High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is one of the most ubiquitous sweeteners in modern foods. While it receives much press for its prevalence in soft drinks, it also sneaks its way into some foods you might not expect: ketchup, dubious “juices,” pizza, yogurt, saltine crackers, and that overpriced vanilla latte you’re drinking.(4) Did you catch that I mentioned corn sweeteners in your saltine crackers? Gross? Well, at least a little weird. That one alone might make me think twice, but there’s more to the story.

Food manufacturers put HFCS in their foods because it is as sweet or a little sweeter than traditional sugar (sucrose), it extends shelf life of foods (1), and it is cheap. Anyone who has ever driven through the non-coastal US states and finds nothing but endless fields of corn might question where all that corn goes, because nobody eats the stuff 5 times-per-day. The answer is that, while most corn Read the rest of this entry »