My wife and I took a trip to our local grocery store, with one goal in mind; we wanted to unearth all the food that unexpectedly has high fructose corn syrup, or maltodexdrin (which is another corn sugar product). The battle continues on how healthy or unhealthy these products are. HFCS has gotten a bad reputation for increasing blood glucose, diabetes and obesity. The research is controversial whether the claims are true, but what I find more concerning is how many products contain this sugary corn product.
To be honest I didn’t think it would really be a challenge to find products with HFCS, but I had no idea how easy it would be. We decided to start in the frozen food section. I could have written this entire blog without having moved out of the hot pocket section. It is truly amazing how almost anything processed, contains at least HFCS or maltodextrin, if not both. The following photos are just a few of the food products where we found HFCS, some of which, like activia and Smart Start, we were surprised by. There were also multiple products specifically marketed towards children containing HFCS.
What is your opinion on HFCS? Do you avoid foods with it?
LosingTogether 
Posted by Katie on April 22, 2012 at 2:31 pm
I do try to avoid it, but there is some in my kitchen. I use a little wasabi horseradish on tuna (to avoid mayo) and it has HFCS. I figure if I keep the level low, along with other forms of sugar, I will be doing myself some good.
Posted by ksmahoney on April 22, 2012 at 3:31 pm
I agree. It’s near impossible to eliminate it completely, but I figure the less, the better.
Posted by Brian on April 22, 2012 at 3:02 pm
We try to avoid it as well and while it is difficult it is not impossible, in fact it is easier now than ever before. The reason is because companies are stating to advertise that their products are fee of high-fructose corn syrup. No, if you enjoy cooking, then it gets even easier as you can control the ingredients, but as for convenience items (hot pockets!) forget it, but you can go with Amy’s and other alternatives. Cheerio’s used to have HFC but not anymore, same for other big products-the momentum is shifting but it is still hard to find cranberry juice (or any juice product) without it. I avoid any additive that is not natural or is overly refined or altered, so HFC is way off my list.
Posted by ksmahoney on April 22, 2012 at 3:30 pm
It is cool the effect that consumer choice has on the products that big company produce. The more we demand products that are unadulterated, the more they change their products to meet our demands.
Posted by Shanny on April 22, 2012 at 6:35 pm
I try to avoid processed foods……but especially when it’s something that there s no business in putting corn products in. Cooked turkey fr nstance….no reason it should have HFCS. It’s getting ridiculous.
Posted by Nicole on April 25, 2012 at 12:47 pm
We try to avoid alot of the HFCS too. Once I started really looking it is hard to believe all the places it exists — Yoplait yogurt anyone? I stopped using yoplait and starting switching to other brands because of the HFCS in the yogurt. We try to eliminate it completely but as one other person stated it is hard to get rid of it all together but we do try.
Posted by Michelle on April 27, 2012 at 7:32 pm
My mother and I have recently been diagnosed with fructose intolerance. So these products actually make us “sick”. Since eliminating as much as we can, our symptoms have almost disappeared. I think we need to keep buying the products that DON’T have it and maybe the ones that use it will switch. One being ketchup. Heinz has HFCS, but one brand of Hunt’s advertises right on the bottle that it doesn’t. I’d love to find a site for those of use trying to eliminate it to find the brands/products that don’t include it.