You likely have seen the word "fructose" by itself on food labels lately. No "high-fructose corn syrup." Just plain fructose.
We know the corn people were trying to change the name of high-fructose corn syrup to "corn sugar" and we pointed out that potential deception. Turns out that it was light years ahead in integrity for what they really did.
Fructose and fructose syrup is secretly HFCS 90, the most potent version of high-fructose corn syrup. HFCS 90 has 90% fructose and 10% glucose.
"Syrups with 90% fructose will not state high fructose corn syrup on the label, they will state 'fructose' or 'fructose syrup.'" — Corn Refiners Association
The FDA has condoned this change by not challenging the obvious deception. Just because corn refiners and manufacturers want to give a false impression about their product doesn't give them the power to do so.
Fructose, by itself, applies to fruit sugar as it comes from fruit. Fructose is natural. What corn people do to high-fructose corn syrup is not natural, despite their pleas.
Fructose implies 100% fructose, natural or otherwise. HFCS 90 has, by definition, 10% glucose. So "fructose" isn't all fructose.
Companies are invited to deceive consumers on the front of the labels. In at least one instance, a company is outright false in its front label.
Other sources first reported that Vanilla Chex had a sign on the front of its label that said "No high-fructose corn syrup" yet the product contains HFCS 90.
Even the corn people admit that the cereal has high-fructose corn syrup if "fructose" is listed in the ingredients.
Plenty of other products out there now have "fructose" in their ingredient list, even if they aren't drawing any attention via the front label.
No product has ever positively advertised that it contains high-fructose corn syrup. There's a reason why this is true.
The corn people are running away from high-fructose corn syrup because the general public is learning what is involved and the effects on individuals and the society, at large. They never defend high-fructose corn syrup as being better for consumers, just that high-fructose corn syrup is "like sugar." Except it's not.
Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Sam Kass' theoretical replacement — some or all of them have the power to remove this deception from nutrition labels. The corn people are very powerful, so powerful that they were able to sneak this change into our system. Congress won't help, not that we were expecting help from a GOP-dominated House and GOP-controlled Senate.
The corn people have found pure deception to sneak the worst of high-fructose corn syrup into society. Be on the lookout for "fructose" and "fructose syrup" on nutrition ingredient labels. If you see those terms by themselves, consider them dangerous. This bears repeating: HFCS 90 is the worst of the 3 strains of high-fructose corn syrup.
At least you now know to steer clear of the new deceptive ways to force high-fructose corn syrup into the food supply.
I read in many different articles that there were not adequate studies done on health risks of HFCS-90 due to the fact that it was not balanced with glucose. So have there been any studies done since they approved it?
Posted by: Kari Klug | January 21, 2015 at 01:05 AM
Not aware of studies involving HFCS 90. HFCS 55 has an imbalance of fructose, and fructose is the major concern. HFCS 90 has way more fructose. Even though the corn people claim that manufacturers don't use that much HFCS 90, we don't honestly know how much is in the food product.
Posted by: Chad | January 22, 2015 at 09:47 PM