Experts are finding that "high-fructose corn syrup" (HFCS) is making us fat

[Heath]

Note AllDeaf Readers: This is a very long article, reading the information could save your life. Please be patient with the article as your eyes will be opened !

The Corn Refiners Association/Lobby, and, the FDA, should be brought up on charges: Crimes against humanity!
Experts are finding that "high-fructose corn syrup" (HFCS) is making us fat. Scientists at nutrition research centers are saying that it's a huge problem.

Exactly what is "high-fructose corn syrup"? Well, it's not the same thing at all as the natural, healthy fructose in honey and fruit. "High-fructose corn syrup" is a highly refined, artificial product. It is created through an intricate process that transforms cornstarch into a thick, clear liquid. White sugar and "high-fructose corn syrup" are not the same. Industry advocates for corn growers say that they are the same. But nutritional science studies say that there is a big difference between the two. They say that "high-fructose corn syrup" is worse than sugar.

This manufactured fructose is sweeter than sugar in an unhealthy way, and is digested differently in a bad way. Research has shown that "high-fructose corn syrup" goes directly to the liver, releasing enzymes that instruct the body to then store fat! This may elevate triglyceride (fat in blood) levels and elevate cholesterol levels. This fake fructose may slow fat burning and cause weight gain. Other research indicates that it does not stimulate insulin production, which usually creates a sense of being full. Therefore, people may eat more than they should. Indications also are that the important chromium levels are lowered by this sweetener which may then contribute to type 2 diabetes. Obesity is a contributor too.

Many older Americans are overweight. As we age, our taste buds don't work as efficiently, prompting us to eat more of everything that tastes sweet. "High-fructose corn syrup" is in almost everything.
The dangers of white sugar have been known for a long time. But now the evidence seems clear that "high-fructose corn syrup" is an even more dangerous consequence for our love of sweets. Dietary experts are singling out this fake syrup as one reason for the startling rise in obesity in America and related increase in diabetes.
"High-fructose corn syrup" is not the corn syrup you buy in a bottle at the supermarket to use for baking. It's an artificial additive that's cheaper and easier for manufacturers of sodas and fruit juices to use. If you read labels, you'll find this additive in such products as pizzas, sweetened yogurt, baby food, ketchup, cookies, beer and alarmingly in most manufactured foods. If the artificial additive "high-fructose corn syrup" is added to an otherwise healthy food, is it still healthy? If you add a speck of poison to vitamins, are they still good for you? After all, just a speck of poison probably won't hurt you on the spot, but accumulative amounts most probably will. 30 years of these accumulative affects of "high-fructose corn syrup" is evident in the obesity and health problems we have today.

Manufacturers of food products began substituting "high-fructose corn syrup" for white sugar in the 1970's. A red flag went up in my mind when I read these facts. I remember distinctly in the 70's when this happened. I was in the habit of drinking one Coca Cola every day since the 1960's. I never put on weight with only one coke per day. I clearly remember when this fake corn syrup replaced the sugar in sodas. The cola's didn't taste as good, and I began to put on weight. I remember that I knew it was the Cokes, but couldn't figure out why. I never made the connection between my weight gain and the change from sugar to "high-fructose corn syrup".

I believe that there's something meaningful in the fact that the increase of the use of "high-fructose corn syrup" in the 1990's, coincides with the obesity epidemic. This coincidence cannot easily be explained away. Annual consumption of this artificial sweetener today is more than 60 pounds per person. It was only about 1/2 pound per person in 1970. The U.S. Agriculture Department reports that Americans consume more "high-fructose corn syrup" than white sugar.

"High-fructose corn syrup" is highly valued by food manufacturers. It's easy to transport in tanker trucks. It isn't susceptible to freezer burn, as is sugar. It has a long shelf life and keeps foods from becoming dry. It gives bread and baked products a wonderful color. It's also cheaper than white sugar, partly because of generous federal subsidies and trade policies that encourage farmers to grow more corn. Fast food chains add it to their products because it is cheaper. It's in the sauces, in the condiments, in the breadings, in the buns and in the drinks. It is the commercially preferred artificial sweetener.

What's worse than sugar? Now you know.
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You may already be familiar with the dangers of fructose that I’ve warned about in the past, but what you may not know is that high-fructose corn sweeteners that have been used to sweeten soft drinks and food since the 1970s are major contributors to the obesity epidemic in the United States.

The lead article of the April 2004 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition features this issue and the researchers say consumption of high-fructose corn sweeteners increased more than 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding changes in intake of any other food or food group.

Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was not only cheaper to make, it was also much sweeter (processed fructose is nearly 20 times sweeter than table sugar), and this switch has drastically altered the American diet.

In 1966, sucrose made up 86 percent of sweeteners. Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used are made from corn. And while people ate no high-fructose corn syrup in 1966, they ate close to 63 pounds each in 2001.

HFCS, which is made from cornstarch, is now used to sweeten:
Soft drinks
Fruit juices
Baked goods
Canned fruits
Dairy products
Cookies
Gum
Jams and jellies
It contains similar amounts of both fructose and glucose, whereas sucrose is a larger sugar molecule that is metabolized in the intestine into glucose and fructose.

HFCS is the only caloric sweetener in U.S. soft drinks and over 60 percent of the calories in apple juice, which is used as a base for many fruit drinks, come from fructose. The primary source of HFCS in the American diet is soda and juice--about two-thirds of all fructose consumed in the United States is in beverages.

Researchers estimated that Americans eat 132 calories of HFCS while the top 20 percent of sweetener consumers eat over 300. And some, they say, eat as much as 700 calories per day of HFCS.
So what makes corn syrup such an unhealthy, fat-promoting product?
Fructose is Metabolized to Fat

The digestive and absorptive processes for glucose and fructose are different. Unlike glucose, which the body uses, when one consumes large amounts of fructose it is a relatively unregulated source of fuel for the liver to convert to fat and cholesterol. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. It is also known to raise triglycerides significantly.

Most Fructose is Consumed as a Liquid
The fact that most fructose is consumed in a liquid form significantly magnifies its negative metabolic effects. The devastation it has on our biology would be significantly lessened if it were consumed in solid food, but as I mentioned above, most fructose is consumed in soft drinks and fruit juices.

