Sweet and Lowdown

The Corn Refiners Association recently stepped up its ad campaign defending high fructose corn syrup, and a more disingenuous set of commercial messages I can't imagine.

Let's start with what they get right in these ads: HFCS is not poison. It's no different, in effect, from sugar. It's not even all that different chemically. And the ads' declarations that industrial corn syrup is OK "in moderation" are accurate.

The trouble is, it's near-impossible for all but the most careful consumers to ingest HFCS in moderation. The stuff is everywhere: in bread, in salad dressing, in spicy condiments, in frozen pizzas, and in all manner of processed foods where you wouldn't expect to find any sweeteners at all.

The chief reason for the backlash against HFCS isn't the ingredient per se--it's the ubiquity of it. And the reason for its ubiquity is that it is cheap--about half the price of beet or cane sugar. And because of that, it finds its way into many more foods than sugar ever would. For one thing, it makes stuff taste better. When McDonald's added it to its hamburger buns, sales of burgers increased.

Indeed, McDonald's nutrition information shows just how omnipresent the stuff is. It's in many of the sauces and condiments. It is the top ingredient of the chain's Chipotle BBQ sauce--there's more of it in there than there is water. It's in the English muffins. It's in the chocolate milk. It's even in the salad croutons. And of course, the nondiet sodas are loaded with it. Most other fast-food chains are similarly swimming in HFCS.

Of course, the CRA's ad campaign--dubbed "Sweet Surprise"--doesn't mention anything about the economics behind HFCS. In one spot, a woman offers her date a Popsicle. "I thought you loved me," the man says, objecting to the HFCS content. "You know what they say about it," he says. "What?" the woman asks, only to be met with stunned mumbling by the man, who obviously has been brainwashed by officials of the Nanny State into believing that HFCS will kill him. Another ad, featuring two women at an outdoor party, is similar: one woman, an idiot in the context of the spot, can't explain to her friend what's wrong with the stuff. The "Sweet Surprise" is that HFCS is A-OK "in moderation," a phrase that slips by as quick as a river salmon. Watch it here: