The Empire Strikes Back!

Posted By elissa on Sep 8, 2008 | 1 comment

As noted here, the Corn Refiners Association is riding high over the AMA’s decision to exonerate high fructose corn syrup as a cause of the obesity epidemic. So high, they’ve gone from playing defense to offense:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbRxTOyGf0]

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVsgXPt564Q]

Nothing like making your point by paying actors to pretend they’re clueless on camera.

What the heck does “fine in moderation” even mean? Both of the ads extolling the virtues of HFCS “in moderation” are encouraging consumption of “foods” that are energy-dense and nutrient poor. “Fine in moderation” only works to the extent that “room” is made for these foods in the diet by displacing more nutritious choices.   

Even worse, fructose may also be more lipogenic than glucose.  It may have the same calories as table sugar or glucose, and is “made from corn” – but that’s really a red herring.  The reality is that it’s metabolized somewhat differently than glucose, and can be more readily converted to body fat.

Nonetheless, I’ll walk with the Corn Refiner’s Association this far…I don’t doubt people can include some fructose their diets without getting fat.  But, let’s get real here: wouldn’t it be a lot better to be consume it in the form of fruit, which contains fiber, vitamins, minerals and an array of health-promoting phytochemicals, than in the form of colored sugar water – as shown in the ads? The obesity epidemic is being fueled by such “foods.”  

The bottom line is that HFCS is used to sweeten a wide variety of “unfood” food products – and the less of them we have in our diets, the better off we’ll be.