Fructose Does Not Stimulate Insulin Secretion

In addition, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin, a hormone thought to be involved in appetite regulation, production. Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in regulating how much food you eat and body weight, this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased food intake and weight gain.

Fructose Has no Enzymes, Vitamins or Minerals

Fructose has no enzymes, vitamins or minerals so it takes micronutrients from the body while it assimilates itself for use. However, eating a small piece of whole fruit, which contains natural fructose, is not likely to be a problem for most people because fresh fruits contain the enzymes, vitamins and minerals that are needed for the fructose to assimilate in the body.

Corn is a Grain, Not a Vegetable

Contrary to common belief, corn is a grain, not a vegetable, and is definitely not fit as a dietary staple and mainstay, primarily because it contains high amounts of sugar. When early Native Americans changed their diet to one based mostly on corn, they had increased rates of the following:
Anemia
Dental cavities
Osteoarthritis
Bone infections and other bone problems
Corn is Everywhere in the American Diet
Corn, and usually highly processed corn, has become a staple ingredient of the American diet. Cheap corn is truly the building block of the ''fast-food nation," as Michael Pollan writes in a New York Times article.

Not only is it in HFCS, but animals raised for meat are often fed corn and other grains. Most meat in supermarkets comes from grain-fed animals. On the contrary, grain-free meats not only provide a better balance of omega fats, but also the animals are healthier and more humanely raised, and the risk of acquiring an infection from a healthy animal is very remote.

What You Can Do
Genetic factors clearly play an important role in the development of obesity. However, the rapidity with which the current epidemic of obesity has hit the United States and the rest of the world makes diet and lifestyle a more likely explanation.

So the answer is plain and simple. If you want to lose weight stop drinking soda and processed fruit juices that are sweetened with about eight teaspoons of fructose per serving. I have made many difficult recommendations to patients in their quest to achieve health, but one of the simplest is to stop drinking soda. There is never any reason to drink it and it is one of the easiest foods to give up. Switch to pure water as your beverage of choice and you will be well on your way to better health.
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The list below currently includes items containing High Fructose Corn Syrup from the following fast food restaurants: Arby's, Blimpie, Burger King, Chick-fil-a, Dairy Queen, Jack in the Box, KFC, McDonald's, Subway, Taco Bell, and Whataburger. More will be added as the data is collected.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is corn syrup that has been modified to increase the level of fructose. It has become a popular topic in the discussion of obesity in America. The reason for this is that HFCS comsumption has increased dramatically since the 1970s when it was developed and so has obesity. It has not been proven that there is a link, but the average American consumed 39 pounds of HFCS in 1980 and 62.6 pounds in 2001.
Arby's

Fat Free Italian Dressing
Honey Wheat Bread
Light Balsamic Vinaigrette
Raspberry Vinaigrette
Santa Fe Ranch Dressing
Spicy Brown Honey Mustard

Blimpie

Blue Cheese Dressing
Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Cinnamon Roll
Fat Free Italian Dressing
Fudge Brownie
Honey French Dressing
Marbled Rye Roll
Mustard Potato Salad
Potato Salad
Sweet Peppers
Thousand Island Dressing

Burger King

Breakfast Syrup
Buffalo Sauce
Chocolate Shake Syrup
Coca Cola Classic
Corn Dusted Buns
Croissant (Croissan'wich)
Dr Pepper
Dutch Apple Pie
Hershey'S Sundae Pie
Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
Honey Mustard Spread
Icee - Coca Cola Classic
Icee - Minute Maid Cherry
Ketchup
Milk Shake
Milk, 1% Lowfat Chocolate
Mott's Strawberry Flavored Applesauce
Sesame Seed Buns
Specialty Buns
Sprite
Steak Sauce
Strawberry Shake Syrup
Tartar Sauce

Chick-fil-a

Barbecue Sauce
Blue Cheese Dressing
Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Carrot & Raisin Salad
Carrot & Raisin Salad
Chicken Salad Cup
Chick-fil-A Southwest Chargrilled Salad
Chocolate syrup ingredients
Dr Pepper
Fat Free Honey Mustard Dressing
Fudge Nut Brownie
Garlic and Butter Croutons
Honey Mustard Sauce
Honey Roasted BBQ Sauce
Honey Roasted Sunflower Kernels
Polynesian Sauce
Reduced Fat Raspberry Vinaigrette
Sunflower Multigrain Bagel
Thousand Island Dressing
Yeast rolls

Dairy Queen

Chocolate Cold Fudge

Jack in the Box

Asian Sesame Dressing
Barbecue Dipping Sauce
Barq's Root Beer
Bittersweet Chocolate Syrup
Blueberry French Toast Sticks
Bun
Chocolate Syrup
Coca-Cola
Croissant
Croutons, Gourmet Seasoned
Dr. Pepper
Fanta Orange Syrup
Fanta Strawberry
Grape Jelly
Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
Ketchup
Log Cabin Syrup
Low Fat Balsamic Dressing
Mayonnaise
Mayo-Onion Sauce
Minute Maid Lemonade
Oreo Cookie Crumbs
Original French Toast Sticks
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Secret Sauce
Sourdough Bread, Grilled
Sprite
Strawberry Syrup
Strawberry/Banana Syrup
Sweet 'N Sour Dipping Sauce
Tartar Sauce

KFC

Potato Salad
Apple Pie Slice
Cherry Cheesecake Parfait
Lemon Meringue Pie
Lil' Bucket Chocolate Crème
Lil' Bucket Fudge Brownie
Lil' Bucket Lemon Crème
Lil' Bucket Strawberry Short Cake
Strawberry Crème Pie Slice
Apple Pie Mini's
Mott's Apple Sauce

