn sweeteners are full of calories but have almost no nutrients,” the Girl Scouts broadly proclaim that “some critics argue that they shouldn’t be added to our food.”
First, there is never a mention of who exactly these critics actually are. Not only are they not sourced, the manual does not explain what sweetener these critics support using in lieu of HFCS. HFCS, sugar and honey are all nearly identical in composition. They have the same nutritional value and add a similar number of calories. So do these critics suppose that people cannot enjoy some sort of sweetened food, even in moderation? (more…)
If you listen to the Girl Scouts, you start to hear some pretty strange things lately. The organization that helped girls build useful skills and fostered healthy self images for generations has expanded its range of activities. Now, in addition to teaching girls skills like camping or sewing, Girl Scouts teaches misinformation about agriculture and promotes an anti-corn agenda.
For their “Senior Journey,” scouts can now select an option called “Sow What? It’s Your Planet-Love It!” Theoretically, teaching young girls often completely disconnected from the farm where their food comes from and how it is grown should be positive and fun. Unfortunately, the Girl Scouts have their facts wrong.
In the manual for the project, the Girl Scouts attack traditional agriculture, rouse long-dead arguments over food prices and propagate baseless accusations against high fructose corn syrup.
Here’s one example: “When you grow only one crop, a disease or pest can wipe out your entire harvest. Therefore single-crop farmers often rely heavily on chemicals to control insects and protect crops.”
In reality, farmers today use far fewer pesticides and insecticides than they did even 20 years ago. As growers continue to adopt hybrids with insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant traits, they have greatly reduced the need for synthetic applications of herbicides and insecticides. The family farmers who comprise 95 percent of the farms in America strive to use fewer chemicals to produce a healthy, abundant crop. (more…)
Mix together satirical comments that lead poisoning, female genital mutilation and the Ku Klux Klan are good for you and serve them up with a scary transvestite and you get some very tasteless “spoofs” on a “Sweet Surprise” ad for high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
The real ad features mothers at a children’s party discussing high fructose corn syrup in a fruit flavored drink being served to the kiddies. One woman comments that the woman pouring the drinks must not care what the kids eat because, “you know what they say” about HFCS, but she can’t explain what is so bad about it. So, she changes the subject and compliments the server on her blouse.
The New York Times article last week about HFCS was kind enough to draw attention to some very disturbing spoofs on the ad, made by two Los Angeles “comedians,” featuring “a man in drag playing the syrup-loving mom, though this time she is also defending lead from China, female genital mutilation (“It’s safe in moderation”) and K.K.K. cross-burning.” Yet another sick one that can be found on YouTube spoofs that ad by replacing HCFS with Nazism. Cute.
I think of a spoof being something that is satirical AND amusing. These so-called spoofs are mean, nasty and downright scary. If you want to make fun, at least be funny. These just leave a bad taste in your mouth.
The New York Times highlighted the misrepresentations and unsubstantiated claims used in the ongoing assault on corn syrup in a story last week. While approaching the issue in a couched tone, author Melanie Warner notes that many industry experts who normally criticize agriculture disagree with anti-corn syrup hype while pointing out that the Sugar Association is obviously behind at least some portion of the campaign to demonize the sweetener.
What the story points out is shocking to a reasonable individual. With regular industry critics such as Marion Nestle, Executive Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest Michael Jacobson, Director of Weight for Life Clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston David S. Ludwig and Harvard Department of Nutrition Chair Walter Willett defending corn syrup, why would anyone continue to believe it is somehow less safe to eat than sugar?
Even Barry Popkin, the University of North Carolina Professor who coauthored the 2004 study that brought the American obesity epidemic into the spotlight defends corn syrup.
The Times quotes a Los Angeles Times story from July of 2008 where Popkin said that “recent studies ‘have convinced me that HFCS does not affect weight gain.’”
So how do people continue to believe the baseless attacks waged on HFCS? The article provides a perfect example in the explanation of Ivan Royster, a college librarian, who shares the view that many other HFCS critics do- that for some reason it is less natural and harmful in a way that science just can’t explain. Furthermore, he promotes this belief through his Facebook page to over 120,000 “friends.”
What the article fails to point out is that this stance is ridiculous verging on dangerous. With studies such as the one noted above and industry experts, including Omnivore’s Dilemma author Michael Pollan, defending corn syrup’s safety, a reasonable person should be able to tell the hype from the facts. Instead, unqualified zealots combat science by turning a blind eye and instead vigorously promote what is at best myth and at worst slander.
In doing so, these activists create confusion for the average consumer overwhelming them with media messages that, while vague and inaccurate, are ubiquitous. Consumers deserve accurate, unbiased information from sources that have well-reasoned arguments and verifiable data.
