Comments on: Corn syrup myths

By: Food for Thought « The Panoptiblog

Food for Thought « The Panoptiblog — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:42:21 +0000

[...] Bodner, a doc student at Iowa State, makes some claims against “corn syrup myths.” Interesting reading; I haven’t had a chance to click the [...]

By: Anastasia Bodnar

Anastasia Bodnar — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:35:17 +0000

GotReason, I love Skeptoid! Brian Dunning is my hero

ERV, please let me know if you find it.

By: ERV

ERV — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:22:35 +0000

A fitness blog-buddy of mine is all over this– He says HFCS isnt different from table sugar, and referenced this nice review… dang it… *wanders off and tries to find review*

By: Anastasia Bodnar

Anastasia Bodnar — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:29:45 +0000

My spouse is taking a course on international economics and he learned that the candy industry has a deal with the sugar producers and the US government that exempts them from sugar tariffs. They only covered this briefly in class, so he doesn’t have many details. Anyone know about this? Do any other food manufacturers (is that the right word?) get this exemption, or just the candy manufacturers? How does this affect the cost of sugar vs corn syrup?

By: Karl Haro von Mogel

Karl Haro von Mogel — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:39:08 +0000

I also wrote a post about HFCS on my personal blog:
http://www.inoculatedmind.com/2009/05/the-anti-hfcs-campaign-in-slate/

If I understand the difference in glycemic index correctly, HFCS is higher in its glycemic index because the sugars are already mono-saccharides and will readily get absorbed. But the context of what food it is contained in will also alter this index. HFCS in bread may not be absorbed so easily, while HFCS in soda may be absorbed more quickly. Whether the small difference in this index between HFCS and sugar matters much for health remains to be seen. Moreover, while the disaccharide sucrose may be added to the food, if it is acidic you may find those sucrose molecules hydrolyzing into glucose and fructose anyway – raising the glycemic index to that of HFCS. It only takes weak acids to do that, like in fruit juice.

Watch the total simple sugar content, not what sugar it is! – That’s my non-expert sweetener advice.

Sugar is an interesting thing. While being a basic metabolite, and once central to many economies, it is back again with current sweetener politics and ethanol for fuel. It seems to me that people get so worked up about it because of its dual role in deliciousness and chubbiness. Love to hate.

By: GotReason

GotReason — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:16:51 +0000

Anastasia,

If you want to do a follow-up debunking high-fructose corn syrup as being a “bad” sweetener compared to sugar, you can start with these two sources:

* http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=568
* http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4157

By: Ewan R

Ewan R — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:59:50 +0000

If I remember right, and I probably don’t, the excitement generated was due to the somewhat lower cost per unit than for cane sugar – from what I recall India is a net importer of sugar for use in the food industry, and the import tariffs make it a little cheaper.

Cane may take a little more work than corn also – I believe I read that somewhere (possibly the same article), and as there is no Bt, or roundup ready cane etc, that could be another reason.

By: Anastasia Bodnar

Anastasia Bodnar — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:39:07 +0000

I have heard that about glycemic index, and I hope to get to the bottom of that soon. Or, even better, I wonder if I can recruit a nutrition friend to guest post. Hm…

I wonder if corn is a good choice of sweetener India or not. I mean, if they are already growing sugar cane with success, then it seems silly to switch. Karl and I were just talking today about the need for a Life Cycle Analysis for different sweeteners to see which ones are the least environmentally harmful (of course, it would vary by region and country, but at least something would help).

By: Ewan R

Ewan R — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:53:13 +0000

Something I’ve never really had the energy to look into – I’ve heard that HFCS has a higher glycemic index than bog standard regular sugar – is this true, and does it even matter?

Also – in the same vein – I note that India (or some of India) are getting excited recently about the prospect of utilizing HFCS over sugar to cater to the increasingly sweet tooth (If you’ve ever eaten an authentic Indian dessert you’d be shocked to think they could get any more sweet toothed…) of the consumers there.

Hurrah for tales soon to come of exactly 1500 cattle dying after eating GM corn residue!