My roommate works at the New York satellite of a Toronto-based law firm, so I’ve been hanging out with a bunch of Canadians recently. Once you get past their annoying accents and overly cheery dispositions, they’re actually a very cool people. (I’m just kidding, Jane!) Plus, I’ve been learning a lot of interesting things about Canada.
Did you know that high-fructose corn syrup is illegal in Canada? It’s not approved by the Canadian FDA. Which is very funny/scary because it’s an ingredient in just about every single thing Americans eat.
My roommate’s coworkers have been complaining about all the weight they’ve gained since they moved to the States. And they’re blaming one culprit – our friend, high fructose corn syrup.
Everyone knows it’s bad for you, but I wanted to find out exactly how bad. So I’ve been doing some reconnaissance work. Today I read a number of articles online on HFCS. The low-cost liquid sweetener started to take over American ingredients in the early 1980’s, the same time obesity started to rise. Apparently, some scientists believe that the body processes HFCS different than other sugars, “short-wiring our metabolism and forcing us to gain weight.”
Scary right? But it’s not like you can avoid HFCS by staying off soda and sweets, it’s an ingredient in ketchup, yogurt and even hot dog buns. No one is safe!
To be fair, I must mention that there are other scientists that believe HFCS is not contributing to obesity anymore than any other sugar. These scientist happen to work for Pepsi, but whatever.
Here’s some info I got online:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture advises most people to limit themselves to 10 to 12 teaspoons of added sugars a day. The list below shows how much sugar, mostly in the form of high fructose corn syrup, is in each of these single servings.
Sunkist soda: 10 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
Berkeley Farms low-fat yogurt with fruit: 10 teaspoons of sugar
Mott's applesauce: 5 teaspoons of sugar
Slim-Fast chocolate cookie dough meal bar: 5 teaspoons of sugar
1 tablespoon ketchup: 1 teaspoon of sugar
Hansen's Super Vita orange-carrot Smoothie: 10 teaspoons of sugar
Who wants to move to Canada with me?
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4 comments:
i have citizenship. if you want to get married we can. then you'll be accepted. sorry steph, audrey stepped up to the plate. can we live in victoria?
or toronto.
or vancouver
or montreal. there are so many places to choose from
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