Reading Labels Since I moved to the US, I’ve started reading food labels more often. Even before I moved here, I noticed a lot of differences in the American versions of foods that we have also in Canada. Like pop (soda) for instance. I’m a Pepsi person, but I have considerably cut down on my pop consumption here because its so much sweeter that at home. Also chocolate. I’m a self confessed choco-holic, but I really don’t prefer the mass produced American chocolate bars like Hershey’s etc. The Canadian versions are better. They’re less sweet, and there’s more chocolate in them. Even store bought breads here like Wonder or Sara Lee are considerably sweeter and have different textures than back home. I’ve also heard from more than one new immigrant that they’ve gained quite a bit of weight in their first year here than would be considered normal considering their normal consumption of quantities and food types hasn’t changed much. I think I’ve figured it out. High Fructose Corn Syrup. Its nasty stuff.

I have been on a quest for nearly 2 years now to find products in regular grocery stores that Do Not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. I’m tellin’ ya, it ain’t easy! Nearly everything here has HFCS in it. From breakfast cereals to yoghurt, to condiments like ketchup and steak sauce, they all have HFCS in them. And it makes them sweeter and taste a whole lot different than the Canadian versions I’m used to and still prefer. Same brand names, same labels, different sweetening ingredients.

The first thing we did was stop buying bread at the grocery store. James bought me a bread maker and I make my own, usually 2 loaves each week. This cuts down quite a lot of the amount of HFCS we eat right there. That was easy. Not so for everything else though. The Dairy Producers started their commercials saying that consuming 3 servings of dairy every day will help you lose weight. So, I started eating yoghurt every day, and bought the same brand that I used to eat back home. And I gained weight! Why? HFCS that’s why! I switched brands, after checking every single label of every single yoghurt brand in the store!

I bought some Rice Krispies one day. Got home, poured myself a bowl, and guess what? Its sweetened with HFCS as well! GAH! I wouldn’t even have thought of it, so now I read pretty much every label of everything I buy, trying to find stuff without HFCS in it. I had even been ordering products from Canadian Favourites, or having my Mum bring stuff with her when she visits, just so I can stay away from HFCS. I finally found some ketchup here without it. Heinz organic ketchup. Made in Canada strangely enough, and there’s no HFCS in it. It costs a bit more, but trust me, its worth it!

James and I had a bit of a disagreement this morning on the cause of diabetes. Obesity rates are climbing every year here in the US, and everyone knows that obesity is a large contributing factor to diabetes. Initial recent studies on HFCS shows that this one sweetener could be a large contributing factor into obesity rates. Why? Because unlike regular sugars, it does not block the craving receptors that tell us we’re full, and the liver processes it differently than other sugars. It turns to fat. We eat more when we have a diet containing high levels of HFCS, because we cravemore. Ergo, HFCS could very well be a contributing factor to the growing rates of obesity, and diabetes, in the United States. And yes, I have articles to back me up :-p Check these out:

The Murky World Of High Fructose Corn Syrup

The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup

Sugar coated We're drowning in high fructose corn syrup. Do the risks go beyond our waistline?

Wikipedia

Sweet But Not So Innocent

High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity

ok, just to balance it out a bit The Facts About HFCS

I once emailed Heinz Foods to ask them why the difference in the Canadian version vs. the US version. Their response was “customer demand”. So then I asked a bunch of Americans if they asked Heinz Foods to make their ketchup sweeter with HFCS, and none of them could recall doing so. Really, what the “demand” was was to be able to make it cheaper, and HFCS is less expensive to produce than other sugars. Whether or not Heinz and other producers have passed on this savings to their customers I don’t know. I think the price of ketchup in Canada is comparable to the US, and the Canadian version does not have HFCS in it. I demand a ketchup without HFCS in it, so now I buy the more expensive one anyway. Go figure.

I’m not criticizing America, or Americans. I am criticizing American food producers, who, to save a few pennies, have put their customers at risk by giving them an unsafe product. I’m sure that if we all start reading labels more often, and if we stop using all these products with HFCS in them, food producers will have to think of something else to use. If we all start demanding healthier options to foods that in all likelihood we didn’t even know were all that bad for us, food producers will eventually have to answer those demands. After all, apparently there was a “demand” for ketchup sweetened with HFCS, if we all demand that they take it out again, logically they’d have to comply non?

Its not easy to find alternative products, but it is possible. I’ve checked the labels of Watkins products and haven’t yet found one that contains HFCS (or even MSG, but that’s another post altogether!). If you’re looking in your grocery stores, check the “organic” aisle. HFCS is NOT organic, so none of those products would have it. It may cost more initially, but in the long run, it could save you a lot of medical bills. Couldn’t hurt anyway.  ¶ 1:01 PM