The Evils of Corn Syrup

If you are even marginally aware of the controversies that circle around the issue of differing kinds of sweeteners in the food industry, you have heard of the compound commonly referred to as high fructose corn syrup.

What you may not know about HFCS (as it is called in the industry) is how it is made, where it comes from, and what ingredients are used to manufacture it.

Recently, the Corn Refiner's Association (more info here) has been trying to gain back their massive profits from the sales of HFCS by labeling it as a "natural sweetener." The CRA states on their HFCS website (http://sweetsurprise.com) that:

High fructose corn syrup is made from corn, a natural grain product. High fructose corn syrup contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives and meets the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) requirements for use of the term “natural.”

Most everyday folk, when seeing the word "natural" stamped on their juice boxes as they run through the grocery store, don't take the time to stop and find out what exactly is meant by "natural." I certainly didn't. I mean, high fructose corn syrup is made from corn, after all. It's right there in the name. That must mean it's true, right?

WRONG.

The production of HFCS is an extremely long and complicated process that involves not only corn, but other compounds such as sulfur dioxide, sulfurous acid, and hydrochloric acid. Yeah, that's right, hydrochloric acid. That's the stuff that eats away at your skin if you touch it and is usually found in big barrels marked with symbols like these:


How exactly does one consider that "natural"? At the very least it doesn't exactly sound appetizing, if you ask me. The CRA's website on HFCS provides the following description of the HFCS making process:

The corn wet milling industry makes high fructose corn syrup from corn starch using a series of unit processes that include steeping corn to soften the hard kernel; physical separation of the kernel into its separate components—starch, corn hull, protein and oil; breakdown of the starch to glucose; use of enzymes to invert glucose to fructose; removal of impurities; and blending of glucose and fructose to make HFCS-42 and HFCS-55.

Notice they make no mention of specific ingredients. HOW INFORMATIVE. This pithy and vague description is upstaged by the pages-long details on the high fructose corn syrup making process that can be found on websites like answers.com and wikipedia. One would think that the information found on a simple search engine would pale in comparison to the data provided on a website dedicated to the product, but apparently this is not the case. To me, this makes it seem like CRA and the producers of HFCS have something to hide.

There are tons of other things I could get into regarding the Evils of Corn Syrup (how its used to sweeten things that never needed sweetening before, how the corn industry has been rigged by the CRA and the government so that subsidized farmers are practically forced to sell their corn to the syrup factories or go completely broke, how the testing done on HFCS by the FDA has not been sufficient to prove that it is not a factor in the rising rates of obesity and diabetes in our country) but I'll leave you with what I've already told you and the following mission:

Next time you go food shopping at your local grocery store, take a look at the labels on all of the products you're buying. How many of them contain corn syrup? How many of it list corn syrup within the first two or three ingredients on the list, meaning that they are one of the main ingredients in the product? I bet you that, unless you're shopping at an organic or local grocer, more than 75% of your purchases will contain corn syrup. It's in everything. What does that mean about your health? What does that mean about the food industry in our country? What does that mean about the world as a whole?

-Harper, The Shit You Eat


If you're interested in learning more about high fructose corn syrup, rent the movie "King Corn" or check out the following links:
http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html
http://almostfit.com/2008/09/10/on-high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-weapons-of-mass-destruction/
http://almostfit.com/2008/09/14/five-reasons-why-i-avoid-high-fructose-corn-syrup/
http://almostfit.com/2008/09/23/high-fructose-corn-syrup-the-antidote-to-common-sense/