Monday, May 31, 2010

Corn Growers Blanket Capitol Hill with Ag's Message

“It’s an education-oriented campaign for decision makers in D.C., congressional staffers, folks from environmental groups, think tanks—anybody that’s part of the discussion that’s affecting policy”

The U.S. corn grower is about to get some extra attention in Washington, D.C. In this age of increased scrutiny on high-fructose corn syrup and farm subsidies, which are often not welcome, corn farmers are asking for this.

The Corn Farmers Coalition, a group of 14 state corn growers' associations and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), is taking its message direct to the policy battleground on Capitol Hill with a massive media blitz. The campaign will feature advertising throughout the Washington Metro rail system, inside Union Station, Capitol Hill media outlet Web sites and even in the Washington Nationals baseball team’s home game programs. The program is estimated to cost $1 million, says coalition director Mark Lambert.

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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Conspiracy for Fat America & High-Fructose Corn Syrup

High fructose corn syrup not so sweet for your diet

When it comes to losing and gaining weight, doctors have long thought that all calories were equal. But a recent study may cause scientists to question that. Could a popular food additive be making you gain more weight than the calories alone?

It's hard to find food in a box or bottle or bag that does not have this one ingredient.

"High-fructose corn syrup is found in such a wide variety of foods and beverages, like fruit juices, sodas, cereal, bread, yogurt, catsup, and mayonnaise and Americans consume 60 pounds of it every year on average," said Dr. Kim Edward LeBlanc, the head of the Department of Family Medicine and expert in nutrition, exercise and sports medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center.

Consumer Edna Klein said she does read labels. "Yes, we do, but I haven't really noticed that one," she said about high-fructose corn syrup. Another consumer named Tiffany shopping in Metairie, said she reads the ingredient label "sometimes" and has heard of high-fructose corn syrup. "Yes, but I'm still not exactly positive what it is," she said.

Doctors say high-fructose corn syrup takes corn syrup from corn and processes it or changes it. The new, manufactured molecules appear to be metabolized by the liver differently and absorbed by the body more easily than naturally occurring sugars.

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Friday, May 28, 2010

Sweet and Lowdown: High Fructose Corn Syrup Digs In

The other day I found myself hungry and in a health food store. While this could have been an expensive predicament, as I could have gorged myself on an array of premium prepared foods, I knew this was just an in between meals/post work out sort of hunger that could easily be addressed and satiated by a minuscule, but carbohydrate-rich, snack. I spied a shelf full of Tiger’s Milk Bars, which used to be a health food store mainstay back in the 70s (actually, it used to be the only energy bar option out there) and so I figured something with this pedigree, while maybe not entirely healthy, would be at least healthful.

Within moments after purchasing, I thought to take a look at the ingredients of this Protein Rich Tiger’s Milk Bar. Guess what the first ingredient was? Sugar? No, that would be so 1970s. Try high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The very first and more prominent ingredient is HFCS! Where have all the flowers gone, indeed!

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Monday, May 24, 2010

Sickening news about a common sweetener

Following the news about whether high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is bad for you or not is a lot like watching professional table tennis: You could get whiplash trying to keep up.

However, many of the favorable studies are from HFCS manufacturers or associations, and we don't think their data is great.

Besides, there's growing evidence that avoiding this el cheapo sugar replacement could also help you avoid heart disease, stroke and diabetes, not to mention wrinkles and impotence.

In a groundbreaking new study, a third of people consuming 200 grams of HFCS a day -- what you'd get in seven 20-ounce bottles of soda -- developed metabolic syndrome in two weeks.

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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Ohio farmers say jobs at stake in debate over high-fructose corn syrup

Perhaps these farmers might remove themselves from the government-subsidized dole and begin supplying fruits and vegetables for Americans.

Ohio farmers say jobs are at stake as more companies in the food industry drop high-fructose corn syrup from their products.

Some nutritionists cite the syrup as part of the country's obesity problem, though industry scientists and many dietitians say it is no more fattening than sugar.

Nonetheless, PepsiCo Inc. has removed all high-fructose corn syrup from sports drink Gatorade and replaced it with cane sugar.

Ohio produces $2.1 billion worth of corn, making it the nation's No. 7 grower of the crop. The state has 1,700 corn-refining employees and 2,500 corn farmers.

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Saturday, May 22, 2010

Dr. Oz: 5 foods to keep off your grocery list

"Of the five foods I never want you to put in your food cart, the one I worry about the most is high fructose corn syrup," said Dr. Oz.

When it comes to grocery shopping, popular TV Dr. Mehmet Oz said he sees drugs, rather than food, when he walks up and down the aisles. That is because cancer-fighting properties are found naturally in some foods and because of the negative side effects of added chemicals put into processed foods.

Dr. Oz took us shopping to show us the foods he said we should never put in our grocery carts. He suggested the toughest choices we make about what we eat should not happen at the dinner table or in the kitchen. Instead, they should happen at the store.

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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Big Business, Soda & Corn Subsidies

"the only soda ingredient that has been proven to cause cancer, like both cigarettes and alcohol can, is artificial sweeteners" - Yes, and HFCS is a synthesized man-made chemical, the toxicity of which numerous studies indicate.

