"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
High fructose corn syrup, by any other name, such as corn sugar, still may taste just as sweet and remains just as chemically modified and processed.
The timing of the name change is shortly after the results of a study by the University of California indicating pancreatic cancer cells grow and proliferate more rapidly with fructose. Fructose is metabolized differently than glucose. Fructose metabolizes through the liver, bypassing the brain. HFCS, or corn sugar, as it is now named, consumption increased 1000% from the time it was introduced in 1970 to 1990, according to a 2004 report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Consumers need to understand the only thing that has changed about high fructose corn syrup is the name. The risks surrounding consumption of the product remain the same. I'm quite adamant about my objection to this chemically processed food stuff, as evidenced over the years with my assorted articles about CORN SUGAR.
If you're interested in additional reading, I've included the links.
(HFCS often has a mercury residue from the processing)
It's going to take me a while to get used to the name change, but to be honest, I think the whole thing is pretty corny and I hope it doesn't fool too many consumers.
INVITING THE CORN REFINERS TO A SMACKDOWN!
A PETITION TO STOP HFCS from being labeled CORN SUGAR
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| Cartoon courtesy of MeanJoeGreen Cartoons |
1 comment :
Corn sugar? How brilliantly disingenuous! I imagine that somebody got a big bonus for coming up with that one.
Regardless of what it's called, I go out of my way to avoid the stuff. If nothing else, it's almost a guarantee that whatever it's in will be highly processed and contain a long list of ingredients with unpleasant names. I even wonder why foods like pasta sauce or savory breads need added sugar (and they taste so much better when I make my own!). Sugar--real sugar--has its place in limited amounts but industrial food is sweetening us to death.
Time and time again, I come back to Michael Pollan's excellent advice to avoid foods with more than a handful of ingredients, with ingredients your great grandmother wouldn't have recognized, or with ingredients whose names you can't pronounce.
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