Pour a Little Sugar on It, Baby

In my first post back on August 7th "Fructose and Cancer Linked in Study", I talked about an August 2nd study in Cancer Research that showed that fructose (as opposed to glucose) was utilized differently by pancreatic tumor cells, and that the tumor cells essentially used fructose as a form of fuel to divide and proliferate. The long and short of it was to say that we should start avoiding fructose as much as possible, right away. (By the way, this is not so easy. I've been finding high fructose corn syrup in so many of the foods currently in my kitchen.)

In that blog post, I noted that U.S. consumption of high fructose corn syrup went up 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990.  I also said that this new study will likely have implications for the food industry over time.  Today, the Wall Street Journal published an article (Corn Sweetener Desires a More Palatable Name) about something I did not forsee, which is that the Corn Refiners Association has petitioned the FDA to allow them to change the name of high fructose corn syrup to "corn sugar".  And they say they are doing this to "erase customer confusion".

The WSJ article makes some other interesting points.  Notably that Kraft Foods has removed high fructose corn syrup from "its Bull's-Eye Barbecue Sauce, the majority of Kraft salad dressings, and most varieties of Wheat Thins crackers, Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs and Premium Saltines, among other things", and that ConAgra has removed high fructose corn syrup from Hunt's Tomato Ketchup.

Somewhat ironically perhaps, for health-conscious individuals, the greatest hope for the FDA not granting the name change to the Corn Refiners Association comes from the sugar lobby.  As the WSJ article notes,

"It's far from clear whether the FDA will go along with changing the name of high fructose corn syrup to corn sugar, however. The change proposed by the corn refiners is more controversial in part because it faces stiff opposition from the politically astute sugar-farming lobby."

With this type of maneuvering going on, it isn't easy to stay healthy.  But I'm thankful we live in a world where this type of activity makes the news so people are aware of it.  And thanks to the internet and the ability to follow whatever your interests may be along with others (like health and fitness), you now know to keep your eyes open for "corn sugar" if the Corn Refiners get their way, and you'll know it's high fructose corn syrup.