So, a while back, my family decided to try and cut down on gluten. Not because of any serious allergies, thankfully, but more as an experiment to see if we felt any different, you know? It really makes you start looking at labels like never before. And one thing that kept popping up was high fructose corn syrup. It’s in so, so many things, especially here in the States.
I remember standing in the grocery aisle, squinting at a bottle of ketchup, and thinking, “Okay, corn… corn isn’t wheat, right?” It sounds simple, but when you’re trying to be careful, every ingredient makes you pause. My first thought was that gluten is mainly a wheat, barley, and rye thing. Corn felt like it was in a different category altogether.
To get a clearer picture, I did a bit of what I usually do – poked around, read up a little from sources I trust, just to confirm my hunch. Didn’t want to rely just on my gut feeling when it came to what we were eating. It’s funny how you can go years without thinking twice about something, and then suddenly, it’s all you can focus on.
And what I found out was pretty straightforward. Yes, high fructose corn syrup is generally considered gluten-free. The key thing is that it’s made from corn. Corn itself doesn’t naturally contain gluten. The whole process of making HFCS starts with cornstarch, which is then processed to get the syrup. No wheat, barley, or rye involved in the syrup itself.
This was a bit of a load off my mind, actually. It meant that one very common ingredient wasn’t automatically off-limits just because of the gluten thing. It made navigating those food labels a tiny bit easier.
Now, the important thing to remember, and this is what I always tell folks, is that while HFCS itself is gluten-free, the product it’s in might not be. You know how it is – a soda with HFCS is probably fine from a gluten standpoint. But cookies or a sauce that also has HFCS? Well, those could have wheat flour or other gluten-containing ingredients mixed in for texture or flavor. So, the drill is still the same: you’ve got to read that entire ingredient list. Always check for other sources of gluten if you’re celiac or highly sensitive.
So, that was my little journey with figuring out the high fructose corn syrup and gluten question. It’s one of those things that seems complicated at first, but once you break it down to what it’s made from, it makes sense. Just another small piece of the puzzle when you’re trying to be more mindful about what goes into your shopping cart!