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Permalink Reply by Doug on August 11, 2009 at 1:56pm

HFCS is made from corn and is about 70% fructose. It has a bright up front character and works well in fruity flavored products. Sucrose is made from either sugar cane or sugar beets (Europe) and is a warmer, browner sweetness (especially cane sugar). HFCS is less expensive to use. Both provide similar impact of sweetness and the differences are subtle.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on August 11, 2009 at 10:38pm

HFCS came into vogue because it is cheaper than sugar as corn is heavily subsidized by the US government. It's not in everything and we, as Americans, eat too much of everything. Processed foods are a major part of our diet and we each in such large quantities, and do so very little exercise that we are a nation of fatties.

The corn council has been waging war against the now-negative view of HFCS - which is why we've been seeing commercials talking about how HFCS is good for you.

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Permalink Reply by Rand Flory on August 12, 2009 at 8:48am

HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) is nothing more than sugar. It is the form of sugar found in honey and many fruits. It is probably no worse for a person than any other sugar. It may be a better sugar for diabetics than sucrose (table sugar).

But it is only sugar. As such, it contains calories and no other nutritional benefit. That is what the nutritionists call "empty calories." Like all sugars, it will contribute to obesity if you eat too much of it.

By the way, the USA Today article did NOT say there was no link between obesity and HFCS. It said there was no SPECIAL link that made high fructose corn syrup any different than any other sugar. Many people had thought that it was worse than other sugars. It is not worse, at least as far as obesity is concerned.

If it is Evil, it is only because it is common in so many foods that people like to eat frequently. People like to eat HFCS foods because they are sweet, cheap and usually conveniently packaged for quick consumption. So you wind up eating a lot more HFCS than you need (especially since your body does not need any pure sugars).

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Permalink Reply by Brady on August 12, 2009 at 10:40am

I avoid it because Oprah told me to :).

Actually, I try to avoid it because I think it is evil. I resent that it is so hard to avoid, that it shows up in places it shouldn't (like hot dogs and bread), and that it is the bread-and-butter product of giant agribusiness. There was a great interview on Fresh Air (or one of the other NPR programs) a couple of years ago that really galvanized things for me... it covered the various environmental, economic, agricultural, energy, and health impacts of this product. I'll see if I can dig up a link to that piece...

That said, I don't really care about its use in appropriate places - it is a decent, if slightly inferior beverage sweetener and works well in other sweet stuff. I prefer the taste of cane sugar in general, or at least I think I do, at least enough that I buy Mexican Coca-Cola when I can find it...

Many people do avoid it because they saw on Oprah that it is bad for you. I keep waiting for the day she extols the virtues of an expertly pulled responsibly sourced SO espresso...

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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on August 12, 2009 at 7:47pm

There's a little bit more to HFCS than calling it "sugar."

Here's some balanced reading on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup

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Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on August 12, 2009 at 8:45pm

I have a 5 gallon bucket of HFCS90 right beside my bed. I pour it into a glass and drink it straight.

No, but seriously... If a customer orders a vanilla latte and expects to escape sugar they are an idiot. I don't think that Torani uses HFCS, label says "Pure Cane Sugar" (which is obviously a way better empty calorie... oh marketing...). Their sauce is pure cane sugar too (but IMO it tastes horrible).

I actually can't find HFCS on a bottle anywhere and we have Torani, Ghiradeli, DaVincci, and Guittard. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, and I know for a fact that I don't know what all of the code names for the stuff are/can be.

-bry

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Permalink Reply by Gabriel on August 13, 2009 at 5:42am

Ghirardelli caramel sauce has HFCS as well as regular corn syrup and sugar...the trifecta. Other than that one, it's hard to find it in any other syrups, which is good. It is not just "sugar", as it has to be manufactured. You cannot go into a field somewhere and squeeze HFCS from a plant.

Bryan Wray said:

I have a 5 gallon bucket of HFCS90 right beside my bed. I pour it into a glass and drink it straight.

No, but seriously... If a customer orders a vanilla latte and expects to escape sugar they are an idiot. I don't think that Torani uses HFCS, label says "Pure Cane Sugar" (which is obviously a way better empty calorie... oh marketing...). Their sauce is pure cane sugar too (but IMO it tastes horrible).

I actually can't find HFCS on a bottle anywhere and we have Torani, Ghiradeli, DaVincci, and Guittard. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, and I know for a fact that I don't know what all of the code names for the stuff are/can be.

