The Official High Fructose Corn Syrup Thread

[D-Dogg]

HFCS is the devil. Don't let the ads from their new lobby fool you. The only think we don't know is just how bad it is for you.

Below is a list of foods that do not contain HFCS.

http://www.stophfcs.com/list.html

Baking and Cooking Ingredients

• Betty Crocker 7-Layer Bar(mix)
• Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate Brownie mix
• Betty Crocker cake icing
• Bisquick

Beverages

• Northland Cranberry Juice
• China Cola
• Dr.Pepper(original formula)
• Jones Soda (recently announced that they were going back to real sugar)
• Goose Island soda (Root Beer, Orange Soda)
• Calistoga Juice Squeeze
• Simply Orange juice products
• Simply Lemonade
• Tropicana OJ
• Nestle NesQuik Chocolate Milk Mix
• Nestle "Abuelita" Chocolate Syrup (Hispanic Section)
• R.W. Knudsen Recharge (sports drink)
• Fuze Drinks link
• TeaZazz link

Bread

• Pepperidge Farms whole grain honey oat
• Nature's Own Sugar Free 100% Whole Grain bread link
• Nature's Own -Honey 7 Grain link
• Nature's Own 100% whole wheat link
• Martins Potato breads and rolls
• Thomas's Low Carb English Muffins
• Thomas Hearty Grain Honey Wheat English Muffins (?)
• Nature's Own -Healthline SugarFree Wholewheat
• Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain breads (in freezer section)
• Francisco International Extra Sour Dough bread (the regular Sour Dough has it!)
• Pepperidge Farm Honey Wheatberry
• Milton's Wheat and Multi-grain bread
• Bagels from a local Jewish bakery
• Kirkland brand (Costco) multigrain bread
• Sara Lee Cinnamon Raisin
• Pepperidge Farm whole grain bagel
• Matthew's All Natural Bread link
• Amana Multi Grain Bread
• Country Hearth 12-Grain Bread
• Earth Grains 100% Natural 7-Grain Bread
• Orrow Wheat Light 100% Whole Wheat
• Rays New York Bagels
• Whole Foods store brand hot dog and hamburger buns (they are whole wheat)
• FlatOut Bread link
• Alternative Bagel --- sweat wheat link

Breakfast Cereals

• Post Grape-Nuts
• Life Cereal/Cinnamon Life
• Quaker Oatmeal
• Cheerios
• Most cereals labeled "Organic"
• Kashi Go Lean (original and Crunch)
• Barabara's Puffins
• Chex Cereals (Wheat, Rice and Corn)
• Kroger Apple Dapples
• Post Honey Bunches of Oats
• Great Value fruit and cream instant oatmeal
• Mom's Best Natural Cereals (all varieties) link

Breakfast Pasteries / Waffles / Bars

• Eggo Nutrigrain Blueberry
• Kashi Go Lean and Heart to Heart Waffles link
• The TLC granola bars, by Kashi, all are HFCS free link

Candy

• Lindt Lindor truffles (balls)
• Cost Plus World Market has a lot of imported candy from Germany that I've found to be HFCS free.

Condiments

• Heinz organic tomato ketchup
• French's Worcestershire
• Farman's pickle relish
• Mt. Olive Hamburger dill chips
• Annie's Natural Organic Ketchup
• Frenchs Honey Dijon Mustard (I don't think most regular mustard contains hfcs, but a lot of the "honey" mustard does, which is why I'm listing some honey mustards here that don't.)
• Woeber Sweet And Spicy Mustard
• Consorzio Bbq Sauce Organic Original
• Whole Foods 365 Ketchup (both regular and Organic)
• Kroger coctail sauce

