I just came across something very intresting. Something everyone should be aware of.
The makers of high fructose corn syrup want to sweeten up its image
with a new name: corn sugar.
The bid to rename the sweetener by the Corn Refiners Association comes
as Americans’ concerns about health and obesity have sent consumption
of high fructose corn syrup to a 20-year low.
The group plans to apply Tuesday (the 14th of September) to the Food and Drug Administration(FDA)
to get “corn sugar” approved as an alternative name for food labels.
Approval could take two years, but that’s not stopping the industry
from using the term now in advertising. There’s a new online marketing
campaign at http://www.cornsugar.com and on television. Two new
commercials try to alleviate shopper confusion, showing people who say
they now understand that “whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your
body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.”
Renaming products has succeeded before. For example, low eurcic acid
rapeseed oil became much more popular after becoming “canola oil” in
1988. Prunes tried to shed a stodgy image by becoming “dried plums” in
2000.
The new name would help people understand the sweetener, used most
notably in soft drinks but also in bread, cereal and other foods, and
distance it from connections to obesity, said Audrae Erickson,
president of the Washington-based group.
Some scientists have linked consumption of full-calorie soda — the
vast majority of which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup –
to obesity.
But white sugar and high fructose corn syrup are nutritionally the same, and
there’s no evidence that the sweetener is any worse for the body than
sugar, said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for
Science in the Public Interest. The bottom line is people should
consume less of all sugars, Jacobson said.
“Soda pop sweetened with sugar is every bit as conducive to obesity as
soda pop sweetened with high fructose corn syrup,” he said.
The American Medical Association says there’s not enough evidence yet
to restrict the use of high fructose corn syrup, although it wants
more research.
Still, Americans increasingly are blaming high fructose corn syrup and
avoiding it. First lady Michelle Obama has said she doesn’t want her
daughters eating it.
“Many companies are responding by removing it from their products. Last
month, Sara Lee switched to sugar in two of its breads. Gatorade,
Snapple and Hunt’s Ketchup very publicly switched to sugar in the past
two years.
The average American ate 35.7 pounds of high fructose corn syrup last
year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s down 21
percent from 45.4 pounds 10 years before.
Cane and beet sugar, meanwhile, have hovered around 44 pounds per
person per year since the mid-1980s, after falling rapidly in the
1970s when high fructose corn syrup — a cheaper alternative to sugar
– gained favor with soft drink makers.
With sales falling in the U.S., the industry is growing in emerging
markets like Mexico and revenue has been steady at $3 billion to $4
billion a year, said Credit Suisse senior analyst Robert Moskow. There
are five manufacturers in the U.S.: Archer Daniels Midland Inc., Corn
Products International, Cargill, Roquette America, and Tate & Lyle.
Corn refiners say their new name better describes the sweetener.
“The name ‘corn sugar’ more accurately reflects the source of the food
(corn), identifies the basic nature of the food (a sugar), and
discloses the food’s function (a sweetener),” the petition said.
Will shoppers swallow the new name?
The public is skeptical, so the move will be met with criticism, said
Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Kellogg School of Management at
Northwestern University.
“This isn’t all that much different from any of the negative brands
trying to embrace new brand names,” he said, adding the change is
similar to what ValuJet — whose name was tarnished by a deadly crash
in 1996 — did when it bought AirTran’s fleet and took on its name.
“They’re not saying this is a healthy vitamin, or health product,” he
said. “They’re just trying to move away from the negative
associations.”
~~~~~~A Pharmacist told me today:
High Fructose Corn Syrup is deadly to the pancreas. The body simply cannot process it. I avoid anything with corn syrup, HF Corn Syrup, it is more addictive than cocaine. This is the reason why the relabeling and re-education of the masses is being done. This stuff is addictive, and the consumer keeps coming back for more.