Don’t give into the hype. While some companies have chosen to recreate their products using other sweeteners, realize that they are only acting to capitalize on the aura of fear. The products are not safer and will not help consumers lose weight. Vote with your pocketbook and buy the same products that you have always enjoyed. Enjoy creations using corn syrup, a homegrown, natural sweetener, with complete comfort in their safety.
It seems that every new study that comes out involving high fructose corn syrup, no matter how flawed, makes huge headlines. The media hype surrounding HFCS would lead the average person to believe that by simply cutting HFCS from their diet they could become the slender, athletic person they have always desired to be. In a culture that values the quick fix, it is no wonder that this idea is gaining traction.
It is almost indisputable that the U.S. currently faces an obesity epidemic. With a growing population of people growing in their midsection, our society faces serious repercussions such as decreased life expectancy and increased healthcare spending. In the face of such a grave situation, it is irresponsible to blithely suggest that simply removing one ingredient from American diets will reverse this trend.
As most responsible, respectable academics concur, obesity results from a combination of factors and not the ingestion of one insidious ingredient. Instead, sedentary lifestyles and an abundance of affordable food together create a situation where uncontrolled weight gain comes easily.
Don’t buy into the media hype. Think for yourself. If the chemical make-up, caloric content and sweetness of sugar and HFCS are nearly identical, why would one product cause more significant weight gain? If only five percent of the corn crop is used to make HFCS, why would detractors act as if it is a conspiracy to use this safe, affordable product to ensure foods meet market demands?
Taxing and demonizing HFCS will not benefit the obese, the average consumer or our country. Curing obesity requires positive lifestyle changes that embrace caloric moderation and physical activity.
So show the HFCS detractors that you are smarter than they think. Examine and analyze information, take responsibility for your own health and do not allow them to demonize our quintessential American crop. Here’s one great resource.
“Most of what you think you know about sweeteners is probably wrong. Some of this is a product of simple misunderstandings. The rest is a giant scam.”
SweetScam.com includes great information about science and nutrition, sweetener myths and facts, how sweeteners are made and how they compare. Not only that, they have a couple of nicely done print and television ads with the message that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is just the same as other sweeteners and is being falsely accused of making us fat.
Watch CCF’s “Sweetener Lineup” commercial here:
Meanwhile, as companies like Pepsi and Starbucks have been dropping HFCS from beverages, the March issue of Consumer Reports attempts to set the record straight, noting that taking this kind of action “may well have more to do with marketing than science.”
A sweetener made from cornstarch processed with enzymes and acids, HFCS has roughly the same composition as cane sugar—about half glucose and half fructose—and the same number of calories. Concerns that it’s directly responsible for rising obesity rates or somehow intrinsically more fat-inducing than sugar are largely unfounded, though researchers continue to study whether the body handles HFCS differently.
Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Some people are so desperate to attack high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that they don’t worry about the facts.
An alert Corn Commentary reader sent us a link to this post from Mercola.com, which is basically a health product website. Kind of ironic that Dr. Mercola doesn’t like cola, isn’t it?
Anyway, so this Dr. Mercola headlines that “Scientists have proved for the first time that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can damage human metabolism and is fueling the obesity crisis.” He provides a couple of links, one of which is to the actual study which was actually published back in April 2009 and involved people who were already overweight.
Apparently, the Times Online just discovered that study last month and decided that it proved HFCS “can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.” The story then got picked up by Tom Laskawy at Grist, who pretty much quoted it verbatim without checking it out at all – and then found out that “almost every sentence in the article contained at least one inaccurate statement,” according to one of the scientists who did the study! Laskawy did come back and made corrections in the post – blaming it all on the Times for misleading him – but says “the fundamental issue is that we consume too much sugar in any form.”
One of the main fact errors in the original article is that it equated fructose with high fructose corn syrup, which are not the same thing. But the facts didn’t matter to the author of the original Times Online article, and those who picked up on it failed to check it out themselves. That is how rumors get spread and reputations get ruined. This whole world wide web is a wonderful thing, but like the wild tales that spread via email, much of it is exaggerated at best and just plain lies at worst. A wise word for all of us in this immediate information age – check it out before you pass it on.
Agriculture is broken. Our food is making us fat and killing us. Farming is horrible for the environment and I am having a bad hair day!
Who are these elitist whiners that seem hell bent on convincing us all that we are doing things wrong when it comes to feeding ourselves, clothing ourselves and even fueling our cars. To listen to this loud and often pompous minority you would think the sky is indeed falling Chicken Little…or maybe I should free range Chicken Little or even say Lettuce Little to be more politically correct.
Ok bozos, listen up….U.S. agriculture is a finely tuned machine that is the envy of the world because we are productive, increasingly efficient, and are improving our environmental footprint every day. I don’t have to read or believe the tripe you are selling just because you have wrestled the public megaphone away from the real experts.
