The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup

[gimygirl 0]

"The Age of Refined Bread

As early as 1826, the whole grain bread used by the military was called superior for health to the white, refined bread used by the aristocracy. In fact, the term refined today comes from this fact.

Before the industrial revolution, it was more labor consuming (and therefore costly) to refine bread, so white bread was the main staple for aristocracy. This made them “refined”.

20th Century

* In 1910, Americans were eating 210 pounds of wheat flour every year. The commercial bread-slicing machine was invented in 1912 by Otto Rohwedder, and unveiled in 1928.

* The 1930s saw the United States pursue a diet enrichment program to begin fortifying breads with vitamins and minerals after their discovery in the late 1920s.

* In 1941, calcium was added to help prevent rickets, observed in many female recruits to the military.

* In 1956, it became the law to enrich all refined breads.

* By 1971 consumption of white bread had dropped to around 110 pounds per year, but by 1997 (possibly due in part to the low fat, high carbohydrate craze and the food pyramid) consumption was up to 150 pounds – still 60 pounds shy of the fit, trim Americans at the turn of the century."

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

As to juice being bad for you, that depends on the kind of juice and whether it is 100% juice or some concoction trying to pass itself of as juice. Best example is the Cranberry section, most stuff is sugary..,

I find it disturbing that Sunny Delight is marketed for kids - one of the largest ingredients in that stuff is Canola oil.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

As to juice being bad for you, that depends on the kind of juice and whether it is 100% juice or some concoction trying to pass itself of as juice. Best example is the Cranberry section, most stuff is sugary..,

I find it disturbing that Sunny Delight is marketed for kids - one of the largest ingredients in that stuff is Canola oil.

I wondered why it tastes like #######. Nothing's better than fresh squeezed orange juice.

BTW, I found that Heinz does in fact have a sugar free ketchup! I bought a small bottle of it for $1.89. Haven't tasted it yet though.

Edited July 10, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'd worry about the beef - we're all still living with the prospect of an incurable neurological disease hanging over our heads.

[Peter Miami 0]

[Jaylen Brit 0]

2. HFCS has the same percentage of fructose as regular cane sugar or beet sugar has (both HFCS and sucrose are 50% glucose, 50% fructose)), and obviously a much lower percentage than fruit does. Since fruit has 100% fructose.

A lower percentage in terms of ratios. Do you get as big a dose though? That almost makes it sound like eating a piece of fruit is worse than having something with HFCS.

My rule of thumb is to stay away from processed food. Fresh fruits, fresh veggies, fresh proteins. If you limit the packaged stuff and white rice and bread, I think you are doing just fine.

Abso-bloomin'-lutely!

Tho - I must admit to be not being able to eat brown rice - i know its better for me but I really don't like it, lol. In my defense tho - I rarely eat rice any more - but when I *do * have it - its white (does that make me 'rice-ist'? )

Other than that tho, I eat a lot of fish (tinned fish is cheap and keeps forever til its opened), and I love cauliflower and broccoli (steamed or raw - can't stand it cooked in water - tastes horrid).

A Big Mac WILL occasionally pass my lips (hey I'm good with my general diet, Im not a food nazi tho! lol) cos it tastes nice but to be honest afterwards I feel overly thirsty and a bit sluggish so its a rare treat these days

[Fischkoepfin 1]

I'd worry about the beef - we're all still living with the prospect of an incurable neurological disease hanging over our heads.

But didn't you know that the only infected cows in the US were foreign cows????

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I'd worry about the beef - we're all still living with the prospect of an incurable neurological disease hanging over our heads.

easy now... quit scaring everyone. 150 people have died worldwide of mad cow. total. 200 people every hour die of heart disease worldwide. sheesh

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'd worry about the beef - we're all still living with the prospect of an incurable neurological disease hanging over our heads.

easy now... quit scaring everyone. 150 people have died worldwide of mad cow. total. 200 people every hour die of heart disease worldwide. sheesh

The science is actually quite valid - noone knows how widespread this condition will be, seeing as it doesn't manifest itself for upwards of 20 years in some cases.

