High Fructose Corn Syrup: Get the Not-So-Sweet Truth

My friend Glen Colello, founder the Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe in Connecticut, sent me a very clever video about high fructose corn syrup that his company posted on YouTube.

Glen’s mock “ad” — which seeks to tell the truth about the sweetener — is a direct response to the deceptive ads now airing about high fructose corn syrup, which I’ve blogged about previously.

His eye-opening video even presents a similiar format and situation as the ones funded by the Corn Refiners Association.

You also may wish to read the post about HFCS from Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine, in which she also talked about how this not-so-sweet topic that’s had bloggers posting up a storm.

And to learn the truth about this sweetener, I also invite you to catch my recent Gab With the Gurus Radio Show, when Curt Ellis, director of the eye-opening film, “King Corn,” and I discussed high fructose corn syrup and how these new ads are duping Americans nationwide.

Glen, thanks for letting me see your creative response! And special thanks to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where I studied and without which I never would have met Glen.

4 thoughts on “High Fructose Corn Syrup: Get the Not-So-Sweet Truth”

  2. I wrote this letter recently to the CRA in reponse to their ridiculous ads. My son has a severe corn allergy, and I am sick of not being able to find any food without corn!
    “I am writing this letter to the Corn Refiners Association in response to the “Sweet Surprise” advertising campaign.
    My husband and I have two sons. My oldest, Alex developed allergies and sensitivities to some foods as he grew. We monitored and modified his diet and environment as he became older, but as he reached 2 years of age, he became very sick with frightening physical and emotional symptoms.
    We finally discovered that Alex was suffering from severe food allergies. However, it took me months to discover what food. He was reacting to almost everything he ate, every day. I finally discovered the culprit. It was corn. I had never heard of a corn allergy, and I certainly didn’t realize that some form of corn was in nearly every item in our home.
    It has been over a year now that we have been avoiding corn. It has completely changed our lives. We no longer eat out, and I make many things myself from powdered sugar to play dough. I learned to shop on the internet, local farm stands, and health food stores for safe foods, and can no longer just drop into the local supermarket. I bring my list of safe foods carefully researched by a diligent online group which can be found on the Avoiding Corn forum on Delphi Forums.
    I recently saw the “Sweet Surprise” ad on television and in a magazine. It was so disheartening to see these ads. I’m not a food chemist, and so [I] cannot respond to the allegation that high fructose corn syrup is “just like” cane sugar or honey, but I can comment on the ubiquitous nature of corn in our lives. It is absurd to even offer that corn syrup is “OK in moderation”. There is no way to limit corn syrup to “moderation” in the Standard American Diet. In the blogging community, this topic frequently comes up even among people without food allergies. Finding one loaf of bread without corn in the bread aisle of a regular grocery store is impossible.
    Corn hides behind hundreds of different names, and you don’t know if there really is corn in an item until you call the manufacturer, and sometimes they don’t know themselves. There is even corn in the inactive ingredients of the majority of medicines, even allergy medicines! I know that I am not alone in asking that corn not only be labeled clearly, but to put an end to the ubiquitous nature of corn in our lives.
    It is time for the monoculture of corn to end. This “Sweet Surprise” campaign is transparent as a last ditch attempt to save the omnipresent corn monoculture, but we are not going to buy it. Please recognize that it is time to diversify, it is time to label what is going into our foods, medicines, and products. It is time for people like my son to have a chance to find healthy food to eat.”

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