Search

Fine in Moderation.

I just saw my first high fructose corn syrup commercial by the corn lobby (I don't watch a lot of commercials these days).  A quick perusal of youtube suggests that there are more than the one that I just saw, which is this one: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scHpZ10ok0c]

In the commercial's defense, I do believe that is what they say about HFCS.  "Nutritionally the same as sugar" is a basically meaningless phrase.  And what exactly isn't "fine in moderation?"  Ricin, I guess.  Apparently there's another commercial where the well crafted point that "it's made from corn" is made.  Hard to argue with that one, either.

But why the need to make these commercials?  Is HFCS really under so much undue criticism these days that we need to make ads defending its virtue?  Last time I checked, the shit was in everything, so we're all eating it and we all seem to be doing fine.  Besides, it's not as if the increasing amount of HFCS in our diet has directly correlated with increasing rates of obesity and diabetes in the citizenry or anything...

For the record, my complaints against HFCS have much more to do with our current trend of monoculturing so much of our grain supply with corn and forcing the stuff to jump through so many hoops to make it become a good source of disaccharides.  That crap takes energy.  Plus, I just don't think it tastes as good as real sugar (nutritional similarity notwithstanding).  And then there is the whole corn lobby thing (you know, the kind of people who would make obnoxious commercials about a perceived malignment of a food additive).

The Courage of Their Convictions

Unabashed Advocacy: A Moment of Your Time