Corn Refiners Run Ads for High Fructose Corn Syrup - BITTER

So I saw the following commercial on television the other day:

I was completely blown away. An organization called the Corn Refiners Associations is trying to combat all the negative press given to High Fructose Corn Syrup by attempting to convince people that not only is it safe for our kids, but that you just might be a moron if you believe otherwise. I did provide a link above to their website above, but be warned. It is a propaganda machine, hard at work. 

The woman in the ad says that HFCS is fine in moderation. I offer anyone reading this blog a challenge. Go into your pantry and/or refrigerator and start scanning the labels of the food items you have for some variation on high fructose corn syrup. I'll warn you. You are going to find it a lot. I'll give you 2 items that surprised me the most: Ketchup and Bread. And then it made perfect sense to me why kids love to dip everything in ketchup. There is a secret sweetener in there. 

Because corn is subsidized by the government, it supplanted sugar as the sweetener of choice by manufacturers. The problem is, it is HYPER processed and your body does not digest it anywhere near as easily as regular sugar. You may have noticed things like "cane soda" or even bottles of "blue agave" sweetener in your local supermarket. These are products made from either sugar cane or other natural sugars. Even these should be consumed in moderation, but they are far more natural than the typical HFCS product.

Unless you completely control your diet and make everything you eat at home, you are going to consume some high fructose corn sugar. To that extent, it's really not going to be a problem. However, I personally have started scrutinizing the labels of almost all the foods I buy from the supermarket, especially for my kids. One of the best brands is Annie's Homegrown, which has lots of great products that don't contain HFCS. They carry it at ShopRite, Whole Foods, and even Amazon.com. Yes, they make ketchup too.

If you want to learn a bit more about the food industry and how corn (and most industrially processed food products) is killing us, I highly recommend reading Michael Pollan's, "In Defense of Food" and "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

Corn Refiners Associations, you get a BITTER.

If you want a little more information, Consumer Reports did a write up on this ad as well.