Sugar: Now a Nutritious Health Food
Of the TV commercials that have been rattling around in my brain since childhood, the one I parrot (and parody) the most with my own kids is from Kool-Aid.
Remember when the punch-maker came up with the great idea of selling little packets containing only the flavor — no sugar. It was doubtless an effort to say them (and Mom!) money. But they advertised it as a way to empower mothers with a little control over the amount of sugar — bad, bad sugar! — their kids were ingesting after a hot day roller-skating or playing on the lawn.
“And I control the amount of sugar he drinks!” the mom explains to another kid’s mom, who nods approvingly. Anything to fend off sugar!
So it’s funny to see …the sellers of sweet stuff to advertise SUGAR, real, natural SUGAR in their products. It’s almost as if sugar will be next to brown rice and spirulina in the health food aisle.
Pepsi Co. launched Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback – a throwback because they contain sugar and not high fructose corn syrup. Same with Snapple. Their premium drinks are sweetened with … sugar (so fancy!).
Also joining the sugar-sweetened fun: Log Cabin syrup. Makers have replaced high fructose corn syrup with sugar (or, as they say “natural sugar”) in their “authentic maple tasting syrup.”
Mine isn’t a no-sugar household. I’m also not convinced high fructose corn syrup is the personality alterer some claim. But I am a big, big advocate for cutting back on corn-based products — from the sweeteners to the fuels to even those biodegradable containers that wind up breaking down.
Michael Pollen lays out arguments against corn far better than I can. So I’ll just point you over to his writing for that.
Log Cabin, Pepsi and Snapple are less concerned about environment than with what their customers want and the switch to sugar has everything to do with that. So label readers — rejoice. If you’ve been avoiding HFCS, marketers and food producers are noticing.
What do you think of this new sugar revolution? Do kids drink Kool-Aid anymore?
I can’t find the sanctimonious “sugar control” Kool-Aid commercial, but here’s another one for old time’s sake. (That Kool-Aid pitcher could sure tear shit up!)
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It’s the same with organic brownies – they’re still brownies! But everyone wants to jump on the “natural” bandwagon, so here we go . . .
By the way – they now let you make Kool-Aid with Splenda. Also NOT good for you – but hey, you can control their sugar!
You mention Michael Pollan, but I recently read an interview with him on Democracy Now where he states that sugar is just as bad as HFCS, and I agree with him. The thing with HFCS is that it is cheap, so manufacturers can use a lot of it. Plus, it was a marker for processed foods – that is, usually foods with HFCS were highly processed. However, simply replacing HFCS with sugar does absolutely nothing. Like Jeanne said, this is all about jumping on the natural bandwagon, and has nothing to do with health.
Pepsi with sugar is still Pepsi.
Here is the link to the Michael Pollan interview.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/14/omnivores_dilemma_author_michael_pollans_new
“And that is an incredible achievement on the part of industry, to convince us that getting off of high-fructose corn syrup has made their products healthier. It has done no such thing. Biologically, there’s no difference between high-fructose corn syrup and sugar.”
Thanks, Cali Mom — totally agree and knew that. A calorie is a calorie. So my thing is corn’s pretty environmentally destructive, which is why I try to avoid it. Although I’m sure someone who knows about sugar cane growing and processing might not think too highly of that particular sweetener either.
Thanks for the link!
Oh, mom’s dont give their kids sugar OR HFCS anymore….except for you yuppie granola moms. Regular moms believe that SUGAR makes their kids hyper, so chemical laden fruit flavored drinks are the norm.
I’ll still take sugar…from what I understand, our bodies processes HFCS differently than regular sugar, which in turn alters the hormones that regulate metabolism function. It also forces the liver release more fat out into the bloodstream, I think raising LDL cholesterol, possibly. A calorie’s not a calorie to me. 100 calories of sugar or HFCS don’t give any nutrition while 100 calories of protein sure do, for example. Now, on to butter vs hydrogenated oils. This is why I make my own cookies!
My kids drink tap water. It’s cheap and sweetener-free. I try to use locally producible sweeteners for baking – honey and maple syrup for me, since I live in New England. But I find it hard to resist plain old sugar for cookies.
FWIW, soda made with sugar tastes better, in my opinion. I know, taste. Whatever.
[...] Sugar: Now a Nutritious Health Food [...]
I’ve been buying Canadian sodas given the chance for years now b/c they’re made with sugar, not HFCS. Not that I drink much in the way of soda – maybe a can in a month or two?
Nope, going to sugar from HFCS doesn’t make it necessarily “healthy”. But I try to avoid overly processed foods (if I don’t recognize/can’t pronounce/have to google more than three things in an ingredient list, it doesn’t get purchased as a rule of thumb in our house). But if I’m going to have something sweet, I want sugar. Not HFCS, not Splenda, not other fake sweeteners. I’m not yet sold on Stevia and I cannot use agave (I’m actually allergic to that stuff…found out the hard way). So sugar, in moderation, it is.
I feed my kid sugar just as I do everything else — in moderation. IMHO, we’re lucky to have access to so many tasty sweeteners, just as we’re lucky to have access to an enormous variety of food. These opinions don’t make me popular among the hipster-mommy crowd, but so be it. We need to stop bitching about the little things and appreciate what we have; if you have any doubt that we life a VERY good life in spite of HFCS lurking inside our beverages, go spend a few months in a developing nation. They don’t bitch about sugar vs. HFCS in places where just finding fresh water is a challenge.
I don’t drink soda but my husband does. I buy him the stuff with real sugar because he insists it tastes much better that way.
I prefer suggar to HFCS because it tastes better, not because I think it is healthier. But you guys are a little behind; my yuppie mommy friends swear that agave nectar is the healthier sweetener option.
Eh, been there, tried that, and have the needle scar to prove it (anaphylactic shock plus cardiac arrest). For me at least, agave ain’t healthy!!!
There is a common misperception that manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup receive government subsidies – they do not. Like sugar or honey, high fructose corn syrup has calories. Excessive calories, from whatever source, can promote weight gain. But replacing high fructose corn syrup with sugar will not reduce obesity or improve health. They are nutritionally the same. No single food or ingredient is the sole cause of obesity – rather, the primary cause is too many calories and too little exercise. A sugar is a sugar, whether it’s honey, high fructose corn syrup, table sugar, or fruit juices. You shouldn’t eat too much of any sugar. So, the bottomline is this, from the nutrition and science industry experts….High Fructose Corn Syrup is just a sweetener with a bad rap.
There is a common misperception that manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup receive government subsidies – they do not. Like sugar or honey, high fructose corn syrup has calories. Excessive calories, from whatever source, can promote weight gain. But replacing high fructose corn syrup with sugar will not reduce obesity or improve health. They are nutritionally the same. No single food or ingredient is the sole cause of obesity – rather, the primary cause is too many calories and too little exercise. A sugar is a sugar, whether it’s honey, high fructose corn syrup, table sugar, or fruit juices. You shouldn’t eat too much of any sugar. So the bottomline is what the nutrition and food science industry has stated, “HFCS is simply a sweetener with a bad rap.”
yeh right.. great post, Thank You