Recently, Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times interviewed several food-quality activists, including me, about a Sept. 14 petition by the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) to change the name of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to "corn sugar."
Her question: What new name would you suggest?
I thought all of the responses had merit - for example, writer Michael Pollan offered "enzymatically altered corn glucose" which has an appropriately frankenfoodish ring about it - but my vote was to disallow any change. My reasoning: the name as it stands is accurate, and the industry should not be allowed to circumvent the well-earned distrust HFCS has engendered. (Putting aside my concern that HFCS may be metabolically worse than table sugar - I think the research behind that notion is debatable - my main worry is that the syrup's cheapness, due to corn subsidies, allows manufacturers to sweeten a huge percentage of the American food supply. I believe that's been a significant contributor to the obesity-diabetes epidemic.)
Now, several days after the petition to the FDA, what remains striking to me about this whole episode is how public, how incredibly visible, this attempted subterfuge has become. The CRA clearly hoped to do this quietly - as it might have in, say, 1994, when the story might have garnered only a few inches of type buried deep in the Times' gray pages.
Instead, in the web age, the name-change petition quickly became an appropriately sticky public relations mess. After just nine days, a Google search for the twin terms "high-fructose corn syrup" and "corn sugar" garnered 143,000 results, and asking social media posters for their own alternate names became a raging meme. I happily joined in, posing the challenge on my Facebook page and Digg profile. Hundreds volunteered tags including "liquid suffering," "cellulite syrup," and several that can't be published in a family website, despite my instruction to avoid profanity.
It's too soon to predict the outcome of this net-centric protest, but even in the worst case scenario - the term "corn sugar" replaces all instances of HFCS in commercial parlance - it's clear that the CRA's Orwellian plan has been at least partially turned back. Far fewer people will see the term on a label and be reassured by this short, relatively innocuous name. But I think it's more likely that the process has been significantly derailed, and "corn sugar" will never gain much legal traction. One can hope.
To be clear, I worry as much about the impact of the Internet as anyone else. I worry about shortening attention spans, the physical cost of sedentary "surfing" and the potential for coarsening discourse as millions of web pages compete for attention by appealing to our base instincts.
But sunlight, it has been said, is the best disinfectant. The web's ability to dredge duplicitous schemes from the corporate-governmental shadows into the noonday glare is a great advance, one with implications that reach far beyond food policy. Any problem - including, ironically, the problems caused by the web itself - is better dispatched in an open forum, and the web is quickly becoming the most open forum the world has ever known. That is sweetness we can celebrate.
More information on HFCS from my website: Too Sweet too Eat?
Andrew Weil, M.D., is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and the editorial director of www.DrWeil.com. Become a fan on Facebook, follow Dr. Weil on Twitter, and check out his Daily Health Tips Blog.
Follow Dr. Andrew Weil on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrWeil
Ranveig Elvebakk, MD is a bariatric physician in the San Francisco Bay Area specializimg in weight loss and metabolic lllness. Her prgram, The Food Tree is available in book form on Amazon.com. She is also the author of several columns and papers. Become a fan on Facebook, follow Dr. Elvebakk on Twitter (TheFoodTree) and, and check out her Blog at www.foodtreemd.com/blog.
Or, like Canola or Cottonseed Oils, an NFCF (Non-Food Crop Food).
Methanol Alcohol (used as racing fuel) is used in the manufacture of Aspartame.
Maybe the Corn Cobbers can figure a way to use Corn Ethanol to make the same.
The effects of fruit sugars are mitagated by the fiber in the fruit. Still, don't eat too much of it.
Faced with the declining use of High Fructose Corn Syrup, the Corn Corporate Welfare Association has petitioned the Food and Drug administration to change the name of HFCS to “corporate welfare juice.” HFCS is produced from corn by artificially treating it with enzymes to turn corn starch into syrup.
The name change is an attempt to distract consumers from alleged health risks associated with HFCS, which have pushed its consumption to a 20-year low. Various studies have linked this sweetener to problems such as insulin resistance, diabetes, fatty liver disease, obesity, extra limbs, porcelain feet and fig brains. People with corn allergies also have problems as corn syrup has become so widely used.
Refiners originally wanted to change HFCS’s name to the innocuous-sounding “corn sugar,” and the change is still under consideration by the FDA. The CCWA opted to change tactics as an internet petition sprang up to oppose the change, along with a Facebook page opposed to HFCS in general. The association settled on “corporate welfare juice” after rejecting other names such as “tasty poison,” “constipation solver” and “America’s high diabetes elixir.” (continued….)
http://www.thechicagodope.com/2010/09/28/so-long-corn-syrup-hello-corporate-welfare-juice/
Dear America,
It's a decision.
Do you want to eat kale for breakfast and stuff organic walnuts in your purse and make quinoa flatbread?
What is your life worth to you?
I've never posted this before but I'm struggling with a very advanced serious disease - anecdotal - and I wish I could be a poster girl for any of you that go near anything processed, GM'd, boxed, tinned, HFCS and all the rest. Psych meds are also implicated in altering metabolism and liver function.
I also have diabetes. No medications.
When I asked I gently tell people - You don't have to read labels if you don't buy things with labels.
Organic and fresh produce is NOT more expensive when you cut out all alcohol, easy foods, animal, dairy, processed, unfermented soy (which is pure crud), all farmed fish etc etc.
It really ISN't that hard.
Stuff an avocado in your pocket and graze on walnuts, rasberries, and raw spinach.
However, the fact remains that it's cheaper to eat badly in this country than it is to eat fresh and organic, especially in difficult economic times when you're pinching every penny.
That being said, high fructose corn syrup is literally killing us and the only people who can change that is US.
Call it what you want.....whatever name they choose I will be avoiding it all costs and I hope that those less fortunate are able to gain better access to fresh produce and healthier options in their neighborhoods.
It's clear that we are going to have to do a better job in wielding the economic power that we have. Second to voting, it's the most power tool we have. We need to demand better so we can live better, longer and healthier.
Maybe we should send them a message by not buying anything that uses any type of corn product!
I read all labels, if I find HFCS and now corn sugar, I refuse to buy the product. In doing so, I've lost 30 pounds without dieting.
Bill Couzens Founder Less Cancer
I am like many urbanites - very busy and ate mostly microwaved dinners, fast-food for lunch, and boxed cereal for breakfast. I have a damaged fatty liver now. I have switched to making my own microwave dinners and eggs/ fruit/yogurt for breakfast now (I am sure I still eat tonnes of corn sugar) - lets hope my overworked liver makes it for another 40 years.
Please read http://drvittoriarepetto.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/the-hidden-hazards-of-microwave-cooking/
It might be worthwhile reading this section from wikipedia. Quite interesting, actually and mostly contrary to what Dr.Mercola is suggesting... All claims in this article are referenced by scientific papers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven#Effects_on_food_and_nutrients
Effects on food and nutrients
Any form of cooking will destroy some nutrients in food, but the key variables are how much water is used in the cooking, how long the food is cooked, and at what temperature.[16] Microwave ovens do convert vitamin B12 from the active to inactive form, making approximately 30-40% of the B12 contained in foods unusable by mammals.[17]
Spinach retains nearly all its folate when cooked in a microwave[16]; in comparison, it loses about 77 percent when cooked on a stove, because food on a stove is typically boiled, leaching out nutrients.[16] Steamed vegetables tend to maintain more nutrients when microwaved than when cooked on a stovetop.[18][19][20] Bacon cooked by microwave has significantly lower levels of carcinogenic nitrosamines than conventionally cooked bacon.