Sweet Surprise

The commercial informs me that I am in for a sweet surprise. A sweet surprise?? Oh yes, I am surprised. Shocked might be a better word. Or perhaps appalled. The other day while traveling I found myself flipping channels on a hotel gym TV. Then this commercial came on:

I almost flew off the treadmill. I couldn't believe my eyes. That I was actually watching a commercial for High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Two mothers at a kid's birthday party advocating impossibly purple juice as delicious and nutritious.

Does anyone else have a problem with this?

I wasn't sure which voice in me was reacting. Was it the voice of the mother in me that strives, against the grain of my culture, to provide my child with wholesome nutrition to feed her growing brain and body; to give her a healthy foundation that will support her throughout her life?

Was it the voice of the former board member of Children's Health Foundation in me that worked so diligently to reform public school nutrition and educate children and their families about life-threatening obesity and diabetes epidemics, not to mention the healthcare cost to US taxpayers? Or was it the environmental advocate in me that is passionate about creating good policy and practices to promote the long-term health of our soil and waterways and cant stand to see more subsidies going to corn?

As a mother I am offended because it misinforms mothers that already struggle through the mixed messages in the media about what they should or shouldn't feed their children. In the commercial they make the concerned mother seem stupid and uninformed, while the woman with the tub of neon juice seems intelligent and articulate.

The mother says "like sugar, (HFCS) is fine in moderation." Moderation? High Fructose Corn Syrup has 55% of the US sweetener market with 4.5 billion in annual sales. In 2003, Americans consumed 61 pounds per person! If that is moderate, what would excessive look like?

The major problem is that people are not aware of how much they consume because it is not sold in a bottle direct to the consumer. HFCS is in sodas, juices, cereal, snack foods, deserts, jams, condiments, wine, crackers and even "whole grain" breads and other "natural" packaged products on the shelves. Walk into any grocery store and investigate what % of the grocery store has packaged/processed/preserved foods? To me, that is not food. It's edible stuff. The shelves are lined with stuff that pretty much just shuffles the same ingredients into new shapes and pretty new packaging.

The commercial is actually suggesting that giving HFCS to our children is nutritious. Since the late 1970s, one-fifth of toddlers have been given eight ounces of soda every day. Almost half of all children between the ages of six and eleven have consumed an average of fifteen ounces per day. And teens? Between 23 and 30. 64-oz big gulps have 800 calories and 53 teaspoons of sugar (HFCS). That doesn't even factor in all the JUICE they drink. Children are unable to focus in school largely because they have a dose of kiddie-crack for breakfast.

As a children's health advocate, I feel that we need to be educating our consumers on negative health impact of this over-used sweetener. As an environmental advocate, I am extremely concerned about the amount of land used for corn production, and the use of this excessive monocrop. Nationwide, corn is being grown on 93 million acres this year, a 19 percent increase over last year.

Farmers are growing more corn because strong demand -- driven largely by the rush to produce ethanol for fuel -- has pushed corn prices far above the long-term average. While the boom in corn provides economic benefits to agriculture, it also entails a number of environmental costs.

A more immediate potential impact of planting more corn is increased nutrient pollution in waterways, a problem that stretches from the upper Midwest all the way to the oxygen-starved, "dead zone" that forms in the Gulf of Mexico each summer. (where does your shrimp come from again??) At some 7,900 square miles, this year's dead zone is the third largest since monitoring began in 1985.

Of course agriculture isn't alone in the creation of this problem, which is also fed by discharges from industry and sewage treatment plants, as well as fertilizer in runoff from urban and suburban landscaping. (ahem- your lawn) But given conventional regimens for fertilizing corn and soybeans, an increase in corn acres would be expected to exacerbate the nutrient problem.

Now watch the second commercial:

Am I actually hearing the words Natural and Nutritious? If you loved me you would give me two bites? Look very very closely at the end -- at the fine print -- Paid for by the Corn Refiners Association. Based in Washington, D.C., the Corn Refiners Association is the national trade association representing the corn refining (wet milling) industry of the United States.

Of course they would want to protect the image of their dearly beloved golden child. It makes sense for them economically, and on the surface it sounds good. It's a wholesome American home-grown crop. Lately its been getting a bad wrap. So they had to fight back and protect their baby.

There is nothing more wholesome and truly American as corn. Corn. Sweet Corn. Would we have survived settling in America if not for our saving grace- Zea Maize? Will we survive as a nation if we remain addicted as citizens, to an industry that is slowly poisoning us, depleting our soil, polluting our rivers, toying with genetic mutation, and scarfing our tax dollars?

Unsustainable is the catch phrase we throw around to everything not 'eco'. But it actually means something. It means that the current open loop system is not economically, ecologically or socially sustainable into the future. This crop that we have become overly dependent on, and the practices we have developed to cultivate it, will not sustain us.

These artificially simplified carbohydrates, which are absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream, provide quick energy. When we are starving, we are genetically programmed to eat lots of concentrated high-calorie foods when they are available. Unfortunately we are over-stuffed on calories and starved for nutrition.

