HFCS to be renamed "Corn Sugar" by the CFA
Here's an article about Our friends at the Corn Refiner's Association, who want to give High Fructose Corn Syrup a new name to "ease confusion" and "help people understand" the stuff:
..."whether it's corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can't tell the difference. Sugar is sugar."
I call shenanigans.
Anything that comes from the 'mouth' of the CRA is bullshit, pure and simple (Should I move this to the Food Fight board? I doubt it...). They're spouting obvious lies, which enough people will believe because:
a) Evidence that contradicts the CRA's "facts" are surely conspiracy theories/products of the left wing media/hippie-drivel,
b) HFCS/"corn sugar" is present in almost every damn food product that the average American consumes, and
c) It's simply TOO MUCH to ask for them to make simple lifestyle changes, like buying whole & unprocessed foods, or foods that contain more natural sweeteners.
Here's one of my favourite videos that pretty well sums up the myths about HFCS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67NMir6K0xk
(the images/editing is a bit silly, but You can just listen to the audio for the full effect)
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Apparently, it may take a couple of years before the FDA approves this new label, but the CRA is already marketing Highly Freakish Corn Syrup under this new name and is working on more ads to trick the masses.
Even if the FDA doesn't approve of the name change, the CRA still has enough power to continue sneaking HFCS into every product imaginable and keep on calling it a natural, same-as-regular-sugar sweetener. Though I have a feeling that the ever-trustworthy FDA will approve of the new name, because Y'know...people in power have connections, and all it takes is the right budget to make government agencies deem Your product as safe and/or effective (big pharma, anyone?). But I digress....
Anyway.
....thoughts, VegWeb?
Yeah, I do find it funny how their trying to rebrand themselves to sound more benign. While i don't think there's anything intrinsically evil in Corn Syrup, it's more the fact that it's in EVERYTHING. I mean, do we really need to be adding corn syrup to bread, canned tomatoes, frozen dumplings, and just about everything else on supermarket shelves? It's the reckles abandone that they use it in everything that annoys me more than the substance itself.
This would be awesome. I LOVE HFCS!!
The thing that makes me sick about corn in most processed food is that it is probably all genetically modified and most of it is probably the work of Monsanto (shudder). But it's amazing how a few silly words can sway consumers. Don't get me wrong, I love corn... but in its natural state!
BOO! This is blatant false advertising! I'm sure the FDA will let them have whatever label they want for the right price. Just like I'm sure that they would use their billions of dollars to win any court cases brought against them for said false advertisement. I think it would be helpful to have a counter advertisement campaign for anti- HFCS but they have billions to spend in advertising and honest companys barely have thousands. People wonder why cancer rates are sky rocketing?!!!! >:(
Amen, octoberbunny, amen.
ugh okay I spent a long time typing out a response to this only to have my window crash on me o.O so it probably won't be as good this time around but:
I don't give two shits what they call it: corn "sugar" or hfcs I refuse to put that crap in my body!
This is nothing more than the hfcs manufactures stuffing the fat wallets of "medical professionals", ""independs"" studies", and lobbyists. This is of course nothing new, its been done for many years by almost every major company for almost everything from cigerettes, dairy, meats, gasoline, even stupid stuff like mustard (swear to god... look it up!)! I for one don't pay attention to these sorta stupid things, and maybe I'm just different. When I was a kid I saw all the junk food ads, and It just didn't effect me like it does today's generation, maybe I was just strange.
If people knew how HFCS was made, maybe they wouldn't eat it, sure there are some people out there who could give two shits less what they put into their body, and those are the types of people who are like 400lbs overweight, in an electric wheelchair, chugging down 120oz fountain sodas and can't figure out why they are fat (however that is a whole new rant for me!). However I would like to thing the intellegent population would think twice. Sir Paul Mccartney once said "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian." the same thing holds true for processed food. I think if more people actually knew what things like hfcs..etc.. was they would not choose to eat it. ???
What is hfcs? Well unless I'm wrong this is what I've found out; steps to making hfcs:
1. pick the corn
2. add a water/sulfer dioxide mixture and let the corn soak. (some companies "claim" not to do this step, I am not 100%)
3. Wet mill the corn.
4. sift the corn through many strainers leaving you with several different things: corn stratch, corn hulls (reused to feed livestock), corn oil, and other wonderful "food" items.
5. mix the remaining "corn" with enzymes (not exactly sure WHAT kind of enzymes this is but I'm sure they are the healthy kinds right? *LOL*)
6. let the mixture of corn/enzyme ferment as it produces sugars.
7. distill this mixture and you end up with a "sugar" that contains approx 45% fructose and 55% glucose.
8. they then filter it again through carbon filters and other "stuff"
okay at this point you have a liquid that is called corn syrup. If you want the high fructose cornsyrup you need to do a little more work.
10. take your corn syrup and concentrate it down until its almost 90% fructose, then water it back down some some extra corn syrup (45% fructose) until you get a liquid that is about 55-58% fructose, and congratulations, you now have high fructose corn syrup! :o
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I'm sorry but I would rather eat old fashioned white nasty table sugar than this, and (again another rant) that is terrible for you aswell! >:D
personally i opt for a locally produced honey, where i can actually know the bee keeper and know they are being treated fairly.. sure it cost more but for me sweetener is a treat, not something i use on a daily basis...
Rant over :-X :o (sorry to post on a thread over a month old but its kinda got under my skin!)
This is what keeps me in the produce aisle
This is what keeps me in the produce aisle
I second that!