If you are wary of consuming products with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), your suspicions may prove right. A new study, for the first time conducted on humans, not lab rats, confirms what many have suspected for a long time – the fructose in HFCS contributes to obesity.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation earlier this year, was carried out by a team of scientists at the University of California, Davis. It is entitled Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans.

Here’s what the experiment looked like:

Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a strictly controlled diet, including high levels of fructose, produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems. read more…

Kimber L. Stanhope, the study leader, said “This is the first evidence we have that fructose increases diabetes and heart disease independently from causing simple weight gain. We didn’t see any of these changes in the people eating glucose.”

While fructose is found in fruits, honey and table sugar, it’s highest percentage is in HFCS, hence the name “High Fructose” corn syrup.

What you need to know:

Consumption of sweetened food and beverage has grown significantly in the US over the past decades. Those who blame HFCS for the country’s obesity epidemic and related maladies have shown that the alarming rise in obesity rates is in tandem with the introduction and rapid adoption of HFCS by food and beverage manufacturers since the early 1980’s.

Why did manufacturers switch to high fructose corn syrup to begin with? They certainly did not plan to make America fat. Our obesity epidemic is simply a side effect of the quest for efficiency and lower cost of production. In the 1970’s, huge surpluses of corn in the US, prompted the creation of a new sweetener, HFCS, half the price of sugar, which has become the sweetener of choice in almost all soft drinks today.

Please note that the study was conducted on 100% fructose, not HFCS, which is 45% sucrose 55% fructose.  Many scientists still maintain that there is no difference between sugar (50/50) and HFCS. As more studies are carried out in humans in coming years, the truth will become clearer. But in the meantime, most everyone agrees that we should all reduce the amount of sweet we consume daily, be it sugar, HFCS, or others.

What to do at the supermarket:

The easiest way to drastically reduce high fructose corn syrup from your diet is to stop visiting the drinks aisles at the supermarket. Switching to tap water is healthier for you, your wallet, and the environment.

HFCS appears in the ingredient list just like sugar, dextrose, and corn syrup. Watch out for it in snacks, sauces, prepared meals, and other products.

[thanks Robyn for the hat tip]

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[Update: see Ocean Spray's response in the comments below.]

More Cranberry news today.

Here’s a dilemma for you. Let’s say you are the CEO of a successful food company that sells products both to consumers and to other food processors. And let’s assume you are being squeezed by your big corporate clients to lower the price of your product. What do you do? Do you stand by the quality of your product and take a hit on the bottom line? Or do you get the food scientists to whip up a cheaper, inferior version?

This is the story of sweetened dried cranberries (SDC), manufactured by Ocean Spray. The consumer product, Craisins, contains dried cranberries, sugar (lots), and sometimes a bit of oil. That’s the package we buy at the supermarket. However, when we buy products with cranberry, such as Nature Valley Fruit Bars and Pepperidge Farm Chewy Granola Cookies, the cranberries inside are different. They come from a new product by Ocean Spray, called “Choice”.

What you need to know:

The “Choice” product has 50% less cranberry (the expensive ingredient) and more of other stuff: sugar, edelberry juice, citric acid. Some say, it barely has any cranberry left.

Here’s what The National Consumers League (NCL), a watchdog organization, wrote to the FDA:

…the cranberry content is so small that Ocean Spray must add color in the form of elderberry juice concentrate and acidity in the form of citric acid to simulate the color and acidity of cranberries. These findings are consistent with Ocean Spray’s own claims that it uses 50 percent fewer cranberries to make “Choice” than the regular product. Ocean Spray’s marketing materials tout “Choice” as a low-cost SDC with the same taste, texture, appearance, and health benefits as other SDCs.

NCL argues that such products should not be called cranberries, because they barely contain any of the original fruit. After sending the “Choice” product to a lab, they also ask that the ingredient label (on bulk packages, we assume) be corrected to state sugar as the first ingredient, not cranberries.

If you’re wondering why some products are full of all strange sounding names and chemicals, this story exemplifies one of the many reasons – manufacturer cost reduction.

Two other well known examples are the use of high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar in soft drinks (HFCS is half the price of table sugar) and the invention of margarine as a low cost alternative to butter (at the behest of France’s Napoleon two hundred years ago).

What to do at the supermarket:

Go for products with ingredient lists that have real, understandable names. Not always the healthiest (i.e too much butter), but at least you know what you are putting in your mouth.

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A clever marketing campaign by industry backed Center for Consumer Freedom is trying to free high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) of its bum rap. Parents, dieters and health industry professionals have been “brainwashed” to think that HFCS is the cause of America’s obesity epidemic. Not so, says the group who hides the list of its funders. In newspapers, on TV, and on the web, HFCS is now “exonerated” from being the cause of obesity, by lack of evidence.