Someone posted and deleted a comment to my last post about the soda tax. I won't identify them, because obviously they chose to retract their comment, but I did want to respond to it because I don't think it's an uncommon reaction to this kind of position:

"The American Beverage Association, and its simulated grassroots spinoffs that have been set up to oppose this, thank you for your time and effort on their behalf. "

In opposing the beverage tax, I want to make a couple things clear.

I realize that the soda industry, like almost every other industry (such as the snack food, alcohol, automobile, oil, hemp, solar power, and gastroenterology industries) has an association and a lobby, and spends lots of money to promote its agenda. Of course, the bigger the industry, the bigger their lobby. But if we were proposing a tax on something that hardly anyone ever bought, would anyone really care?

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Monday, May 17, 2010

New Log Cabin All Natural Pancake Syrup Review

Log Cabin All Natural Syrup is already being distributed now and can be found in retailers nationwide in July. Look in your store's specialty syrup section. Pancakes are J's favorite breakfast food. He would eat them every morning if he could. Since mornings can get pretty crazy during the week we have made Sundays our pancake mornings. What goes hand in hand with pancakes? Syrup of course! J loves his syrup but I don't love all that sugar first thing in the morning. I try to limit how much I give him but I also know he sneaks a little extra on his plate when I'm not looking.

Log Cabin Syrup has been in households since 1887. Driven by the growing consumer demand for high quality all natural products, Log Cabin is introducing the first All Natural Pancake Syrup. That means there is no high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors or flavors, this new syrup is also gluten free and still tastes great!

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High-fructose corn syrup cut from Hunt's recipe

Coupons for the new Hunt's ketchup were provided in most May 16th Sunday newspaper editions.

OMAHA, Neb. — ConAgra Foods Inc. has removed high fructose corn syrup from its Hunt's brand ketchup.

Shoppers have been shying away from high-fructose corn syrup due to health concerns, and it was consumer demand that drove the changes, said Hunt's brand manager Ryan Toreson.

Hunt's is the latest brand to make the shift.

PepsiCo Inc. removed all high-fructose corn syrup from sports drink Gatorade and replaced it with cane sugar.
Some nutritionists cite the syrup as part of the country's obesity problem, though industry scientists and many dietitians say it is no more fattening than sugar.

Corn syrup is popular with manufacturers partly because it is cheaper than sugar.

Hunt's Tomato Ketchup has five ingredients: tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, salt and other seasonings, the company said.

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High fructose corn syrup falling out of favor

Have you heard that PepsiCo is dropping high fructose corn syrup from the ingredients in Gatorade? It's getting more and more difficult for the PR flacks working for the corn industry to find cover. The public relations efforts on behalf of the corn lobby is as trusted as the tobacco industry's these days. As a new study has found, the stuff is bad for you. There is just not much of a debate left anymore.

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THE SWEET SURPRISE IS GIVING AMERICA A TOOTHACHE

The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) started a campaign in 2008 to spread the news about high fructose corn syrup. They called this campaign“Changing the Conversation about High Fructose Corn Syrup.” The CRA wanted to dispel the so-called “myths” about high fructose corn syrup being bad for you,and provide Americans with a sense of relief that food and beverages containing high fructose corn syrup are fine for their bodies. The CRA launched a line of commercials for their campaign, advertising sweetsurprise.com, where consumers can look up facts about high fructose corn syrup(HFCS). One fact posted on this web site and mentioned in the sweet surprise commercials is that high fructose corn syrup, like sugar, is fine, when consumed in moderation. This sounds great, but if consumers to look at the labels on packaged food and drinks, they will see that it is close to impossible to moderate HFCS.

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Equipment for Making High Fructose Corn Syrup

Saccharification is the next step, during which glucoamylase breaks down the glucose polymers, yielding a glucose mixture that is ready for ion exchange and carbon filtration. High fructose corn syrup, mostly composed of glucose, is present in many foods and drinks that contain sugar. HFCS was discovered in 1957, but became common in the late 1970s, when the price of sugar became higher than corn. HFCS is most commonly integrated into products that are already processed, such as prepackaged and canned foods. The equipment for manufacturing HFCS is based on equipment used for corn milling.

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Thursday, May 13, 2010

Heinz to use new ketchup recipe

Heinz says it is also working on a ketchup made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

Heinz is giving its ketchup recipe a makeover.

The new batches of ketchup will have less salt.

Company officials say the 15 percent cut in sodium is the first significant change in its recipe in nearly 40 years.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

KFC 'Honey' Is Not What It Seems

KFC Takes the Honey Out of the Honey

The other evening it was my night to cook so I got dinner from KFC along with some packets of "honey" to top off my biscuits.

When I arrived home I noticed that what I thought was honey was actually something that KFC calls "honey sauce." This struck me as odd. Isn't honey already a sauce, courtesy of Mother Nature? I glanced at the ingredients.

Mother Nature's sole ingredient in honey is, well, honey. But that's not the case with "honey sauce" from KFC.

