Corn vs Cane

Just as the White House wants to rename global warming... er, climate change for better PR, the Corn Refiner’s Association is lobbying the FDA to change the name of high fructose corn syrup to corn sugar. apparently Mrs. Obama’s notion not to feed her kids any HFCS is having an effect on the market even as

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Washington-based Centre for Science in the Public Interest, said that the fundamental issue was that people needed to consume less sugar: "Soda pop sweetened with sugar is every bit as conducive to obesity as soda pop sweetened with high fructose corn syrup."

Now I’ve seen claims from both sides and haven’t dug into the actual science of this but I tend to land in the anti-HFCS camp for two reasons

1) The only reason we get corn syrup today instead of cane sugar is because the corn industry has the clout to maintain their cheap price through federal farming subsidies and maintain the case sugar import tariffs. Drop the tariffs/subsidies and let the corn farmers compete.

2) IT JUST TASTES BETTER!

UPDATE: The Atlantic has an excellent article on the science and pedigree of the reporting of HFCS