Here’s a question; When is sugar not so sweet?
The answers simple. Right now it’s in the courts, where bitter opponents in the sugar industry will be asking a jury to decide if there are real differences between cane and sugar-beet sugar on the one hand, and high fructose corn syrup on the other.
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) got its current name to differentiate itself from plain old corn syrup. Now in a war of words, Big Sugar seems to have won over consumers by convincing them that placing HFCS into their bodies is worse than using granulated sugar. That’s because while sucrose carbs are metabolized into energy in human cells, fructose is processed by our livers into fat and increases chances for obesity.
That much of the science may be true, but the argument doesn’t hold up, corn producers say. That’s because corn syrup and sugar have about the same levels of fructose. Chemically speaking, they are the same, and our bodies process them the same way.
Corn processors tried to lose the smeared name for corn sweetener by switching to calling it corn sugar–until the cane sugar industry objected and won the decision that sugar is a dry, granulated product.
Now they’re all in court again, with each group claiming millions or even billions in damages from disparaging comments by the other.
It’s hard telling how a jury will react to this.
But one thing’s certain, for the winners, victory will be sweet.
Missouri farmer Richard Oswald writes the Daily Yonder’s “Letter from Langdon.”
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