Cookies and Cakes

• Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies -- plain and the new chocolate
• Kedem Tea Biscuits (reg. and chocolate) --- found in the Kosher section
• Paul Newman sandwich cookies
• Kashi line of cookies
• Back to Nature peanut butter sandwich cookies
• Destrooper Almond Thins Cookie
• Destrooper Butter Crisp Cookies
• Keebler Pecan Sandies Cookies
• Keebler Simply Sandies Cookies
• Lu Le Petit Beurre Cookies
• Lu Scottish Recipe Shortbread
• Mi-Del Snaps Ginger
• Newmans Wheat Free Fig Newton Cookies
• Newmans Own Ginger Os Ginger N Creme Cookies
• NewmanS Own Alphabet Cookies
• Pepperidge Farms Butter Chessman Cookies
• Pepperidge Farm 100% Natural Varieties

Chocolate

• Cadbury - Most Varieties
• Hershey's Symphony
• Hershey's 100 Calorie Wafer Bar
• Hershey Skor Candy Bar
• Hershey Special Dark Candy Bar
• Dove - Most varieties
• Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
• Most Imported (Europe) and Organic chocolate

Crackers

• Annies - Cheddar cheese bunnies and honey graham bunnies
• Wasa Crisp Breads (all varieties)
• Atheno's baked pita chips
• Stacey's Naked Pita bread chips *note, have not seen HFCS in Hummus
• Dare Vinta Crackers

Dairy

• Brown Cow vanilla yogurt
• Southern Home Nonfat Plain Yogurt
• Dannon Plain Yogurt*
• Mountain High Yogurt (it appears all varieties are HFCS free)
• Dannon All Natural Vanilla Yogurt
• Dannon All Natural Coffee Yogurt
• Horizon Organic Fat Free Yogurt
• Nancys Reduced Fat Plain
• Nancy's Whole Milk Honey Yogurt
• Stoneyfield Farm Yobaby Yogurt

Fruits and Vegetables - Canned

• Motts Natural (No Sugar Added)Apple Sauce
• Most no sugar added packed fruit --- please check labels

Granola Bars

• Nature Valley Roasted Nut Crunch bars
• Kashi Bars
• Odwalla Bars

Ice Cream

• Breyers - All Natural Coffee
• Breyers - All Natural Cherry Vanilla
• Breyers - All Natural Mint Chocolate Chip
• Luigi Italian Ice

Jam, Jelly, Syrup, Spreads

• Skippy Peanut Butter
• Costco makes an organic peanut butter
• Whole Foods brand peanut butter
• Karo Dark (with Blue label)
• Karo Brown Sugar syrup
• Hero Jams (from Swizterland) --- can be found at Cost Plus World Market
• Darbo Jams (from Austria) --- can be found at Cost Plus World Market
• Whole foods brand (365) strawberry jam
• Sarabeth Jam link (you can buy these jams marked down at Marshalls and TJ Max).
• Smuckers organic grapy jelly
• Safeway "O" Organics Maple Syrup
• Harry and David Ancho sweet chili peper spread

Pastries

• Try your local, family operated, pastry shop. Since HFCS is added to extend shelf life it is not generally found in family operated bakeries.

Salad Dressings

• Great Value (WalMart) Zesty Italian Dressing
• Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise
• HIdden Valley Ranch Old Fash.Buttermilk
• Blue Plate Mayonnaise
• Ken's Sweet Vidalia Onion dressing
• Annie's Naturals organic papaya poppyseed salad dressing.
• Annie's Naturals Goddess Dressing (check other Annie's too, quite a few are HFCS free).
• Brianna's Homemade Blush Vinaigrette Salad Dressing (all varieties seem to be HFCS free)
• Drew's Salad Dressings
• Most Newman's varieties
• Kraft Honey Dijon Vinaigreette, dressing & marinade
• Kraft Balsamic Vinaigreette, dressing & marinade

Sauces

• Barilla Pesto
• Ken's Steak House Honey Teriyaki Marinade
• Kikkoman Soy Sauce
• Soy Vey Very Very Teriyaki --- check marinade section, also Kosher section
• Bullseye BBQ sauce Original

Snacks

• Frito's corn chips
• Natural Cheetos

Soups

• Annie's Organic Soups

I know this isn't complete, but it's a start. Please add your own if they aren't on there.

Ones I know:

Heath chocolate bars
Blue Bell Natural Vanilla Bean ice cream (the other flavors have HFCS).

