– An Easy Spread –

My mother may be an addict. She’s had a problem for as long as I can remember. Her dependency began as an innocent childhood indulgence— a soothing treat she used to calm herself down in turbulent times, or raise her spirits on the bad days. Hot summer afternoons were unbearable without that special something, and even joyous times felt less sweet without her favorite extravagance.

As she grew older she began to see the unhealthy impact of her chosen treat, but as time wore on she found it increasingly difficult to kick her habit—a habit made even more alluring when, at age 24, her treat took on a whole new shape.

The year was 1984 – a year of Orwellian myth, Olympic boycotts and Reaganomics. For my mother it was the year she would give birth to a second child, learn to drive on the highway, and experience the first real hit of a drug she would struggle to wean herself off of for the next 20 years. You see, 1984 is the year the Pepsi Cola Company adopted the use of high-fructose corn syrup as the sole sweetener in its soft drinks. And yes, my mother is a Pepsi-o-holic.

In general, the consumption of high-sugar soft drinks has never been a recommended part of a nutritionally balanced diet. In the past quarter century an increase in the consumption of soda (as well as other highly-caloric, processed, and nutritionally-deficient foods), has corresponded with the collective expanding of the American waistline.

The American Heart Association has specifically issued a statement claiming that a high intake of added sugars is implicated in many poor health conditions such as obesity and high blood pressure, and contributes to risk factors for heart disease and stroke. It is the official recommendation of the AHA that women consume no more than 100 calories a day from added sugars.

USA today also reports that Americans are eating and drinking 22.2 teaspoons of some sort of sugar daily on average. This is 355 extra calories worth of sugar consumed, without any nutritional value.

Though high fat foods and increasingly sedentary lifestyles both contribute to obesity rates, the constant guzzling of “sugar water” in lieu of H2O or even fruit juice is said to only exasperate the problems caused by poor food and lifestyle choices.

In many people’s eyes, the rise in the use of high-fructose corn syrup simply isn’t helping matters.

High-fructose corn syrup, a processed glucose/fructose/corn syrup hybrid, began replacing naturally derived sugars in food during the late 70s and early 80s, due mainly to its cheaper production cost. Because the United States, the world’s largest grower of corn, subsidizes farmers who grow it, HFCS is almost half the price of cane sugar. In the United States corn is king, and therefore policy has typically supported restrictions on the importation of “farm-raised” sugar, effectively hiking its price while spurring the continued manufacturing of “lab-made” high-fructose corn syrup.

Recently, however, a movement toward more “natural” and “organic” foods has taken the country by storm, as more people have begun to search for food options that are less processed and arguably healthier. High-fructose corn syrup has come under particular scrutiny after influential members of the academic community and general public began questioning long term consequences of its continued consumption, with many arguing that HFCS, a “fake” sugar, is more difficult for the body to naturally metabolize than its “real” counterpart.

Following the “natural” trend, my mother’s beloved Pepsi once again transformed itself when, in spring 2009, PepsiCo became one of many manufacturers to move away from processed sweeteners by introducing three new soda pops: Pepsi Throwback, Mountain Dew Throwback, and Pepsi Natural, all sweetened with a “natural” combination of cane and beet sugars rather than HFCS. According to Slate Magazine, other manufacturers like Snapple followed suit when it launched an advertising campaign to promote a “natural” line of teas brewed with “real” cane sugar, and Pizza Hut, Kraft Foods, and ConAgra have all joined the effort to replace high- fructose corn syrup with sugars found in nature.

Though popular opinion seems to increasingly favor “real” sugar and demonize HFCS, the jury is still out with regard to whether the recent omnipresence of this sweetener in our foods truly accounts for the rising obesity rates.

In a report from CBS News, New York University Professor Marion Nestle argues that the case against HFCS is without merit and explains that “natural” sugar is just as unhealthy as HFCS.Instead of placing blame squarely in corn syrup’s gooey lap, she argues that an overall increase in the consumption of fructose, the key ingredient in both HFCS and table sugar, is of more pressing concern than consumption of HFCS alone. “It’s fructose that we’re worried about,” Nestle said. According to her research, it is in fact the fructose in every type of sugar that goes directly to the liver, where it gets converted into fat and likely contributes to prevalent health problems like diabetes and heart disease.

The Corn Refiners Association has also launched a television and Internet ad campaign in the wake of the “natural” movement to help salvage the image of HFCS.Their web site, sweetsurprise.com, offers the opinion that recent charges mounted against high-fructose corn syrup are mostly myth, effectively arguing that HFCS and other sugars have only distinctly different chemical properties, and the same caloric value.

Whether this is true or not, those who seek high-fructose corn syrup’s demise still feel less than satisfied that the question of whether our bodies metabolize high-fructose corn syrup differently than table sugar has been rightfully explored, and at this point it’s clear that only long-term testing will offer conclusive answers.

In the meantime, people like my mom remain hooked on the sugar substitute, unconcerned with its potential risks because, at the end of the day, all that matters is getting that sweet fix, and taste-like-corn may always be king. Healthier or not, mom says Pepsi Throwback, the Pepsi of her childhood, can no longer compare with her last 25 years on HFCS. To her, like many others, Pepsi Throwback just tastes “like a flat Coke”.

By guest writer Kelly Cambrel.