Surviving The 21st Century - Sugar Sugar - Radio Round Up

The team of Mannie Barling, Ashley F Brooks and Simon Barrett decided to focus our attention on sugar.

The propaganda arm of the High Fructose Corn Syrup industry is the Corn Refiners Association. Their current hogwash is the slogan Sugar is Sugar. In their eyes it matters not where the sugar comes from, sugar is sugar, all sugar is the same. Cane sugar, Beet Sugar, Corn sugar, they are all identical.

This is a clearly ridiculous statement. It does not take a bunch of PhD’s to figure out that there are substantial differences.

Today’s sugar marketplace is further complicated by the seemingly endless number of artificial sweeteners on the market.

The question that we asked ourselves was what are the pro’s and con’s of these different sugars? Are some sugars better for you than others? Or was the question are some sugars less harmful than others?

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Americans Eat 42 Pounds of Corn Syrup Annually—How Bad Is That?

Derek Thompson at The Atlantic reblogged a visualization of America's annual eating habits. According to Thompson's graphic, besides almost 85 pounds of fat and oils and 110 pounds of red meat, the average American consumes about 42 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup annually. Forty-two pounds is the size of about six newborns, and pretty gross prima facie. But just how bad for you is it?

The American Heart Association recommends that women consume no more than six teaspoons of added sugar per day and that men consume no more than nine, which amounts to about 100 and 150 calories, respectively. Forty-two pounds is the equivalent of 3,865 teaspoons of corn syrup, or almost 11 per day. Nobody should be eating that much added sugar.

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5 Reasons High Fructose Corn Syrup Will Kill You

If you can't convince them, confuse them.
--Harry Truman

The current media debate about the benefits (or lack of harm) of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in our diet misses the obvious. The average American increased their consumption of HFCS (mostly from sugar sweetened drinks and processed food) from zero to over 60 pounds per person per year. During that time period, obesity rates have more than tripled and diabetes incidence has increased more than seven fold. Not perhaps the only cause, but a fact that cannot be ignored.

Doubt and confusion are the currency of deception, and they sow the seeds of complacency. These are used skillfully through massive print and television advertising campaigns by the Corn Refiners Association's attempt to dispel the "myth" that HFCS is harmful and assert through the opinion of "medical and nutrition experts" that it is no different than cane sugar. It is a "natural" product that is a healthy part of our diet when used in moderation.

Except for one problem. When used in moderation it is a major cause of heart disease, obesity, cancer, dementia, liver failure, tooth decay and more.

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Is Your Dinner 'All Natural'?

According to Ricardo Carvajal, a former FDA lawyer now in private practice counseling food and drug makers, the FDA generated a firestorm in 2008 when it pronounced that high-fructose corn syrup is not "natural."

From ice cream to salad dressing, and potato chips to pet food, health-conscious grocery shoppers can choose an "all natural" version of just about anything.

But one item ingredient-conscious consumers can't pluck off the shelves: an official definition of "natural."

A recent spate of consumer lawsuits allege that food companies are playing fast-and-loose with the "all natural" designation, effectively committing fraud against the shopping public. But determining fraud becomes complicated when the federal government itself concedes the rule book is vague.

"The word hasn't been defined well enough at all, so for years companies have been able to get away with basically defining it themselves," said Michele Simon, an author and food-policy expert.

Wesson cooking oils, Kashi cereals, Arizona-brand drinks and an alcoholic beverage called Skinnygirl Margarita are among the products named in recent lawsuits, with allegations that claims of being "all natural" are undercut by various ingredients.

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The Corn Syrup Diaries: Why Won't You Love Us, FDA?

It's comforting to know that the government agency charged with overseeing our nation's food safety isn't utterly spineless, incompetent or, worse yet, completely corrupted by agribusiness.
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The high fructose corn syrup battle has many fronts: There's the court of public opinion, the court of law and, perhaps most importantly, the "court" of the Food and Drug Administration.

Last September, the Corn Refiners Association, petitioned the FDA to let them replace "high-fructose corn syrup" with "corn sugar" on ingredient labels. According to internal memos obtained by the Associated Press, the FDA is having none of it.

