This post is part of the series EU Agriculture 2020.
Sugar from Starch
Americans are already familiar with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), and this phenomenon has come screaming to European supermarkets too. In the US, corn or maize is the principle grain used for food, and the reason why HFCS is common there.
In Europe wheat is mostly the grain of choice for sugar production, and it comes with lots of names. Glucose syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, invert sugar, dextrose and many others. If you come across a suspect ingredient, try looking it up in Google.
On the surface, there’s not a lot wrong with making sugar from starch. This is how vodka is traditionally made for example, by first converting the starch in potatoes to sugar, then fermenting the sugar. Beer is made in a similar way with barley. Glucose syrup and barley malt have been available for purchase for a long time in supermarkets and other stores, added to processed foods and some people use these for cooking at home.
The main reason for making sugar this way is cost. It’s very easy to make sugar very inexpensively this way. If you’re a food manufacturer who’s business model is shaving a few cents off of every unit sold this, together with sugar substitutes like aspartame, is a key mechanism for profit. Calories are a key way of measuring nutritional value of food, and so by some measures as the food manufacturers are pumping more sugar from starch into processed food, they are making food value available at lower cost and higher volume.
Until a few years ago, in the EU, sugar production was stimulated with subsidies, greatly reducing the costs. In addition, the use of isosugars (sugar from starch) was restricted with a quota. Now the sugar subsidies are gone, and the isosugar quotas have just been lifted.
In case you’re in Europe and wondering where the confusing array of sugars being added to food now came from, this is the reason.
Health Concerns
In a world without very much independent science, it’s not surprising there’s not a lot of proof isosugars are unhealthy. After all, we have been eating them in one way or another for a very long time. There is however a lot of concern coming from many quarters.
Obesity and diabetes in the US: Starting in the 1980s, there was a dramatic surge of obesity, diabetes and other health problems, that seemed to correspond with the introduction of HFCS in the market there. This was also the time when ‘diet’ or ‘light’ drink options became widely marketed, with sugar alternatives, which seem to be part of the problem too.
Fructose: Isosugar/HFCS generally contains a lot of fructose, and the introduction of so much fructose to our diets is something new. Fructose is the sugar in fruits, and while moderate fruit consumption is generally accepted to be part of a healthy diet, the amount of fructose in these new isosugars is much greater than we’ve seen before. At least one study here in Amsterdam has sought to identify the risks of excessive fructose consumption in school children.
Appetite: Ordinary sugar is a hunger suppressant, and also something people crave. For centuries, undernourished people have used sugar as a cheap way to make themselves more comfortable. There’s no doubt that sugar plays a role in a healthy diet as a way to limit consumption.
At least one study in the US suggested after the introduction of HFCS, the consumption of ordinary sugar stayed about the same. In other words, HFCS did not seem to satisfy people’s craving for sugar. Likewise, it may not act as a hunger suppressant in the same way ordinary sugar does. It’s not hard to imagine how this may of led to the health crisis in the US.
It’s also not hard to imagine how dangerous the consumption of sugar alternatives can be, and why people who consume these products are on average heavier. There are also suggestions that products like aspertame may be addicting, leading to binges in consumption in many ways.
Contamination
After decades of the food companies assuring Americans that HFCS was safe, in 2009 it emerged that many food products contained mercury through contaminated HFCS. Does HFCS still contain mercury? If the food industry assured you it didn’t, would you believe them? What about here in Europe?
Alternatives
If you’re in Europe, and you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been going through ever more confusing food labels in the last few months. At least here in the Netherlands, it’s still possible to buy foods with relatively normal ingredients, including normal sugar.
The problem increasingly is going to be what does ‘sugar’ mean when you see it on the label. The food industry has already asserted that sugar from GM sugar beets is okay to use in Europe, because processing them supposedly destroys the GMOs.
‘Sugar’ is also a word that could include isosugar. I’m not sure of the legal situation in Europe of claiming isosugar is sugar, but I can certainly see a lot of room for loopholes and interpretations here. Cane sugar is also not something that’s currently widely grown in GMO form, so there may be reasons for needing to know the difference between cane and beet sugar. You already see the food industry asserting the equivalence of sugar in their food packaging labels, preferring people think of it in terms of calories.
I know a lot of people wont accept this as I say it, but I think this needs to be a wake up call. People need to take more responsibility for the food they eat. We are reaching the point that we can’t trust processed or supermarket food. It’s time for everyone to start growing more of their own food, cooking more of their own food, and eating less processed foods including animal products and any food sold with a nutritional analysis label.
Things to Prepare at Home
Sugar syrup: By combining equal amounts of sugar and water, then bringing it to a boil in a pan stirring occasionally, you make a thick sugar syrup. This convenient for example when making sweetened drinks, or anytime you might need to dissolve sugar in a cold liquid. This is a common ingredient in cocktails.
Cookies: I suppose this is a very American thing, and most of the recipes on the Internet are in US measures. American butter cooks differently from European butter, so you need to experiment a bit with proportions.
It’s not so hard to cook cakes, tarts and many other things at home, with real ingredients. If you have a neighbor with similar interests, trading can be a great mutual benefit.
