There’s a powerful lobby out there, searching the far reaches of the world wide web, looking for anyone that dares, could be so bold as to besmirch the good name of high fructose corn syrup.  I know.  They’ve sent me packages (yes, more than one–really expensive looking to) of information touting the benefits. They have run multi million dollar ad campaigns to fix the marred reputation of their favorite sweetener. They are the Corn Growers Association and holy crap have they put alot of money into PR for HFCS.

I mean, really, I have an ice cream shop in Denver.  I am the definition of small potatoes.  Yet they had enough man power (and cash) to find me on the internet and learn that all our products are completely free of high fructose corn syrup.  Not only that, they found this threatening enough to send me not one, but two packets of information encouraging me to cease and desist on our HFCS ban.  My favorite part was the letter from the FDA clarifying that products containing high fructose corn syrup can indeed be labeled as “natural” (scary). 

Apparently, the Corn Refiners Association took umbrage at the FDA stating that they would , “object to the use of the term ‘natural’ on a product containing HFCS, because it is produced using a synthetic fixing agent” and they used their considerable legal weight to take them to task.  The result, of course, was a backtrack on the part of the FDA and a loss on the part of eaters everywhere.  

According to foodnavigator-usa.com:

The process sees the enzymes for making HFCS being fixed to a column by
the use of a synthetic fixing agent called glutaraldehyde. However,
this agent does not come into contact with the high dextrose equivalent
corn starch hydrolysate and so it is not “considered to be included or added to the HFCS,” said June.

Really?  How about the fact that, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “HFCS cannot be considered natural because its chemical bonds are broken and rearranged in the manufacturing process.”  Are we seriously having this conversation?  “Natural”, quite simply, means that it was made in nature.  Last I checked natural things did not have broken chemical bonds or need synthetic fixing agents (glutaraldehyde?) in order to be produced.  Natural it is not.

But really, I digress.  The meaning of “natural” has been so watered down recently (see my previous blog post) and we could spend all day arguing with the FDA. Too many variables here, let’s look at the facts.   Results from a recent Princeton University study clearly show that the effects of high fructose corn syrup are significantly different than the effects of simple table sugar, even in smaller doses.  Rats who eat their regular chow and drink water sweetened with HFCS got fat, really fat.  Worse than that they saw a significant rise in triglycerides, these two things in combination are the known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes.  This (from the Princeton study) is the simplest and clearest explanation I have ever seen for the difference between sugar and HFCS…

High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both compounds that contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, but there at least two clear differences between them. First, sucrose is composed of equal amounts of the two simple sugars — it is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose — but the typical high-fructose corn syrup used in this study features a slightly imbalanced ratio, containing 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose. Larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides make up the remaining 3 percent of the sweetener. Second, as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized.

Seems like as good a reason as any to get rid of something in our food supply that should never have been there in the first place.

Oh, and if you want to go somewhere where you don’t have to be obsessive about looking at labels, come to The Trolley.  We obsess about it for you.

I always find it humorous (read:annoying) the number of places that claim to be “all-natural”, especially in regard to ice cream and gelato.  Best I can see, they lay claim to this moniker because they use milk and sugar in their products and milk and sugar are, of course, all natural.  Some even go so far as to let us know where their milk comes which, if they are drawing attention to it, usually means that it’s local and free of unnecessary hormones and additives (all good things, mind you).  It begs the question though, what else goes into their ice cream and gelato?  There’s oh so much more to it.

Admittedly, I’m what many would call a food freak.  I homemade a goat milk formula for all my three babies, my first child had an apple juice sweetened cake for her first birthday and didn’t have the pleasure of her first taste of sugar until at least a few months after that (standards loosened considerably on the next two).  We stick to organic as much as is humanly (and financially) possible.  The bottom line for me is that we have control of what we put in our bodies and the choices we make from the very beginning affect the quality of our entire lives.  On the same token, I believe that food is one of the great pleasures of life and should be enjoyed abundantly with the ones you love.  Thus, The Red Trolley.  I wanted to enjoy a treat with my family every now and then, I did not want to compromise my standards to the point that many places were asking me to.

We made a commitment to some very specific things from the beginning.  We believed that specificity was the key to setting us apart from all the other “all natural” claims in the marketplace.  We would never carry a product that contained high fructose corn syrup, trans fats (hydrogenated oil) artificial color or artificial flavor.  Our commitment has broadened (while others narrows) since we opened in 2008.  No mono and diglycerides (next time you are in another ice cream shop ask them about mono and diglycerides in their base), no nitrates, no artificial sweeteners–really, no artificial anything.

Honestly, it hasn’t been easy.  Cost has been the greatest factor, turns out it’s much cheaper to serve your customers fake food.  We would love to be the cheapest scoop in town but, it seems that cheap and high quality cannot co-exist.  We have kept the cost to the consumer as low as possible (as evidenced to me every time I realize that we’re running a “non-profit” ) and we try to run traffic driving specials (root beer float happy hour, $2 t-dog Tuesdays) as much as possible.  We will, however, not make any compromises on our standards and I know there are plenty of people like me who would rather have a reasonably sized scoop of real ice cream than a mammoth scoop of manufactured mush.

We’re in the business of fun.  The Red Trolley should be a place where you come with all the best people in your life to enjoy some really delicious all natural treats and to make memories that will last forever.  We are proud of the fact that we can stand behind every product that we serve and that we have never made compromises to save a buck.  This means that you can always feel good about what you are enjoying in our store. 

Thanks and see you at The Trolley.