High fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and now a mysterious
chemical called 4-MI.....is it true that your can of soda may be wreaking havoc on your health? Sweetened soft drinks have been linked to
obesity and diabetes, and now a consumer protection group is linking soda to
CANCER. Is it true that soda is the root
of many health issues or are soft drinks
unfairly singled out in a plan to target the corn and sugar industries?
Regular Soda
Soda and sugary soft drinks have been on the
“naughty” list for years. Recently, the soda
industry has been slammed for its use of high fructose corn syrup (sugar) as a
sweetener and has been directly linked to the epidemic of obesity, especially as
it pertains to childhood obesity. Soda
vending machines are banned from schools.
Is high- fructose corn syrup
really the root of obesity?
The fact is, regardless of the sugar source
chosen to sweeten soda, it would have
the same physiological effect as high-fructose corn syrup: whether beet, cane, or corn sugar, agave
nectar, fructose, or honey were the sweetener of choice in soft drinks, the physiological impact on
the human body would be the same. So, to
single out corn syrup as a villain is just plain...wrong.
Something else that is just plain wrong. Did you know that 12 ounces of Coca-Cola Classic contains 39 grams of carbohydrate from
sugar and 12 ounces of orange juice
also contains 39 grams of carbohydrate from sugar. They BOTH contain the equivalent of 10 tsp of
sugar. Granted, the OJ also contains
vitamins....but in terms of contribution to obesity? THEY ARE EQUAL. Even more interesting: 12 ounces of prune
juice contains the equivalent of 17 tsp of sugar. The carb may come from fructose and not high-fructose
corn syrup...but let’s call it like it is....the soda, OJ, and prune juice are
all 100% carb sweetened with different sugars that have the same calories/gram
and behave the same way in the body.
Sugar Free Soda
So, after learning that a 12 ounce can of
soda contained about 10 tsp of sugar, some
people switched to sugar free versions of
their favorite beverage. It didn’t take
long for the media to perpetuate the story that like regular soda, diet soda
ALSO caused weight gain. They provided
all sorts of “reasons” why diet soda would cause weight gain...including the
idea that the sweetness of diet soda made a person crave more sweet
things. When the dust settled, it was decided that it
was not diet soda, but what people were eating with the diet soda that was
causing weight gain. (Have you ever been
at a fast food restaurant and heard a customer ordering a Big Mac, large
fries, apple pie and a diet soda? )
Brown Colored Soda?
Yesterday came the coup de grace in the
maligning of soft drinks. The “C”
word...cancer....was attached to the caramel coloring used in colas, root beer,
Dr. Pepper. The “big guns” have been
drawn in the war against soft drinks.
Big guns for Big business...in 2009, 9.4 billion cases of soft drinks
were sold in the US alone with the average American drinking 708 12 oz. cans of
soda/year.
Are these dire warnings and dramatic
“research studies” making a difference in the consumption of soft drinks? Since 1998...when we first began to hear
about high fructose corn syrup and its link to obesity and type 2
diabetes, ....per-capita soda
consumption is down 16%. Many people are
heeding the message. But is the message
valid?
If we are going to site very high sugar intake
as a cause of obesity....then we have to site ALL high carb foods as all carb
foods turn 100% into blood sugar and have the same effect in the body. There should also be warnings targeting bagels, soft pretzels, muffins, fries, baked
potatoes, legumes like chick peas and lentils, rice, pasta, fruit, yogurt,
milk, juice, bread...and the list goes on and on. ALL carbs turn to blood sugar. No one kind of carb has less calories or more
calories/gram than another.
In February, The CSPI (Center for Science in
the Public Interest), a consumer watchdog group, petitioned the FDA to ban
ammonia-sulfite caramel coloring in brown sodas such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola,
Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi. The chemical in
question is 4-MI (4-methylimidazole).
4-MI is formed when sugar mixes with ammonia and sulfates to create
caramel coloring. The CSPI claims that
4-MI is an animal carcinogen.
The agency went so far as to state that Coke
and Pepsi (with the knowledge of the FDA) are needlessly exposing people to
cancer risk.
The FDA doesn’t agree stating that soda still
contains far too little 4-MI to pose much of a cancer risk adding that a
consumer would have to drink over 1000 cans of soda every day to reach the
doses administered to rats in the studies that linked 4-MI to cancer in rats.
The FDA limit for 4-MI in caramel coloring is
250 parts per million and Reuters calculated that the highest levels of 4-MI
found by the CSPI were about 0.4 parts per million which means it would be
highly unlikely that a person could consume enough 4-MI to increase the risk of
cancer. . In fact, findings of regulatory agencies worldwide, including the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, European Food Safety Authority and Health
Canada, consider caramel coloring safe for use in foods and beverages.
And even the CSPI admitted that soda drinkers
should be “much more worried about the high fructose corn syrup and other
sugars in sodas which contribute to obesity and diabetes”.
For the record, the caramel coloring in soda
is purely cosmetic...it has nothing to do with the taste. Back in the 1990’s, Crystal Pepsi was
introduced. It was Pepsi without the
caramel coloring. It flopped. Consumers want their colas to be brown in
color. In my opinion, there has to be another way to naturally add brown color
without the 4-MI in caramel coloring. If
an alternate ingredient choice were used, it would silence this “charge”
immediately.
But...the consumer groups have chosen to
focus attention and millions of dollars maligning soft drinks. I can’t say that I am a fan of soda...I’m
not. But it’s time to call a spade a
spade. Someone seems to have an axe to
grind with the corn and sugar industries....
In the words of the
CSPI: "Soda drinkers should be much
more concerned about the high-fructose corn syrup or other sugars used in soft
drinks," the CSPI statement said. "Soda drinkers are much more likely
than non-soda drinkers to develop weight gain, obesity, diabetes, and other health
problems."
Guess we’ve come
full circle….high fructose corn syrup….. again…………