McDonald's

1% Low Fat Chocolate Milk Jug
Baked Apple Pie
Barbeque Sauce
Big Mac Bun
Big Mac Sauce
Biscuit
Butter Garlic Croutons
Chocolate Triple Thick Shake
Coca-Cola Classic
Deluxe Warm Cinnamon Roll
English Muffin
Hi-C Orange Lavaburst
Honey Wheat Roll
Hot Caramel Sundae
Hot Mustard Sauce
Hotcakes
Ketchup
Low Fat Caramel Dip (for Apple Dippers)
McDonaldland Cookies
McFlurry with Oreo Cookies
McRib
Newman's Own Cobb Dressing
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
POWERade Mountain Blast
Regular Bun
Sesame Seed Bun
Southwestern Chipotle Barbeque Sauce
Sprite
Strawberry Sundae
Strawberry Triple Thick Shake
Sweet 'N Sour Sauce

Subway

Chicken Strips, Teriyaki Glazed
Chipotle Soutwest Sauce
Chocolate Chunk Cookie
Deli Style Roll
Fat Free Honey Mustard
Peanut Butter
Sourdough Bread
Wheat Bread

Taco Bell

Caramel Apple Empanada
Citrus Salsa
Pizza Sauce
Salsa

Whataburger

Apple Turnover, Fried
Bread, Texas Toast Enriched
Buns, Wheat
Buns, White
Crackers, Keebler Original Club
Croutons, Njoy Seasoned
Dressing, Low Fat Ranch
Dressing, Low Fat Vinaigrette
Dressing, Thousand Island
Jam, Strawberry
Jelly, Grape
Milkshake, Malt Syrup
Milkshake, Chocolate
Milkshake, Strawberry
Pancake Syrup
Salad Dressing
Syrup, Cherry Coke Fountain
Syrup, Coca-Cola Classic Fountain
Syrup, Dr Pepper Fountain
Syrup, Fanta Strawberry Fountain
Syrup, Barq’s Root Beer Fountain
Syrup, Minute Maid Lemonade Fountain
Syrup, Minute Maid Orange Soda Fountain
Syrup, POWERaDE Fruit Punch Fountain
Syrup, Sprite Fountain
Tartar Sauce
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New research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition links diabetes with the rise in consumption of high fructose corn syrup. By examining the consumption of food macronutrients (fats, proteins and carbohydrates) consumed by the population from 1909 to 1997, researchers were able to correlate, with startling clarity, the rise of diabetes with the consumption of refined sugars and carbohydrates.
A long list of nutritionists and naturopaths (myself included) have been telling the public about this correlation for years. It's nice to see additional epidemiological research to back up the trend. So what does it all mean? For starters, it means that the low-fat diet crazy of the 1980's was all wrong. When doctors and the American Heart Association told people to avoid fat, people consumed massive quantities of refined sugars, causing an acceleration of chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes (which, of course, have terrible implications for heart health as well).

It also means that the current efforts by the Bush Administration and the sugar industry to claim that carbohydrates don't promote disease are, of course, hogwash. Due to business interests, the Bush Administration has been pressuring the World Health Organization to avoid recommending that people around the world eat less refined sugar. You see, the United States is the world's largest exporter of high-sugar, disease-promoting foods and drinks such as soft drinks and candy bars. If the world is told to eat less sugar, that will not only make everyone healthier and save billions of dollars in annual health care costs, it will also hurt the profits of a few influential companies and organizations in the United States. So, of course, they can't allow the world to be told to eat less sugar, which is why Big Sugar has harshly criticized anyone who explains that refined white sugar is bad for you. That's food politics at work.
Related book:
How to Halt Diabetes In 25 Days
A down-to-earth guide on halting type-2 diabetes using natural methods: nutrition, food choice, medicinal herbs and more. Provides a 25-day plan for radically altering your body physiology to literally reverse type-2 diabetes.

The Seven Laws of Nutrition
by Mike Adams
Transform your health, reverse chronic disease and free yourself from dangerous pharmaceuticals by mastering the fundamental laws of nutrition.

Learn: Why most modern diseases are actually a result of nutritional deficiencies that can be easily corrected.
The four key steps to changing your life and achieving any level of health you desire.
How everyday foods, available at any grocery store, offer stronger disease-fighting potential than outrageously expensive prescription drugs.
How food processing companies strip away as much as 98% of the natural nutrition before delivering products for human consumption.
Why you can't afford to wait on conventional medicine to change its ways: if you want to be healthy, you have to take charge NOW!


Lastly, it also means that the #1 cause of disease and death in the United States is, in fact, our national food supply. It is our foods that are killing us, and the studies prove it. If we weren't eating such high quantities of high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, aspartame, sodium nitrite, MSG and other metabolic disruptors, we'd all be far healthier today. In fact, if we ate what previous generations ate, our levels of chronic disease would plummet to the levels observed in the 1940's and 1950's.
And yet, today we have the opportunity to be far healthier than our grandparents simply because we have access to miracle-class sources of outstanding nutrition. These "superfoods" include chlorella, spirulina, flax oil, wheat grass, quinoa and many others. We have access to these today at affordable prices, allowing us to enhance our health in ways our grandparents never could have imagined.

It is sad, indeed, that the American public is now experiencing more chronic disease than at any time in recorded human history. We've done it to ourselves, and we've done it by allowing soft drink vendors to invade our schools, by allowing the sugar industry to control the White House, by allowing food companies to sell milled grains (like white flour) that lack any notable nutrition, by falling for the bad nutritional science promoted by the AHA, ADA and FDA, and by subsidizing both the corn and sugar industries with hundreds of millions of dollars that ultimately have the effect of making junk foods far cheaper than healthy foods.

We've done all this to ourselves, folks, and the vast majority of it has been done in order to protect the profits of a few influential organizations. But the ultimate cost is widespread chronic disease and billions of dollars in associated health care costs.

 

[Heath]

Despite a major effort to educate the nation on the risks of high blood pressure and a growing arsenal of medications to control it, the number of Americans with hypertension increased by about 30 percent over the past decade. Data from 1988 to 1994 found that about 50 million people had hypertension. A new report covering 1999 to 2000 shows that number jumping to 65 million, or 31.3 percent of the adult population. The study was published last week in the journal Hypertension.

