EatingWell Magazine, Nicci on Nutrition

I have friends with young kids who swear that sugary foods and drinks send their kids bouncing off walls. Before I become a mom, I generally assumed that their observations about sugar and behavior were more fiction than fact. (Kids are active. Don’t they all bounce off walls, regardless of what they eat?) But now my son Julian is 13 months old. Despite my best efforts to feed him only nutritious foods, it’s likely that, to some degree, he’ll eventually be exposed to foods full of added sugars, some in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). So now I really want to know the truth. In this third installment of a 5-part series, we investigate whether sugars, and HFCS specifically, can make kids hyperactive. Here’s what we found when we went straight to the experts...

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If you start reading ingredient lists, you might think high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is in everything: from soda, cereals and granola bars to even pasta sauces and ketchup. Is that a problem? Well, it depends on whom you ask.

Some people say that HFCS is nutritionally the same as sugar, while others believe that it’s pure evil. In fact, some say that our bodies break HFCS down in a way that stokes our appetites and leads us to eat too much. Could this be true? In this second installment of a 5-part series, we investigate whether HFCS makes us feel hungrier. Here’s what we discovered:

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As a nutrition editor, I hear a lot about the evils of high-fructose corn syrup—the sweetener that’s in everything from soda to pasta sauce. I’ve also seen the Corn Refiner Association’s commercials that say that HFCS is nutritionally the same as sugar. It’s hard to know what to believe.

So we went to the experts to get the real facts. In this first installment of a 5-part series, we investigate whether HFCS is a main culprit in the obesity epidemic, as some people say.

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Some people just love to gossip about the health benefits of certain foods (like eating oysters for better sex), but it’s not so great when they end up spreading food myths instead of truths. It’s not that they’re intentionally lying. It’s just that they don’t have the whole story. There are a few myths (or you might call them half-truths) that I hear again and again. Here they are, “busted” with the cold, hard facts.

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When the weather turns warm and the days get long, my husband, Jon, and I start gathering our neighbors and friends for “firepit nights.” (A month after we moved into our house, Jon built us a huge in-ground firepit.) We’ll make burgers or some chicken, tofu or even grilled pizzas; everyone else brings sides, snacks and drinks to share. On a typical Saturday, the crew gathers around 4:30 or 5 and lingers well past midnight. Often, the eating gets out of hand. So that I can still stuff myself into my shorts the next day, I’ve found that it’s helpful to follow a few simple rules for smart eating at summer barbecues...

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