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Natural or Unnatural Sweetener?

August 24th, 2009 Posted in Green Living & News

Unless you’re eating out of a cupboard and refrigerator full of USDA certified organic products, then chances are you’re ingesting genetically modified (GMO) food items that may have adverse effects on your health. This is especially true of artificial and processed sweeteners.

In an interesting piece from the Daily Camera online, columnist Cindy Sutter gives a good breakdown of what’s sweet and what’s not so sweet in the stuff we eat, keeping in mind the following questions:

• Were natural pesticides used in growing the crops for the production of sweeteners?
• Was the product made from GMO plants?
• Were there any chemical additives used in the production of the sweetener?

Here’s what Sutter says in brief:

• Honey:
• All natural
• All good
• Maple Syrup:
• All natural
• All good
• Organic cane sugar:
• All natural
• All good
• No pesticides here
• Agave:
• May or may not be all natural
• Look for 100% agave nectar, certified USDA organic
• Conventional beet sugar:
• Not all natural
• Not all good
• GMO plants here, so steer clear
• Conventional cane sugar:
• Not all natural
• Not all good
• Raised with large amounts of pesticides and chemical fertilizers
• Some U.S. sugar producers even use bone char from cattle bones to give sugar its refined, white texture and look, yikes!
• High fructose corn syrup:
• Not all natural
• Not all good

When considering consuming high fructose corn syrup, keep this is mind:

• As much as 60% of nation’s corn is GMO
• Studies have detected traces of mercury in a number of samples of the stuff

“In January, Minneapolis-based nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy reported on its Web site that it tested 55 processed foods for mercury and found the chemical in 17 samples. While all the products contained high fructose corn syrup, the origin of the mercury was not identifiable. The Corn Refiners Association argues that the studies were flawed and that the high fructose corn syrup was not necessarily the source of the mercury, which was found in extremely low levels,” Sutter reported.

As Sutter asks, what is natural? It’s a difficult question to answer, considering we often don’t really know what’s going into the food we eat, even when companies give the “organic” guarantee.

Rob Peach