The reasons for this increase are not certain, says Larry Fields, a senior adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services. It could just be that the population is bigger, older, and fatter. Diet may also influence blood pressure in a variety of ways. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has shown that controlling sodium, most of which is hidden in processed and prepared foods, reduces blood pressure. Another report last week linked sugared soft drinks to weight gain. That adds to evidence that the high-fructose corn syrup used in soft drinks may increase the risk of obesity and diabetes and, in turn, hypertension. In animals, fructose leads to hypertension. In fact, new antihypertensive medications are tested on hypertensive rats fed high-fructose diets. Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup has skyrocketed to about 63 pounds per person yearly, yet its impact on human blood pressure has yet to be studied.
Source: Amanda Spake, www.KeepMedia.com

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Think of sugar and you think of sugar cane or beets. Extraction of sugar from sugar cane spurred the colonization of the New World. Extraction of sugar from beets was developed during the time of Napoleon so that the French could have sugar in spite of the English trading blockade.

Nobody thinks of sugar when they see a field of corn. Most of us would be surprised to learn that the larger percentage of sweeteners used in processed food comes from corn, not sugar cane or beets.

The process for making the sweetener high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) out of corn was developed in the 1970s. Use of HFCS grew rapidly, from less than three million short tons in 1980 to almost 8 million short tons in 1995. During the late 1990s, use of sugar actually declined as it was eclipsed by HFCS. Today Americans consume more HFCS than sugar.

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is produced by processing corn starch to yield glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. It all sounds rather simple—white cornstarch is turned into crystal clear syrup. However, the process is actually very complicated. Three different enzymes are needed to break down cornstarch, which is composed of chains of glucose molecules of almost infinite length, into the simple sugars glucose and fructose.

First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is industrially produced by a bacterium, usually Bacillus sp. It is purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers.

Next, an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose. Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely see little balls of Aspergillus floating on the top.

The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, is very expensive. It converts glucose to a mixture of about 42 percent fructose and 50-52 percent glucose with some other sugars mixed in. While alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it. Inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are used only once, glucose-isomerase is reused until it loses most of its activity.

There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that takes the mixture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is back-blended with the original mixture to yield a final concentration of about 55 percent fructose—what the industry calls high fructose corn syrup.

HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from cane or beet sugar but it is obviously much more complicated to make, involving vats of murky fermenting liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of which take place in one of 16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. Yet in spite of all the special enzymes required, HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It is also very easy to transport—it's just piped into tanker trucks. This translates into lower costs and higher profits for food producers.

The development of the HFCS process came at an opportune time for corn growers. Refinements of the partial hydrogenation process had made it possible to get better shortenings and margarines out of soybeans than corn. HFCS took up the slack as demand for corn oil margarine declined. Lysine, an amino acid, can be produced from the corn residue after the glucose is removed. This is the modus operandi of the food conglomerates—break down commodities into their basic components and then put them back together again as processed food.

Today HFCS is used to sweeten jams, condiments like ketchup, and soft drinks. It is also a favorite ingredient in many so-called health foods. Four companies control 85 percent of the $2.6 billion business—Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Staley Manufacturing Co. and CPC International. In the mid-1990s, ADM was the object of an FBI probe into price fixing of three products—HFCS, citric acid and lysine—and consumers got a glimpse of the murky world of corporate manipulation.

There's a couple of other murky things that consumers should know about HFCS. According to a food technology expert, two of the enzymes used, alpha-amylase and glucose-isomerase, are genetically modified to make them more stable. Enzymes are actually very large proteins and through genetic modification specific amino acids in the enzymes are changed or replaced so the enzyme's "backbone" won't break down or unfold. This allows the industry to get the enzymes to higher temperatures before they become unstable.

Consumers trying to avoid genetically modified foods should avoid HFCS. It is almost certainly made from genetically modified corn and then it is processed with genetically modified enzymes. I've seen some estimates claiming that virtually everything—almost 80 percent—of what we eat today has been genetically modified at some point. Since the use of HFCS is so prevalent in processed foods, those figures may be right.

But there's another reason to avoid HFCS. Consumers may think that because it contains fructose—which they associate with fruit, which is a natural food—that it is healthier than sugar. A team of investigators at the USDA, led by Dr. Meira Field, has discovered that this just ain't so.

Sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. When sugar is given to rats in high amounts, the rats develop multiple health problems, especially when the rats were deficient in certain nutrients, such as copper. The researchers wanted to know whether it was the fructose or the glucose moiety that was causing the problems. So they repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The male rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy—that means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded. They also had delayed testicular development. Dr. Field explains that fructose in combination with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with collagen production. (Copper deficiency, by the way, is widespread in America.) In a nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart. The females were not so affected, but they were unable to produce live young.

"The medical profession thinks fructose is better for diabetics than sugar," says Dr. Field, "but every cell in the body can metabolize glucose. However, all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and cirrhotic."

HFCS contains more fructose than sugar and this fructose is more immediately available because it is not bound up in sucrose. Since the effects of fructose are most severe in the growing organism, we need to think carefully about what kind of sweeteners we give to our children. Fruit juices should be strictly avoided—they are very high in fructose—but so should anything with HFCS.

Interestingly, although HFCS is used in many products aimed at children, it is not used in baby formula, even though it would probably save the manufactueres a few pennies for each can. Do the formula makers know something they aren't telling us? Pretty murky!

Source: About the author. Weston A. Price Foundation Board Member Linda Forristal is the author of Ode to Sucanat (1993) and Bulgarian Rhapsody (1998). Visit her website at www.motherlindas.com. This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Fall 2001, www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html


High Fructose Corn Syrup (Oregon State University)
----------------------------------High Fructose Corn Syrup is extremely soluble and hydroscopic. Generally, baked products made with HFCS will be softer than those made with sucrose. This means if these products are "steamed" they may get gummy. Thus, if there is a fast-food hamburger place that precooks and wraps their product, they may prefer the firmer product.

Fructose and Fructose Products

Fructose is a monosaccharide that is approximately 75% sweeter than sucrose. For this reason, fructose and fructose products are frequently substituted for sucrose. High Fructose corn syrup is often used.

The high fructose corn syrup story is one of the most "revolutionary" in food science in the last decade. Consumption has increased since its inception. The products themselves are made up hydrolyzed corn starch. The corn starch is hydrolyzed and that corn syrup has a invertase which will change glucose into fructose.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Information contributed by Corn Refiners Association [Communication: September 26,2003 Audrae Erickson, President]

Fact: The truth is table sugar and HFCS are both about 50% fructose and 50% dextrose. An analysis of annual HFCS 55 & 42 production would reveal an average content of 49% fructose-nearly identical to the fructose content of sucrose.