The campaign is part of a broader effort by the industry to ward off any limitations on their ability to sell us more and more junk food and “liquid calories” in the form of soda pop. Such efforts include increasing calls to tax sugary soft drinks and totally remove them from schools.

What you need to know:

High Fructose Corn Syrup is very similar to table sugar in its chemical properties and in the way it is absorbed by the body. So gram per gram they will have the same effect on you as sugar does.

The problem lies not in the syrup itself, but in how cheap it has become to manufacture a slough of sweetened snacks and drinks compared to the past.

A bit of historical perspective: Farmers have been receiving subsidies from the US government to grow corn for years. They have become so good at it that they began to create huge surpluses, even after selling corn to the entire world AND switching livestock feed from grass to corn.

What to do with all the excess corn?

Some smart dudes discovered about 30 years ago that through a chemical process, the sugars in corn could be separated from its other parts and be synthesized into a liquid syrup. Introducing HFCS. The beauty – gram for gram it costs half the price of sugar to produce. Woohoo!

Manufacturers started dumping HFCS into sodas, snacks, pasta sauces, and as many products as possible because (a) it made them taste good (b) they shaved a few dimes off their costs.

The early 1980’s are considered the time that obesity started to take off in this country. And that’s exactly when HFCS was unleashed into supermarkets.

And the rest is history.

What to do at the supermarket:

Try to avoid any food that has too much sweet in it. Humans are not supposed to consume so much sugar. Look for sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and a host of other synonyms on the ingredient list. In many cases, sugar is scattered in several places along the list.

A good summary of the total sugar content in the product is in the nutrition facts panel. Remember – every 4 grams of sugar is equal to 1 teaspoon.

To play it safe, there are certain aisles just worth avoiding at the supermarket – snacks and beverages. You’ll save your health and a lot of money by just resisting the temptation to walk down those HFCS laden alleys.

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In a press release yesterday, Kellogg’s introduced a branded back to school resource for moms called Mom’s Homeroom:

“Having all the right tools is essential for learning, like knowing what your child’s learning style is so you know how to help them study,” said Victoria Tierney, elementary school teacher and a Mom’s Homeroom mom. “I also know that kids need to be ready to learn, and starting the day with a wholesome breakfast is a great way to start.”

read the entire propoganda…

Whenever we see a brand dominate a “free advice” site, we’re always on guard. We checked out both the website and the products being heavily pushed. Read more…

Starbucks will remove HFCS from all its baked goods starting June 30, according to the company. The coffee shop chain is making another attempt to grow its food business, which now stands at less than 20% of revenue. According to Starbucks:

The new campaign — which will be promoted with the tag “Real Food. Simply Delicious” – follows last year’s health and wellness push that added food like oatmeal, smoothies and a protein plate to Starbucks’ repertoire.

The ingredient changes, which also include removing preservatives where possible, will affect about 90 percent of the baked goods Starbucks sells and are part of the coffee chain’s ongoing efforts to appeal to increasingly health-conscious consumers as recession has damped spending on little luxuries like lattes.

What you need to know:

Cane sugar contains just as many calories per gram as HFCS, so don’t go on a brownie binge just yet. We are happy to see that Starbucks is removing preservatives and food colorings, and in general is looking to provide a healthy menu.

Now if they could also charge healthier prices for their coffee…

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The word salad conjures, for most people, mounds of iceberg lettuce, a few other veggies, and a hefty ladle of dressing. As with many things, the US did not invent it, but in the last 50 years we have elevated salad dressing to a billion dollar industry with hundreds of varieties awaiting us in a special condiments aisle in the supermarket. You know something is big when it has its own trade organization.

In southern Europe and the Mediterranean, a salad is dressed by mixing some fresh lemon juice, a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and drizzling on top of a freshly cut salad. It seems that here, though, folks cannot complete that basic task and therefore gladly pay $3.00-$4.00 for a bottled solution. The price paid isn’t just monetary, as there are ingredients in some commercial dressings that are better kept away from our bodies.

Read more…

One of the most popular claims on food packaging in the past few years is “Natural”. From sugary snacks to TV dinners to drinks, you’ll find this unregulated term appear on processed food-like products that are as far from being natural as Manhattan is from the Grand Canyon. But since the FDA did not define when and how the term should be used, it has become a very easy to lure consumers with the associated health auro.