Cloaked in the language of legality and corporate reticence, these memos are like mash notes from a bad relationship. In this setup, Big Corn is the ardent lover, trying desperately to impress a disinterested girl (the American public) and win the approval of her strict parents (the FDA). C'mon, America. Why won't you just fall in love with "corn sugar"?

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Sugar Vs. High Fructose Corn Syrup

High Fructose Corn Syrup has long dominated the soda market, but there's a big campaign to suggest it's natural, the same as sugar. The sugar folks estimate corn refiners have spent $50 million on the campaign.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is Being Sued

Who would sue high fructose corn syrup and why? A group composed of cane sugar farmers and refiners is adamant against the proposed rebranding of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as "corn sugar" because of the effect it could have on their cane sugar business and that it uses false advertising.

HFCS is considered Enemy No. 1 in America's nutrition fight, and citizens have become more and more wary of this popular sweetener additive which adds empty calories to our diet. As a result, its usage has plummeted more than 20%.

Although this fructose-glucose blend is made from vegetables and received the approval of the Food and Drug Administration to refer to it as "all-natural" in 2007, HFCS has been blamed for a myriad of health problems of the heart, liver, has encouraged diabetes and the obesity epidemic, and even contains mercury.

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Fructose, high fructose corn syrup may increase cardiovascular risk

A new study suggests that eating 25 percent of energy from fructose or high fructose corn syrup may increase cardiovascular disease risk.

The study found young adults increased postprandial serum levels of triglycerides, bad cholesterol and apoliprotein - or ApoB, a component of LDL cholesterol.

K.L. Stanhope and colleagues from University of California - Davis conducted a study to see how how glucose, fructose or high fructose corn syrup or HFCS would affect the cardiovascular risk factors such as cholesterol and triglycerides when they are consumed as 25 percent of the total caloric intake.

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Why Sugar Is Suing High Fructose Corn Syrup: A Sticky Question of Names

When you need to give yourself a whole new image, there's nothing like changing your name: Just ask Philip Morris, Ralph Lauren and the medication formerly known as thalidomide. Recently, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), the scourge of dieticians and dieters from coast to coast, has started down that road by attempting to rename itself "corn sugar." But there's one big obstacle in its way: the sugar industry, which doesn't want to be tainted by connection to the infamous sweetener -- and is willing to go to court to protect itself.

When it was invented in 1957, high fructose corn syrup's name was largely irrelevant. Unknown outside of a small circle of chemists, the compound was an expensive, hard-to-synthesize scientific curiosity. It took another 20 years and the development of a low-cost production method for HFCS to gain ground in America. But between tariffs that drove up the cost of imported cane and beet sugars, and federal subsidies that drove down the cost of corn, HFCS usage quickly exploded. In 1972, the average American consumed about 1.2 pounds of the stuff. Within seven years, that number had increased more than twelve-fold, to 14.8 pounds. And by 1999, the average American was putting away over 63 pounds of high fructose corn syrup.

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High Fructose Corn Syrup Rebrand Criticized by Official

An attempt to designate high fructose corn syrup as simply “corn sugar” has been criticized for being misleading and robbing consumers of important information. According to the Associated Press, a top official at the Food and Drug Administration told the corn industry that changing the name would “invite ridicule.”

“It would be affirmatively misleading to change the name of the ingredient after all this time, especially in light of the controversy surrounding it,” Michael Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods, told colleagues in a March 2010 email. “If we allow it, we will rightly be mocked both on the substance of the outcome and the process through which it was achieved.”

The Corn Refiners Association has sought a rebrand of the controversial agreement for over a year. They filed an informal request with the FDA in March, and then submitted a formal petition again in September of last year.

The AP said the corn industry wants to change the name of high fructose corn syrup after some scientists began to link it to obesity and other health problems. Since then, food companies have started to push products without the ingredient.

FDA spokesman Doug Karas was careful to say that Taylor’s comments ought to be looked at in the context of the specific name change, and did not reflect what the FDA’s eventual decision will be.

“The conversation you have is in a different context and does not, or will not, affect the outcome of the petition itself,” Karas told the AP.

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