-bry

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Permalink Reply by Rand Flory on August 13, 2009 at 6:46am

Jay -- even after reading the article, HCFS is just sugar.

It has a seemingly complicated manufacturing process which uses enzymes in a process similar to what the body does when it processes starch, but the end result is just fructose and glucose in varying proportions. But both fructose and glucose are just simple sugars.

Table sugar, by the way, is also a manufactured product. The process of extracting the sugar from either sugar cane or sugar beets uses several chemicals.

Honey is about as close to an unmanufactured sugar as you can get, although it contains several things other than sugar. Next in line for minimal processing would be raw sugar.

So if I am missing something here, enlighten me. But as I read it, HCFS is just sugar.

Jay Caragay said:

There's a little bit more to HFCS than calling it "sugar."

Here's some balanced reading on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup

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Permalink Reply by Jason Haeger on August 13, 2009 at 3:02pm

What IS significant is how the body uses Fructose.

It is converted straight into fat by the liver, bypassing the use of insulin entirely. Since it IS sugar, as pointed out, this has a tendency to increase insulin resistance, thus increasing one's risk of Type 2 diabetes.

While it is true that fructose is "just sugar", what is not ever laid out in any of the major publications is why isolated fructose is different than table sugar, which is a disaccharide. Sucrose breaks down into fructose and glucose. While on the surface it seems to cause the same harm, the difference is that glucose does NOT increase insulin resistance, and insulin is therefore a part of the metabolization of sucrose. Not that sucrose is good.. it's just less bad. (it still is hell on one's immune system)

The newest form is "Crystaline fructose". Sounds good, right? It's "all natural", after all. Fructose is what should be avoided, in this particular case. When found isolated naturally (such as in honey), it is less bad than when it is artificially isolated. Just like why fluoride found in nature is less likely to kill you than the stuff that the EPA considers to be toxic waste, but that the FDA says is safe to add to your drinking water.

Overconsumption of fructose can lead to fun things like fatty liver disease, without having had the benefit of being an alcoholic. And, since it is converted directly into fat, fructose does, in fact, contribute a great deal to obesity in the United States. More-so than sucrose.

This doesn't mean that artificial sweeteners are the answer, by the way. It's better to consume something your body can actually metabolize as a form of gluttony rather than to stuff artificial chemicals into it that it can't use at all.

Sucralose (splenda) kills good digestive bacteria, thus reducing the body's ability to absorb the nutrition it actually needs.

Saccharin (sweet 'n' low) is a known carcinogen. The loophole is the quantity actually needing to be consumed for this to take effect. In my opinion, however, any known carcinogen is best avoided whenever possible, especially when there is a less dangerous alternative available.

Aspartame (nutrasweet, equal) is a neurotoxin. The body cannot process this stuff, and it has a tendency to collect. It is converted into a chemical soup including formaldehyde, overtime, and there are stacks of stories of people who were crippled, literally, from its consumption. The lucky ones recover some time after ceasing consumption. (weeks, months, even years, but recovery is better than being a vegetable any day of the week)

Natural sweeteners that are actually beneficial are often made non-beneficial by the time they reach the market in mass-production, due to the isolation of the components that make it sweet, rather than the thing as a whole (with the exception of xylitol, so far).

Calling HFCS synonymous with sugar is a tongue-in-cheek truth, of sorts. Yes, it is a KIND of sugar, this is not what is being implied. It is not the same, chemically, or in how it is metabolized, as sucrose, or "sugar". To consider them as equal in every practical way is a fallacy.

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Permalink Reply by Doug on October 8, 2009 at 12:14pm

I believe that sucrose and sucrose syrups (made from either sugar cane or sugar beets) are preferrential for coffee syrups because this sugar tastes better in sweet brown type applications due to its warmer, browner flavor qualities when compared to HFCS. Alnd since these syrups are an upscale product the sugar cost is less of an issue than for many other retail products.

Bryan Wray said:

I have a 5 gallon bucket of HFCS90 right beside my bed. I pour it into a glass and drink it straight.

No, but seriously... If a customer orders a vanilla latte and expects to escape sugar they are an idiot. I don't think that Torani uses HFCS, label says "Pure Cane Sugar" (which is obviously a way better empty calorie... oh marketing...). Their sauce is pure cane sugar too (but IMO it tastes horrible).

I actually can't find HFCS on a bottle anywhere and we have Torani, Ghiradeli, DaVincci, and Guittard. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, and I know for a fact that I don't know what all of the code names for the stuff are/can be.

-bry

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