Susie asked me to guest post about a recent change in our diet. We have decided to eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup as much as possible and she wanted me to tell you a little of my/our reasoning. First, a little history about sugar.
Prior to the 1970's most beverage and food manufacturers used sugar to sweeten products. Coca Cola, Pepsi, etc all used sugar imported from abroad or grown in the US. In the mid 70's, prices began to rise and fall. In 1977 the United States Congress passed The Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, a system of tariff's, quota's and subsidy to keep farmers afloat. Prices went from 57 cents per pound in 1974, to 8.1 cents per pound in 1977, to 18 cents per pound in 1985.
With the rise of price in sugar soda and food manufacturers started looking for alternative sweeteners. Beginning in 1975 soda and food manufacturers started adopting HFCS to use as it is of equivalent sweetness to table sugar. Soon HFCS was being used in most processed foods.
Why does any of that matter? Today HFCS is used in more food products than you realize. Part of the reason is cost. HFCS is cheap to manufacture because corn, is cheap to manufacture. That, sadly, brings me to my first point. Today corn is sold for less than it cost to grow it. The reason it is so cheap is that you and I pay for it. The federal government subsidizes every aspect of corn production. In fact the in the last 14 years the Federal government has subsidized corn $75.8 BILLION. That breaks down to almost 5.5 Billion dollars a year. I disagree with the farm subsidy, I disagree with almost any subsidy, this just happens to be one I can take action against in my daily life.
My second point, you may have seen recent commercials stating how HFCS is fine in moderation. Those commercials are funded by the Corn Growers Association, but lets assume that HFCS is ok in moderation. Have you ever LOOKED at what of your daily foods contain HFCS? When Susie and I started out on this endeavor I honestly did not think it would be that difficult. At Buehlers, our local grocery chain, out of the entire bread aisle there is exactly one manufacturer that makes bread without HFCS. One. Out of dozens of companies. WHY is there even HFCS in bread to begin with?
Pickles, ketchup, soda, crackers, Manwich, juice, bread, applesauce, popsicles, almost any candy, cookies (my favorite double stuff elves... no more), cereal, pop-tarts, cough syrup, baked beans, barbeque sauce, salad dressing, the list goes ON! How many of those products have you used today? So, how exactly, are you supposed to consume HFCS in moderation if 90% of products you eat contain it? Many have HFCS as their first or second ingredient.
So I am no longer consuming HFCS because of our government wasting billions of dollars making corn cheap so manufacturer's can put it in everything. Simple enough?
Wow, I probably sound nuts... or you may even agree with me. So what to do now? Well, Susie and I have almost completely eliminated HFCS. It has not been easy. We carefully examine every product we buy, we buy organic or "natural" if possible, or buy substitutes. I no longer buy traditional soda or pop. I buy soda that uses cane sugar like Coke from Mexico.
Sadly, I do not even know anything about the health argument. I decided to stop consuming HFCS after learning of the billions spent on corn subsidy as my little boycott protest. Will it amount to anything? No idea... you tell me.
A few sources:
http://farm.ewg.org/progdetail.php?fips=00000&progcode=corn
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/sc019
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/005/x4988e/x4988e13.pdf
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