Sugar is sugar (and too much isn't good for you) says Marion Nestle, PhD, a professor of nutrition, food studies, public health and sociology at New York University.
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Consumer demand for high fructose corn syrup has dropped 11 percent, says a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. HFCS makers will also buy 13 percent less corn syrup this market year than they did at the highest point of corn syrup sales in 2001.
Is this the start of a sweetener sea change? It is a bit of a plot twist for the story of the past 40 years when the total amount of sugar and added sweeteners in the food supply grew almost 20 percent, to 142 pounds per person. HFCS alone hit a peak of 63.7 pounds per person in 1999, thanks to its low cost and government subsidies. But as public awareness about the obesity epidemic, processed foods, and our nation's sweet tooth has grown, HFCS has become Public Enemy No 1, with sales of HFCS-free foods approaching $1 billion. As nutritionist Marion Nestle noted last year on her blog, Food Politics:
The public now puts HFCS in the same category as trans fats: poison (it's not; it's just sugars). In response, makers of processed foods and beverages are starting to replace it with cane and beet sugar. As explained in the current Advertising Age, sugar is now at war with HFCS. HFCS used to be a lot cheaper than sugar, but its cost has gone up as more of it is used for ethanol. Supply is down; costs are up.
So while we may be eating less HFCS, we're not necessarily eating less sugar — and sweeteners are sweeteners, says Nestle: "HFCS [...] has the same amount of fructose as common table sugar. Both are about half fructose and half glucose, and both cause metabolic problems when you eat too much of them. So go easy on the sugars!"
Of course, it is worth noting that many processed foods containing HFCS are high in fat and empty calories, plus manufactured and packaged in ways that are bad for the planet. So you might have several good reasons to avoid them, and we'll stand by our advice to skip HFCS (and heavily processed foods in general) wherever you can. But don't buy a product just because it bills itself as HFCS-free — that's a marketing claim that might be distracting you from the real story.
