HFCS. I Refuse.
High fructose corn syrup. It’s in everything these days. And, to quote Howard Beale, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more.” Well, that may be a bit overly dramatic, but still, I’m pretty darned annoyed.
Today I was at the grocery store, and I needed barbecue sauce. I picked up one bottle and looked at the ingredients. Second on the list: high fructose corn syrup. I did this over and over. I had too much time on my hands A streak of righteous indignation came over me. After turning around EVERY. SINGLE. KIND. OF. BBQ. SAUCE., I stopped to count how many. Sixty. That’s right folks, my Kroger has sixty different kinds, brands, flavors of barbecue sauce. Almost half of one side of an aisle, taking up three shelves. How many would you guess have HFCS, high on the list, I might add. Thirty? Nope. Forty five? Guess again. Fifty two? Naaah. Out of sixty kinds of barbecue sauce exactly ONE does not have HFCS. Fifty nine do.
Y’all this stuff is bad for us! Frankly, I have no problem with some companies putting HFCS in some foods, as long as they label it properly. That’s free choice and all. But how about a little free choice for those of us who would prefer NOT to consume the stuff? I’m so tired of seeing that one ingredient taking up space on so many food ingredient lists. Cereals, drinks, condiments. It’s everywhere. And I’m not even talking about junk food. I just wanted a little barbecue sauce to put on a baked potato to add a little “zing.” I’m not even trying to slather up a Boston Butt here.
Although it’s tempting to start an outcry for people to write to food companies and congressmen and whatnot, that’s not what I’m going to advocate. I do, however, suggest that you plan an especially long grocery store trip the next time you go, and spend time flipping around to the back of the cartons and bottles and read the ingredients. You’ll be amazed. If the food doesn’t contain HFCS, it almost certainly will have partially hydrogenated oil. Why food companies can get away with pumping stuff full of these two ingredients and labeling it “food,” is beyond me. I guess it’s because we are willing to pay money for it.
And (look out–here comes another tangent) it’s because we are lead to believe (thank you, TV commercials) that prepackaged junk will make us happy, cute, perfect mothers, and it will give us charmingly cheerful children. And besides, we’re too busy to do things like [gasp] chop and steam a few veggies or boil some rice and then butter and salt it ourselves. Or to poke a few holes in a potato before we microwave it (how in the HECK did someone create a need for shrink-wrapped potatoes that are “ready to microwave????”).
Okay…deep breath here…calm down, Chewy.
Seriously folks, my challenge for you today is to pay attention to the ingredients in the foods you and your family consume. Slow down. Read labels. Cook something real this week. And refuse to buy foods with HFCS. If you will do that, then maybe in a few years I’ll go to Kroger and find that there are three-out-of-sixty kinds of barbecue sauce without that dreaded ingredient.
April 19th, 2007 at 8:36 am
It’s true, it’s everywhere…I was highly dismayed to find it in my whole wheat bread. Whole wheat, for heaven’s sake!!
April 19th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Ugh. I feel ya’. We cut it out last year, and some foods are almost impossible to find without it unless you go to a health food store. It is so frustrating!!!
April 19th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Yeah, I had the same experience a week ago when I went shopping for hot dog buns. Yes, HOT DOG BUNS! There must have been six brands at the store, and they all had HFCS! A great bread company that has no HFCS is Rudi’s Organic Bakery - and I just found out, they make hot dog buns too. http://www.rudisbakery.com. All their products are delicious. I wonder if you could request that Kroger stock this brand. Also, Heinz now makes an Organic Ketchup that has no HFCS.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
It’s one of my new pet peeves too. Ever since I learned that HFCS interferes with our satiety hormones I started reading labels looking for it. God knows I don’t need one more thing causing me to crave too much food. Well, it’s even in my yogurt that has Oprah’s Bob Green seal of approval.
Here’s an interesting article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2003559833_syrup07.html
‘Americans went from consuming less than a pound of high-fructose corn syrup per person per year in 1970 to 42 pounds in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.”
April 19th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
what’s the golden brand? You didn’t tell us!!!! I’m waiting with baited breath here. Which brand does NOT have HFCS?
BTW, I lurv me some Coca-Cola, but it has the nasty HFCS. Did you know that they make the old-fashioned “real” coke in kisher form (that does NOT have HFCS). It’s usually more readily available during Passover and Kroger carries it. I just wish I didn’t have to drive 75 minutes to get to the closest Kroger.
April 19th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
In addition to the Kosher-for-Passover (labelled “KLP”) Coke, you can also get Coke that is imported from Mexico in some stores. It, like the KLP Coke, has cane sugar only and no corn syrup.
(The reason Coke with corn syrup is not conisdered kosher for Passover is that corn is a legume and is part of the class of foods known as kitniot, which are not consumed by Ashkenazic Jews during Passover. So, during Passover, not only HFCS, but cornstarch, corn oil, etc., are all out of the picture.)
