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Community Corner

High Fructose Corn Syrup—Ingredient to Avoid

Check labels to gauge 'useless extra calories'

The other day I noticed a new shelf in the grocery store for Weight Watchers Bread. Since I'm always on the lookout for a lower-calorie bread, I checked the label and was surprised to find high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient.

I put it back on the shelf. If Weight Watchers is about healthier living, why use a sugar substitute many experts say is unhealthy? 

The Corn Refiners Association defends high fructose corn syrup as "natural" since it is made from corn. Perhaps. But the FDA says if the cornstarch has come in contact with a synthetic chemical called glutaraldehyde, it cannot be labeled "all natural." But with or without glutaraldehyde, high fructose corn syrup is not good for you and can be dangerous for diabetics.

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study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that from 1970 to 1990, the consumption of high fructose corn syrup increased 1,000 percent, and it now represents more than 40 percent of caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages.

Many well-known brands of baked goods and beverages use high fructose corn syrup. Pepperidge Farm, for example, uses it. But there are many healthier types of bread available. Stop & Shop has a Nature's Promise version. I like the Vermont brand, which uses molasses instead of corn syrup.

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But at supermarkets, you have to be careful and read the labels if you want to avoid corn syrup altogether. You should also be aware that the higher it is on the ingredient list, the more of it is in the product.

The corn people say corn syrup is the same as sugar found in fruit. The difference is fruit provides fiber plus vitamins and minerals while high fructose corn syrup provides a lot of calories but no food value whatsoever.

Like the sodium levels I wrote about last week, high fructose corn syrup is an ingredient that needs to be checked. We need to know how many useless extra calories we are eating.

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