Possibly not a “backlash”… just consumers choosing to drink from an ever-expanding menu of beverages.
“Americans consumed less high-fructose corn syrup in 2011 than at any point since 1997, Bloomberg reported this week. The USDA estimates that the average American ate 131 calories worth of corn sweeteners a day this year, down 16 percent from 2007. The decline follows several years of bad press for high-fructose corn syrup. Some have attacked it as bad-tasting, while many have argued that eating it is bad for your health. One recent study suggested that the brains of people who ate lots of fructose don’t register as satiated, while another demonstrated a correlation between high-fructose corn syrup consumption and higher rates of type 2 diabetes.” [Huffington Post]
I suggest a book called “Wheat Belly”. It covers the health and weight cost of excess consumption of wheat. I stopped eating wheat on January 1. Lost 10 pounds of belly fat without feeling hungry, I feel better, body aches are gone as are celiac symptoms.
The author also explains why following the FDA’s health diet advice of 5 portions of whole grain has caused so many people to become obese.
Please cite examples of consumers eating fructose without sucrose. [Hint: It’s a trick question.]
40 years ago Bio-chemistry classes were teaching that fats and sucrose would trigger the sated feeling, but proteins and fructose would not. Then ADM got into the middle of it with price controls on sugar which destroyed the cane industry in the US. It also raised the price enough that their new HFCS product would be cheap enough to buy instead.
Now bio-chem classes do not teach this. In fact, they now teach that the only way to know you have enough is when the stomach expands enough.
We eat more because we have fructose without sucrose. We have people trying to suppress the science behind bio-chemistry by claiming that we never found these results, or by saying that it is a recent study.
I guess it is recent compared to how long people have been eating, but not recent based on the field of study.
Howdy Ben
I’m sure some people do process different sugars a bit differently, especially if there are other health conditions. In an open economy, providers will appear for almost any market. I’m glad you’re finding an alternative that you prefer.
An amazing thing happened when I switched from regular Mt. Dew to Mountain Dew Throwback made with sugar. I first noticed that I felt satisfied after having a can of Throwback. I no longer had that feeling of still craving more. Second I noticed that I felt much better. My digestion seemed more normal. I have since reduced the amount of HFCS I consume from other foods and drinks.
I have had much less trouble with my Crohn’s disease since I have made this change too.
“The USDA estimates that the average American ate 131 calories worth of corn sweeteners a day this year.” Even if that’s down about 1/6 from before, that means people were eating something like 150 calories a day from high-fructose corn syrup. 150 calories a day in a diet of around 2500 calories is a pretty small element.
I’ve yet to see any science that “the devil’s candy” is physiologically different from other forms of sugar. I personally decided I would avoid True Moo flavored milk specifically because it boasts of having no corn sweetener. If they’re going to advertise based on a lie, I’ll buy another brand.
Coke learned a lesson way back in my youth when they changed to New Coke. There was a terrible back lash. They restored the old formula. Coke did a lot of research into the flavor profile. They tested and tested to make sure that the product they put in place would be better received than the one they had. Overwhelmingly the data showed that the taste profile of “new coke” was preferred in blind taste tests to the old standard coke.
The problem is I do not drink coke blind.
I went to a thanksgiving dinner once in my youth. Everyone sat around the table and the dishes were passed from person to person. Along came a plate filled with fried chicken. “Yum” I thought. I love fried chicken. I grabbed a thigh and put it on my plate. I picked it up after all the plates were through and bit into it expecting that wonderful crunch with soft, juicy chicken in the middle. I bit into a crusted yam. It was one of the most awful experiences with food of my youth. Trying to eat brussel sprouts, cooked spinach and swiss chard was difficult, but I knew ahead of time I didn’t like them and their bitter flavor. The expectation of friend chicken though caused me to detest the well prepared yam (orange sweet potato).
Recently I stole a sip of another Coke product (whether it was Monster, Rockstar or NOS, I am not sure). I am highly confident that they learned their lesson. Why people drink those is sort of a mystery.
People focussed on HFCS are, as John Brignell or numberwatch.co.uk put it, single issue fanatics. They are unable to see that 20% of the population in the US still smokes and most of them still aren’t dead. An uncomfortable percentage of those smokers manage to live beyond their target death age.