HFCS Isn’t the Only Bad Guy

In the opinion of many consumers, high fructose corn syrup is a big, bad boogeyman that must be avoided at all costs. The disdain has reached such heights that food and beverage manufacturers have been busily reformulating products to replace high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) with beet sugar or cane sugar in order to keep their products competitive. Even The Corn Refiners Association has tried to salvage the ingredient’s reputation by proposing that it be renamed “corn sugar."

In a recent column in The New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope takes a close look at HFCS, beginning with the statement that “most nutrition scientists say that consumer anxiety about the sweetener is misdirected" and that, really, consumers should be cutting back on both HFCS and sugar.

The article examines consumption of HFCS vs. other sweeteners, provides the HFCS stances of both the American Dietetic Association and the American Medical Association, and notes that even the Center for Science in the Public Interest believes the terror over HFCS is unwarranted.

A review of the studies that caused the hype, as well as the physiological effects of HFCS and sugar are also covered.