A Message from the Corn Refiners Association: You're Confused

Yep that's right.  The people who market high fructose corn syrup have decided that the only way to:

"clear up consumer confusion about the product"

is to change it's name to:  Corn Sugar

This is according to the NYT, who seem to be shilling for the Corn Refiners association.  It reads more like an advertisement than a piece of journalism.   Personally I'm kind of amazed at Marion Nestles' quotes; I respect her greatly, but for a nutritionist to say:

"But you have to feel sorry for them. High-fructose corn syrup is the new trans fat. Everyone thinks it’s poison, and food companies are getting rid of it as fast as they can.”

I have to feel sorry for them, why?  It is poison and there are many studies out there to prove it so why, Dr. Nestle, are you not mentioning them?  Or are you just being edited this way by the NYT?

To be fair, let's define poison.  High Fructose corn syrup is government subsidized, industrially grown, most likely a GMO and highly processed.  Sugar is a non GMO grass that, depending on the kind of sugar, can be processed to varying degrees.  Sugar can be bought in an organic version, HFCS can not.

It has been proven that HFCS prompts considerably more weight gain which leads to Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease and Liver Problems.  For a more exhaustive discussion on the topic you might want to start out by reading Tom Laskawy over at Grist; he's done a great job breaking it all down for you with lots of sources.

The bottom line is this:  why eat a processed genetically modified food when you have a choice to eat one that isn't?  Why eat corporate food when you have a choice to eat honey grown on the rooftops of Brooklyn or organic fair trade sugar?  In the end it is our choice - our choice of where we eat out, what we buy at the grocery store and our choice to reclaim our food lives by living a more seasonal, local life and cooking at home with ingredients, not products.

Just remember if the FDA approves the name change (it'll take a coupe of years):  when you start to see Corn Sugar on labels think,  Oh High Fructose Corn Syrup!

Then put the product back on the shelf and don't buy it.

I posted this ages ago, but it seem like it was worth a second viewing given today's subject matter: