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FDA Gets it Right and Votes NO to Changing HFCS to Corn Sugar If it snorts like a pig, and looks like a pig, it must be a pig.

By Linda Eckhardt on May 31, 2012

Today, the FDA handed down a ruling that prevented ConAgra and the Corn Refiners Association from changing the name of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) to Corn Sugar.

In their own inimitable bureaucratic way, they said their main reason was that sugar was a crystalline substance, while syrups were – well – you know – liquids.

So even though this cloaks the real issue here and that is that the corn crowd was trying to come up with a marketing ploy to pull the proverbial wool over the public’s dubious eyes, yet again, at least they were stopped.

Of course the real issue is, how much sugar and HFCS should you be eating any way?

In the petition, the pleading was made that those who are sensitive to fructose would be confused by the new name, corn sugar. Now who is sensitive to fructose? That is actually the whole damn world. I’m not kidding.

In 1900, people at the equivalent of about 15 pounds a year. Now its up to about 70 pounds or so, and most of it is hidden in processed foods. One site reveals that 80% of processed foods have sugars or HFCS in the ingredient list.

I’ve only been saying this since 1982, when I wrote a book called American Gumbo. But I still believe it. Your best shot at good nutrition is a diet made up of a broad variety of unprocessed foods.

And lay off the sugars and HFCS’s where ever you can. The epidemic of obesity with all its attendant ills can be laid squarely at the feet of the mostly GMO grown corn crops in the United States.

For a million reasons, I say just say NO to GMO and you won’t have to worry about hidden HFCS, sugars, soy, wheat and other so-called food products that have been totally corrupted by the industrialization of farming.

Start from scratch. Cook. Eat real food. Every Day. Yes.

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About Linda Eckhardt

Linda West Eckhardt, is an award winning journalist, food writer, and nutritionist. Her more than 20 cookbooks have garnered prizes including the James Beard prize for the best cookbook for a text she wrote with her daughter, Katherine West DeFoyd, entitled Entertaining 101, Doubleday. Their follow-up book, Stylish One Dish Dinners, Doubleday, was also nominated for a James Beard prize. Their next book, The High Protein Cookbook, Clarkson Potter, remains a best seller after 12 years. That book was designed to accompany low carb diet plans. Her ground-breaking book, Bread in Half The Time, Broadway Books, was named the Best Cookbook in America by the prestigious IACP, The Julia Child award. Her award winning radio work with Jennifer English, for a national show on the Food and Wine radio network, was nominated for a James Beard Prize for a show called, “I Know What You Ate Last Summer.”