Comments on: High Fructose Corn Syrup: What’s The Big Deal?

By: Chrissy

Chrissy — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:58:54 +0000

Whole Foods sell really good BBQ sauce, from what I have seen all are HFCS free. My favorite is “Bone Sucking Sauce” it comes in a glass jar and it is the best I’ve ever had. When I go to conventional grocery stores and see the version of BBq sauce they sell, I roll my eyes and the chemical ketchup.

I honestly get a little kick out of booting HFCS from my cart.

By: Erika Nicole Kendall

Erika Nicole Kendall — Mon, 16 May 2011 02:50:30 +0000

Why does it need to be in syrup? That’s unnecessary sugar.. and sugar fattens. Skip the fruit cups and get an apple or something that you can eat in your hand or something. No one needs excess sugar, IMO.

By: Terri

Terri — Mon, 16 May 2011 02:43:21 +0000

What are your thoughts on cups of fruit in light syrup? I eat these often during breakfast or lunch. I’ve been paying more attention to the ingredients and it doesn’t mention high fructose corn syrup.

By: Donna

Donna — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:04:15 +0000

Foods that contains high fructose corn syrup should be avoided all together. Unlike like glucose, fructose metabolizes differently in the body. That said fructose metabolism behaves in a way that hinders your body to function properly and causing many negative effects that includes high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes etc. As an healthcare professional and a researcher in health and nutrition, I would recommend not consuming foods with HFCS. Foods high in HFCS includes ketchup, many sauces, soft drinks, some breads and some cereals.

By: 313QT

313QT — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:47:02 +0000

love your site! Ive stopped eating everything with HFCS, aspartame, suralose, and any other crap that I cant pronounce! If I cant spell it, grow it, or hunt it im not putting it into my body! I use to LOVE lean cusines and smart ones tv dinners and I havent had one since August! Weight isnt coming off as fast b/c im close to my goal of 200lbs (currently 218.6!) but ims till losing inches and gaining muscle. Thanks so much for your site!

By: James

James — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 20:23:27 +0000

HFCS is, at least in part, and unintended consequence of government meddling. The high tariffs on sucrose (cane and beet sugars) led to higher sugar prices. So, food processors looked for alternatives. And of course, as you point out, corn gets a subsidy . . .

Less regulation, more information.

Thanks for informing us.

By: BLAQFYAH

BLAQFYAH — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:06:40 +0000

Lord Help Me and MY JOURNEY!!!. I just found your site about a week ago. And i have been reading a few articles a day. And I really appreciate all the information. Reading all of this just makes my head and heart hurt. Child I have a sugar addiction that is OUT OF THIS WORLD. I recently started eating life savor mints…by the bag full. I can go thru the 41 oz Big Value in three days or less by myself. And whenever I try to stop I usually fail. This article is eye opening. Keep up the good work. I resolve to start to ween myself from sugar starting to day. I’ve been Pepsi free for about 7 months….now its time to give up the candy…then coffee.

By: Erika

Erika — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 10:47:01 +0000

http://blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com/what-are-you-eating/qa-wednesday-high-fructose-corn-syrup-vs-table-sugar/

By: Lynne

Lynne — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 17:33:27 +0000

My husband is a truck driver, he won’t eat anything with HFCS because he says that the tankers (yes tankers) that haul this stuff have to be replaced often because the stuff eats through the metal. Also, once the tanker has been used to haul HFCS it can’t be used to haul anything else…ever.

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:01:56 +0000

Hey Erika,

Thanks for the response. I only glanced at your other posts – so maybe I should poke a little longer.

By: Erika

Erika — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:32:17 +0000

Oh, and I’ve also written about the difference between getting sugar from fruit (that also comes with fiber to blunt the impact of the sugar on your system) and getting it from processed foods, as well. I will say this, though – there’s a point in here that I’d like to steal for my Q&A Wednesday, though. Hmmm.

By: Erika

Erika — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:28:29 +0000

Thank you for coming by!

A quick glance across this site would show that I’ve written about clean eating, foregoing processed foods in their entirety and getting the biggest nutritional bang for your buck. So no, you’re absolutely correct… but since this post specifically covered the topic in the advertisements – shaming people who might not understand the specifics of high fructose corn syrup into believing that since they DON’T KNOW the specifics, they should just suck it up and eat the stuff anyway – that’s exactly what I covered. No harm, no foul, and you’re absolutely right.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:20:13 +0000

Hi Erika, wonderful blog and interesting read. However, I think this new HFCS paranoia is causing people to over look and not understand the real problem. Sadly, I gather the same misconception in this blog & please correct me if I’m wrong.

One major factor to insulin resistance & type II diabetes is large consumption of fructose. HFCS & all other simple sugars contain large quantities of it. (I tried to get exact ratios but its sounds like most are 1 part fructose: 1 part another compound.) And the same holds true for some versions of HFCS. So swapping any product for the sucrose or fructose version instead of HFCS will probably gain no benefit. (ie. soda with sugar ).

So why not write a rant about “Reasons to forgo food with added sugar!”?

BTW, I don’t want anyone to think this comment means to forgo eating fruit. Fruit is nutritionally dense unlike most processed food.

By: Erika

Erika — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:11:57 +0000

“Natural” is more of a red herring than anything else, because there is no actual official definition for the term. So while I take that with a grain of salt, I see what you’re saying, there.