No surprise then to find that liquid candy, aka soft drinks, are joining the Natural Revolution:

Vice president of Sprite and flavors at Coca-Cola North America Santiago Blanco said: “The introduction of this new formulation and the new look of the Fanta line are part of our ongoing efforts to reinvigorate the sparkling beverage category in the US.”

Read article…

What you need to know:

Natural does NOT mean healthy. In soft drinks, natural means that high fructose corn syrup has been replaced with sugar. Lots of sugar, that your body definitely doesn’t need.

Switching from artificial food dyes to natural colorings is to be commended, but then we ask, why did Coke been use artificial colorings all these years in the first place? [Answer: it was fractions of a cent cheaper per bottle, never mind the disturbing medical research]

What to do at the supermarket:

Our steadfast advice -  save your family of 4 over $500 a year by skipping the beverage aisles at the supermarket and learning to enjoy water. It’s cheaper, healthier, and lets the flavors of your home cooked meal express themselves best.

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Probably the biggest news in the diet drink arena this past year has been the introduction of soft drinks sweetened with stevia. The FDA anointed stevia  GRAS status (Generally Regarded as Safe), which means it can be used in food products without requiring approvals for each specific product.

Although some consumers groups objected,  citing insufficient research into long term effects of its use, the general public and manufacturers seemed pleased with the addition of a natural low calorie sweetener. Stevia sweeteners such as Reb-A are 300 times sweeter than table sugar. They are derived from a South American plant and come virtually calorie free.

And so, drinks from Odwalla, Tropicana, and others have been formulated using Reb-A, and marketed with much hype and hoo-ha.

Unfortunately for stevia manufacturers, who for years battled to gain FDA approval, there may be a new obstacle to stevia’s massive adoption – its price tag. A recent report by business research organization KnowGenix has  pointed out that the cost of stevia extracts compared to artificial sweetners is substantially higher, and therefore it may not prove economically viable for many drinks.

Seems a bit odd to us, what with the zillions of dollars that drink manufacturers are making by selling us water, colors, and sugar (or substitutes) in pretty bottles. But then recall the massive switch from sugar to high fructose corn syrup in the 1980’s because each bottle was a few pennies cheaper to manufacture.

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Yesterday we wrote about false advertising claims by Kellogg’s with respect to its Frosted Mini Wheats cereal. Today we’ll take a look inside the box to see just how nutritious this product really is…

Read more…

There’s an old Indian proverb - God laughs when a thief steals from a thief.

PepsiCo is suing the Coca-Cola Company over claims that its new sports drink Powerade Ion4, is more complete than Pespi’s  Gatorade.

Seems like Coke just lifted a page from Pepsi’s marketing playbook. And Pepsi is mad.

While nobody here is a thief, both corporations are making gazillions selling us liquid candy, and sports drinks are no exception. This lawsuit is part of a marketing battle, no less, no more.

What you need to know:

Sports drink are a huge business with over $7.5 Billion in sales in 2008, just in the US.

Gatorade is the undisputed champ with over 75% market share, with Powerade at number two with over 20% of the market.

From a nutritional standpoint, both companies’ sports drinks are mostly water, sweeteners , salt, questionable food colorings, and a few more vitamins and minerals in tiny amounts. The sweetener of choice is, of course, high fructose corn syrup (equivalent to 4 teaspoons of sugar in a 12 oz bottle).

The fact that Powerade contains magnesium and Gatorade doesn’t is more trivial than where Paris Hilton partied last week.

Nutrition Info:

“But what about all those electrolytes I lose while sweating”, you may ask.

Powerade boasts 2 electrolytes that Gatorade does not have – 2.5 mg of calcium, and 1.2 mg of magnesium. Sorry to disappoint you folks, the amount of calcium your body needs each day is 1000 mg. Do you really think Powerade is going to help with less than 1% of that? Same for 1.2 mg of magnesium comapred to the 400 mg daily requirement.

Gatorade is no better. Nobody in the Western World needs 110 mg of extra sodium, especially not in a soft drink. We are already consuming far more than the daily recommended value of 2300mg. And the 30 grams of potassium provided is less than 1% of the 3500 mg our bodies need.

Unless you are a super athlete (marathons, professional sports, etc…) all you need in order to replenish after a 30 minute workout is good ol’ tap water and maybe a banana, some nuts, or a sandwhich.

Oh, and by the way, all those cool sounding flavors are NOT the result of any real fruit in the drink.

What to do at the supermarket:

Leave the sports drink to the NFL and NBA superstars

Do yourself and your family a favor. Save $500 a year by quitting carbonated drinks, including the so called sports drinks. Spend the money on real sports products and services – good running shoes or a gym membership.

Simply stated: Just skip the beverage aisle at the supermarket.

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