High Fructose Corn Syrup_A Year of Avoidence

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) – comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert its glucose into fructose and has then been mixed with pure corn syrup (100% glucose) to produce a desired sweetness. In the United States, HFCS is typically used as a sugar substitute and is ubiquitous in processed foods and beverages.

The most widely used varieties of high-fructose corn syrup are: HFCS 55 (mostly used in soft drinks), approximately 55% fructose and 45% glucose; and HFCS 42 (used in many foods and baked goods), approximately 42% fructose and 58% glucose. HFCS-90, approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose, is used in small quantities for specialty applications, but primarily is used to blend with HFCS 42 to make HFCS 55.

Per relative sweetness, HFCS 55 is comparable to table sugar (sucrose), a disaccharide of fructose and glucose. That makes it useful to food manufacturers as a substitute for sucrose in soft drinks and processed foods. HFCS 90 is sweeter than sucrose; HFCS 42 is less sweet than sucrose.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

rest au rant

3:30p, So after being rejected at the Brown Dog Cafe in Lake Placid, NY for lack of reservations we took it to the Caribbean Cowboy in the same town. My first restaurant experience as an HFCS free individual. It was more of an observation of sorts to see how the predicament could be presented to the server and staff of a busy saturday night. I'm thinking that perhaps a call before hand would be in my best interest as to nit pick over things such as common as HFCS when the chef has 12 orders staring at him may invite us a trip outside. Careful as I was, I suspected everything. Waiting for the restroom to become available I did notice that the restaurant sold their famous raspberry vinaigrette ... nothing but wholesome goodness in there as per the ingredients label. Perhaps I could sneak into the kitchen and begin rummaging through the ingredients list myself. This will bring me to my next adventure of post restaurant inquiry. I will send a note requesting information on my meals this time to see what , if any, HFCS was in this particular meal and begin to access my game plan of edited asking (i.e. does this empanada wrapper have HFCS, specific items and specific questions rather than is there any HFCS in my meals). These next couple months will prove beneficial in establishing my protocol and seeing if a restaurant actually replies to this type of inquiry will be interesting.

This am the Blue Moon Cafe in Saranac Lake, NY reminded me that i have to ask if they have real maple syrup before ordering pancakes else I eat them with butter only ... may as well order toast. Seeing that they put bacon on Hilary's 'NadaBurger' (a vegetarian bean burger) after the waitress was joking that that actually happened once ... i'm not sure I trust the interpretation of my HFCS question will be made properly to any kitchen. I am glad to have Hilary on my side of this adventure as she has the mind of someone who, for 14 years, has had to question about meals. She noted this afternoon that I will not be able to eat our pita bread ... I will get the name of it and put it on the list. I didn't really like pita that much anyway.

I think that I will have to make available to myself a small notebook in which to take notes as recalling the days experience could become overwhelming and without it would lead to an obsession of sorts in this documentary. This I will find but I have in mind a small series of journals called white lines (of course designed in Scandinavia). I also have a custom moleskin journal found in D.C.. Its the 'Fuck Off' journal. So far inside are only a few notes taken while traveling the 'friendly' skies ... because I could have filled the journal I think that the frustrations of my HFCS adventure will prove similar and I will have to develop standards for what can make it into that particular journal well.



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