Balance of Food

Improving the image of HFCS like putting lipstick on a pig

High-fructose corn syrup, the 900-lb. gorilla of sweeteners, is getting PR help because of all the negative pressure HFCS has received.

Wow!!

You may have seen the full-page ads from the Corn Refiners Association. According to the organization, HFCS is getting a bad rap, and they are there to set the record straight.

And the Corn Refiners Association wouldn't steer you wrong on a corn product, would they?

The Web site mentioned in the ad has a hilarious quiz. In the quiz, high-fructose corn syrup is considered a "natural food ingredient." If you have seen the two guys in "King Corn" making HFCS, you might question that statement.

According to the quiz: "Sugar, honey and high fructose corn syrup sweeteners are all considered natural food ingredients under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s definition of the term 'natural.' "The FDA's definition of anything isn't very credible, due to political pressure among other reasons.

Other statements of "fact":

"Research on high fructose corn syrup and sugar show that both sweeteners have a similar impact on satiety or feelings of fullness." Not sure what to say about that research, except maybe their definition of "similar" isn't similar.

"The human body digests sugar, honey, high fructose corn syrup and fruit juice concentrates similarly by breaking them into glucose and fructose, which are absorbed into the bloodstream, where they are transported to the cells of the body and converted into energy." This may be true, but is highly irrelevant. But a nice try by the industry.

Finding lunch solutions harder without refrigeration

I do complain about figuring out how to do lunches at work. I complain about finding something that is reasonably priced, convenient, easy to make in the morning, nutritious, and that tastes good. But I also realize that it could be worse. And I'm about to find that out.

The refrigerator is one advantage I have that some workplaces don't have. Whatever I bring I can keep cold in the fridge until lunchtime.

Well, my day job is transferring locations, so we are going through some short-term changes. So for a little more than a week, we will be without a refrigerator. The refrigerator belongs to my bosses, and the new place has a refrigerator, so they will take their fridge with them. They are making the change now, so that they don't have to worry about it when it comes time to make the major move.

So hey it's no big deal — make difficult choices for lunch AND not have access to a refrigerator. Right!?

Years ago, I had a tryout for a job — come in for 2½ days. I had to drive for the job with a crappy car, and we were out in the middle of nowhere — no nearby restaurants. There was a cafeteria on campus, but I didn't want to buy lunch every day. When I first got there and asked where I could put my lunch, they explained that there were no refrigerators.

No refrigerators? How could you have no refrigerators, I wondered silently. I wanted to make a good impression. Given the gasoline costs and wear and tear on the car, multiplied by having to buy my lunch every day, and I pondered whether I could afford this job.

I did the 2½ days. I ate my lunch from that day, late in the morning before it spoiled. I bought lunch on the second day, and we were let out at noon on the third day (New Year's Eve). Not a great test, but the only one I had up to this point.

Keeping fruits and vegetables safe needs to be much higher priority

"I'm sorry. We can't make the capellini pomodoro because we don't have any fresh tomatoes."

I was in the Olive Garden, a place where I hadn't been in years. My friend asked the very good question, "But all of your other tomato dishes, what do you do for those dishes?" Our waiter explained that everything else was made from canned tomatoes.

What little heart I had in being there was crushed. The lack of tomatoes was blamed on the recent salmonella breakout. But I couldn't take it, and we left.

I'm certainly not saying the restaurant should have served me salmonella, but I figure I might have received fresh tomatoes in a non-chain situation. If large chains can't trust a situation, they will bail. It's the same reason why Applebee's won't cook a burger medium rare. The day after that fiasco, McDonald's announces the chain is pulling tomatoes from its stores. Taco Bell, Wendy's, and Burger King have taken action as well.

But the main issue is why tomatoes have salmonella or why spinach did have e-coli. Regardless of your political beliefs, our food supply, especially our fruit and vegetables, needs to be safe and protected.

It's funny how the chemicals, hormones, and high-fructose corn syrup that invade our food never gets e-coli or salmonella, but the actual food, the real food gets these dangerous diseases.

We have a Food and Drug Administration. We have a U.S. Department of Agriculture. Why can't we make this work?

McD's fries may be free of trans fats, but the taste difference is bad news

Congratulations to McDonald's for getting rid of trans fat in its French fries in the U.S. and Canada. But it sure took the company a long, long, long time.

The trans fat will remain for McDonald's in its remaining baked items, pies, and cookies until the end of the year.

Now I had the fries in my trip to Windsor, Ontario, Canada on May 17, and I didn't observe a difference. But since the announcement, I tried the "new" McDonald's French fries on two different occasions, on May 30 and May 31. And I wasn't impressed.

You could argue that it's all psychological. You hear the new formula is in, and you subconsciously notice a difference. But I've been eating McDonald's French fries for as long as I can remember. And I assure you that there is a difference.

The "new" French fries are drier and do not have as much flavor as it used to. Normally, I would have stopped at one demonstration, but I insisted on two different tries at two different McDonald's locations. And I wouldn't take the Canadian example at face value, since Canadian restaurants may be using a different oil.

To be fair, if you drown your fries in ketchup, you probably can't tell the difference. When naked, there is a distinct difference.

I have argued that McDonald's was dragging its feet with the excuse that they couldn't find an acceptable oil. I do wonder if this is reverse psychology by McD's: make us hate the new fries, so it can change it to something else.