Daniel Engber, “Dark Sugar: The Decline and Fall of High-fructose Corn Syrup,” Slate, April 28, 2009
“Like other villainous ingredients – trans fat and artificial food dye come to mind – high-fructose corn syrup [HFCS] is accused of being at once unhealthy, unnatural and unappetizing,” writes Slate contributor Daniel Engber in this article exploring these “three cardinal claims of food politics” against HFCS, which has suffered a consumer backlash “exacerbated by the general view that it’s less ‘natural’ than other forms of sugar.” According to the article, critics of HFCS have implied that the fructose-based sweetener is more harmful than other added sugars refined from cane sugar or beet sugar. This theory apparently spawned several lawsuits contesting the “metaphysical status of corn syrup” in products labeled “all natural.” The legal disputes have reportedly led the Food and Drug Administration to issue guidance declaring that HFCS can be considered a “natural” ingredient if it has not come into physical contact with glutaraldehyde, a synthetic fixing agent used to convert corn starch into fructose and glucose.
The article takes issue with these claims, which often insist that beet or cane sugar make a healthier or more natural alternative to HFCS. For example, the author notes that because sucrose contains only slightly less fructose than HFCS, the latter “would only be marginally more sinful than ‘real’ cane sugar.” Moreover, “you don’t need high-fructose corn syrup to rack up American-style obesity rates,” states Engber, pointing to Australia where the food industry relies mostly on cane sugar. He also resists the myth that people prefer the taste of cane sugar to corn syrup, raising the specter of “informal taste tests” that “yielded ambiguous results.” The article concedes, however, that “it doesn’t matter how weak each claim is on its own terms.” “You can win over hypochondriacs with one argument, environmentalists with another, and gourmands with a third,” Engber concludes. “The foodies haven’t just killed HFCS – they’ve stuck a fork in it.”