Edited July 11, 2006 by Fishdude

[incanada1234 0]

As to juice being bad for you, that depends on the kind of juice and whether it is 100% juice or some concoction trying to pass itself of as juice. Best example is the Cranberry section, most stuff is sugary..,

I find it disturbing that Sunny Delight is marketed for kids - one of the largest ingredients in that stuff is Canola oil.

I find it disturbing because Sunny Delight tastes like sh!t. How could anyone want that over actual orange juice?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

You know, I was all anti-HFCS, and then I actually did some scientific research and found two very important facts that anti-HFCS people never mention:

1. The danger of HFCS is from the high amount of fructose. Every one of the effects cited in every anti-HFCS study are the effects of increasing the test subjects' consumption of fructose.

2. HFCS has the same percentage of fructose as regular cane sugar or beet sugar has (both HFCS and sucrose are 50% glucose, 50% fructose)), and obviously a much lower percentage than fruit does. Since fruit has 100% fructose.

And derived from those facts, #3: No one has ever done any study comparing the dangers of HFCS to sucrose, only to regular corn syrup, which is nearly all glucose.

In other words, I'm not saying you shouldn't limit your consumption of HFCS, but there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that it's any worse for you than regular sugar.

I was watching a nutrition special on tv recently, and they were talking about how hfcs is a "Toxic sugar". They said that your body does not recognize it as a burnable sugar, so it just stores it on your hips or gut (same thing with hydrogenated oils).

[Reba 2]

the dangers of HFCS even made an episode of Boston Legal! And my blog

Since we've cut out HFCS from (most) of our diet, I have lost weight, and I don't feel as yucky. Hubby has lost a bit of weight too.

Heinz has an "organic" ketchup in some stores (I can only find it in one grocery store here in town of the dozen or so stores) and Del Monte does not have HFCS in it. Sadly tho, the store brand salad dressings I bought recently DO, and silly me didn't read the label til after I got them home READ EVERYTHING!

On my HFCS rant in my blog I linked an article that says:

Evidently something in soft drinks makes people eat more food than they would otherwise. High fructose corn syrup may be that factor. High fructose corn syrup is the leading swetener in the United States today with 4.5 billion dollars worth sold each year. High-fructose corn syrup first appeared in the American market in 1966, and now the average American takes in 62.6 pounds per year.

Several recent studies have shown that fructose is processed differently in the body than the far more common sugar, glucose (3,4). Glucose causes the pancreas to release insulin which drives sugar from the bloodstream into cells. Glucose causes fat cells to release leptin that makes you feel full so you eat less. Glucose prevents the stomach from releasing ghrelin that makes you hungry. On the other hand, fructose does not cause fat cells to release leptin and does not suppress ghrelin. This means that fructose increases hunger to make you eat more. Furthermore, the liver converts fructose far more readily to a body fat called triglyceride, than it does with glucose. High triglyceride levels raise blood levels of the bad LDL cholesterol and lower blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol, which increases heart attack risk.

We bought a bag of Quaker Rice Cakes yesterday, or rather James did and I didn't notice til he brought them home. Can you believe it? There's HFCS in 'em! And they're made in Canada, so its creeping across the border now too

When I was recently home, out of curiosity when we were in Loblaws I checked a few labels of foods that I no longer eat here in the US. They don't have HFCS in them there. I used to drink Soby's Orange Cream drink all the time up home, not any more here tho. Second ingredient after water on the label hree in the US? High Fructose Corn Syrup. bleah...It really really does alter the taste and texture of foods. Its even in supposedly "healthy" breakfast cereals and some brands of yogurt! And I can't find a single package of hot dog buns that doesn't have it. Even the ones that are baked right there at the store!

I say we storm the food makers and tell them to stop using that ####### and just go back to regular sugars. Even regular corn syrup is not as bad as the over processed HFCS they use. Its cheaper for them to use because its sweeter and they can use less. But if they kill off all their customers what the hell good is it?