Bitter Sweet

Between being the nutrition freak that I am and being the mother of a child allergic to corn, my opinions about high fructose corn syrup tend towards sinister. 

Recent research just dropped my tolerance of it to negative levels.  Turns out, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) may contain elevated levels of mercury.  Not from the corn itself, but from the chemical processes used to do whatever it is they do to a nice juicy ear to convert it to HFCS.

I'll skip the long rant about how the governments subsidizes the corn industry (I'm pretty sure Mr. Pollen did that already). And my general freak out about how HFCS seems to bypass the signals in our brain that tell us we are full, thus allowing our body to consume inhuman amounts of junk such as soft drinks (check out this fantastic blog post by someone else). Just please, don't consume the stuff and really don't give it to your kids!

Now how do we keep life sweet?

Try a little stevia in your tea.

Add some agave nectar in your coffee.

Bake some dried sugar cane juice into those cookies.