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Here's the scoop on candy corn:
Nutritional Information: (per piece) 7.5 calories; 1.9 g carbs; 0 g fat; 0 g protein
Ingredients: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Confectioner's Glaze, Salt, Dextrose, Gelatin, Sesame Oil, Artificial Flavor, Honey, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 3.
What You Need
to Know
Sugar. Too much sugar is not a good thing; however, in many circles it's considered better than alternatives such as high-fructose corn syrup.
Corn Syrup. Another name for liquid sugar. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest's (CSPI) Chemical Cuisine (https://cspinet.org/eating-healthy/chemical-cuisine), corn syrup, which consists mostly of dextrose, is a sweet, thick liquid made by treating cornstarch with acids or enzymes. Corn syrup has no nutritional value.
Confectioner's Glaze. Lac-resin is a secretion made by a lac bug. According to the Shellac & Forest Products Export Promotion Council: "Lac cultivation is done by putting sticks of lac encrustations which contain mature female insects, which are about to give birth to young larvae, on suitably prepared specific host plants. After emergence from the mother cells, the young larvae settle on the fresh twigs of the host plants, suck the plant sap and grow to form encrustations. The twigs containing these encrustations are harvested after they are fully grown to extract the lac res." Basically, this is food grade shellac and what creates the candy's hard coating.
Salt. Used as a preservative and for flavor. Limit your intake.
Dextrose. Dextrose, more often called glucose, is a type of sugar that is not very sweet.
Gelatin. This is the same thing used to make JELL-O. It's a protein acquired from animal hides and bones.
Sesame Oil. An oil that is high in vitamin E.
Artificial Flavor: According to the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org): "The Food and Drug Administration defines natural flavors as substances derived from animals or plants and artificial flavors are those that are not. An artificial flavor must be comprised of one of the nearly 700 FDA-allowed flavoring chemicals or food additives categorized as 'generally recognized as safe,' or any of 2,000 other chemicals not directly regulated by FDA but sanctioned for use by an industry group, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States. Most of these chemicals exist as natural flavors or can be extracted from them."
Honey. A natural sweetener.
Yellow 6. According to CSPI, "Industry-sponsored animal tests indicated that this dye, the third most widely used, causes tumors of the adrenal gland and kidney. In addition, small amounts of several carcinogens, such as 4-aminobiphenyl and benzidine (or chemicals that the body converts to those substances), contaminate Yellow 6. However, the FDA reviewed those data and found reasons to conclude that Yellow 6 does not pose a significant cancer risk to humans. Yellow 6 may cause occasional, but sometimes severe, hypersensitivity reactions."
Yellow 5. According to CSPI, "The second-most-widely used coloring causes allergy-like hypersensitivity reactions, primarily in aspirin-sensitive persons, and triggers hyperactivity in some children. It may be contaminated with such cancer-causing substances as benzidine and 4-aminobiphenyl (or chemicals that the body converts to those substances)."
Red 3. The evidence that this dye caused thyroid tumors in rats is "convincing," according to a 1983 review committee report requested by the FDA. The FDA's recommendation that the dye be banned was overruled by pressure from elsewhere in the Reagan administration. Red 3 was formerly used to color maraschino cherries, but it has been replaced there by the less controversial Red 40 dye. It is still used in a smattering of foods ranging from cake icing to fruit roll-ups to chewing gum.
Charles Platkin, Ph.D., is a nutrition and public health advocate and founder of DietDetective.com, and the director of the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College.