Don't be fooled by a pretty label!

>> Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I have gotten pretty darn good at spotting foods that contain HFCS and those that don't.  But...sometimes even I am fooled.  A couple of weekends ago my family and I were dining at a favorite restaurant of ours.  My husband bought a root beer. 

Henry Weinhard's Root Beer - Gourmet Soda, Draught-Style Head

We could have a whole separate discussion about the negatives of sodas in general.  But, I'll be the first to admit that I like a good soda.  Once upon a time I loved Coke.  Not so much anymore.  Cokes taste too sickly sweet to me now, and I almost always regret it when I order one.  But, there are cane sugar based specialty sodas out there that do float my boat (Virgil's Real Cola, for example).   I rarely buy sodas, but I do occasionally like to indulge in a soda as a special treat. 

But I digress.  My husband bought a root beer.  It was a nice looking root beer with a fancy label.  A label that screamed cane sugar and not HFCS to me.   I liked it so much (a rarity with root beer) that I traded my iced tea for his soda.  As always, I flipped the bottle to look at the ingredients.  I can't help it.  It's what I do.  You can guess what's next, right?  Take a look at the ingredients:


In case you can't quite read that, the second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup.  Curses!

So, lesson learned.  Don't be fooled by pretty labels.  Looks can be very deceiving!

11 comments:

Jill August 24, 2010 at 8:37 PM  

Reading the label is the first thing I do too. Damn those pretty labels.

Amy August 24, 2010 at 9:32 PM  

I did that exact same thing with Henry's Cream Soda this weekend. It had been a long, warm day and I just wanted something fizzy and sweet and I was fooled by the fancy label.

Blake August 25, 2010 at 3:04 PM  

Marketers and all the higher-ups know that a fancy label will get us all to forget about the ingredients/health value of a product... thanks for the reminder to always check the label!

Amy August 27, 2010 at 4:09 AM  

Thanks for the warning. We do like a cold one (root beer) every nw and again.

Sagan August 30, 2010 at 6:33 AM  

Curses indeed! How frustrating. I would have also thought that it was cane sugar instead of HFCS from a label like that. Good on you for reading it (I *heart* reading labels :)).

GiGi September 12, 2010 at 6:54 PM  

Have you ever tried Virgil's DIET Root Beer, Real Cola, Cream Soda, etc?? They're sweetened with stevia, taste EXACTLY like the real thing and only have 6 calories! You should seriously scope it out! There is NO high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar in sight!!! :)

Jon (was) in Michigan September 14, 2010 at 9:32 AM  

Have you seen the news lately about HFCS? The Corn Refiners Association is petitioning the FDA to allow them to change the name "high fructose corn syrup" to "corn sugars".

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/a-new-name-for-high-fructose-corn-syrup/

Dominique - Dukan Diet September 19, 2010 at 3:57 PM  

Such a great point - I have been fooled a few times by hip pretty sleek labels that I assume *must* be organic or at least HFCS free but are not.
@ Jon - I too was really interested in that recent decision to "rename" corn syrup to con people into confusion. Yet it is now not legal to label the something free of GMOs as it might "confuse" the consumer. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/fda-labeled-free-modification/Unbelievable!
Great blog -
Dominique

Viagra Online without prescription November 22, 2011 at 6:18 AM  

One of the most delicious beer , I remember my last trip around Europe , I have tasted some beers that have a spectacular flavor !

tienda-erotica.jimdo.com June 26, 2012 at 3:14 AM  

This will not truly have success, I consider so.

Elliott Broidy August 24, 2012 at 10:24 AM  

Cute post. Unfortunate about the high fructose corn syrup. Seems like it's in everything these days!

  © Blogger templates Sunset by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP