More and more companies are joining Starbucks in removing high fructose corn syrup from their ingredient lists. Thankfully, though, it’s not just us calling them out for embracing such a gimmicky marketing blitz. In its March issue, Consumer Reports takes this ploy to task, pointing out that high fructose corn syrup is nutritionally no different from cane or beet sugar:
[T]ossing high-fructose corn syrup off ingredient lists may well have more to do with marketing than science. A sweetener made from cornstarch processed with enzymes and acids, HFCS has roughly the same composition as cane sugar—about half glucose and half fructose—and the same number of calories. Concerns that it’s directly responsible for rising obesity rates or somehow intrinsically more fat-inducing than sugar are largely unfounded, though researchers continue to study whether the body handles HFCS differently.
We wouldn’t even say that concerns about high fructose corn syrup being responsible for obesity are “largely unfounded”—they’re totally unfounded. And the human body treats high fructose corn syrup in the same way as table sugar (sucrose).
We’re glad the word is getting around. Let’s hope marketing departments get the memo.
