Filed under: Sweets, food politics, weight loss | Tags: American Dietetic Association, Corn Refiners Association, high-fructose corn syrup, Sweet Surprise
Okay, so yesterday I got a letter through the contact form on my Web site from Audrae Erickson, the president of the Corn Refiners Association. In my most recent column for AOL’s ParentDish, I advocated avoiding store-bought big-brand eggnog since it tends to contain high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). So Ms. Erickson felt the need to explain to me why HFCS is in fact awesome. Here’s her letter, with my comments inserted in all caps:
Dear Ms. Schonborn:
We read the December 21 article “Christmas and Kwanzaa Foods: Safe or Scary?,” with interest. There has been a lot of confusion about high fructose corn syrup. I AGREE. SOME STUDIES HAVE SHOWN HFCS TO BE NO DIFFERENT THAN TABLE SUGAR WITH REGARD TO HOW IT AFFECTS OUR BODIES, BUT A NEW STUDY HAS SHOWN OTHERWISE. We would like to provide you with science-based information on this safe sweetener and be a reference for you for future articles. According to the American Dietetic Association (ADA),THE ADA IS AN ORGANIZATION THAT SIGNED A PARTNERSHIP DEAL WITH COCA-COLA–I FEEL THE NEED TO TAKE THEIR NUTRITION RECOMMENDATIONS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT “high fructose corn syrup…is nutritionally equivalent to sucrose. Once absorbed into the blood stream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable.” AGAIN, SEE THE LATEST RESEARCH REFUTING THIS. The ADA also noted that “Both sweeteners contain the same number of calories (4 per gram) and consist of about equal parts of fructose and glucose.” (Hot Topics, “High Fructose Corn Syrup.” December 2008.) http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/nutrition_19399_ENU_HTML.htm
High fructose corn syrup is used in the food supply because of its many functional benefits. It is used in certain applications for sweetening, and in other applications it performs functions that have little to do with sweetening. For example, it retains moisture in bran cereals, helps keep breakfast and energy bars moist, LARABARS MANAGE TO KEEP THEIR BARS MOIST AND THEIR ONLY INGREDIENTS ARE DRIED FRUIT AND NUTS–JUST SAYIN’ maintains consistent flavors in beverages and keeps ingredients evenly dispersed in condiments. High fructose corn syrup enhances spice and fruit flavors in yogurts and marinades. HOW ABOUT JUST USING FRUIT IN YOGURT, INSTEAD OF “FRUIT FLAVORS” THAT NEED TO BE “ENHANCED”? In salad dressings and spaghetti sauce, it improves flavor by reducing tartness. TARTNESS? ANY HOMEMADE SPAGHETTI SAUCE I’VE TASTED HASN’T SUFFERED FROM THIS PROBLEM, AND THEY HAVEN’T HAD HFCS OR ANY SWEETENER ADDED TO THEM Many foods only contain small amounts of high fructose corn syrup. For example, it would take 39 slices of bread to reach the Institute of Medicine’s recommended daily allowance of added sugars from high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is a highly fermentable nutritive sweetener. It gives breads a pleasing brown crust. BREAD GETS A PLEASING BROWN CRUST FROM THE OVEN IF IT’S NOT A CHEAP PROCESSED BREAD. Please follow this link for more information. (http://www.sweetsurprise.com/sites/default/files/ManyFoodsContainOnlySmallAmounts.pdf) As many dietitians agree, all sugars should be consumed in moderation as part of a balanced lifestyle. To read the latest research WHICH SUPPORTS THE CORN REFINERS ASSOCIATION’S POINT OF VIEW and learn more about high fructose corn syrup, please visit www.SweetSurprise.com. Please feel free to contact me if you would like additional information about the products made from corn.
Thank you for your consideration,
Audrae Erickson, President
Corn Refiners Association
Washington, DC
The main problem here for me is that Ms. Erickson is staunchly defending not just HFCS, but processed foods in general. In the past generation or so, many many Americans have stopped preparing home-cooked food, and instead have relied on calorie-dense convenience foods like the ones mentioned in her letter. And during this time, the number of obese Americans has skyrocketed (there are many factors contributing to this crisis, but I believe processed foods play a very large role). In a few of my AOL columns, I have said that one of the main reasons to avoid HFCS is that by doing so, you will avoid the junkiest foods on the market. I stand by that recommendation.
Filed under: Beans, Eggs, Food/Health Blogs, Meat, Sweets, Vegetables | Tags: AOL's ParentDish, Christmas, holiday weight gain, Kwanzaa
Get ready for the imminent Christmas and Kwanzaa feasts, and all the rich, fatty goodness they provide. But is it all bad? Are you and your kids doomed to suffer an empty-calorie, end-of-year bloat? Read my latest column on AOL’s ParentDish to find out if there are some (somewhat) healthy foods in the mix.
Filed under: Food/Health Blogs, Meat, Restaurants, food politics | Tags: Grub Street, health department, New York magazine, seafood, street food
The Health Dept. is barring street food vendors from selling seafood of any kind on the sidewalks of New York from here on out. The best part of the post on Grub Street about the new regulation? This comment from someone called Smokedragon: “[Street vendor] Kim’s Aunt’s fried flounder sandwich gets me through Fridays in Lent. I guess the Health Department wants me to go to hell.”
