I’ve noticed a trend happening in the food industry as of late and I’m thinking of doing a YouTube video series inside of a grocery store to look at all of this propagandism that is happening with food packaging and labeling. You see, the more the truth comes out about how especially unhealthy sugar and refined carbohydrates are, the more food manufacturers are scrambling to find the perfect formulations for their products that fit the bill. Sadly, for far too long the way to make a food “healthy” in the eyes of most food companies has been to cut the fat and that’s still their primary selling point to consumers. But there is growing concern over sugar and high-fructose corn syrup now, too. That’s what made this bottle of Log Cabin pancake syrup stand out to me when I saw what they put on the front label.
I wouldn’t normally be looking at pancake syrup since I don’t typically shop the inner aisles of grocery stores nor do I eat pancakes or eat sugar. But we take some kids with us to church on Sunday mornings and they spend the night at our house on Saturday night. Last weekend they brought over some waffles for breakfast and had the Log Cabin pancake syrup to put on top of them. When I passed by the kitchen and saw the bottle sitting there on the counter, I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw right there on the front of the label in big bold letters NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. Oh no they didn’t! Yep, they sure did. Pinnacle Foods Group, the makers of this popular pancake syrup brand, are proud of the fact they don’t use HFCS in their products. But does that make it somehow better? Let’s turn it over on the back and check out the ingredients to find out the answer to that question.
Although there isn’t any “high-fructose” corn syrup in this product, it certainly has sugar in it–A WHOLE LOT OF IT! The very first ingredient is corn syrup and that’s followed quickly by liquid sugar which is a concoction of “natural” (whatever that means) sugar and water. For those of you who don’t normally read ingredients lists like this, they appear in the order of the amount included in the product. So, in other words, the first ingredient on the list is the highest content of the product and it goes in descending order from there with phosphoric acid being the smallest ingredient in the syrup. While the pancake syrup may not contain the much-vilified (and rightfully so!) HFCS, it still contains an overload of sugar that will respond similarly–blood sugar spikes, insulin rise, high triglycerides, hypoglycemia, hunger-inducing properties, susceptibility to fat storage and health decline, and more negative effects than I have time to mention.
When I explained to these kids (lovingly and in a non-judgmental tone, mind you) what they were consuming with this product, they both shrugged their shoulders as if it didn’t matter to them. And when I was their age I probably didn’t care either because you think you’re invincible and will live for a long time. The good news is neither one of them is obese (yet!) but they are setting themselves up for problems down the road if they don’t get this kind of poor eating under control. I’ll keep trying to lead by example eating my pastured eggs cooked in grass-fed butter so someday they’ll look back and remember what eating well is really all about.
I asked the kids to take a look at the nutritional label to see how many total carbohydrates were in this Log Cabin pancake syrup. One of them said to me, “It has 50 total carbs but only 32 sugars” referring to the number of grams of sugar per serving. When I noted the serving size was just a 1/4 cup and knowing she would be putting a LOT more than that on her pancakes, you could see her eyes start to bug out. I added that the two waffles would probably add another 50 grams of total carbs and you’re looking at well over 100 grams of carbohydrate to start your day. Of course, none of that really sinks in to a teenager, but it doesn’t hurt planting these kind of messages into their heads now so that someday down the road they will remember the lessons they learned from that big 6’3″ tall man who talked about carbs all the time. Also note from the nutrition facts that this product is just about ALL carbs with ZERO fat or protein. This stuff is even more potent than an HFCS-infested can of regular soda which clocks in at 45 grams of carbohydrate. Be still my fluttering heart!
From a marketing standpoint, I certainly don’t blame food manufacturers like Pinnacle Foods for trying to get creative with the labeling in order to sell their products. They’re in business to sell stuff and you do whatever you have to do to make that happen. Unfortunately, what is happening in the process is the public is getting bamboozled into thinking that Log Cabin pancake syrup is better for them–so they buy it thinking it will make them healthy. IT WILL NOT! This isn’t the only product that is doing this kind of thing and I probably will begin that YouTube video series walking up and down the aisles of my local grocery store to show you the kind of manipulative marketing that is happening to get people to buy unadulterated junk! Hopefully the store manager doesn’t kick me out when I do.
