To be horrified that so much food and drink contains high fructose corn syrup

[tripletrouble]

Have recently moved to the States and was aware that I had to look out for high fructose corn syrup in food - I had read that it is pretty prevalent. But I am amazed at how prevalent it is- it's even present in so- called fruit juice.
Both my sons have learnt in Biology classes exactly how bad it is, causing obesity and damage to the liver. How come it is allowed to be used on such a big scale ? I thought that food had to pass all sorts of tests before it was allowed to be sold!

Ah was about to say I really didn't think it was in the UK as we have quite tight labelling.... but I was under the impression it was in everything in the US!

And in deed you are in the US. Wasn't it historical that corn was cheap to grow?

It's cheap, innit. Plus there's lots of pressure in the US from the agricultural industry to make use of as much home grown corn as possible.

It's in a lot of things in the UK, but with various different names, though I've noticed a trend of brands that had started using it taking them out again.

Lobbying by the food industry that prevails over medical advice.

Don't forget hydrogenated palm oil. That shit and high fructose corn syrup are the evil twins of food.

And both, along with artificial sweeteners, are more and more common in the UK, much to my horror.

Makes you realise that sugar isn't so bad.

In the US they don't grow or import sugar, so corn syrup is in everything that is sweet; jam, cake, deserts, biscuits, drinks including coca cola, yoghurt, all chocolate and confectionery.

Not good if you have a corn intolerance.

I'm pretty sure corn syrup was developed from surplus corn and food manufacturers came up with ways to use it. It's in mayonnaise amongst other things. Awful.

We don't have it in the UK not because of tight labelling, but because it's not subsidised like it is in the US, and is actually part of a quota - so other sugars are used instead, they're cheaper here.

Generally the sugar used here and on labels as sugar is a mixture of 50% glucose and 50% fructose, and HFCS is (generally in the same situations) 45% glucose and 55% fructose. The difference is minimal.

Of course there may well be other differences - with larger servings and more sugar added, but there's very little difference in the ingredient itself.

I've just been listening to a podcast on this. If you're interested its

BBC World Service Discovery - Fructose The Bittersweet Sugar. Can't link because I'm hopeless.

Interesting input from both sides of the argument.

Why are you so amazed? Take a look at the state of health in the USA. The obesity. Large portions of crap.

We avoided it when we lived in US with lots of label reading.
If you can, buy organic at Trader Joes and Costco, it contains sugar instead of HFCS. We stopped buying soda altogether due to HFCS and we lost some weight LOL. Cook from scratch when possible to avoid it. It really is vile stuff isn't it.

I'm moving to the U.S. next year and spent a couple of months there over summer.

That stuff is awful, and makes food and drink have a nasty aftertaste. I did a lot of label reading, and it's in so much food. Good thing is that I didn't want any candy or cookies because they were vile! Didn't loose any weight though

I would have loved to go to trader joe's, just to see if it had similar stuff as aldi

Ended up with Food Lion or Bylers.

Awful stuff. It's not in anything I eat though . We only drink water so that helps and no processed foods.

I have banned soda from the house but it makes me sad that so many unsuspecting people might be making themselves ill through food which is so readily available!

This shocked me too when I first moved to the US. I remember buying a giant carton of banana and strawberry smoothie in Safeway on one of my first grocery shops. When I tasted it, it was vile and over sweet so I looked at the label and it was full of artificial colours and HFCS. I watched my labels very closely after that. Now I shop mostly at Whole Foods or Trader Joes.

What is worst here though is the generally high sugar content in all foods, whether natural sugar or HFCS. You see 'healthy' granola bars with 15g of sugar in them! Makes it very hard to monitor my 3-year old's sugar intake as even stuff that would be relatively healthy in the UK can be full of sugar here.

I think i read that macdonalds make the burgers/etc to different recipes in the UK and USa - with the US one being higher sugar.

26Point2Miles
I am amazed that it is legal !

Here you go
www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/high-fructose-corn-syrup/

HFCS is no more or less healthy than other sources of sugar.

In the US they don't grow or import sugar, so corn syrup is in everything that is sweet; jam, cake, deserts, biscuits, drinks including coca cola, yoghurt, all chocolate and confectionery.

No. It's in many sweet things, not everything that's sweet.

I'm horrified too OP

What I find horrifying while we're on the subject is how many items in the baby food aisle I would not feed my baby after reading the ingredients. I struggle, I really do.

One diet sensetive child and nearly everything is organic gluten free and homemade now in my house so inconvenient of him, even if it is healthier!!

Oh, and to add to my above post, the US is the fifth largest producer of sugar in the world, and several states grow sugarcane.

Our local tesco has an American import food section. Everything has additional warning labels for high fructose corn syrup, gm, and food colouring - presumably things that are either restricted or clearly labelled in uk/eu.

Makes you grateful for all those bureaucrats!