Jul 24 2008
Read the Fine Print
There’s a little art house theater in my town, a grand restored place that once held stage shows as well as movies and that now features things that won the Palm d’Or at Cannes and documentaries they complain about on Fox news. One of the joys of going there, aside from very reasonable admission, is they provide a wider variety of concessions than my local multiplex does. Theater goers are already a captive audience with limited choices in snacks but being diabetic makes the choices harder, so interesting options always appeal to me.
I got a small popcorn, unbuttered popcorn and a cranberry juice. The bottle of juice was from some large manufacturer and I already knew that I’d only be drinking half of it for the sake of carbs but I expected it to be a better choice than any other beverage they had than water. Then, while I was waiting for the picture to start, I got curious. I read the ingredients.
There an old foe reared it’s head: high fructose corn syrup.
I had been dodging the old HFCS for some time now. While the point has not been definitively proven, there’s some thought that the body uses high fructose corn syrup less effectively than it uses other sugars like straight cane sugar. Along with partially hydrogenated oils (because of trans fats) I’d started cutting HFCS out of my diet before I knew I had blood sugar issues. The problem is it’s in bloody everything.
Being diabetic doesn’t mean just paying attention to blood sugar. It means minimizing any risk to heart health to minimize our already increased risks. That’s why we eat right. But even foods that should be safe and no cause for alarm now hide ingredients that hurt us (and by us, I mean everyone) which do little except extend the shelf life of grocery items.
Like my juice.
It irks me that I have to look for ludicrous ingredients in simple foods. Everyone should be conscious of what they run their bodies on but we shouldn’t have to be paranoid. That said I know next time I go to the movies to get water… but I may still read the label.
Check out this list and get angry with me.