 

[Mulli]

China Cola? Huh?

Jarritos Mexican Soda doesn't contain HFCS. W00t, MExican soda!

 

[D-Dogg]

Also, this was an interesting post from a site talking about the new ads saying how "natural" and healthy HFCS is for you.

If you want to key on any phrase in these spots, it's the "when used in moderation" line, because, as we know, HFCS is in damn near everything, including products that don't need sweetener, such as yogurt, bread, and cough syrups.

But, if you want to push the issue, if anyone ever asks what's wrong with HFCS besides the fact that we indulge in way too much of the stuff, here are a few other talking points.

1) There is debate going on HFCS's role in the upswing in diabetes cases. In may be related to our increased consumption of the sweetener (as per above), or it might be something else. The science is still working this argument out.

2) It isn't natural. Oh, they may meet the letter of the law in defining itself as natural, but they haven not only broken its spirit, they stepped on it, jumped on it, and ground the law into dust. Unless a person has ready access to centrifuges, hydroclones, ion-exchange columns, and buckets of enzymes, there's simply no way for a regular lay person to make high fructose corn syrup. None. Zero. It's not natural, no matter how they dress it up.

3) They didn't perform long-term tests on the product before putting it on the market.

4) It tastes different than cane sugar. Compare Jellies made with sugar against those made with HFCS. Or Cola.

But really, regardless of these four points, the overabundance of the sweetener is the one that truly needs to be addressed.

 

[D-Dogg]

China Cola? Huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Cola

 

[abomb]

Awesome thread. HFCS might be the biggest threat to the nutritional health of Americans.

 

[D-Dogg]

By the way this

Soy Vey Very Very Teriyaki

Is awesome on meatballs.

 

[Shane]

I loves me some HFCS!

 

[nathan]

Why is sucrose being given a free pass?????

 

[D-Dogg]

Why is sucrose being given a free pass?????

Because it isn't as high in fructose, and isn't in every single thing you purchase on the market.

 

[nathan]

Because it isn't as high in fructose, and isn't in every single thing you purchase on the market.

The energy content difference between something sweetened with HFCS and table sugar is meaningless. The real problem here is Americans making bad food choices.

That list is completely ridiculous. It is chock full of things you should not eat/drink.

A few examples:
Brownies
Dr. Pepper
Kroger - Apple Dapples
TLC granola bars (one bar I looked up was sweetened with honey not HFCS)
Lindt Lindor truffles
Any cookie/cake
Chocolate (generally commercial chocolate has real sugar not HFCS)
Ice cream
Skippy peanut butter (full of fat)
Pastries
Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise (may as well put twinkie cream in your arteries)
Fritos
Natural Cheetos (regular cheetos don't have HFCS either)

 

[D-Dogg]

The energy content difference between something sweetened with HFCS and table sugar is meaningless. The real problem here is Americans making bad food choices.

That list is completely ridiculous. It is chock full of things you should not eat/drink.

A few examples:
Brownies
Dr. Pepper
Kroger - Apple Dapples
TLC granola bars (one bar I looked up was sweetened with honey not HFCS)
Lindt Lindor truffles
Any cookie/cake
Chocolate (generally commercial chocolate has real sugar not HFCS)
Ice cream
Skippy peanut butter (full of fat)
Pastries
Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise (may as well put twinkie cream in your arteries)
Fritos
Natural Cheetos (regular cheetos don't have HFCS either)

Nathan, these are two different arguments. I agree with you on the latter, but not the former.

The energy content difference is not the point. It isn't a caloric issue. It is the way fructose is processed by the body and converted to fat at a higher rate than any other sugar. And it is in tons of products that we eat (I'll get to the latter point in a second, because what we eat is another problem entirely). Most breads contain it. Most cereals too. Almost all packaged foods that we eat (again, bad on its face) contain it. Thus, we are being exposed to incredibly huge amounts of a scientifically created "sugar" that isn't processed in a manner that our bodies consider natural. This is the danger of HFCS...one, the quantity in which it is consumed, and second in the way our bodies react to it.