In the past 25 years, U.S. farmers have been able to boost corn production by more than 40% due to improved varieties, better production practices and equipment advances, all while reducing their environmental impact. These and other similar advances have enabled hundreds of people, especially in developing countries, to greatly improve their diets.
So, note to Michael Pollan, Martha Stewart, Michael Mohr, Tim Searchinger and all the other self proclaimed experts in the world who wouldn’t know a cow pie from a moon pie if they were ankle deep in it…lots of people read romance novels, watch Real Housewives of (choose your location) but nobody takes any of it seriously. The unwashed masses think you are mildly amusing too.
You might generate a good discussion over the water cooler or prompt a laugh or two, but at the end of the day, nobody is making life changing decisions based on your self -proclaimed expertise.
Here are some real facts to facilitate your next discussion regarding our largest and most important industry:
98 percent of farms are family farms; corn yields have doubled since 1970 on fewer acres; amount of land to produce a bushel of corn down 37 percent; energy used to produce a bushel down 37%; emissions per bushel down 30%…and on and on.
The truth is we need to double food production by 2050 to feed our growing world. And we are well on our way to doing so while using the same or fewer resources.
The real food experts promote eating in moderation and from the four food groups because it is the wise thing to do, makes us healthier and with some exercise will increase our life span. With that said, get off my over fed backside. I hope your 15 minutes of fame are about done. This is America where if I choose to live on a diet of Nachos, Chicken wings, and a lard sandwich I can do so with a clear conscience.
I like going to bed each night knowing I have spent another day on this planet with freedom of choice, even if that means exercising bad choices. I sleep peacefully knowing that this Republic still works and those of the nay saying ilk are wasting a lot of energy constructing a food fad built on false assumptions. The American public is very good at smelling a rat.
For myself and the rest of the overfed masses I intend to protest too. I will not write a manifesto, blow up a state-of-the art research facility that could save thousands of lives, or even wear a funny mascot costume of biotech corn or a cute pink piggy. I intend to eat Ding Dongs and wash it down with soft drinks loaded with high fructose corn syrup until I have to buy a bigger size of pants. Democracy is cool and somewhere in the fine print of the Constitution it must say something about freedom to eat what I want, right after that freedom-of-speech-thingy!
The concept of taxing sodas seems to have hit a sweet spot with some as a means to pay for health care.
Always the leader in ideas like this, California plans to hold hearings in the state legislature next month that may lead to taxes or fees on soda as a way of addressing obesity and healthcare problems in the state. A hearing of the Select Committee on Obesity and Diabetes will “hear from experts regarding the growing scientific evidence of links between soda consumption and obesity.” Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) says they need “to do more to educate the public about the health effects of drinking too much soda and consider options for reducing soda consumption among children.”
That sounds all well and good. From the federal level all the way down to the local level there is increasing emphasis on educating people to make healthier food choices, which would includes drinking more water or milk and less sugary drinks. But, whether taxes on soda would be used for better education or to pay for health care costs associated with obesity, the losers will be consumers – especially those with the lowest incomes. An additional tax on beverages would most heavily impact the people who are struggling the most in the current economy. A tax of a penny an ounce would add 12 to 20 cents on the average soda.
You may have seen the ads that Americans Against Food Taxes (AAFT) has been running opposing the concept of taxing food or beverages. AAFT notes that the food and beverage industry has already been working to reduce childhood obesity through innovation, nutrition education, and encouraging physical activity. Many, if not most, schools have removed soda machines and have limited the amount of high sugar, high fat foods and beverages in school lunch programs.
The biggest problem with the whole taxing concept is that it will probably not do anything to deter consumption, which is allegedly the goal, especially among the lower income groups. Proof of this is cigarette taxes. The prevalence of smoking is higher in those who have spent less time in school (9-11 years – incidence 38%) and those who are living on the poverty line (33%). It is very likely that a soda tax would have little impact – probably none at all – on the people who are most at risk for obesity-related illnesses.
You can join the fight and support AAFT’s efforts by going to www.nofoodtaxes.com.
One of the sweetest presentations at this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference had to do with high fructose corn syrup. The presenter was John White, White Technical Research. John does work for the Corn Refiner’s Association and greeted people in their booth.
Mix together satirical comments that lead poisoning, female genital mutilation and the Ku Klux Klan are good for you and serve them up with a scary transvestite and you get some very tasteless “spoofs” on a “Sweet Surprise” ad for high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
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Always the leader in ideas like this, California plans to hold hearings in the state legislature next month that may lead to taxes or fees on soda as a way of addressing obesity and healthcare problems in the state. A hearing of the Select Committee on Obesity and Diabetes will “hear from experts regarding the growing scientific evidence of links between soda consumption and obesity.” Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) says they need “to do more to educate the public about the health effects of drinking too much soda and consider options for reducing soda consumption among children.”
You may have seen the ads that