This is what I tell my dad when he looks guiltily at me while eating potato chips or cookies. I am no position to judge what other people eat. Hello, I still use Splenda! I am not posting about HFCS or any other food additive to make people feel bad or to cause worry. For me, it’s really about becoming a more informed eater and consumer.

This requires me to look critically at the wealth of information available in magazines and on the internet with a critical eye.

When this month is over, I might choose to drink some gatorade, but at least I will do so knowing that there is HFCS in there and (hopefully) with a clearer understanding of what that means.

Anyway, here are two interesting things I learned about sugar yesterday.

HFCS’s Evil Sister?

My (non-evil) sister, Stinky Cheese, sent me this link where she learned that crystalline fructose may essentially be just another name for the dirty word, which is high fructose corn syrup. As explained in that blog post, both crystalline fructose and HFCS are made through the same process.

According to the Sugar Association, this process is called cornstarch hydrolysis and it involves splitting cornstarch into a variety of smaller fragments (called dextrins) with acid or enzymes. The smaller fragments are then converted into various cornstarch sweeteners. Along with crystalline fructose and HFCS, dextrose, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, and maltodextrin are all made through cornstarch hydrolysis.

I believe in equal opportunity, so here is an article from the Fructose Information Center discussing the differences between crystalline fructose and HFCS.

FYI: Crystalline Fructose is the THIRD Ingredient in Vitamin Water after water and cane sugar.

HFCS Is Natural

In July, the FDA decided that high fructose corn syrup is, in fact, natural. According to the FDA’s policy, the term natural “means that nothing artificial (including artificial flavors) or synthetic (including all color artificial additives regardless of source) has been included in or has been added to a food that would not normally be expected to be in food.”

Accordingly, HFCS is natural when the synthetic fixing agents used during manufacturing do not come into contact with it.

The July letter came after an April 2008 letter in which the FDA came to the opposite conclusion.

Luckily, I’ve read enough of In Defense of Food to be a little skeptical by this decision. Food is political.