Day 297: Sugar vs. High Fructose Corn Syrup

We’ve heard how bad for us both High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and sugar are for our health. But what consumers may not realize is that the sugar level stated on nutrition information labels found on many popular soft drinks may be significantly higher than expected. The Childhood Obesity Center published a study of 23 different sugary drinks and found that the sugar content of many of the drinks contain 85% to 128% more sugar than what the nutritional info states. (The study can be found in this PDF file.) With the average American consuming over 50 gallons of soda a year, that’s a whole lot of sugar.

 

According to the study, fountain drinks were the sweetest of the drinks studied. A fountain Coke from McDonald’s was found to contain 128% of the sugar it was supposed to contain. An additional part of the study was “… to determine just how much fructose is contained in these drinks. The standard combination in HFCS is somewhere between 42%-55% fructose, but this study found a mean of 59% fructose among the drinks researched. Both Pepsi and Coke contained the highest amount of fructose, around 65%.”

Here’s more information on the various health effects from high levels of HFCS:

• Sickeningly Sweet: The Effects of High-Fructose Corn Syrup (from MSN)
• Health concerns about high-fructose corn syrup (Mayo Clinic)
• High-fructose corn syrup (Wikipedia)
• Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain (Princeton)

Along similar lines, this Men’s Health slideshow on the 20 worst drinks in America was pretty horrifying. For example,

• Starbucks White Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream (venti, 20 oz.) has the sugar equivalent of 9 strawberry Rice Krispy treats.
• The 112 grams of sugar in Dairy Queen’s Caramel MooLatte (24 oz.) is equal to 12 Dunkin’ Donuts Bavarian Kreme Doughnuts. (Personally, I’d much rather have the donuts!)

What’s your favorite sugary treat? Candy? Soft drinks? Donuts? I find them all hard to say “no” to.

Today’s food journal:

Breakfast:
— Strawberry, banana, peach smoothie = 4.5 points

Lunch:
— Jimmy John’s Slim Turkey sandwich = 8 points
— Iced tea = 0 points

Dinner:
— Grilled chicken sandwich = 8 points
— Iced tea = 0 points

Snack:
— Skinny Cow ice cream bar = 2 points

Life’s a journey. Enjoy the ride!

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