Letter from industry enlightens, somewhat
It has been said that letters to the editor are the lifeblood of a newspaper. And many columnists would agree that letters from readers hold their fingers to the fire by identifying mistakes.
Like most columnists, I appreciate having my errors pointed out to me. Some of my blunders, including misspelling of Amazon’s popular reading device, Kindle, were the result of crowding the deadline and a misplaced note to Google the name before hitting the send button.
Unlike the occasional fan letter or hate mail from those with opposing views, there are the letters one gets from professional advocates for industries, mostly those that receive huge government subsidies. Since I write often about food and health issues, I must have become a prime target for these spokespersons.
The whole legal flap against Oprah Winfrey a few years back over her negative remark about hamburgers probably started with such a letter. Mine came from the president of the Corn Refiners Association over one sentence in the Aug. 19 column, “No longer trusting the labels.” The thrust of the piece was how large food processing companies take over small entrepreneurial ones, retain as much as possible of their packaging and promotional materials, but change key ingredients to save money.
The phrase to which Audrae Erickson took offense referred to Yoplait’s perceived decline in quality after U.S. production of the French yogurt was taken over by General Mills. The toes on which I trod belonged to the makers and purveyors of high fructose corn syrup, that ubiquitous ingredient in practically every packaged food product imaginable. Breads, cereals, cookies, cakes, pies, sodas, fruit juices all contain it. Like bread needs to be sweetened?
In her polite, if slightly condescending, letter, Erickson offers to set me straight on “science-based” facts. If I wished to know more about high fructose corn syrup, I might visit SweetSurprise.com. I did want to know more, but I didn’t find anything other than the industry line: a quote from the American Dietetic Association stating that HFCS is nutritionally equivalent to sucrose. “Once absorbed into the bloodstream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable.” I assume this to mean that both contain the same number of calories, which is not the point.
Fearing that I wouldn’t take the hint, Erickson followed up with some slick printouts of material from the SweetSurprise and High Fructose Corn Syrup Web sites. Snore.
Erickson gleaned a quote from a report of the Council on Science and Public Health by the AMA positing that because the composition of HFCS and sucrose are so similar, particularly on absorption by the body, it “appears unlikely” that it contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose.” Wait a minute. Since when is “appears unlikely” a scientific conclusion?
Michael Pollan writes “In Defense of Food” that fructose is metabolized differently from glucose. “The body doesn’t respond to it by producing insulin to convey it into cells to be used as energy. Rather, it is metabolized in the liver, which turns it first into glucose and then, if there is no call for glucose, into triglycerides-fat.”
In the August issue of “Self Healing” Dr. Andrew Weil addresses both natural and artificial sugar substitutes in lowering risks of insulin resistance, high blood sugar and Type 2 diabetes. He quotes Michael Finkelstein, M.D., founder of SunRaven integrative medicine practice: Neither artificial nor natural sugar substitutes appear to promote weight loss, and because they signal a sweet taste to the brain, may trigger an insulin response, even those that are non-glycemic.
Weil says it’s better to limit use of added sweeteners and rely on naturally occurring sugars in whole fruit. When needed for baking or cooking, he opts for the natural: stevia leaf, maple syrup and honey.
Previously, Weil has opposed the wide use of HFCS in all sorts of products. His point is that natural fructose in whole fruit, where fiber slows its absorption, may be almost identical to sucrose, but highly refined foods using the corn syrup are causing us to ingest way more sugars than we need.
In Erickson’s letter I did find some possible answers to why HFCS is used in so many products that don’t need sweetening. Among the extraneous benefits she cites are: keeping food fresh, enhancing fruit flavors in yogurts, retaining moisture in bran cereals, keeping breakfast and energy bars moist, enhancing flavor in salad dressings and pasta sauces. and keeping ingredients evenly dispersed in condiments. Good grief. Does this mean I need to read the labels on mustard and ketchup?
In yogurt, she writes, HFCS provides fermentable sugars, enhances fruit and spice flavors, controls moisture to prevent separation and regulates tartness.
I read the label on my Stonyfield French Vanilla: Cultured pasteurized organic low fat milk, naturally milled organic sugar, organic natural vanilla flavor, pectin and vitamin D3. That’s it. Five ingredients, which qualify it, according to Pollan, as real food.
I rest my case.