Brad Hollerbach is the Director of Information Technology for the Southeast Missourian. His opinions are his own and do not reflect those of the newspaper or its editorial board. He writes this blog primarily for his own amusement and to parody the absurdities of the world we live in. He lives with his wife and two cats that don't really care for one another in Cape.

KFC 'Honey' Is Not What It Seems

Posted Wednesday, May 12, 2010, at 12:00 AM

The other evening it was my night to cook so I got dinner from KFC along with some packets of "honey" to top off my biscuits.

When I arrived home I noticed that what I thought was honey was actually something that KFC calls "honey sauce." This struck me as odd. Isn't honey already a sauce, courtesy of Mother Nature? I glanced at the ingredients.

Mother Nature's sole ingredient in honey is, well, honey. But that's not the case with "honey sauce" from KFC.

Honey was actually the 4th ingredient, right behind "sugar" and "corn syrup." The main ingredient was "high fructose corn syrup" or HFCS. Kind of made me think that KFC should have named this "High Fructose Corn Syrup Sauce." I guess Honey Sauce sounds better.

While TV surfing a few months ago, I came upon a program that discussed all the uses of HFCS. The ingredient is used everywhere, from soda to bread to salad dressings to even the can of Campbell's Light Chicken with Wild Rice Soup that is in our pantry.

There are two primary reasons why High Fructose Corn Syrup is used in so many products. It's a preservative that extends the shelf life of processed foods and it is cheaper than sugar.

Considering it is a preservative and the quantities that most American's -- myself included -- consume products containing HFCS, it does make one wonder what it will do to our bodies once we have passed on.

Will archaeologists a thousand years from now exhume our remains and remark about how well preserved they are? Will they debate whether the reason is due to 21st century embalming techniques or from a diet high in HFCS?

I guess only time will tell. You can mull that one over the next time you're enjoying some ice-cold beer sauce.

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I have heard that it takes longer for our bodies to process HFCS than it does sugar; the best example I can think of is how long it takes for a brick to burn compared to how long it takes to burn a piece of paper.

The HFCS people claim it's okay in moderation, but like you said, it's in everything. Maybe that's why diabetes and obesity are a problem in this country.

Little by little we're trying to cut back on the HFCS. We buy only real maple syrup; I'll never buy Butterworth's again. And it's Newman-O's for us--organic sugar and Slave-Free chocolate.

Yeah, read up on it.

-- Posted by redpen on Wed, May 12, 2010, at 6:29 AM
Hmmmm...makes you a little concerned about what is in the KFC Colonel's "11 secret herbs and spices."

Re obesity and diabetes: Yep, the problem is always someone else's fault. Congress is blaming child obesity on McDonald's happy meals, consumers blame the problem on the food manufacturers ("too much fat and additives"). The problem is we eat too **** much and exercise too little. That's the problem.

-- Posted by ParkerDaws on Wed, May 12, 2010, at 7:57 AM
Local wines: Some of them are quite good, some are awful, just like the national wines. How is this bracket thing able to "rope us into buying"? It's called advertising and promotion. You want to buy something you do, you don't want to buy you don't.

-- Posted by ParkerDaws on Wed, May 12, 2010, at 8:17 AM
While, I'm sure HFCS is a major factor in the obesity epidemic in America today, I agree with Parker on the eating and exercise issue. Forget baseball as our national past time, I think it has become "vegging."

I was a little surprised to find HFCS as an ingredient in the can of soup. It was also in both loaves of bread my wife bought at the store yesterday. Very hard ingredient to avoid. And that's if you can actually READ the ingredients. Another can of soup in our pantry had so many ingredients that it was virtually impossible to read in the size type it was printed.

Just_Me, you're sounding a bit like a wine snob. While I'm no expert on local wines, I do like the "nooner" that the Commerce winery makes and some of the Crown Valley products. That's been the total of my "local" wine-tasting experience so far.

Thanks for reading.

-- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Wed, May 12, 2010, at 8:36 AM
I prefer local wine to national brands. Our local wine is really, very excellent and supporting our local wineries helps support our local community. Try any local Chambourcin....it is fantastic!

-- Posted by A_Phares on Wed, May 12, 2010, at 10:35 AM
A chart showing the annual per capita consumption of HFCS since its introduction into the food chain and the average adult weight is very telling. The rising lines are practically the same.

Just say no. Yeah I know, it's hard to find food without it, but it's out there. How about raw fruits and vegetables? Change your habits and live longer.

-- Posted by Maynard on Wed, May 12, 2010, at 2:17 PM
All caloric sweeteners, including sugar, honey and high fructose corn syrup, contribute energy (calories) and provide building blocks for other molecules the body needs (e.g. proteins and fats).

Many healthy foods are made with caloric sweeteners, which often play a key role in the integrity of these products that has little to do with sweetening. Breads and baked goods require a fermentable sugar necessary for leavening. Sweeteners help retain moisture, so high fiber products taste better and baked goods stay fresh. In canned and frozen fruits, nutritive sweeteners serve as a preservative keeping natural color and structure of the fruits intact. In salad dressings and spaghetti sauce, sweeteners improve flavor by reducing the harsh vinegar or acid bite while enhancing fruit and spice flavors.

To remove sweeteners entirely from their commonly used applications would drastically alter product flavor, require the use of chemical preservatives to ensure product quality and freshness, result in a reduction in perceived food quality (bran cereal with the caloric sweeteners removed would have the consistency of sawdust), and would likely require the addition of bulking agents to provide the expected texture, mouth feel or volume for most baked goods.

Whether from cane, beets, or corn, a sugar is a sugar. We would encourage readers to consider what nutrition experts have to say about high fructose corn syrup. http://bit.ly/bkD52b

As many dietitians agree, all sugars should be consumed in moderation as part of a balanced lifestyle.

@redpen The body metabolizes high fructose corn syrup the same as sugar. Watch experts discuss this topic http://bit.ly/aBk4p3

@Brad_Hollerbach & @ParkerDaws We agree, calories in -- calories out. @Brad_Hollerbach High fructose corn syrup performs numerous functions besides sweetening that make it useful in many food preparations. But it does so in most cases using very small amounts.http://www.sweetsurprise.com/learning-center/amount-of-hfcs-in-foods

@Maynard All calories count. In the past 35 years, daily calorie intake for the average American has risen 25%. While energy from cereals/flour and fats rose by 200 and 300 calories/day, respectively, during this period, energy from sugars increased by only 55 calories/day. http://www.sweetsurprise.com/learning-center/educational-toolkit/all-calories-co...

Audrae Erickson, Corn Refiners Association

-- Posted by cornrefiner on Thu, May 13, 2010, at 5:20 PM

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