Gone with the High Fructose Corn Syrup

6 May 2007 Leave a Comment

It’s wonderful news. The self proclaimed “little guys” of the food/beverage industry are leading the way. In this case, Jones Soda. This soda manufacturer has already differentiated itself in the market for, among other things, for featuring customer submitted images on its labels. That and their innovative flavor combinations helped build the brand. Now, they are making another statement by replacing High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) with Pure Cane sugar to sweeten their sodas.

I’ve long had an aversion to HFCS. Beverage manufacturers started using it in the 70′s because it was less expensive than cane sugar, easy to store and extremely soluble (mixes well with a lot of things). It became big business for the large agricultural processors. Price fixing and the whole ugly thing went on with that but even more potentially harmful to the consumer is the fact that HFCS is made from genetically modified enzymes. Which probably come from genetically modified corn. Nice, huh? HFCS is nasty for all sorts of reasons that I won’t get into (you can read the articles referred to below). It’s insidious, found in so many prepared foods. This makes life quite complicated for many people with food allergies to corn.

Ok, so pure cane sugar is still sugar, but at least, it’s real and it tastes better. So, all that to say, THANK YOU JONES SODA for your ideological move. As it now proclaims on its homepage “Corn is for Cars… Sugar is for Soda.” Let’s hope it makes an impact.