Webbers Comment: HFCS is not generally 100% solids. Additionally, recognize that table sugar is 100% sucrose [this webber has had scanning electron micrographs made of cane table sugar and beet table sugar and there is a minute amount of unknown material on the crystals]. Sucrose is a disaccaride made up of equal amounts of fructose and glucose bonded together to give sucrose. Each of these three sugars have different characteristics: crystal shape, solubility, flavor. In regard to the purity of high fructose corn syrup, you need to check with your manufacturer to determine if the corn has been completely hydrolyzed and 50% glucose inverted to fructose.

A source of composition is at www.wcommerce.com/CornSyrup/55.PDF. On a % dry basis they indicate HFCS at: Fructose 55%, Dextrose 41%, Maltose 2%, and higher saccharides 2%. This appears to be the composition used in soft drinks. The Corn Refiners Association's own web site indicates that "High fructose corn sweeteners begin with enzymes which isomerize dextrose to produce a 42 percent fructose syrup. By passing 42-HFCS through a column which retains fructose, refiners draw off 90 percent HFCS and blend it with 42-HFCS to make a third syrup, 55-HFCS." HFCS55 is the HFCS recommended for soft drinks by the National Soft Drink Association. Different HFCS are selected for different purposes.

Why use a high fructose corn syrup? It is because of their attributes.

retain moisture and/or prevent drying out
control crystallization
produce an osmotic pressure that is higher than for sucrose or medium invert sugar and thereby help control microbiological growth or help in penetration of cell membranes.
provide a ready yeast-fermentable substrate
blend easily with sweeteners, acids, and flavorings
provide a controllable substrate for browning and Maillard reaction.
impart a degree of sweetness that is essentially the same as in invert liquid sugar
high sweetness
low viscosity
reduced tendency toward characterization
costs less than liquid sucrose or corn syrup blends
retain moisture and/or prevent drying out
These attributes are advantages in many instances. However, these same attributes are a disadvantage as well as an advantage. For example, at one time a major fast food company was buying hamburger buns from a relatively small baker because they were using granulated sugar and not high-fructose corn syrup. Why do you think so?
Source: Oregon State University, oregonstate.edu/food-resource/sugar/hfcs.html


Facts about High Fructose Corn Syrup (The Corn Refiners Association)
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High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a corn sweetener found in numerous foods and beverages on the grocery store shelves. HFCS is composed of either 42% or 55% fructose, with the remaining sugars being glucose and higher saccharides. As such, HFCS is extremely similar to regular table sugar (sucrose), which is a 50/50 blend of fructose and glucose. There is very little pure fructose as a single sugar in the diet. It is usually found together with glucose.

First and foremost, HFCS is safe.

In 1983, FDA listed HFCS as Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) for use in food (48 FR pg. 10301). The agency considered that HFCS is as safe as sucrose, corn sugar, and corn syrup for use in food.

In 1988, FDA proposed to reaffirm the safety of HFCS (53 FR pg. 44904). In that proposed reaffirmation, which was finalized in 1996 (61 FR pg. 43447), FDA stated that the basis for listing HFCS as GRAS in 1983 was that ... "the saccharide composition (glucose to fructose ratio) of HFCS is approximately the same as that of honey, invert sugar and the disaccharide sucrose."

The proposal on HFCS safety concluded: The safety of the monosaccharides (i.e., glucose and fructose) in HFCS (containing equimolar amounts of glucose and fructose) is comparable to the safety of sugars in invert sugar. It is also related to the safety of sucrose. Consumption of all three sweeteners results in the absorption and metabolism of glucose and fructose in an approximately equimolar ratio. Thus, consumption of HFCS (containing equimolar amounts of glucose and fructose) is not expected to alter the identity, level or ratio of monosaccharides that are available for absorption and metabolism from the food supply.

In other words, the composition of HFCS is approximately the same as table sugar or honey.

In 1996, FDA published the final rule once again reaffirming HFCS as safe for use in food (61 FR pg. 43447). In that ruling, FDA repeated its statement on the similarity of HFCS to honey, invert sugar and sucrose. These rulings apply to both HFCS 42 and 55.

The problem with recent 'scientific' studies.

Several studies have examined fructose (alone) -- not HFCS. Humans rarely consume fructose as the sole source of sugar. The studies should use glucose-fructose combinations as used in table sugar or HFCS.

Extrapolation of studies using pure fructose to HFCS may not provide simple direct predictions because the presence of glucose in HFCS stimulates metabolism of these sugars. Furthermore, pure fructose is not found as the only single sugar in the diet, so studies using only pure fructose are not reflective of the typical human diet.

Most studies on fructose itself have been done using animal models which have not been established as appropriate species for valid comparisons to humans in evaluating the effect of dietary sugars. Consequently, the results from these studies must be carefully considered as to their scientific relationships to humans.

In fact, the author of one of these studies, Peter Havel, associate professor of nutrition at the University of California-Davis, was careful to acknowledge in his own study that "data in humans is less clear, perhaps in part because the effects of fructose are often compared with those of sucrose, which is composed of 50% fructose" and "a considerable amount of research needs to be done to more completely appreciate the effect of fructose on the American diet." In a news article published in The Detroit News entitled, "High fructose corn syrup concerns health experts," Havel is quoted as saying that whether fructose actually has negative effects is not known "because the studies have not been conducted." This statement indicates caution in extrapolation of animal studies to humans.

Many published studies have used abnormally high fructose intake levels. The average daily range of human fructose intake is 7-9% of daily dietary energy intake. Peter Havel's study, for example, utilized experimental diets that used pure fructose at intake levels ranging anywhere from 35 - 66% of daily energy intake.

