The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) has enlisted the help of a Julia Child impersonator in a new three-minute online video which will help Americans understand that “natural” table sugar (from beets or sugar cane) is highly processed, and no healthier to eat than other sugars. In the new movie, “Julia” demonstrates the difficulty of turning a sugar beet into the commercial sugar that consumers buy in stores. This video is a part of CCF’s SweetScam project, a public-education effort to counter inaccurate information surrounding high fructose corn syrup, the much-maligned sweetener.
David Martosko, CCF’s Director of Research, made the following statement about the Julia Child spoof:
As some food and beverage companies hope to boost their bottom lines, they’re turning to deceptive marketing ploys that hinge on a switch to beet or cane sugar. But this doesn’t make their products any more “natural.” The recipe for making table sugar from beets calls for sulphur dioxide and calcium hydroxide, and requires the use of an industrial centrifuge.
Ordinary sugar may be ordinary, but it’s not inherently healthier or more “natural” than any other sweetener, including high fructose corn syrup. Nutrition professionals, and even elite food activists, now agree that high fructose corn syrup and other sugars are nutritionally equivalent. Refined sugar contains the same number of calories as high fructose corn syrup, and the human body handles it the same way. A sugar is a sugar. Period.