Playdate: High Fructose Corn Syrup Freak Outs Be Gone
Does high fructose corn syrup send you into a tizzy? Not eating it, I mean, but avoiding it?
Linked to diabetes in kids and other health risks, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) comes from corn (duh) that’s been milled, made into a syrup then adjusted with the addition of enzymes. It’s usually part glucose/part fructose. And all those freaky ads featuring the woman who convinces her partner that studies show HFCS is just like sugar come from the folks who do that refining. Which basically means you can’t trust them.
Want a quick primer on how to avoid HFCS? A guest post by the writer of Life Less Sweet appeared on Food With Kid Appeal, highlighting the highest HFCS offenders. The scary ones? Breadcrumbs (we use a fair amount of those in my house), Children’s Tylenol and sweet pickles. Throw in sushi (sorry, I’m going to ick that one – I’m a vegetarian), tonic water and Worcestershire sauce, and you’re starting to hit a lot of families.
To find out what else you should avoid and pick out some safe eats (maple syrup, yum!), check out the piece.
Did it make you think twice about dinner tonight?
Image: Food With Kid Appeal
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Hi, my name is Liz and I work for the Corn Refiner
Those commercials make me angry cause they’re so ridiculous!
“what, that its made from real corn, has less calories than sugar, and is fine in moderation?”
moderation is the key, but you can’t have it in moderation when it’s in EVERYTHING. ughhh!!!
stupid corn refiner people. i buy as little as possible with that nonsense in it.
My brother grew up with a HORRIBLE corn syrup allergy. We needed to avoid it in my house. He would get terrible stomach cramps and other intestinal maladies. Ironically, he never ever had trouble with whole corn. Just corn syrup. So, we avoid it in our house because of fear of a genetic predisposition toward the allergy, and because I just don’t trust it. While I don’t worry so much “on the fly,” at home, it’s a no-no. Not nearly as difficult with the advent of organics as it was growing up in the 70s.
thanks for the mention
Thanks Diera – I fixed it. I had the two mixed up in my head! Honestly, I think both are kind of gross anyway.
Dont people with corn allergies need to avoid HFCS? We never eat any of it. I am serious, never. It is no big deal. We get enough chemicals as it is. HFCS was developed in the 80′s so most of us never had it as children. Our kids are the lab rats for this stuff. Chemically altering a substance changes it. So it does not matter it is “made from corn”. Th epoop you made this morning was made from your healthy dinner last night. You want to eat that? It is just chemically altered roast beef or potatoes. I can’t understand why everyone thinks plain old sugar is so bad.
A lot of the stuff that has HFCS is unhealthy in other ways too. We do try to avoid it. I don’t worry about what we eat if we go to a restaurant, but I am “uptight” about what we eat at home.
So, so easy to make your own bread crumbs if you have a food processor. Just remove the crusts and grind up the stale bread — plain old white bread makes nice fluffy crumbs but any bread will do. Freeze until you need to use. No HFCS, you use up bread that was going to waste anyway, and it costs a lot less.
The article doesn’t list soy sauce – did you mean Worcestershire sauce? It does list that. Real soy sauce doesn’t have any sweetener in it at all, although I suppose those packets of weird brown water you get with takeout Chinese might have it – but those are disgusting anyway.
It kills us during Passover – no HFCS in anything. I’d hate to have to watch it that carefully all the time!
That list isn’t exactly scary. Are people really that uptight that they don’t want to encounter any HFC at all? I can understand wanting to minimize it–I think many foods taste better with out it, even–but if you happen to have some soy sauce+HFC at home, I think you and your family will be okay.