I found value in looking for it on labels, and then noticing what was in its place if HFCS wasn’t there. You’ll quickly find that there are a whole lot of sweeteners in our food! Usually the position on the ingredients list (which shows the proportion by… weight? volume?) will at least give you an idea how much there is - a cereal in which sugar beats flour is kind of scary, but a bread where sugar doesn’t show up until right before assorted preservatives/vitamin supplementation probably only used it as a “food” for the yeast.
As I and others mentioned before, there are lots of sneaky ways to mention what’s essentially sugar of one form or another. Dehydrated cane juice = cane sugar. Corn sugar is a new euphemism for corn syrup; being a homebrewer I’m used to “corn sugar” being pure powdered dextrose, not a fructose/glucose blend. Agave syrup, fruit juice concentrates - there are all sorts of ways to sneak concentrated sugar into food and try to make it sound more appealing.
So there’s nothing inherently wrong in trying to avoid HFCS for a while, as long as you learn from the process that it’s not the HFCS per se that’s the problem. It’s all part of the food industry that markets food to us.
I’ll recommend Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food as a good, fairly quick read for people who want to think more about the food they’re buying and what goes into it.
My tip is to stop worrying about HFCS - it’s 55% fructose/45% glucose as opposed to table sugar which is 50/50. Both excess fructose in the diet, and excess dietary carbohydrate, is hard on your health, but the extra 5% fructose from drinking soda made HFCS instead of with ‘all natural cane sugar’ is inconsequential.
Attempting to keep the total amount of sugars in your diet within healthy limits is a great idea. But don’t forget that even home-made bread, pasta, potatoes, fruits etc are mainly calories from sugars too. Best way to do it to mostly eat real, whole food that isn’t sold in a package and doesn’t come with a a label detailing multiple ingredients, with plenty of proteins and plenty of natural fats.
Actually, corn sugar is a new euphemism for high-fructose corn syrup. As I mentioned up-thread, regular corn syrup (like Caro brand) is almost pure glucose with no fructose.
For me personally, I want to say HFCS seems sweeter, cloying, but it may be more a matter of the character of the sweetness. HFCS sweetness seems heavier, more “filling” and “coating” the mouth, and simpler, drowning out other flavors. Cane sugar seems livelier, or just seems to let other flavors through more distinctly.
The best anyone can tell you, really, is to do a fair comparison for yourself.
For home cooking, I find turbinado and Demerara type cane sugars are better still, adding a little more complexity and depth that neither corn syrup nor refined-white cane sugar products carry. The degree of difference varies depending on what you’re making, though.
My point, though, is that it’s a matter of taste, not nutrition and health. Except that usually any impulse to eat better and cook more for yourself is good.
I’ve said this before: Alan Aragon would make a great Doper. Anyone that’s concerned about the supposed dangers of HFCS will find the following educational.
For all intents and purposes I eliminated HFCS and corn syrup in general from my diet about a year ago. Yes, I know sugar is sugar, but so many things contain corn syrup, often for no good reason. I started reading labels and was surprised to see it in “foods” that had no business having added sugar. Sometimes I still eat foods that contain corn syrup, but very rarely, and now I am aware when I do.
My reason for going off it was, bottom line, to eat better and to see if eliminating it would lessen my craving for super-sugary foods such as jelly beans, Skittles, and Mike & Ike’s. And you know what? It did. I would say my cravings for sweet foods have gone down by more than half, and nowadays when I eat something sugary, it tastes sweet–almost unbearably so. HFCS is in so many foods that I think it makes us crave more and more of it. Now when I want something sweet I have an apple.
Yes, I know apples contain fructose, but they aren’t super sugary sweet like, say, jelly beans.
I don’t think so. I only ever checked the list for the specific thing I was looking out for and figure the rest is similar stuff, mostly preservatives and sugar/artificial sugar derivatives. Though there are some generally believed “bad for you” things that many people debate, like MSG, I think WF just keeps them out because so many object and why take the risk.
You avoid them by assiduously reading labels and frequently making stuff at home instead of buying it.
HFCS is a known migraine trigger for me, so I avoid it entirely.
American processed foods are so damned sweet, I see absolutely no reason a classic vinaigrette dressing should have HFCS [or even sugar other than the naturally occurring sugars in wine vinegar] in it. I see no reason to pour it into soups, breads, or anything that is not supposed to be sweet …