Source: The Corn Refiners Association, info@corn.org or www.hfcsfacts.com/

 

[Heath]

The Dangers of Corn Syrup
-------------------------------
There's been a quiet revolution going on in America since 1970: The overthrow of sugar and honey by corn syrups. And little wonder. Corn syrup, particularly high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is cheap to produce, sweet to the tongue, and easy to store safely. According to the USDA, the average American consumed 1/2 pound of high fructose corn syrup in 1970. By the mid-1990s, that figure has jumped to 55.3 pounds of HFCS per person. And just because you stay away from soda and sweets doesn't count you out as a corn syrup consumer: HFCS finds its way into everything from bread to pasta sauces to bacon to beer. And, despite the FDA's assurances to the contrary, a growing number of researchers are beginning to think HFCS is a constant dietary companion we'd be better off without.

The trouble may lie with the particular form fructose assumes in corn syrup. While naturally occurring sugars, as well as the sucrose we spoon into our coffee, contain fructose bound to other sugars, high-fructose corn syrup contains a good deal of "free" or unbound fructose. And it may be this free fructose that interferes with the heart's use of key minerals, like magnesium, copper and chromium.

The most striking evidence comes from recent animal studies. When rats fed a low-copper, high fructose diet were compared with rats fed a low-copper diet high in complex carbohydrates, the difference in longevity was enormous. "Rats normally live for a good two years," explains Meira Fields, Ph.D., research chemist at the USDA in Beltsville, Maryland. "But the rats in my study fed a high-fructose, low copper diets are dying after 5 weeks." One of the few human studies of low-copper, high-fructose diets was abruptly stopped when 4 of the 24 subjects developed heart-related abnormalities, according to Fields. High fructose diets have also been implicated in the development of adult-onset diabetes. Fructose, especially when combined with other sugars, reduces stores of chromium, a mineral essential for maintaining balanced insulin levels, according to Richard Anderson, Ph.D., lead scientist at the Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.

And low chromium levels can cause everything from high cholesterol levels to hyperglycemia to the kind of impaired glucose tolerance that can lead to adult-onset diabetes. But reversing the chromium deficiency can quickly bring about positive change. "In addition to bringing down high blood sugar, chromium can also bring up low blood sugar. Bringing a man's chromium levels into the safe range can have a profound effect on his feeling of well-being," says Anderson.

Since you need both high fructose and low mineral levels to suffer ill effects, you've got two avenues of positive action. Here's some ways to keep minerals high and fructose levels low:

Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. While canned produce and jams and jellies frequently contain high-fructose corn syrup, fresh produce packs in minerals without processed sugars, providing a double benefit. Look to potatoes for extra copper, spinach and other leafy greens for a wallop of magnesium, and broccoli for chromium.
Limit sodas and processed fruit juices. A man who takes in 2,000 calories and drinks three and a half cans of soda would be getting 15 percent of his calories as fructose, according to Anderson. And not a smidgen of copper, magnesium or chromium.
Consider supplements. "It's nearly impossible to get all of your chromium from food," explains Anderson. He recommends getting between 50 and 200 mcg. of chromium a day via a balanced nutrient supplement like Centrum Silver. That should take care of your copper and magnesium requirements, too.
Keep sweets discrete. If you do indulge in a donut or cookie, try to eat it in combination with non-sweetened food or drinks like milk or nuts. "Combinations of sugars, like fructose plus sucrose, really increase your chromium losses," explains Anderson.
Source: http://www.menshealth.com/features/m...ocs/doc31.html


Sugar coated: We're drowning in high fructose corn syrup. Do the risks go beyond our waistline?
---------------------------
An overweight America may be fixated on fat and obsessed with carbs, but nutritionists say the real problem is much sweeter -- we're awash in sugar.

Not just any sugar, but high fructose corn syrup.

The country eats more sweetener made from corn than from sugarcane or beets, gulping it down in drinks as well as in frozen food and baked goods. Even ketchup is laced with it.

Almost all nutritionists finger high fructose corn syrup consumption as a major culprit in the nation's obesity crisis. The inexpensive sweetener flooded the American food supply in the early 1980s, just about the time the nation's obesity rate started its unprecedented climb.

The question is why did it make us so fat. Is it simply the Big Gulp syndrome -- that we're eating too many empty calories in ever-increasing portion sizes? Or does the fructose in all that corn syrup do something more insidious -- literally short-wire our metabolism and force us to gain weight?

The debate can divide a group of nutritional researchers almost as fast as whether the low-carb craze is fact or fad.

Loading high fructose corn syrup into increasingly larger portions of soda and processed food has packed more calories into us and more money into food processing companies, say nutritionists and food activists. But some health experts argue that the issue is bigger than mere calories. The theory goes like this: The body processes the fructose in high fructose corn syrup differently than it does old-fashioned cane or beet sugar, which in turn alters the way metabolic-regulating hormones function. It also forces the liver to kick more fat out into the bloodstream.

The end result is that our bodies are essentially tricked into wanting to eat more and at the same time, we are storing more fat.

"One of the issues is the ease with which you can consume this stuff," says Carol Porter, director of nutrition and food services at UC San Francisco. "It's not that fructose itself is so bad, but they put it in so much food that you consume so much of it without knowing it."

A single 12-ounce can of soda has as much as 13 teaspoons of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup. And because the amount of soda we drink has more than doubled since 1970 to about 56 gallons per person a year, so has the amount of high fructose corn syrup we take in. In 2001, we consumed almost 63 pounds of it, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The USDA suggests most of us limit our intake of added sugar -- that's everything from the high fructose corn syrup hidden in your breakfast cereal to the sugar cube you drop into your after-dinner espresso -- to about 10 to 12 teaspoons a day. But we're not doing so well. In 2000, we ate an average of 31 teaspoons a day, which was more than 15 percent of our caloric intake. And much of that was in sweetened drinks.

Beyond soda

So, the answer is to just avoid soda, right? Unfortunately, it's not that simple, because the inexpensive, versatile sweetener has crept into plenty of other places -- foods you might not expect to have any at all. A low-fat, fruit-flavored yogurt, for example, can have 10 teaspoons of fructose-based sweetener in one serving.

Because high fructose corn syrup mixes easily, extends shelf-life and is as much as 20 percent cheaper than other sources of sugar, large-scale food manufacturers love it. It can help prevent freezer burn, so you'll find it on the labels of many frozen foods. It helps breads brown and keeps them soft, which is why hot dog buns and even English muffins hold unexpected amounts.

