Virginia (and the rest of the US) 1, Ontario (and Canada) 1: Sugar vs. HFCS
High freakin' fructose corn syrup. It's damn next to inescapable up here, and it makes everything taste like something you'd buy from a carnie. It's in eveything, and almost impossible to avoid. The treats we might buy once in a while in Canada (the occasional coke or iced tea, popsicles, even ice cream or juice) contain good ol' fashioned sugar (not without its own problems, but at least we can vote with our pocket books and push for fair trade options in that department). Here, they contain HFCS, which lobbyists here have made sure is much cheaper for manufacturers to use than sugar. Sometimes, it's hard to remember that difference.
Example: Ocean Spray Cran-Grape "Juice". The third ingredient on the label? HFCS. It comes before the "Cran" part of the label. Why don't they just call it Ocean Spray Corn-Grape "Juice". Incidentally, it also only contains 15% real juice. In Canada, we'd call that a "cocktail", and I would know right off the bat to avoid it's pseudofruit siren call. Here, a teeny tiny wee little speech bubble on the side label lets us know that what we're buying is basically insulin resistance in a bottle.
Comments
Yeah...
You'll notice that the salt content is higher in chocolate bars too - even the same brands that you can buy in Canada is made with a different formula.
when I was still drinking caffeinated beverages I definitely missed "Canadian" coke. Real sugar tastes so much better. And at least it's the devil you know.
Posted by: heather at August 22, 2007 01:06 AM