Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Go Raw....



A couple months ago I was reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. It was eye opening about the use of Corn, and especially High Fructose Corn Syrup here in the United States. Specifically how dependent our nation has become on corn, and the reasons for that. Amazing. I'm not gonna go into those reasons here - but if you are interested read the book! However, it is interesting that the pop (yes, I'm from the Midwest) we grew up with prior to the 1980's NEVER used HFCS. It used SUGAR. Imagine that. By the 1980's that was changing fast.

They replaced the original sugar formula with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Today, that sweetener is used in pretty much all soft drinks in the U.S. Why? Two reasons (if you believe the commonly held political explanation). The first is cost. HFCS is cheaper thanks to subsidies that the government provides to grow and use corn. The second is tariffs that are placed on the purchase of sugar, which makes it more expensive to buy. This is why sugar is still used in Canada and other countries to sweeten soft drinks, but everything in America uses high fructose corn syrup.

Steve Tanner http://www.bevreview.com

Anyway, while searching on the internet today I ran across this and I think it is cool. Coke, Pepsi and others are starting to make versions (for various reasons) of their product with Sucrose in it - you know, real sugar derived from Sugar beets.

Of course there is also Dr. Pepper who has started a formula using Cane Sugar. Now, if these would just become the norm instead of the oddity! Unfortunately, they will probably cost more, and that is always the trade off for healthier food. It always comes down to money doesn't it? Maybe that is why we are NOT seeing these in stores even though Kosher for Passover Coke has been around for several years.

Check them out.....

Coke

Pepsi

Dr. Pepper

Jones Soda

Now that you know maybe we can all make enough noise that Coke and Pepsi will take note???



1 comment:

Steve Tanner at Magical Trash said...

Hi Karen, thanks for posting a couple links to my site, BevReview.com.

And it's true, the real sugar stuff tastes SO MUCH BETTER than everything we have today with HFCS. I really hope we see more brands move to the good stuff.