A Spoonful of Sugar (or Corn Syrup) Helps the Vinegar Go Down

My pomegranate-flavored bubble has been burst... I just learned (after doing some virtual shopping on Hmart.com, that the number one ingredient in my new favorite "health drink" is high-fructose corn syrup, otherwise known as the single biggest calorie vacuum in the Western world.... HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup) is the very stuff laced in processed, packaged foods back home, particularly the ubiquitous Coca-Cola (and most every other soft drink made in the USA).

I had just yesterday stumbled upon an insightful article on Mercola.com (which is, as far as I know, the most popular natural health website in the world). The article, "The Plague of High Fructose Corn Syrup in Processed Foods," spoke to the ill effects of consuming HFCS. And I tend to agree with him: corn syrup is essentially a calorie bomb, devoid of nutrients, and complicates a number of health problems that the Western world is already battling against, namely heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

According to Dr. Mercola,

"Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar, and, because most fructose is consumed in liquid form, its negative metabolic effects are significantly magnified...
To add insult to injury, the corn that the high fructose corn syrup is metabolized from nearly all comes from genetically modified corn which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns."

So I guess I'll have to scale back my head-over-heels infatuation with my syrup-sweetened pomegranate vinegar a bit... though I'm still sold on consuming vinegar as a health tonic. It's been keeping the Chinese going, after all, for over 3,000 years...