No HFCS: Day 2

Day 2 and I’m starting to realize that corn farmers or the Corn Refinery Association (or whatever it’s called) must be making money hand over fist because High Fructose Corn Syrup is legitimately in things that I never would have expected it to be in… like a jar of spaghetti sauce.  It occurred to me that tomatoes sometimes need sugar, even in homemade sauce, to balance out the acidity – especially in the months when tomatoes are out of season.  So when I decided to have ravioli and meatballs for dinner last night, I realized I had to check a jar of pasta sauce for High Fructose Corn Syrup.  So unnecessary.  Anyway, I found out that Francesca Rinaldi’s regular pasta sauce does not have HFCS, it has regular sugar in it so that’s good.  I ended up having ravioli and my mom’s meatballs for dinner and was good to go, HFCS-wise.

This morning, I again had to fight with the bread drawer to find a kind of bread that did not include HFCS.  I decided on Nature’s Pride 100% Natural Stone Ground Whole Wheat with Honey – that’s a mouthful, but it was yummy.  I ended up having a tuna sandwich because Hellman’s mayonnaise has no HFCS in it either.  All I’ve been drinking the past two days is water, which is definitely a switch for me because I am a soda drinker.  If there is soda in the house, especially ginger ale, I am absolutely drinking it.  Ginger ale is probably my favorite drink of all time, I just love it – and I have such a sensitive stomach most of the time that ginger ale always makes me feel better (it might just be in my head, but I really do believe it helps).  So not drinking soda is definitely a change for me.  I weighed myself yesterday (but I am SO not sharing that information for the entire internet to see) and I am going to continue to weigh myself once a week for the next 40 days to see if this HFCS experiment has any effect on my weight.

All in all, I am finding this experiment very interesting.  I’m beginning to realize that millions of Americans are eating HFCS every single day in massive quantities without even realizing it because it has been added to so many random foods and drinks that we consume every day.  We spend so much time trying to understand the rise in obesity, diabetes, cancer, and other ailments in Americans… well, I’d be willing to bet a HUGE part of it is right here. 

And that’s not even beginning to go into the possibility that the corn that is being used to create HFCS might be genetically modified in some way, causing a whole slew of other problems.

This is crazy.

Love to you all,

Sara