Wednesday, September 17, 2008

corn syrup

I had a friend in 4th grade who claimed to be allergic to corn syrup. She was from the South (Alabama maybe?) and had an accent. I even remember her name. Lets call her AC.

So, AC told me she was allergic to corn syrup, and then excitedly mentions that because of her allergy there is only one kind of ice cream she can have--the best (as she called it)--Dryers. I have never had Dryers before and have never checked the ingredients to double check that it does not contain corn syrup. Because as we all know, nothing is for sure unless I confirm it. Ahem.

I have often thought back on this conversation between myself and AC. Why should I retain such seemingly mundane and useless knowledge 15 years later? I know not. But whenever I read the ingredients on a box of cereal and see "corn syrup" listed, I think of her. AC. She may not even be AC anymore. She might be AZ or AF or--who knows, even FA. Most recently when I read on the box of cereal "corn syrup" and thought of good old AC, I wondered HOW she could possibly discover she was allergic to corn syrup. Everything has corn syrup, practically. How could she have isolated this single ingredient and figured out it was the one thing preventing her from meal time bliss? And by age 10?

I can only think of two possible explanations:
1) she ate corn syrup plain and had a reaction. (I dislike this idea. Who would eat corn syrup alone?)
2)Her mom made pecan pie and experimented replacing the corn syrup with honey at the advice of a cooking friend(as my lovely french friend told me to do). After witnessing the two reactions of AC to the seemingly similar pies, the verdict was out. AC must be allergic to corn syrup.

I put my money on #2.

2 comments:

Jay said...

We think we're doing a good job if we can manage not to buy foods with high fructose corn syrup... which is in everything from yogurt to bread. I can't imagine what shopping would be like if plain old corn syrup was off the list as well.

Anonymous said...

Read IN DEFENSE OF FOOD, an amazing view of what we really eat written in a historical context, 4 stars. I recommend this book to everyone. And yes, corn products are everywhere.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.