I'm interested in the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) debate, which has been in the news again. I believe it probably is a factor in the "epidemic" of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

I thought the Corn Refiners Association's ads this fall (here & here  were a touch defensive. Can you say "the lady doth protest too much"?

What I missed until now was the hilarious YouTube backlash at these ads. Watch this, or this or search for HFCS and peruse dozens of videos.

The blogosphere has posted quite a bit about the CRA's ads too. A couple of facts came together to make a new picture for me. Our (US Taxpayers) money is given to farmers to subsidize corn, artificially lowering the price, while we (US Govt) charge tariffs on imported sugar, making the US price twice the global price of sugar. This makes HFCS a very attractive sweetener for food companies to make a larger profit. GIving more of my money to corporate interests.  In the end, the government is "pushing" HFCS.

Don't the corn subsidies also mask the true dollar figures for biofuels? But I digress.

Granted, HFCS might not be the bad guy in the obesity/type 2 escalation - it might just be too much fructose that's not in it's natural habitat. It's found in nature in fruits and vegetables, which of course have fiber and phytonutrients and all kinds of other goodies that change the way fructose is handled. And maybe it's just plain too much sugar and the HFCS brouhaha is just bringing that to light. After all, table sugar is half glucose, half fructose too.

Other interesting tidbits I gathered are:

• The Japanese invented HFCS in the 70's but it is only 25% of their sweetener market, vs. 52% in the US.
• The EU limits HFCS production to 2-3% of sugar production, so it is not widely used there.
• Most of the corn used for HFCS is genetically modified, which opens a whole other can of worms.
• Fructose apparently does not induce insulin production by the pancreas like glucose does.
• HFCS intake is closely linked to ovulatory failure and infertility!

I'm also struck by the similarity to the trans fats saga. Invented by man, created by chemical catalysts, widely adopted for cost savings, linked to diabetes and obesity. In 10 years, will we have a new line on the nutritional info panel telling us how many grams of HFCS is in our food?

I've been keeping an eye out for this ingredient in foods that I buy, and it is everywhere. Even bread is sweetened with it, so I try to at least make sure it's not in the first 7 or 8 ingredients. I got my husband some soda from Costco that was from Mexico and sweetened with sucrose and he loved it because it tasted better, but it's much more expensive.

dLife columnist Jack Challem is no fan of HFCS either. You can read his take on it here.