To the second point, no, most of the things on that list are not good foods. Whole foods is the way to eat, bottom line. I think you may have read it already, but if you haven't, please read "In Defense of Food." Great book about the foods we eat and why whole foods are so much better for us than what we normally find in the store. Our society has made eating well very difficult, because convenience has supplanted health. I only posted this list so that people understand which of the bad foods are "better" than the others, since most people are going to eat bad foods regardless. This is just to say if you are going to eat ice cream, try to eat something like Blue Bell's Natural Vanilla Bean, since it doesn't contain HFCS. If you must eat chips, Frito's are probably better than Ruffles. None of them are good for you, but if you must, look for the lesser of the evils. I'm fully with you that the list is full of things you shouldn't eat. But if you must, try to eat the ones that don't have the cheap franken-sugar that basically completely becomes fat stored in your body. We agree on this second point.

 

[Mulli]

Trader Joe's Chocolate Pudding. No HFCS.

 

[abomb]

It isn't natural. Oh, they may meet the letter of the law in defining itself as natural, but they haven not only broken its spirit, they stepped on it, jumped on it, and ground the law into dust. Unless a person has ready access to centrifuges, hydroclones, ion-exchange columns, and buckets of enzymes, there's simply no way for a regular lay person to make high fructose corn syrup. None. Zero. It's not natural, no matter how they dress it up.

This quote really stuck with me and makes me laugh.

 

[Linderbee]

hfcs-free items I noticed from my home:

Safeway "Real Mayo" Mayonnaise
Peter Pan peanut butter
Kroger (Fry's) peanut butter (also does not have partially hydrogenated soybean oil)
something else I cannot remember (that's helpful, I know )

 

[nathan]

Nathan, these are two different arguments. I agree with you on the latter, but not the former.

The energy content difference is not the point. It isn't a caloric issue. It is the way fructose is processed by the body and converted to fat at a higher rate than any other sugar. And it is in tons of products that we eat (I'll get to the latter point in a second, because what we eat is another problem entirely). Most breads contain it. Most cereals too. Almost all packaged foods that we eat (again, bad on its face) contain it. Thus, we are being exposed to incredibly huge amounts of a scientifically created "sugar" that isn't processed in a manner that our bodies consider natural. This is the danger of HFCS...one, the quantity in which it is consumed, and second in the way our bodies react to it.

To the second point, no, most of the things on that list are not good foods. Whole foods is the way to eat, bottom line. I think you may have read it already, but if you haven't, please read "In Defense of Food." Great book about the foods we eat and why whole foods are so much better for us than what we normally find in the store. Our society has made eating well very difficult, because convenience has supplanted health. I only posted this list so that people understand which of the bad foods are "better" than the others, since most people are going to eat bad foods regardless. This is just to say if you are going to eat ice cream, try to eat something like Blue Bell's Natural Vanilla Bean, since it doesn't contain HFCS. If you must eat chips, Frito's are probably better than Ruffles. None of them are good for you, but if you must, look for the lesser of the evils. I'm fully with you that the list is full of things you shouldn't eat. But if you must, try to eat the ones that don't have the cheap franken-sugar that basically completely becomes fat stored in your body. We agree on this second point.

Sucrose is just as bad as HFCS. The most common formulation of HFCS is 55% fructose. Sucrose is broken down into a molecule of fructose and a molecule of glucose (i.e. 50% fructose). The 5% difference in fructose content is small enough that HFCS is only marginally worse for you than sucrose. HFCS is a sugar (sucrose) substitute. If sugar were cheaper it would be in cereals/breads instead of HFCS. Both sucrose and HFCS will make you fat. Americans liking sugary things is the root of the problem.

 

[D-Dogg]

And how much sucrose in in our foods? Compared to HFCS? Not even close.

How much is in every single item you have on the shelf?

Sugar is only expensive because of lobbyists, btw.

And HFCS converts to fat at much higher rates than sucrose could ever dream of.