Honey was actually the 4th ingredient, right behind "sugar" and "corn syrup." The main ingredient was "high fructose corn syrup" or HFCS. Kind of made me think that KFC should have named this "High Fructose Corn Syrup Sauce." I guess Honey Sauce sounds better.

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The ingredients is sad. It is listed below with the largest in quantity listed first:

- High fructose corn syrup
- Sugar
- Honey (11%, according to front of the packet)
- Corn syrup (again?)
- Natural Flavors
- Caramel Color

This means that up to 89% of the sauce is a combination of corn syrup and sugars.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The command to be bland: some sweet and salty bills

“I was looking at a bottle of Worcestershire sauce, yesterday, that you shake on your meat before you barbecue it — high fructose corn syrup is in it. Now, why in the world would you need that in it?”

Food may be getting a lot more bland in the near future as legislation that would ban salt and high fructose corn syrup is in the works. Lawmakers say it is all in the name of good health, but it also raises a serious question — how much should the government be allowed to dictate what we eat and where do we draw the line?

State Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village) has introduced a bill that would prohibit stores from selling products that contain high fructose corn syrup. It would also ban the sticky sweetener from any food that is prepared or sold in a restaurant. Violators could face a $2,000 fine or misdemeanor criminal charges.

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Corn subsidy gone too far

High fructose corn syrup leads to obesity, disease

In March, Congress passed the National Heath Care bill. This means that the health care conversation is over, right? Unfortunately, no, it's not.

Whether you support the bill or not, we are far from being out of the woods. While we have reformed the way that we pay for health care in America and who is eligible, we are not necessarily healthier: we are still faced with a growing obesity epidemic and the rise of chronic diseases.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a majority of deaths in the U. S. are linked to chronic diseases and approximately one-in-three adults are overweight. Not only are these conditions costly to treat, they also have exterior negative impacts on our economy: a diagnosis of either will most certainly diminish one's ability to work. While there are many ways to address this issue, I'm going to focus on one specific area of concern: the corn industry.

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Death of High Fructose Corn Syrup

“We know moms don’t like it, and they don’t want to feed it to their kids,” supermarket expert Phil Lempert told Ad Age.

The back-to-back, double whammy announcements that PepsiCo (PEP) is ditching high fructose corn syrup in Gatorade along with the results of a scathing new study from researchers at Princeton make it official — allies of the controversial sweetener have lost the war.

For years, the Corn Refiners Association, a trade group consisting of companies like Cargill and ADM (ADM), has been hammering away at the bad press gushing out about high fructose corn syrup. In ads, in the press and online, they argue that the sweetener is a perfectly natural product and that it is no worse for you than regular old sugar.

To which consumers have responded with a collective “Yeah, right.” Con Agra (CAG) is taking HFCS out of its Hunt’s ketchup, Kraft (KFT) is banishing it from Wheat Thins and you will no longer find it in Snapple drinks. It’s all in response to what food companies say is overwhelming consumer demand. “We know moms don’t like it, and they don’t want to feed it to their kids,” supermarket expert Phil Lempert told Ad Age. Last month, outraged San Francisco parents forced high fructose corn syrup out of chocolate milk in the school system. More products are sure to follow.

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Drinking it in

"The drinks are addicting!" shouted one boy. "High fructose corn syrup is cheap, so companies make more money when they use it," said a girl.

Students participate in beverage replacement campaign

It has been nine weeks since Grace Hudson School sixth-graders in Mr. Thomas' class received brightly colored water bottles from the Mendocino County School Network for a Healthy California. Program Director Terry Nieves and Elly Hollis-Morton- nutrition education instructor - provided the bottles and a lot of information about beverage choices to five classrooms in the county as part of a nine-week project for the students.

As part of their "Rethink Your Drink" campaign, Nieves and Hollis-Morton provided surveys to the students at the outset of the experiment, asking kids what kinds of beverages they drank, the frequency and in what quantities. They were educated about the importance of drinking water, about making better beverage choices and about the importance of avoiding or reducing the amount of beverages containing sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial ingredients and caffeine.

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Monday, May 3, 2010

For Corn Syrup, the Sweet Talk Gets Harder

In a further attempt to improve its image, the Corn Refiners Association has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to allow a name change (from High Fructose Corn Syrup) to the simpler, less-chemical-y “corn syrup.”
FOR much of 2009, Michael Locascio, an executive at ConAgra Foods, watched with concern as the bad news about high-fructose corn syrup kept coming.

In January, there were studies showing that samples of the sweetener contained the toxic metal mercury. Then came a popular Facebook page that was critical of the syrup. By year-end, there were about a dozen spoofs on YouTube mocking efforts by makers of high-fructose corn syrup to show that science is on their side.

But it was pleading comments like this one, from a devoted ConAgra customer, that finally persuaded Mr. Locascio, president of the meal enhancers category at ConAgra, to take action: “Hunt’s is by far the best ketchup ever, but please start making a variety without the high-fructose corn syrup,” wrote Jennifer from New Hampshire.

Early this year, she got her wish when ConAgra decided to reformulate one of its biggest brands, replacing the high-fructose corn syrup in Hunt’s ketchup with old-fashioned sugar. This month, new bottles featuring a banner proclaiming “No high fructose corn syrup” arrive in stores.

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