I have noticed that more HFCS-free products are appearing on the market, but I honestly wouldn’t know about them because since I’ve written this post, I make all my stuff from scratch, lol.

Kudos on being HFCS-free, though!

By: Shelley

Shelley — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:07:59 +0000

Oops, sorry:

“There are organic and HFCS-free ketchups now.”

By: Shelley

Shelley — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:06:51 +0000

Finding foods that don’t use HFCS is much easier today than it has been in the past.

There are organic and HFCS ketchups now. Even a name brand ketchup such as Heinz now provides “natural” and organic alternatives.

Pancakes do nicely with a little maple syrup, and you don’t have to drench the cakes.

The number of organic jams, preserves, and spreads has exploded — and the HFCS variety are actually tastier. I use an organic red raspberry fruit spread that is addictive, and fewer calories than the sticky, gummy, HFCS variety.

The most difficult items were cooking items, such as liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce. The US brands all have HFCS. However, Annie’s makes a good vegetarian variety, and there are several vegetarian recipes scattered about the web.

We’ve been HFCS free in our house now for over 6 months, and haven’t missed it a bit.

By: Gina M.

Gina M. — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:03:17 +0000

Erika, thank you for your thoughtful article. In support of your comments, I have to say that this study done at Princeton is high quality work–I know this personally because the main author (Bart Hoebel) was my senior thesis advisor at Princeton and the first author (Miriam Bocarsly) and I did our senior independent work together…we spent lots of time griping about writing & drinking tea. She is meticulous and always is quick to question the meaning of her findings–whatever they are–and doesn’t jump to grandiose conclusions.

To those who are defending HCFS, read the paper by Bocarsly et al. and you can see exactly what they did, what variables they controlled for (ie calorie consumption) etc. The authors do not claim to be certain about all of the purported ill-effects of HCFS in humans; they just write about what they found in their rat population. And if people are still upset about it, they should really be upset with the reviewers who “let the paper be published”, because the journal they published in isn’t just some “oh I think I’ll post my results” journal…it’s called peer-reviewed for a reason. Ms. Bocarsly et al are simply reporting their studies’ results. I hope the group does more research

By: Erika

Erika — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:58:08 +0000

You should! And thank you for posting the link here! (I caught the story, too – perhaps an updating to this article is in order? http://blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com/what-are-you-eating/study-says-common-food-chemical-packs-on-belly-fat

It was only a matter of time before they figured this out, but either way… I’m glad the truth is coming out. Ironically enough, the CRA is STILL running those ads on TV. It’s like, “Oh, you figure NO ONE will notice that you’re wrong?” LOL I wonder if they’ve updated SweetSurprise to reflect the Princeton study.

Again, thanks! Hope you stick around!

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:28:00 +0000

Hey Erika, just started reading your blog and I’m loving it.

I thought I’d pass along a study Princeton recently did regarding high fructose corn syrup: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/

The gist of it is, rats fed chow and a hfcs+water drink gained weight more rapidly than rats fed chow and a sucrose+water drink. More studies will need to be done to confirm and to narrow down the reason, but one theory expressed in the article is that, because the fructose and glucose in hfcs are unbound, the fructose is more readily absorbed by the body.

Anecdotally, I can only say I’ve felt much better since cutting out hfcs and I can quickly tell when I’ve eaten it. I get shaky and don’t feel full (and thanks to your blog post I better understand why). Having suffered through the hfcs commercials, I felt especially smug about my choices once I read that Princeton article

By: Davis Wilson

Davis Wilson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:32:19 +0000

There is nothing wrong with High fructose corn syrup. U can only become obese if u don’t have self control. If u have control then u should be fine. And if u exercise enough, then u will be in good condition, but if u have no control and u are too lazy to exercise, then u will get fat and/or obese. I am doing a project on High Fructose Corn Syrup and stuff like that.

Although i think that McDonalds should die! I’ve sen some1 being crried out of their cause their food gave them a heart attack. Don’t blame high fructose corn syrup for McDonalds fattyness.

Oh, and did u know that McDonalds lost a law suit to a women, who was suing them cause they were out of McNuggets… How sad. They also lost a law suit to a man who spilled the coffee he bought from them on his lap, he sued them cause the cup didn’t say, “CAUTION, MAY BE HOT”, and he won!

I hope i enlightened u. =)

Editors Note: @Davis,

No offense, but… you didn’t.

“Good condition” has to do with a hell of a lot more in regards to health than outward appearance, something which you focus heavily on. I’m not interested in just being skinny and fooling the masses into thinking I’m taking care of myself. Your comment smacks of the notion that a person who is “skinny” can eat whatever so long as they’re skinny. I reject that mentality in the interest of supporting better health on this site.

If you are doing a project on high fructose corn syrup, then you should research how the product is created, what nutritional value it offers the body, what value it offers the companies that create it and why the explosion of its use correlates so well with the explosion of obesity-linked illness in the United States.

I know this is radical thought, but obesity is not the entire “problem” – it is a symptom of a much larger problem, one that is shared by people fat and skinny alike. So all that talk about control and being too lazy to exercise… it’s not very productive nor is it conducive to what I’m offering here. I’ve written about what it means to be fit all over this site.

I can’t say, for sure, what the McDonalds cases have to do with my talking about the different versions of corn found in a simple McDonalds meal, but I AM aware that frivolous lawsuits exist. No one is recommending litigation, just making conscious consumers and helping people make better decisions about their eating habits.

I hope I’ve enlightened you.