And yes, you are right that we like sugary things...but HFCS is in EVERYTHING. Sucrose is not. The average american does not think they are consuming monster sugar in their breads, but because of HFCS, they are...even in "healthy" breads.

We aren't talking about sucrose, or fructose, or glucose. We are talking about the un-natural, made by man hybrid of HFCS, which the body just CAN NOT PROCESS like a normal sugar. That it converts almost entirely to fat. And which is in almost every single product on the shelf. Which americans consume in massive amounts...more than they'd ever consume regular sugars ever. We consume so much of this stuff that it is sickening.

 

[thirty-two]

THis is kind of freaking me out. I might have to go look at my foods and look for this stuff now.

 

[nathan]

"And HFCS converts to fat at much higher rates than sucrose could ever dream of."
That's just incorrect. Sucrose is chemically converted to one molecule of fructose and one molecule of glucose (i.e. to something that is 50% fructose, 50% glucose). Your body treats fructose from sucrose the same as the fructose from HFCS.

"We aren't talking about sucrose, or fructose, or glucose. We are talking about the un-natural, made by man hybrid of HFCS, which the body just CAN NOT PROCESS like a normal sugar"
I just don't understand what you're trying to argue here. 55% fructose+45% glucose=HFCS. There's no magic HFCS molecule of any kind. It's a mixture of fructose and glucose.

 

[D-Dogg]

"And HFCS converts to fat at much higher rates than sucrose could ever dream of."
That's just incorrect. Sucrose is chemically converted to one molecule of fructose and one molecule of glucose (i.e. to something that is 50% fructose, 50% glucose). Your body treats fructose from sucrose the same as the fructose from HFCS.

HFCS has higher concentrations initially of fructose than sucrose converts to, and it is unbound.

"We aren't talking about sucrose, or fructose, or glucose. We are talking about the un-natural, made by man hybrid of HFCS, which the body just CAN NOT PROCESS like a normal sugar"
I just don't understand what you're trying to argue here. 55% fructose+45% glucose=HFCS. There's no magic HFCS molecule of any kind. It's a mixture of fructose and glucose.

Yes, higher in fructose, does not exist in nature and has to be created in a lab to be made.

Bottom line, and i think you'd agree, the primary problem is that appears in practically everything on the market.

And our bodies aren't made to process high levels of fructose in the first place. Man made or not (yes, HFCS is "natural" to a point, but it's a man made product. As the article said above, unless you have a home science lab, you aren't making HFCS).

 

[D-Dogg]

FinalCall.com News - Refer This Page

Health & Fitness
Beware of High-Fructose Corn Syrup
By Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad
-Guest Columnist-
Updated Sep 20, 2007, 03:04 pm



According to an August 23, 2007 report from the American Chemical Society, researchers have found new evidence that soft drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) may contribute to the development of diabetes, particularly in children.

In the current study, Chi-Tang Ho, Ph.D., conducted chemical tests among 11 different carbonated soft drinks containing HFCS. He found “astonishingly high” levels of reactive carbonyls in those beverages. These undesirable and highly-reactive compounds associated with “unbound” fructose and glucose molecules are believed to cause tissue damage, says Ho, a professor of food science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. By contrast, reactive carbonyls are not present in table sugar, whose fructose and glucose components are “bound” and chemically stable, the researcher notes.

HFCS is a sweetener found in many foods and beverages, including non-diet soda pop, baked goods, and condiments. It has become the sweetener of choice for many food manufacturers because it is considered more economical, sweeter and more easy to blend into beverages than table sugar. The long standing boycott of Cuban cane sugar combined with the annual corn subsidy to U.S. farmers of over $10 billion explains why sugar costs more than corn fructose.

The figures from the USDA for 2003 are that the average world price of refined sugar is 11 cents per pound compared to 28 cents in the U.S.—more than twice as much due to subsidies and import quotas. Meanwhile, the price of HFCS is 14 cents per pound. However, corn prices are expected to rise because of corn’s increased use as a source of energy through ethanol production. This price rise plus new evidence of the dangers of HFCS may finally force the processing industry to cut back on its widespread use.

