The Children Are Fighting

Sugar is sugar?  Apparently the sugar cartel is suing the Corn Refiners Association for having the audacity to call its refined high fructose corn syrup "sugar"-- accusing them of false advertising.

According to an article today in Yahoo News, Sugar Producers Say Corn Syrup Not The Same, the sugar folks have taken the corn folks to court.  "The sugar groups are seeking damages that are yet to be determined and want the Corn Refiners Association advertising to stop. The group also wants to launch 'corrective advertising,'" says the story.  The HFCS producers have a marketing campaign to change the name of their product to just "corn sugar."  Here's an example. Video Ad.  I like this one better, though it didn't come from the corn producers... Other Ad.

But, back to the issues at hand...IS sugar sugar, or are there real and significant differences?  Aside from the fact that corn syrup, particularly the high-fructose variety, is violently forced out of corn and really is not a natural byproduct of this plant like it is from, say, sugar beets or sugar cane, can the body tell the difference?

You’ll find “experts” on both sides of the debate.  Like this one, quoted in the article:  “The real deal about high fructose corn syrup is that your body doesn’t see it any differently than sugar or honey.  Why?  Because HFCS is comprised of approximately equal ratios of glucose and fructose just like sugar (sucrose) and honey.  It is purified from corn with no artificial ingredients as sugar is derived from sugar cane and sugar beets,” Susan Mitchell, Ph.D., R.D., L.N.

     On the other hand, experts like this doctor, Dana Flaven, M.S., M.D., Ph.D., will tell you another story altogether:  “While regular table sugar (sucrose) is 50% fructose and 50% glucose, high-fructose corn syrup can contain up to 80% fructose and 20% glucose, almost twice the fructose of common table sugar… calories alone are not the key problem … Rather, metabolism of excess amounts of fructose is the major concern.”

There are a couple problems with HFCS.  First, fructose is metabolized primarily by the liver, which means that the more you ingest, the harder your liver works.  Second, HFCS is in everything!  From soft drinks to cookies and candy, to ketchup, soup and even crackers.  For people who eat a standard American diet high in processed foods, there is no such thing as eating this stuff in moderation.  Corn sweetener is impossible to avoid.

Don't be fooled into thinking that the sugar industry cares about false advertising or your health.  What they care about is money.  They're fighting for their economic life!  Corn producers are heavily subsidized by the government (that would be us, the taxpayers).  For this reason, they can sell their corn products --in this case, sweetener-- at a much lower cost than natural sugar producers, putting them at a disadvantage.  Farm subsidies benefit all types of farming, including sugar beet farms, but corn subsidies are king.  In Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, he explains the vicious circle that gives us the cheap corn.  In 2007 the federal government was spending up to $5 billion a year subsidizing corn growers.  The more farmers grow, the more cash they get -- which they turn around and invest into planting more acreage, until there's so much corn, they're feeding it to grass-eating cattle and other livestock, turning it into vegetable oil and ethanol, and finding any and every other possible way to refine it into a marketable product-- including, of course, SUGAR.

While the courts decide whether corn refiners have the right to call their processed product "sugar," the bigger question is, should we be eating sugar of ANY kind?  Put another way, which is better:  liver disease or diabetes?  According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the average American consumed roughly 158 pounds of added sweeteners every year in 1999.  That's a little over 3 pounds a week.  And that number gets bigger every year.  No wonder we're having health problems!

The better path is to eat our food as close to nature as we can, say "no" to processed products, and get our sugar straight from fruit.  Then when we want a treat with a little refined sugar in it from time to time, it really will be an act of moderation, for which we can feel no guilt.

I hope the sugar people win... if for no other reason than to prevent the unmitigated spread of disinformation.  All I want is the TRUTH.  I'm a grown-up.  Tell me the truth about the food supply, and let me make my own decisions about what I will eat.  Let's have clear and honest labeling.

For starters, there's no such thing as "corn sugar" or "soy milk" or "healthy" processed food.