High Fructose Corn Syrup, Obesity and Your Mochas

[Jarveygirl]

High fructose corn syrup has gotten some bad press this year. And, as a result, some consumers are shying aware from HFCS. New reports show no link between HFCS and obesity. Chocolatier Michael Szyliowicz speaks to the latest news and to why HFCS is commonly used in syrups and sauces. Have your customers inquired as to the use of HFCS in your products? IS HFCS something you consider when stocking product for your use or for sale to customers? Please let Michael know! http://montblancgourmet.com/blog/

 

[wmark]

How can you expect consumers to believe one 'study' when they can't even decide if drinking coffee is good or bad ?

Maybe high fructose gets a bad rap because it still is bad for your body....jjust like refined sugar and refined flour is.

 

[Crazy4Coffee]

I think it is important to note who is funding any study. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/ ... 1513.shtml

An even newer study then this one you have mentioned was recently presented at the American Chemical Society annual meeting. Researchers from Rutgers University tested 11 soft drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and detected high levels of compounds that are normally raised in the blood of people with diabetes - reactive carbonyls. These compounds have been linked to diabetic complications such as tissue damage. Reactive carbonyls were not detected in soda sweetened with sucrose (table sugar).

I used to love Coca-Cola but, when they and the rest of the soft drink industry replaced pure cane syrup with HFCS (primarily to save on production cost because HFCS is much cheaper than cane sugar) I noticed that Coke (and the other sodas) no longer tasted as good. I stopped drinking sodas back then, and now I'm glad I did.

There are enough studies on HFCS, without the bias of being funded by the food and drink industries, that show enough evidence on the problems and dangers with HFCS for me to conclude that it is a substance I would prefer not to ingest.

If Michael truly believes his products are of the finest quality then he should use only the finest ingredients and HFCS is not one of them.

When the time comes for me to open my espresso bar, I will be diligent in buying the finest ingredients and products.

I hope by then, Michael removes HFCS from his products because I'd really like to support a local chocolatier.

 

[wmark]

Now that they have managed to somehow patent stevia, the plant used as sweetener by South American natives for thousands of years, they will apparently be introducing it into soft drinks.

Previously, there was a lobby to prohibit the use of stevia in any processed foods.

 

[jlyon10]

Why would there be a lobby on not using stevia in processed foods? Is it safe?

 

[wmark]

Stevia is available in health food stores.

I believe the artificial sweetener lobby kept it out of the food processing industry calling unsafe and/or unproven. You could use it to sweeten your coffee but you could not make soda with it.

Now that a couple of companies have figured out how to patent this product, a product that has been around for thousands of years, (I think the patent is jointly owned by a soft drink company and a food company but the names escape me at the moment), expect to see it soon in your sodas and everything else.

There are not the concerns with stevia as there are with the artificial sweetners. No calories and I believe no adverse affects on the glycemic index. BTW if buying, make sure you are buying 100% pure stevia and not some adulterated version.

 

[jlyon10]

Thanks for the information. My wife use any thing except splenda because the others give her head aches. I like splenda also but don't know the long term affects yet. Stevia seems to be more natural than splenda.

 

[wmark]

Did you ever see the 60 minute piece on Searle and how it got Aspartame (or whatever the Searle product was) passed ?
For example you had something like 50 rats as test subjects. Half of them died, so they just replaced them and continued with the experiment like nothing had happened.

The outgoing head of the FDA was implicated with calls for an indictment. After the product was approved for use, he joined the law firm representing Searle.

The sitting head of the FDA at the time was interviewed and said that it looked highly immoral but could not pronounce if it was illegal as of yet. He stalled the investigation, the statute of limitations ran out and then guess what ? He joined the law firm representing Searle.

 

[wmark]

The FDA approved two versions of a new zero-calorie sweetener developed by the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo.

Cargill, which is marketing the sweetener Truvia from Coca-Cola, received notification from the FDA that it had no objection to the product, calling it “generally recognized as safe.”


PepsiCo said it also had received a similar letter and the same “generally recognized as safe” designation for its sweetener, PureVia.

Both products use rebiana, an extract from the stevia plant.

Sources:
New York Times December 17, 2008

 

[jlyon10]

Do you know when they will start selling soft drinks with it in them?