The process for making the sweetener high fructose corn syrup out of corn was developed in the 1970s. Use of HFCS grew rapidly, from less than three million short tons in 1980 to almost 8 million short tons in 1995. During the late 1990s, use of sugar actually declined as it was eclipsed by HFCS. Today Americans consume more HFCS than sugar.

From zero, the average consumption of HFCS in the U.S. has risen to over 60 pounds per person per year, on average. Starting in the early 1970s, there has been a dramatic rise in the U.S. in the rate of obesity and its related ailments including Type-2 diabetes and heart disease. This alarming development coincides almost exactly with the introduction and subsequent ramp-up of consumption of high fructose corn syrup. An estimated 16 million Americans have Type-2 diabetes, making it the sixth leading cause of death overall. Studies have linked a high intake of refined carbohydrates such as fructose with a high “glycemic index” to the development of diabetes.

The processing industry argues that fructose is just another form of sugar and does no more damage than sugar. However, High Fructose Corn Syrup is an extremely refined version of the fructose naturally occurring in nature. High-fructose corn syrup is produced by processing corn starch to yield glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. Three different enzymes, two of which have been genetically modified, are needed to break down cornstarch, which is composed of chains of glucose molecules of almost infinite length, into the simple sugars glucose and fructose.

A team of investigators at the USDA, led by Dr. Meira Field, compared the effects of sugar and fructose on laboratory rats according to the www.longlife.com article entitled “Should You Boycott High Fructose Corn Syrup?” This article points out that sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. When sugar is given to rats in high amounts, the rats develop multiple health problems, especially when the rats were deficient in certain nutrients, such as copper.

The researchers wanted to know whether it was the fructose or the glucose moiety that was causing the problems. So they repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The male rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy--that means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded. They also had delayed testicular development. Dr. Field explains that fructose in combination with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with collagen production. In a nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart. The females were not so affected, but they were unable to produce live young.

“The medical profession thinks fructose is better for diabetics than sugar,” says Dr. Field, “but every cell in the body can metabolize glucose. However, all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and cirrhotic.”

Going back to the research done by Chi-Tang Ho, his group is also probing the mechanisms by which carbonation increases the amount of reactive carbonyls formed in sodas containing HFCS. They note that non-carbonated fruit juices containing HFCS have one-third the amount of reactive carbonyl species found in carbonated sodas with HFCS, while non-carbonated tea beverages containing high-fructose corn syrup have only about one-sixth the levels of carbonyls found in regular soda.

(Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad is the Nation of Islam’s Minister of Agriculture, who serves as the farm manager of a 1,600-acre farm in southwest Georgia owned by the Nation of Islam. For more information, visit www.muhammadfarms.com or email [email protected].)

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3934.shtml

 

[D-Dogg]

http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html

Another article on that.

 

[ajcardfan]

As a biologist, (although this is not my forte), I tend to agree with Nathan that the biggest problem is our overconsumption of sugars and lack of activity. Fructose (from HCFS or sucrose) will be turned into glycogen in the liver first. Fructose is fructose, no matter where it comes from. Once that glycogen storage room is full, it is then turned into pyruvate. If you have excess pyruvate, then it is turned into fatty acids and triglycerides. Glucose can be used more directly by cells. So, it is not completely off the wall to say HFCS is more fattening. However, the vilification of it has been a bit over the top IMO.

Bottom line --- if you are not a couch potato then it really shouldn't be too much of a problem for you. Your glycogen should get low enough between meals to absorb the fructose. But, that's not what the public wants to hear. They want to take pills that will burn fat without exercising. Now, there seems to be a growing push to blame corporations for what we are stuffing in our faces for making us fat.

 

[Dback Jon]

Donald - do you drink milk, or any dairy products?

 

[Shane]

Just had my self three cokes. The HFCS in them was fantastic

 

[thirty-two]

Just had my self three cokes. The HFCS in them was fantastic

lol i am sorry but this is damn funny, you rebble-rouser!