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HFCS: It's Totally Natural
Ah, trade associations, birthplace of a million sticky food-related catch phrases that may or may not be true: “Milk: It does a body good.” “Beef: It’s what’s for dinner.”
Now a group called the Corn Refiners Association is trying to use a little of that PR magic to rehabilitate the beleaguered image of corn syrup, with a vast multimedia campaign that kicked off this week.
The ads, targeted at moms, aim to make us believe that corn syrup is as natural as honey.
Watchdog organizations are not amused. The Center for Science in the Public Interest points out that it’s deceptive to imply that high-fructose corn syrup is natural, since it is manufactured using chemicals and enzymes that change its structure.
Posted by | Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 4:37pm | 6 comments
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Strictly speaking, bees use chemical processes, including undoubtedly enzymes, to make honey.
haha they are retarded. who cares about what kinds of chemicals bees naturally have? There are next to no nutrients in high fructose corn syrup, whereas honey does. Honey helps the body, is absorbed slowly, and is a natural flavor we are familiar with. Corn syrup tricks our taste buds into thinking cereal, bread, snacks have to be sweet with no positive effect on our health.
The only thing corn syrup has a positive association with are diabetes rates and health care costs....booooooo corn syrup, kill yourself.
So, I'm gonna go with science on this one. I don't think HFCS is that bad. HFCS tends to be 55% fructose, 45% glucose. Sucrose, happens to be 50% fructose, 50% glucose. When Sucrose is heated or has acid added to it, it breaks down to the fructose/glucose mix. Honey is approximately the same as sucrose. I don't doubt that Honey has other benefits, but compared to sucrose, I fail to see much of a difference. I don't see how any of these sugars could be absorbed slower or faster than each other. The sugar portion, chemically, is almost the same.
You do that, Xaga, and if you feed people for a living, you will seriously impair people like me who are violently allergic to the stuff. My docs have never broken down what it is about the HHCS that gives me instant hives and severe water retention and bloating, but nothing else under the sun does that.
And from the testing and research we've done over the years since this allergy became apparent, I am FAR from the only person who has this affliction.
As well, many experts, including scientists in the field, are concerned that HFCS is one of the primary causes of childhood obesity...
The scary thing was that I predicted this, but I thought I was kidding. I was annoyed with the re-branding of sugar as "organic, evaporated cane juice" and decided the HFCS folks should make a marketing campaign full of pictures of puppies and kittens, and call their product "fructose-infused zea mays nectar." It seems like I wasn't so far off.
My original prediction is here:
http://ruse-by-any-other-name.seattle...
HFCS is one of the most awful substances for your body that's totally accepted as the norm in america. Try to change that by telling Cola corporations that we don't want it in our soda anymore:
http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/dea...
And comparing it to honey is like comparing beef to tofu. It's all protein anyway!