The Vintage & Handmade Market HFCS is awesome!
The March 18 article “Starving the (wrong) beast” [“Backwards & in High Heels”] may mislead consumers about high-fructose corn syrup.
High-fructose corn syrup, sugar and several fruit juices are all nutritionally the same. High-fructose corn syrup has the same number of calories as sugar and is handled similarly by the body.
The American Medical Association in June 2008 helped put to rest misunderstandings about this sweetener and obesity, stating that “high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute to obesity more than other caloric sweeteners.”
Even former critics of high-fructose corn syrup dispel long-held myths and distance themselves from earlier speculation about the sweetener’s link to obesity as the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition releases its 2008 Vol. 88 supplement’s comprehensive scientific review.
Many confuse pure “fructose” with “high fructose corn syrup,” a sweetener that never contains fructose alone, but always in combination with a roughly equivalent amount of a second sugar (glucose). Recent studies that have examined pure fructose—often at abnormally high levels—have been inappropriately applied to high-fructose corn syrup and have caused significant consumer confusion.
In 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally listed high-fructose corn syrup as safe for use in food and reaffirmed that decision in 1996. Consumers can see the latest research and learn more about high-fructose corn syrup at www.SweetSurprise.com.
Audrae Erickson,
President,
Corn Refiners Association,
Washington, D.C.
SFI is awesome!
In response to the March 11 article “Presidential playtime” [“Presently Tense”], I would like to correct the errors in your article regarding the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) Program.
SFI Inc. is a fully independent, nonprofit organization with more than 160 million acres of forestland certified to our North American forest certification standard. The SFI Program is supported by major conservation groups such as Conservation International, American Bird Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited and the Conservation Fund, and is internationally recognized and accepted by governments, organizations and companies around the world. The independent board of directors that governs the SFI program comprises three equal chambers that represent a balance of the economic, environmental and social stakeholders in forest management. Today, more than 700 organizations are involved in the SFI program including public agencies, conservation groups, family forest owners and forest-product companies.
SFI is a rigorous, science-based certification program backed by independent certification audits performed by internationally accredited certification bodies.
In addition, only lands in the U.S. and Canada can be certified to SFI, unlike FSC, where the majority of their certified lands are overseas. So the Obamas’ decision also supported North American communities and workers.
Well-managed forests provide jobs, sequester carbon from the atmosphere and provide clean water and wildlife habitat. Let’s work to ensure all forest products are certified so that North America can continue to be a leader in certification.
Your article should have reflected the positive contribution that forest certification is making, especially since 90 percent of the world’s forests are not certified, much of which is in areas that are at high risk for illegal logging, deforestation and corruption.
Karen Brandt,
Vice president, market affairs,
SFI Inc.,
Arlington, Va.
