Federal Judge Boots Snapple Class Action

"It's probably no coincidence that the wholesale switch to corn sweeteners in the 1980s marks the beginning of the epidemic of obesity and Type 2 diabetes in this country. Sweetness became so cheap that soft drink makers, rather than lower their prices, super-sized their serving portions and marketing budgets."

Snapple does not owe class damages for advertising "All Natural" ingredients on juices that contained high-fructose corn syrup, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote granted summary judgment because plaintiffs "failed to present reliable evidence that they paid a premium for Snapple's 'All Natural' label."

Evan Weiner and Timothy McClausland filed the class action on Oct. 10, 2007. They claimed Snapple's label was misleading because high-fructose corn syrup "does not exist in nature." They sought damages for deceptive trade, unjust enrichment and breach of warranty.

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Corn People

Americans have become the true "corn people," more so than the Aztecs or the Incas. If you were to examine a typical American skeleton under an electron microscope, you would find corn isotopes throughout our bones. We have more corn isotopes than any other culture, past, present and perhaps future.

Americans eat about one ton of corn per person, per year. This is not the delicious sweet corn our local farms grow. This is commodity corn appetizingly called "number two" corn and is the main crop grown in our country. We primarily eat corn in the form of animal products.

Cows, ruminants that naturally eat grasses, are being unnaturally fed corn. Salmon would never eat corn in the wild, but are fed corn on salmon farms. Chickens and pigs were naturally designed for varied diets but instead are fed mainly corn. Corn is one of the main ingredients in over 4,000 products found in American homes, even toothpaste. Some processed foods like Twinkies contain over 36 forms of corn.

The corn that wasn't fed to animals went to make corn sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, lactic acid, sorbitol, corn syrup, enzymes, starches and thickeners.

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New ‘Shout Outs!’ Girl Scout Cookies are sensibly sweet

“Shout Outs!,” this year’s new Girl Scout Cookie, is sure to have everyone talking. The Belgian-style caramelized cookie has zero grams of trans fat per serving, no hydrogenated oils, no artificial colors or preservatives, and no high fructose corn syrup. Its ingredients are similar to what you might find in your own kitchen: flour, sugar, vegetable oil, brown sugar, vanilla and spices.

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Support for “Corn Sugar” Growing

Support from corn grower organizations to use the term “corn sugar” instead of high fructose corn syrup is growing.

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) recently sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration supporting use of the term ‘corn sugar,’ and other state organizations such as the Texas Corn Growers have also voiced their support.

“We are calling upon the FDA to eliminate the confusion of the safety of high fructose corn syrup,” NCGA President Bart Schott said. “Permitting use of the term ‘corn sugar’ on labels will allow manufactures to more clearly describe high fructose corn syrup as a natural ingredient, nutritionally equivalent to sugar.”

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High Fructose Corn Syrup: What's the Big Deal?

The most disturbing fact is the genetic technology employed in growing modern corn.

High Fructose Corn Syrup has been rising in the food debates as of late, but why? It comes from corn, right? So it's natural. They're always telling us sugar is bad, so wouldn't this be better than sugar, or at least the same? It seems like every label I read has it, so could it really be harmful?

To look into this debate I started reading (and watching) information about high fructose corn syrup and what it is. I read Michael Pollan books and watched documentaries such as Food, Inc and King Corn.

Before this education, I assumed genetic modification of crops was perfectly fine. After all, don't cultivators all do this? They breed one animal with another to get offspring with certain characteristics: color, size, etc. They breed flowers to have a certain color or scent or size. Even nature adapts animals and plants with certain characteristics to assimilate with the surrounding environment. So why would the same technology be harmful for crops that we eat? Wouldn't it merely be an improvement just like natural adaptation?

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Establishment Runs Defense For High Fructose Corn Syrup

While doing some research on High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) or as it will likely be renamed in the future to ‘Corn Sugar’, AP was hard at work spinning the facts. In the article Corn Syrup Producers Want Sweeter Name: Corn Sugar an AP Marketing Writer presents the same tired old arguments to counter consumer’s well founded concern over the corn based product.

The article, disguised as an informational piece is nothing more than an infomercial. Like the agenda behind those annoying TV spots from a few years ago where two people discuss HFCS but soon come to the conclusion there is absolutely nothing wrong with the ‘natural’ product, this article is nothing more than a last ditch effort to confuse consumers.

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