+ The Debate on High Fructose Corn Syrup

The jury is still not out. In fact, the trial over High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has only just begun. The low-cost sugar substitute has been under severe scrutiny ever since Barry M. Bopkin, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina, and George A. Bray, a professor of medicine at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., published their ideas on the possible link between HFCS and America's obesity problem in 2004. The coincidence is astounding: just as HFCS is quickly adopted by many food industries in the early 1980's, the American obesity rates doubled after being relatively flat for the preceeding 20 years. But is high fructose corn syrup to blame, or is it something more nuanced? The New York Times took on the question in 2006 in the article "A Sweetener with a Bad Rap", and found that the HFCS industry was fighting an image battle that was essentially baseless; almost fear mongering.

"There's no substantial evidence to support the idea that high-fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity," said Dr. Walter Willett, the chairman of the nutrition department of the Harvard School of Public Health and a prominent proponent of healthy diets. "If there was no high-fructose corn syrup, I don't think we would see a change in anything important. I think there's this overreaction."

The article explores a number of misconceptions about what exactly HFCS is, how it is processed, how it's used in a variety of products and even discusses how it is able to garnish the sought after 'Natural' label by the FDA. Though many consumers of organic and natural foods around the world have made up their minds to stay far away from the nearly ubiquitous ingredient, many in the industry are hoping that they take another look. Recently, the Corn Refiners Association put up their own defense website HFCSfacts.com giving a glowing review and debunking many of the criticisms that have come their way.

Still, it is an astounding coincidence in a world that is searching for quick answers and even quicker solutions. Another fact I was amazed by (the amount that we consume on a yearly basis) illustrates the economic despair that has the HFCS industry scrambling for answers to their own image problem...

Annual per capita consumption of the sweetener is down 7 percent, to 59.2 pounds in 2005, from its peak of 63.7 pounds in 1999, according to the Agriculture Department. ...this is attributable less to the negative perceptions of high-fructose corn syrup than to the popularity of drinks with fewer calories, such as diet soda, bottled water and sports drinks.

Read the whole article here...