Exactly Why You Should Know About What You’re Eating

I noticed a couple of things on the label of some barbecue sauce that we bought from the store a while back.

First of all, the front label says “No High Fructose Corn Syrup.”  You probably recall a few years ago when High Fructose Corn Sugar (which I’ll refer to now as HFCS) was in the news and was getting a lot of flak for how unhealthy it is for the body.  It is indeed unhealthy, and so I don’t doubt that this is why they don’t include it in their ingredients.

But see, here’s the thing.

Sugar is Sugar

The ingredient list for this barbecue sauce includes sugar instead of HFCS.  One thing to always remember though is that, aside from some other bad effects unique to HFCS as mentioned by this article from Dr. Mark Hyman, sugar is sugar.  HFCS is yet another version of sugar, and therefore it will share the same detrimental effects on your body as regular sugar, including a greater chance of obesity, cancer and diabetes.

Now let me get to my main point.

Before You Call It “Healthier”

Advertisement is something serious.  Companies know this, so if certain ingredients in their products start causing controversy in the news, they’ll replace them.

The bad thing about it is that we tend to think that if that particular ingredient is taken out, the product is healthier, and we might even eat more of it.  Think trans fat, “pink slime” and of course HFCS.   This is whether we’re talking about barbecue sauce, bread, or cookies.  Cookies, man.

At the end of the day, the healthiest way that you can go is to greatly reduce the amount of packaged products you consume and stick to making your own food from fresh, real ingredients.

Just figured I’d leave you with that.