Yes it is. Corn needs to go through a process to become HFCS. A whole lot of people think this is a bad thing. I have a question for those people. Where do you think “natural” sugar comes from? I’m assuming when many use the term natural they are referring to nice, white table sugar that comes from sugar cane. But the sugar cane plant doesn’t grow pods on it full of white crystals ready for consumption. Therefore I must ask another question.
Cane sugar isn’t processed food?
I’ve been contemplating this post for a couple of months, but until now I never sat down at the computer to actually write it up. Luckily for me when I started searching for some info on how sugar cane becomes table sugar I found that Sweetscam.com had already done the work for me. They have some great videos that summarize the processes involved in making several types of sweeteners. Since the videos do such a great job of explaining and visualizing the process involved I’ll let them to the talking for me.
Let’s take a look at HFCS to see how it’s made.
Now let’s do cane sugar. (Spoiler alert! It’s a process!)
No they are not the same process, but you can see some similarity. The point I’m making is that both corn and sugar cane must go through some changes to become the products we eat. A process. I don’t have a problem with cane sugar. In fact, I like it quite a lot. I’m just pointing out that what most perceive as natural sugar can’t just be picked off a tree like an apple an eaten on the spot. Rather than saying cane sugar isn’t natural because it is processed, I would argue that sugar from other sources is just as natural as cane sugar. What do you think?
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I actually prefer “sugar in the raw” which takes less processing than which sugar. My 9 year old keeps telling me how much he likes certain things (which are overly processed) and none of it has a flavor even close to what the product claims to taste like. It almost seems like they keep coming up with more complex ways of processing just to make more money. This begs me to ask the question of just how much corn is in that box of $4.50 cornflakes? Half a bushel or less?
I’m getting better at reading labels and deciding whether or not I want to buy something based on that. I don’t get super picky, but I do make some effort to cut back fat and sugar.
There is 0.8 pounds of corn (12.8 ounces) in each 12-ounce box of corn flakes. There are 56 pounds of corn (896 ounces) per bushel. At $6.00 per bushel, that means there is less than 8.6 cents of corn per box of corn flakes.
I imagine packaging and transportation costs more per box of cereal than the corn that’s in it!
I don’t necessarily try to cut out on fats or sugars, but I do try to limit the amount of processed foods. My wife brought home a simple white cake from a grocery store bakery…It had over 30 ingredients (most of which I couldn’t pronounce). If I would have made the same cake from scratch, it would have only taken 7,
Great Post!
After looking at the two vids, I would want to say that table table sugar (cane sugar) is more processed than HFCS. I think that HFCS gets a bad rep from the conspiracy theorists because it is used quite a bit in the products that make people obese or cause diabetes. Sodas and other soft drinks, candies, and other processed foods wood lead to the same problems they do now (obesity, diabetes, etc…) if they were made with cane sugar. The problem is that people (Americans) are living an ever increasingly sedintary life. Physical activities are replaced with sitting on ones duff and eating junk food. If you eat a ton of sugar (cane or corn or beet) you will not be healty! No matter what the source. I say all this while I am one of guilty parties filling my pie hole with junk food sitting on the couch playing PS3. At least I know where to put the blame.
I couldn’t agree more, and I think it speaks to a greater societal issue. What happened to personal responsibility? When did all our problems become someone else’s fault?
Didn’t you know? We have to blame it on big business and the government. I think it’s in the Constitution or something. 😉
Whoops. I forgot.
I love this post! I have been arguing with people about what ‘processed’ means as well. To me, fruit juice is processed fruit, cane sugar is processed cane, HFCS is processed corn. Even dried apricots are processed apricots. Yes people, drying fruit is a process to. Just because a food is ‘processed’ doesn’t make it bad and just because it is ‘natural’ doesn’t make it good.
Thanks a lot! I was drinking quite a bit of fruit juice for a while, but most of them have no fiber and have an awful lot of sugar, so I don’t know that they are much better than a Coke. You do get some good vitamins, etc.
I’m in the sugar industry, and I think I can tell you what the issue was betwee sugar and HFCS. The corn industry wanted to be labeled as “sugar”, and the sugar industry preferred them to remain using the label HFCS. This mostly has to do with commodity policy as sugar cane is more of a niche crop than corn. Our pricing, markets, and support programs are VERY different than any other commodity, so the sugar industry opposed the corn industry trying to label HFCS as just “sugar”. My opinion is that is the right decision, but more importantly, I’m a farmer, I support agriculture, and I promote consumer knowledge. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for reading! Come back soon!
I wanted to add that I think the whole concept of “HFCS is processed and sugar is natural” probably stems from the consuming the raw good. Basically if you eat a raw kernel of corn it tastes like corn ( unless its delish sweet corn!) and if you chew a stalk of cane ( please spit out the fibers after chewing they are gross!) it tastes like sugar. Lets be honest, we all know fruits and veggies are made of complex sugars, but their chemical formulas are different.
That I some people think corn is the worst crop in world, and God forbid if we grow corn for anything but sweet corn. 🙂
Never thought about this much. I knew sugar had to processed already but it looks to me as if corn sugar is a lot more “natural” they just don’t specify what the natural enzymes are. But cane sugar seems to have a lot more “stuff” added to it. Calling it raw sugar probably makes people assume its unprocessed, sorta like “raw milk”. Very interesting.
Ps. Nice picture they used for harvesting the corn. 😉