April 19th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
[...] Chewymom has a nice little rant today that I’d share with the planet if I could! This is exactly why, when someone is trying to make better food choices, it can be nearly more important what you DON’T eat than what you DO. And, in this country, shopping at the vast majority of grocery stores, it will take plenty of effort to avoid just two nasty, umbiquitous, ingredients: High Fructose Corn Syrup and partially hyrdrogneated corn oil. [...]
April 19th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Just linked to you. I totally feel your pain. Today I bought Annie’s BBQ at our health food store because good bbq sauce is one of the few things I can’t seem to make myself well. Oh and interested readers…check the labels on what-should-be-a-whole-food-but-often-isn’t, like sour cream, cottage cheese, milk, yogurt…even your salad dressing and ice creams have msg and cargeenan, two other food baddies.
And for more info, get the book Nourishing Traditions. Bring back the good, REAL, food!
April 19th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Sorry–I should have told the “good” brand–it was Williamson Bros. BBQ Sauce. I don’t know that’s a local thing or not, though, so you may or may not find it at your Kroger. I know our Publix doesn’t carry it.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Sugar is far more expensive to use in food products, so companies use HFCS instead. If sugar were cheap like corn, then you’d see more of it. Then again, the price of corn is rising because of ethanol.
Starting a few weeks before Passover, my husband and I researched Kosher Coke to try to find some around here. Our local bottler doesn’t produce it, so we are out of luck. From our understanding, it is only found in the top ten metro areas with large Jewish populations.
We discovered that Coke bottled in Mexico has real sugar.
April 19th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I’ve started making my own…everything! It’s almost the only way to rule out corn syrup without shopping at specialty groceries. I started because of my husband’s diabetes, but now I’m on the no-HFCS wagon because of the kids.
Still, I’m amazed–59 bottles of sauce!!!
April 20th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Chewymom, I am ranting right along with you. Our family has faced some health challenges in the past year, and trying to get everyone off junk food and white bread and HFCS is an uphill battle, because so much HFCS and chemicals are in everything! A really good book to read is Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” which touches on the politics of food and why HFCS is in everything. I am also currently reading “The Crazy Makers,” about how our processed foods are damaging brain health. We are now trying to move towards mostly grass fed beef, etc., but it’s hard. For instance, you can go to the store and buy something labled “free range chicken.” Well, the government definition of it is something ridicilous, like that the chicken had to have access to a 10 x 10 yard in case he wanted to wander around. But so-called free range chickens are still fed cheap feed, instead of the grass and bugs diet that produces a really healthy chicken. So to get truly good eggs and truly good chicken, you pretty much need to know the farmer personally and know how they practice farming. As for milk - well, learning about it was an eye opener for me. I am convinced that pasteurized, homogenized milk is killing us. Trying to get my kids to drink raw milk, however, has been a battle - they won’t even take a sip, but my hubby and I are loving the taste of it! Of course, it’s not legal in my state, so we have to get it shipped in frozen from California.
Anyway, all this to say, America’s food policy and the FDA have been totally politicized, and you have to really be super-savvy and dig and ask lots of questions to find out what’s best for your family.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
I came over from Living Deliberately’s link to you, glad I did. I’m a vegetarian, but love the pastries and bread, etc. I’ve started looking for the bad oils and the HFCS in those, I guess I need to make my own — I knew they were in a lot of products, but you have made it evident I need to look at everything. So, here goes! Thank you. I’m going to link to your post, too.
April 21st, 2007 at 1:11 pm
One of my biggest practical struggles in returning to the States, is feeding my kids well.
In Ukraine, I didn’t read the labels much (too tiring to puzzle out in Russian or Ukrainian, though many things are cognates.) Still, such a large portion of our diet was from “basic” things, many of which I could buy from the babushki who grew them at their little dachas. Other things I just assumed were okay, since they were in basic forms. )Some things, I just closed my eyes and didn’t want to know what was in it or where it came from. . .)
Still, it is much HARDER here in the States, especially with all the convenience food that are so. . . convenient. . . to keep up my basic, whole, simple food standards. I don’t even want to read the labels of the things I have in my kitchen! The things I buy for the kiddos to make for themselves.
But it has had a huge impact on my health. I’ve gained 25 lbs since returning to the States–in part due to diet, and in part due to owning a vehicle again. And it feels YUCKY. I feel like I don’t know how to get off of this hamster wheel. . .
April 24th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Oh yes, once T was diagnosed w/celiac disease and I had to start reading EVERY label I was amazed at what I have been feeding my kids. YIKES! When you think you’re eating healthy, you have to think again! I would love to be able to afford to go all organic. We have started eating more simply in the fast few years and that way we avoid the chemicals!
April 24th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I’m curious- I wanted to know what the one brand was! Although truthfully, I’m on the fence regarding hfcs- I just don’t see that it’s any worse for you than sugar. A Mexican or Passover Coke with cane sugar is no healthier than a Coke with hfcs in it! In my opinion, the key with hfcs is the same with sugar- everything in moderation.