How I looooove sugar. Considering its 12 carbon-22 hydrogen-11 oxygen atom structure, I guess it’s hardly surprisingly that it can be so supportive in times of emotional need. There’s far more to a wee little sugar crystal than meets the eye. All of that fructose and glucose can magically deflect the stress of a helter-skelter life or instantly turn frowns upside down. In fact, a dash of the sweet stuff can act as a wonder drug, a mood-booster and a best friend, all without crossing any legal boundaries whatsoever.
What I don’t love is when mega-conglomerate food companies mess with a good thing. It seems as though whenever they tweak a little of this and a little of that, eyeballs start growing on petri dishes and strange mutated viruses manage to infiltrate our airspace. Though food companies were simply in search of a way to cut food production costs back in the 1960s, they unleashed a monster via the development of an alternative corn-based sweetener. It turns out that messing with cornstarch on the molecular level via caustic soda (a human-unfriendly component that tends to be tainted with mercury) yields a turbo-sweetening agent known as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The rest, as they say, is history.
Unbeknownst to many of us, high fructose corn syrup has been in the American diet for nearly 50 years now. Found in seemingly wholesome grain products, dairy items, condiments and processed meats as well as a predictable array of snacks and junk food, it has infiltrated practically every corner of the grocery store. One has to wonder — is it coincidental that we are currently in the midst of a widespread diabetes epidemic? Scientists are trying to determine if high fructose corn syrup is, in fact, the true culprit but they acknowledge that prior to HFCS’s existence, rates of diabetes were relatively low. It is quite interesting to note that fructose levels in today’s diabetic patients tend to be exceedingly high. Hmmm, how’d that happen?
Interesting, then, that Kellogg’s, grain-wrangler and manufacturer of purported “diabetes friendly” cereals such as Rice Krispies, Frosted Flakes and their iconic Corn Flakes, dares to boast that their sugar and high fructose corn syrup laden products are a-okay for people suffering from abnormally high glucose levels in their blood. In light of questionable evidence to the contrary, one can’t help but marvel at the audacity of their claim. Take a look at a box of their Corn Flakes and you’ll notice that sugar is second on the ingredients list, followed by High Fructose Corn Syrup at fourth place. In fact, sugar is the second ingredient in most of their best sellers, such as Corn Pops, Rice Krispies, and Frosted Flakes, with HFCS trailing not far behind in almost all of their varieties across the board.
Surely the higher-ups at Kellogg’s have had one too many bowls of their grain-laced fructose chunks and are just suffering from saccharine-HFCS-induced hallucinations. What else could possibly explain their severe lapse in marketing judgement, especially since conclusive evidence regarding the safety of high fructose corn syrup in diabetics does not yet exist!?! Considering my addiction to sugar, I feel entirely blessed that my pancreas continues to fight the good fight, but what about all of the other people out there who aren’t as fortunate? Cereal makers (and food manufacturers in general) need to do all of us a solid and lay off the ostentatious health claims if they continue booby-trapping our food with laboratory-altered sweeteners.
Print This Post
