To Dew or Not do Dew

So in my quest to eliminate just about all enjoyable foods from my diet, I have recently learned (er, accepted) just how evil High Fructose Corn Syrup is. This makes me sad for one main reason: I must forfeit the Dew. I love the Dew. We go way back. Granted, it glows in the dark but that doesn't mean it's inherently bad for you, right?*

I'm not saying bottoms up for normal refined sugars... those have their downsides as well. But HFCS seems to be a little "extra" nasty. Insulin resistance, leptin resistance, kidney and liver malfunction, you name it. Scary stuff.**

What's scarier is how pervasive it is. Check your bread, your ketchup, your bacon, your Quaker bars, etc.. I guarantee you'll see it listed in the ingredients, usually towards the top. (Note: I just checked my box of Triscuits and they are HFCS-free. Whew. That could have gotten ugly.) Why? Cause it's cheap! And given our "Walmart" mentality as a society (individual and industrial), why worry about your long term health when you can save $.08?

Here's the alternative... opt not to buy products with HFCS in the top, say, 10 ingredients. I wonder how hard a hit manufacturers would have to take in demand to switch out one ingredient? Interesting experiment; I think I'll give it a try. Any other takers?

So off to Trader Joe's I shall go to buy alternative cereal, ketchup, bread, etc... to try to get as much of this junk out of my system as possible. We'll see how this goes.... I'll keep you posted.


*OK, this is stretching. Simple logic would lead us to avoid substances that glow or, at the very least, not to purposefully swallow them.

**Citations:
Sugar Coated
The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup
Does High Fructose Corn Syrup Have to Be in Everything?
(The link above is a publication of Lew Rockwell which is, of course, a pro-Libertarian site. But I don't think that makes their reporting on corn syrup any less valid.)