High fructose corn syrup

[JitterbugPerfume]

will someone please give me the real lowdown this stuff?

[beam me up scottie]

1. And me?

I know quite a bit about completely unfounded woo, but this issue seems to be more complicated than orgone and divine offspring.

[JitterbugPerfume]

do you deny

that my little darling is more evolved than regular rugrats?:crazy:

There were times that I wondered if my youngest son was evolved at ALL:rofl: :rofl:

[beam me up scottie]

7. erm, ah, ...no!

Not at all, I was just ignorant and unable to see their divinity. :D

[cosmik debris]

2. It's sugar.

People eat too much of it and then they blame the sugar rather than understanding that they ate too much.

People who eat sensibly don't have a lot to worry about.

I get A LOT more fructose from the fruit I eat than I do from HFCS. But you won't hear the nay-sayers telling me to quit eating fruit!

That's not the whole story, but that's my take on it.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. but is it different

in any way to naturally occuring frutose in fruit?


I am not a scientist . How the hell do you seperate the truth from the woo about this stuff?

[cosmik debris]

6. Fructose is fructose regardless of its origin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose

The big difference is that fructose from fruit is naturally packaged with other nutrients like vitamin C and fiber. While fructose from HFCS is packaged with more sugar--glucose/sucrose--and used in VERY tempting junk food.

But it is really all just sugar. And we all know that you shouldn't eat too much sugar. It makes you obese and diabetic.

The truth is that most of the stuff with HFCS in it is bad for you and would still be bad for you if cane sugar was used instead of HFCS. But it is not the end of the world to drink a Coke once in a while.

[drm604]

3. There's a new study by Johns Hopkins.

"Effect of glucose and fructose on food intake via malonyl-CoA signaling in the brain"

The abstract is here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WBK-4VRP21Y-7&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=31f4f50820e54181cbc6e1b51dcf546e

Of course, one study doesn't prove anything but it is suggestive. Hopefully time and further studies will help to clarify the situation.

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. thanks

I try to avoid the stuff as much as possible , but then I try to avoid all kinds of sugar.

[trotsky]

8. I myself bought into the hype for awhile.

I mean, on the surface it sure sounds suspicious. But like cosmik says, the problem is not HFCS, it's the overuse of ANY sugar. Of course that's no fun to spread around - health issues need to have a villain, either big pharma or a chemical corporation. Bingo!

[TZ]

9. You'd be surprised how many people think plain ol sugar is okay

while HFCS IS TEH DEVIL. When the hell did everything in moderation disappear?

[cosmik debris]

11. We have a cult here in Central Texas

That only drinks Dr. Pepper if it comes from Dublin, Texas. They are the only bottler in the USA that still uses Imperial Pure Cane Sugar instead of corn sweetener.

My observation is that their teeth rot just as fast, and their waist lines are just as large as the people who drink "modern" Dr. Pepper.

http://www.dublindrpepper.com/

[Codeine]

14. There is a taste difference, though.

I buy Mexican-made Coca-Cola because I enjoy the taste of cane sugar over the taste of corn syrup. That said, I eat/drink corn syrup in all kinds of other stuff. It's just sweetener.

[Jakes Progress]

20. It's a taste thing.

No one I know drinks Dublin for its health benefits. Dublin DP's taste closer to what I drank as a child. The corn syrup drinks are more cloying - actually sweeter tasting with a gummy after taste.

I buy Mexican cokes for the same reason.

About a year ago, I came across a store in Oak Cliff that sold a variety of sodas. One thing they had was Belgian Coca Cola. (I think it was Belgium) It was made with the original Coca Cola recipe, not just cane sugar, but with all of the spices and stuff that used to be used but have been dropped for cheaper ingredients. I was dubious but curious. Damn. It was like going home.

If you are too young to remember what these things tasted like in the fifties and sixties, then it probably wouldn't make any difference to you. But everyone that tasted the stuff in my home, had the same reaction.

No not healthy, but still visceral and very nostalgic.

[Silent3]

10. If the study posted by drm604 bears out...

...the problem with HFCS is behavioral. The HFCS itself isn't particularly bad for you compared to similar quantities of other sugars, but you're more likely to consume more of it, and the food the HFCS has been added to, than you would if mostly-glucose sugar was used.

[trotsky]

12. That's a key point.

Sweeteners (esp. HFCS here in the US) are in such abundance in almost every freaking thing we eat it's basically impossible to avoid. I think a lot of it has to do with using substandard ingredients in certain products, and needing to make up for it by adding sweeteners. Pasta sauces are a specific example that comes to mind. With fresh ripe tomatoes, you have a natural sweetness and if you make homemade sauce you barely need to add sugar, if any. But for mass-produced stuff, you know the tomatoes aren't going to be that great.

And since HFCS is 55% fructose while table sugar is 50%, I wonder if there is a low-fructose, high-glucose sweetener waiting in the wings to maybe be a hero. You know the base manufactured form of HFCS is only 42% fructose - problem is, it's not sweet enough. Go figure. :)

[Djinn]

15. true

in most of the western industrialised world there's too much sugar added to everything, in the US it's twice as bad - I couldn't eat commercial bread while I was in the states because it was so sweet it was like eating cake (not so nice with cheese and ham)

To avoid it just avoid as much processed food as you can and watch your weight drop.

I eat quite a lot of fat (big fry fan) and heaps of evil carbs but have always been slim, I put it down to preferring to cook my own food than buy everything pre-made and packaged with a tonne of sugar in stuff you wouldn't normally add sugar too if you were cooking it yourself. Personally I would never ever add sugar to pasta sauce and no-one who's eaten at my place has ever said "eeuww this isn't as nice as packet stuff - needs sweetener"

[moggie]

13. In this case, Big Farmer

HFCS is a product of agribusiness, after all.

[Djinn]

16. on that level they have a point

The massive subsidies given to US corn farmers are economically mental and utterly ruionous to farmer in the third world and not so great environmentally either - there's little need to add corn based products in everything we eat. I ran out of crickets for my lizards a few weeks back and he needed protein so I went to get some chicken dog food which works if you're pushed - it needs to be just chicken though - couldn't find a single can that didn't include corn derivatives in it.

This is an economic equity/accountability/transparency argument though and has little to do with corn/corn syrup being good or bad for humans.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. It's sugar.

It's sugar made from corn. So it puts U.S. corn farmers to work. And it's grown here in the U.S. so transport costs are cheaper. And it runs around the sugar cane industry, and if people think the corn industry is bad, they should take a look at the sugar cane industry.

The composition of HFCS (55% fructose, 45% glucose) is only slightly different than table sugar (sucrose, which is hydrolyzed in the gut to 50% fructose, 50% glucose).

It's pretty much the same as apples (55% fructose) or honey (55% fructose) and has much less fructose than popular woo woo sugar substitute agave nectar (95% fructose).

Of course, it doesn't really matter. Fructose and glucose are rapidly interconverted into each other in the body, so the levels stay same.

Basically, the complaints are a whole lot of woo. Scientifically illiterate people read "high fructose corn syrup" on the back of their ding dongs and they don't know what it is so it scares them, much like monosodium glutamate. Which is a natural amino acid their own body produces in abundance.

[Evoman]

18. Here was my post in the latest thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5327127&mesg_id=5329241


What made my laugh the most was the post on Agave Nectar. Isn't that shit over 60 percent fructose?!

[TZ]

19. But its NECTAR..Thats natural!

We all know that anything natural is much better for you..:crazy:

[WhollyHeretic]

21. I think it's usually over 90%