The question remains just how much more dangerous high fructose corn syrup is than other sugars.

Fructose, as the name implies, is the sugar found naturally in fruit. It can be extracted, turned into granules and used like sugar in the kitchen. It used to be considered a healthier alternative to sucrose -- plain old table sugar. It's sweeter, so less is needed to achieve the same taste. Diabetics use it because fructose doesn't stimulate insulin production, so blood sugar levels remain stable.

The process of pulling sugar from cornstarch wasn't perfected until the early 1970s, when Japanese researchers developed a reliable way to turn cornstarch into syrup sweet enough to compete with liquid sugar. After some tinkering, they landed on a formula that was 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose -- sweet enough and cheap enough to make most soda companies jump from liquid sugar to high fructose corn syrup by the 1980s.

The results were dramatic. -- a whopping increase of 4,080 percent.

Journalist Greg Critser lays out a compelling case against high fructose corn syrup in his 2003 book, "Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World." He argues that federal policies that aimed to stabilize food prices and support corn production in the 1970s led to a glut of corn and then to high fructose corn syrup. With a cheaper way to sweeten food, producers pumped up the size and amount of sweet snacks and drinks on the market and increased profits.

It's not natural

Critser writes that despite the food industry's arguments that sugar is sugar, whether fructose or sucrose, no group "has yet refuted the growing scientific concern that, when all is said and done, fructose ... is about the furthest thing from natural that one can imagine, let alone eat."

Although some researchers have long been suspicious that too much fructose can cause problems, the latest case against high fructose corn syrup began in earnest a few years ago. Dr. George Bray, principal investigator of the Diabetes Prevention Program at Louisiana State University Medical Center told the International Congress on Obesity that in 1980, just after high fructose corn syrup was introduced in mass quantities, relatively stable obesity rates began to climb. By 2000, they had doubled.

Further, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2002 published research that showed that teenagers' milk consumption between 1965 and 1996 decreased by 36 percent, while soda consumption increased by more than 200 percent. Bray argues that without calcium, which nutritionists agree can help the body regulate weight, kids got fatter. He says that he could find no other single combination of environmental or food changes that were as significant to the rise in obesity.

Other studies by researchers at UC Davis and the University of Michigan have shown that consuming fructose, which is more readily converted to fat by the liver, increases the levels of fat in the bloodstream in the form of triglycerides.

And unlike other types of carbohydrate made up of glucose, fructose does not stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin. Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at UC Davis who studies the metabolic effects of fructose, has also shown that fructose fails to increase the production of leptin, a hormone produced by the body's fat cells.

Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control body weight. And in another metabolic twist, Havel's research shows that fructose does not appear to suppress the production of ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger and appetite.

"Because fructose in isolation doesn't activate the hormones that regulate body weight as do other types of carbohydrate composed of glucose, consuming a diet high in fructose could lead to taking in more calories and, over time, to weight gain," he says.

However, Havel isn't convinced high fructose corn syrup is by itself the problem. That's in part because it is composed of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose, which is similar to the 50-50 combination of fructose and glucose found in table sugar. Havel's studies have focused on fructose by itself and not as part of a high fructose corn syrup mixture.

"Whether there is an important difference in the effects of consuming beverages sweetened with a mixture of 55 percent as opposed to 50 percent fructose would be hard to measure," he says. "Additional studies are needed to better understand the nutritional impact of consuming different types of sugars in humans."

Still, other researchers are finding new problems with high fructose corn syrup. A study in last month's Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that women whose diet was high in total carbohydrate and fructose intake had an increased risk of colorectal cancer. And Dr. Mel Heyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at UCSF, is seeing sick children whose bodies have been overloaded with fructose from naturally occurring fructose in fruit juice combined with soda and processed food.

"The way the body handles glucose is different than fructose,'' he says. "It can overload the intestines' ability to absorb carbohydrate by giving it too much fructose. That can cause cramps, bloating and loose stools."

The jury's still out

Like others in the field, he says there is much to discover in how sugar works, but he disagrees that high fructose corn syrup is somehow reprogramming our bodies toward obesity. Rather, he says, we're just eating too much of it.

Nutrition theory holds that the basic make-up of fructose-laced corn syrup is not much different than table sugar. They react about the same in the body, says Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. "There are some modest differences in metabolism, but I don't think fructose per se is the culprit."

Neither do the food companies that use it in copious amounts.

Says Stephanie Childs, a spokesperson for the Grocery Manufacturers Association: "At the end of the day, how any sweetener affects your weight depends on how many calories you are taking in overall. Overemphasizing one nutrient at the detriment of others is not going to solve the problem."

Even some leading nutrition reformers aren't convinced that high fructose corn syrup is of itself the issue. The bigger battle, says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, is to get added sugars listed on food labels with a percentage of daily value. That means a consumer could look at a package and see that, for example, one soda provides almost all the sugar a person should eat in a day.

"It simply comes down to this,'' he says. "We're eating too much refined sugars, be it sucrose or high fructose corn syrup or any other refined sugar."

Source: Kim Severson, Chronicle Staff Writer, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...DGS24VKMH1.DTL


A sugar glossary

Here's a rundown of the various types of sugar you'll find on product labels.

