Mexican Coke And The Goop We Love To Hate: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Take a seat azodicarbonamide. You too, Sorbitan monostearate. Yes, of all the weird-sounding shit that we don't know anything about in our food, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS for short) is the one we all love to hate. Allegedly linked to obesity and associated with diabetes and high cholesterol in animal studies, the super sweet goop has become a hidden menace for many shoppers, lurking in everything from bread to yogurt to salad dressing.

The buzz surrounding Mexican Coke's newfound popularity, particularly at some of our area taquerias, and Costco, reminded us about our old friend HFCS. See, not only does Mexican Coke come in those cool glass bottles (so vintage), but it's also sweetened with good old-fashioned refined white sugar, rather than you-know-what. People say it tastes better. To be honest, we couldn't tell the difference.

And while it's very easy to single out HFCS for derision, specifically using the time-tested 'longer the ingredient name, worse it must be' rule, the truth seems more complex. In fact, according to a very interesting (meaning very long) article in the New York Times last year, a misperception stemming from the name itself may be partially to blame for the backlash against HFCS -- specifically that it's high in fructose. Apparently it's not. The fructose/glucose ratio of HFCS is actually very similar to regular white sugar. Who knew? There's even a company, Marroquin International of Santa Cruz, that sells an organic high fructose corn syrup.

But even if HFCS is really no worse than plain white sugar, the process of getting it frightens us a little:

"The process starts with corn kernels and takes place in a series of stainless steel vats and tubes in which a dozen different mechanical processes and chemical reactions occur -- including several rounds of high-velocity spinning and the introduction of three different enzymes to incite molecular rearrangements."

The president of the Corn Refiners Association, a Washington trade group representing the biggest HFCS makers, put up this website to combat the criticism, but things are so bad they've even considered changing the name. May we suggest: High Nutrition Smart Syrup?