What are we starving for? We are addicted to corn like we are addicted to sugar like we are addicted to oil. It's the cheap oil that enables the production of the cheap corn in the first place.

We are addicted to the cheap highs that enable us to get quick cheap energy. Be it corn-based ethanol or high fructose corn syrup, we don't need it in our motors or in our bodies or competing in the marketplace of food and fuel with a highly subsidized head start. We need a national rehab to get us off this destructive cycle.

Moderation? Fine yes, I am with you. I use "in moderation" as my excuse for all my vices, so I can grant them that one, but it's in everything! Most people don't even know that they are eating it! In the mass quantities in which we consume it, not only is it bad for our bodies, our children, but also for the soil and waterways and, ultimately, the interdependent life support systems that sustain us.

Comments

[lewis perkins]

Christiana, I first heard about Michael Pollan's writing from my friend Robyn O'Brien, founder of AllergyKids.com. http://allergykids.wordpress.com. It was right after learning about the issues around corn in this country that I too turned on the TV and saw these hysterical commercials for High Fructose Corn Syrup. Who do they think they are kidding? Thank you for creating this conversation.

Lewis

[davidhills]

Interesting that the industry mouthpiece put an ad just below Christiana's blog! The point is that sugar and corn syrup are in too many foods and that the industry has a world full of addicts. Can we "take personal responsibility" for what we put in our mouths? yes, but it's pretty hard to avoid the crap since it's in everything. Food industry listen up!! we want food that's good for us! Keep it up Christiana :-)

[lookB4Ueat]

Come now, Christiana. Could it be that in your enthusiasm to write a sensational article you've conveniently overlooked the central point being made by these ads? Here's my take.

I've seen the TV ads, and also the magazine and newspaper ads that are part of the same campaign. It seems to me that the Corn Refiners (makers of HFCS and sponsors of the ads) are trying to make a single, simple point: HFCS is the same as sugar. This is a legitimate subject for an ad campaign, since this rather basic fact of nutrition has been obscured in the minds of many consumers (and, apparently, scientists). The most recent research shows that sucrose and HFCS affect the body in the same way: same calories, same sweetness, same metabolism.

And shouldn't you encourage the Corn Refiners' message of moderation? Our caloric intake in this country is up 25% in the past 35 years. USDA figures say this is due to increases in intakes of ALL food categories, not just sweeteners: we eat more of everything now than we used to.

[buddhish]

Actually, sucrose and fructose are not equal. Fructose is worse for you because it causes insulin resistance and aging faster and more effectively than sucrose. Why is fruit still good for you? Because the fructose in fruit comes along with tons of fiber and great nutrients that help you process the fructose. These things are completely absent in HFCS.

And yes, encouraging moderation seems good. But not if you consider one of Christiana's central points: most people don't realize they're eating it. Also, McDonald's fries and donuts won't kill you in moderation either, but they're certainly not good for you.

[txkayrose]

I thought I was the only one who realized how atrocious these ads are!
As an avid label-reader, I am even appalled that there is HFCS in DOG FOOD! I was looking for treats for my 4-legged babies and thought to myself "I can't get away from this stuff". This was after spending 45 minutes in the cereal aisle of an average grocery store looking granola bars or other snacks that weren't pure junk. My choices were so limited and noticibly more expensive than the big-name brands, I almost gave up!
i'm no crusader usually, but we have to teach ourselves and our friends just how insidious this particular ingredient has become.

[necornell]

I'm with you 100% Christiana. Those ads had me yelling at the TV the first time I saw them. As a holistic health counselor, the first step I have all my clients take is to go through their kitchen and find everything with either HFCS or partially hydrogenated oil. They are amazed at what they find. Then we work on replacing them with alternatives.

People would consume much less HFCS if they cooked more from fresh ingredients. I find a huge portion of my clients don't know how to make a nutritious meal in less than 20 minutes, so I spend a great deal of time teaching people to cook. It's a lost art!

But ads like this make it OK for people to continue with their bad habits.

Check out Michael Pollan's "Open Letter to the next Farmer in Chief" from the NY Times magazine of Oct 9, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?scp=5&sq=Michael%20Pollan&st=cse. He lays out a plan to move from petro-agriculture to solar agriculture because he sees how subsidies skew what goes into our food: once subsidized, more farmers grew corn and we needed to do something with all that production. Voila! The food additive market was born.

Natalie

[Christiana Wyly - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank You Necornell,
Michael Pollan's Open Letter is perhaps the most inspiring piece I have read all year!

[jbilgihan]

Between HFCS and Partially Hydrogenated Oils it is hard to find anything nutritious in grocery stores for children. Whole Foods bans Partially Hydrogenated oils but not HFCS (I think). As a society nutrition education is sorely lacking. When we do hear anything about nutrition it is either an overly simplified graphic "Nutrition Pyramid" written by agribusiness and distributed by the DOA or a calorie-centric model where people only look at the food label to see calories (and not ingredients) in their food.

School lunches (what most children eat) are terrible and many schools have soda/snack machines (HFCS/Hydrogenated Oils) in them used as fund raisers. Easy access to bad food and the nutritional ignorance of most parents and children contributes directly to our epidemic obesity problem.

James