Brown sugar. Sugar crystals contained in a molasses syrup, with natural flavor and color; 91 to 96 percent sucrose
Corn syrup. Made from cornstarch. Mostly glucose. Can have maltose
Dextrose. Commonly known as corn sugar and grape sugar. Naturally occurring form of glucose
Fructose. Sugar found in fruit and honey. Sweetest natural sugar
Galactose. Sugar found linked to glucose to form lactose, or milk sugar
Glucose. Also called dextrose. The human body's primary source of energy. Most of the carbohydrates you eat are converted to glucose in the body.
High fructose corn syrup. Derived from cornstarch, usually a combination of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent sucrose. Treated with an enzyme that converts glucose to fructose, which results in a sweeter product. Used in soft drinks, baked goods, jelly, syrups, fruits and desserts
Honey. Sweet syrupy fluid made by bees from the nectar collected from flowers and stored in nests or hives as food. Composed of fructose and glucose
Lactose. Sugar found in milk and milk products that is made of glucose and galactose
Maltose. Also called malt sugar. Used in the fermentation of alcohol by converting starch to sugar
Maple syrup. A concentrated sucrose solution made from mature sugar maple tree sap that flows in spring. Mostly replaced by pancake syrup, a mixture of sucrose and artificial maple flavorings
Molasses. Thick syrup left after making sugar from sugarcane. Brown in color with a high sugar concentration
Powdered or confectioner's sugar. Granulated sugar that has been pulverized. Available in several degrees of fineness
Sucrose. Commonly called cane sugar, table sugar or simply sugar
Sugar (granulated). Refined cane or beet sugar; 100 percent sucrose
Turbinado sugar. Raw sugar that has been partially refined and washed
Awash in corn syrup

It should come as no shock to most consumers that a Pepsi or a Fig Newton has plenty of sugar - most of it from high fructose corn syrup. But what's surprising is the products where the sweetener hides out and how disguised it can be by the deceptively small serving size listed on the nutrition label. Although the numbers below show teaspoons of sugar per serving, people often eat more than one serving. The U.S. Department of Agriculture advises most people to limit themselves to 10 to 12 teaspoons of added sugars a day.

How much is too much?

The list below shows how much sugar, mostly in the form of high fructose corn syrup, is in each of these single servings.

Sunkist soda: 10 1/2 teaspoons of sugar

Berkeley Farms low-fat yogurt with fruit: 10 teaspoons of sugar

Mott's applesauce: 5 teaspoons of sugar

Slim-Fast chocolate cookie dough meal bar: 5 teaspoons of sugar

Ketchup: 1 tablespoon: 1 teaspoon of sugar

Hansen's Super Vita orange-carrot Smoothie: 10 teaspoons of sugar

Source: Kim Severson at kseverson@sfchronicle.com or www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/ chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL


Product Short List
----------------------
A quick tour down the grocery aisle for items for the hoiliday poduced the following list of products which contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. This is by no means an exhaustive list. A review of your own refrigerator and cupboards might reveal some additional culprits.

Cool Whip
Minute Maid Orange Juice
Mountain Dairy Egg Nog
Mrs. Smith Pumpkin Pie
Nabisco Wheat Thins
Popcycles
Ritz Crackers
Syrup: Fred Myer Original, Golden Griddle, Kellogg's Eggo, Log Cabin, Mrs. Butterworth's, Nalley Butter Lumber Jack (top or number 2 ingredient is HFCS)
Yoplait yogurt

 

[Heath]

I'd like to point out that one of the reasons why American food manufacturers use weird chemical sweeteners instead of natural sugar is the import quotas, which make sugar much more expensive in the US than anywhere else.

Another scam worth mentioning in this are 'fruit preserves' made with 'corn syrup' (what a misleading name for a nasty chemical concoction). Fruit preserves and jellies are generally worthless nutritionally, nothing but sweeteners. You're much better off eating fresh fruits, with fiber and all.
Say, the manufacturer mixes 35% fruit, 33% sugar, and 32% corn syrup - that's the order in which the ingredients are liste don the label, but in fact it's 2/3 sweeteners. They also add 'fruit juice' concentrate to confuse the consumer.

 

[Grummer]

good thread !

UM,
I want to ask a question, and im not being cheeky here
after ALL the food, products included, you listed, what FOOD can I BUY ? and EAT ?!

its almost like, I cant eat ANYTHING , its scary

any ideas? can you follow up, so at least we dont get scared to eat nothing at all

LMAO

excellent posting though

Cheers,

 

[Endymion]

High Fructose Corn Syrup has already been known to be troublesome. Unfortunately, it's almost everywhere. To pretty much avoid it, you're going to have to become a major health nut and be as picky about your intake of food as Enron was about hiding their money.

I think the best way to start eating healthy is to take it step by step. First, why not try identifying the major killers in your diet (saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol), and start choosing food that has less of them listed on the nutrition facts. Then as you get used to your new changes, you can work your way up more.

It's a little tough to stop eating unhealthy food, but you already do it. For one thing, you don't drink antifreeze, right?

 

[me_punctured]

Asking us if we drink antifreeze? How dare you insult our intelligence? Surely we know better than to consume household products!

Ethylene glycol tastes delicious, by the way. Yum yum.

 

[Endymion]

Ethylene glycol tastes delicious, by the way. Yum yum.

Why not use it instead of that NutraSweet gunk in your food?

Or maybe you can try ethane-1,2-diol. That's funky stuff too.

 

[me_punctured]

It's impossible to turn over a new leaf overnight. Eating healthy is an acquired habit. It can be a difficult transition to make if you grew up on a steady diet of processed foods and carbonated beverages. Just like a certain wise headless character said, take it step by step. Educate yourself and start exploring the world of fresh produce. Ignorance may be bliss, but it can also kill you.

Start cutting down on carbonated beverages and store-bought fruit juices for starters. It may be heartbreaking to let go of the blended coffee drinks (Starbucks frappuccinos anyone?). You can replace them with mineral water, unsweetened tea, fresh fruit smoothies, vegetable juice, low-fat or fat-free milk and soy milk, and of course, good ol' plain distilled water.

I drink iced barley tea in the summertime. It's my favorite.

 

[me_punctured]

Why not use it instead of that NutraSweet gunk in your food?

Or maybe you can try ethane-1,2-diol. That's funky stuff too.

You only wish that I eat NutraSweet gunk-saturated foods.

And isn't ethane-1,2-diol the same as ethylene glycol?

 

[Endymion]

You only wish that I eat NutraSweet gunk-saturated foods.

And isn't ethane-1,2-diol the same as ethylene glycol?

It is the same. That's the joke. Quite a smart mind in that head of yours you got there.

 

[me_punctured]

It is the same. That's the joke. Quite a smart mind in that head of yours you got there.

Doubt prevents me from interpreting your compliment as a genuine one. Who knows what lurks beneath your wits?

But it's good to know that you were joking around. I would've hate it to bust your balls... in this case.

:topic:

 

[Grummer]

The properties of COKE
1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
9. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.
Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.
10. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
11. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!