So I must admit, before kids, I really didn't read labels much. But now that I have kids and care for these little beings, I read almost all labels before dropping an item in my cart. Since my kids often grocery shop with me, I've been teaching them to look at the label. My son Luca, has gotten in the habit these last few weeks of asking if an item has corn syrup in it. Although Luca doesn't totally grasp the idea, asking if the park had corn syrup in it, I like that he's beginning to think about what he eats and what is in his food.
My mother-in-law from Costa Rica recently asked me what is high fructose corn syrup and why she should avoid it. I googled it and found this interesting arcticle, The Truth about High Fructose Corn Syrup, that breaks down a variety of sugars additives in a pretty easy-to-read form. Basically, it's a "calorie-providing sweetener used to sweeten foods and beverages" and it's "made by an enzymatic process from glucose syrup that is derived from corn." I am sure some of my super health concsious friends could explain with more fever why they avoid high fructose. But for me, I just noticed that foods containing high fructose usually taste more preprocessed, sugary and less fresh. In the end, like the article said, it also boils down to the amount of sugar, whatever kind it is, that one consumes during the day.
I really try to keep the amount of sugar down for my kids, as my sister Brooke says, when Sophie crashes after a sugar high, she is really grouchy and moody. For instance, juice boxes contain a lot of sugar, so usually I just buy juice and then half it with water. If Luca consumes sugar after dinner, he's very restless and harder to put to sleep. Sometimes, I don't buy juice boxes at all because I find it difficult to keep the kids from grabing them out of the fridge. Seems like we go through phases. After living in Costa Rica, though, and having fresh made juices every day, I find juices in the United States much too sweet and strong. By adding water, it gets me closer to that delicous Costarican fruit beverage I remember.
Sugar has many names. Here's a list A Healthier Generation recently sent me on the types of sugars you'll see on labels. Obviously, some sugars are better than others. I really don't buy my kids anything with corn syrup, sucrose, corn sweetner or high fructose. Here's nice and simple list of various sugars, so I thought I'd share:
-Agave Nectar
-Cane Sugar
-Corn Sweetner
-Corn Syrup
-Evaporated Can Juice
-Fruit Juice Concentrates
-High Fructose Corn Syrup
-Honey
-Molasses
-Sucrose