Filed under: Chronic Disease, Sweets, weight loss | Tags: heart disease, high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, type 2 diabetes, weight gain
This is big: a new study has shown that high-fructose corn syrup does in fact cause greater weight gain than sugar, and also leads to dangerous changes in the body. According to timesonline.co.uk:
“Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a strictly controlled diet, including high levels of fructose, produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems.
People in both groups put on a similar amount of weight. However, researchers at the University of California who conducted the trial, said the levels of weight gain among the fructose consumers would be greater over the long term.
Fructose bypasses the digestive process that breaks down other forms of sugar. It arrives intact in the liver where it causes a variety of abnormal reactions, including the disruption of mechanisms that instruct the body whether to burn or store fat.”
Filed under: Food/Health Blogs, Oils, Sweets | Tags: AOL's ParentDish, cheese blintzes, gelt, Hanukkah, jelly doughnuts, potato latkes
During Hanukkah, Jewish people around the world retell and celebrate the story that one day’s supply of oil miraculously lasted for eight days when the Maccabees liberated Jerusalem and rededicated the holy temple. And one of the ways they celebrate this is by consuming lots of food fried in oil, including potato latkes (pancakes) and jelly doughnuts.
Are there other, healthier foods served during Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, to complement all that grease? Well, there’s your gelt (chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil) and cheese blintzes and … yeah. Not so much with the healthy.
So is all the traditional Hanukkah fare just full-on scary food that should be avoided? Read my latest column on AOL’s ParentDish to find out.
Filed under: Exercise, Food/Health Blogs, weight loss | Tags: cut calories, diet, weight loss
Health.com has posted an extremely helpful list–how to cut 500 calories a day. It includes everything from advice about restaurant portions to info about how important sleep is to staying at a healthy weight. Two caveats: for the tip about drinking sugar-free, I would advise drinking water, not diet drinks; and for the advice about nuts, I think that a handful of nuts makes a great snack, and you shouldn’t feel like you have to avoid them.
Filed under: Recipes, Vegetables | Tags: cauliflower soup, Epicurious.com, recipe
I made a cauliflower soup this week that was one of the easiest things I’ve ever cooked. Only ingredients are cauliflower, an onion, butter, and chicken broth, with truffle oil drizzled on top (you can add chives too, but I didn’t). The recipe is on Epicurious.com.
If you like to make soups, do yourself a big favor and buy an immersion blender, one of those things you stick right into your pot to puree the soup. It looks like this, and makes soupmaking super easy.
Filed under: Chronic Disease, food politics | Tags: obesity, The New York Times, Chronic Disease, heart disease, cancer, health care cost, health insurance, type 2 diabetes
“At first blush, the notion of eating our way out of huge public health challenges like obesity, diabetes and heart disease may seem an overly simplistic and idealistic fix for complex, multifaceted problems. But health experts say that, in fact, an apple a day does keep the doctor away, and that many studies prove it.”
Nice affirming news from The New York Times. Companies like Safeway are realizing that health care costs are getting out of control, and are now focusing on preventative care. So many of today’s “expensive” diseases–obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer–are tied to diet and lifestyle choices and are quite preventable. And so, the reasoning goes, if an employer can encourage its workers to eat things like vegetables and whole grains instead of Doritos and McDonald’s, costs for health insurance will ultimately go down or at least stabilize. And it’s working.
The article acknowledges that it’s easier said than done to make dietary and lifestyle changes. There’s so much conflicting info about nutrition out there–which should you listen to?
That’s why I do what I do. As a holistic nutrition counselor, I help my clients discover what works for them, and I support them every step of the way–holding them accountable, but also serving as their biggest cheerleader. You can make lasting changes. And you don’t have to do it alone.
Filed under: Vegetables, food politics | Tags: Muir Glen, Consumer Reports, BPA, Bisphenol A
From the December issue of Consumer Reports magazine: “The chemical Bisphenol A, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because of potential health effects. The Food and Drug Administration will soon decide what it considers a safe level of exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA), which some studies have linked to reproductive abnormalities and a heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease.”
Given this article, I was pretty disturbed to see the following note sent by Muir Glen recently to a member of my family who was concerned about BPA. Muir Glen is a company whose canned organic tomato products I use regularly:
“Thank you for contacting Muir Glen regarding bisphenol-A in food packaging. Bisphenol-A is a critical component of protective coatings used with metal food packaging and provides important quality and safety features to canned foods.
Scientific and government bodies worldwide have examined the scientific evidence and consistently have reached the conclusion that BPA is not a risk to human health. Recent examples include comprehensive risk assessments in Japan and Europe and a review by an independent panel of experts organized by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. The can coatings used in Muir Glen packaging comply with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements for use in food contact applications. These coatings have long played an essential part in food preservation, helping to maintain wholesomeness, nutritional value, and product quality.
We work closely with our suppliers to ensure that all of the food ingredients and packaging materials we use are fully in compliance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements and meet our high quality standards.
We will continue to monitor this situation. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Your questions and comments are always welcome. For more information on the safety of metal food containers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration press office may be contacted at (301) 436-2335.”
Sincerely,
Lori Quinn
Consumer Services
Really, Muir Glen? People who buy organic products largely buy them to avoid such questionable compounds as BPA. If other companies can package their products without BPA, so can you. Please stop justifying this.
Click here to find out how to take part in “Prevention not Prescriptions.”
