Posted on 03/21/2009 3:32:08 PM PDT by neverdem
Sugar, the nutritional pariah that dentists and dietitians have long reviled, is enjoying a second act, dressed up as a natural, healthful ingredient.
From the tomato sauce on a Pizza Hut pie called “The Natural,” to the just-released soda Pepsi Natural, some of the biggest players in the American food business have started, in the last few months, replacing high-fructose corn syrup with old-fashioned sugar.
ConAgra uses only sugar or honey in its new Healthy Choice All Natural frozen entrees. Kraft Foods recently removed the corn sweetener from its salad dressings, and is working on its Lunchables line of portable meals and snacks.
The turnaround comes after three decades during which high-fructose corn syrup had been gaining on sugar in the American diet. Consumption of the two finally drew even in 2003, according to the Department of Agriculture. Recently, though, the trend has reversed. Per capita, American adults ate about 44 pounds of sugar in 2007, compared with about 40 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup...
--snip--
Some shoppers prefer cane or beet sugar because it is less processed. High-fructose corn syrup is produced by a complex series of chemical reactions that includes the use of three enzymes and caustic soda.
Others see the pervasiveness of the inexpensive sweetener as a symbol of the ill effects of government subsidies given to large agribusiness interests like corn growers.
But the most common argument has to do with the rapid rise of obesity in the United States, which began in the 1980s, not long after industrial-grade high-fructose corn syrup was invented. As the amount of the sweetener in the American diet has expanded, so have Americans.
--snip--
Both sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are made from glucose and fructose. The level of fructose is about 5 percent higher in the corn sweetener.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Read the labels — not only is HFCS in soft drinks and soups, salad dressings and ketchup, but in such innocuous things as bread and saltine crackers! READ THE LABEL. It’s in almost everything we eat! There is no wonder in my mind, given HFCS and the various forms of MSG, as to why there’s an obesity problem in the world.
About the Amish ...
I hate to tell you, but I work in a restaurant here in Amish country and they like sweets and fried foods as well or better than anybody. If we see a big group of Amish coming in we start frying double portions of chicken strips because that’s what they like best at our place.
You do see overweight Amish folks but fewer of them.
A big factor in health is exercise, and many (not all) Amish are more active than most of us English.
“Actually, the body cannot break down high fructose corn syrup...”
Well, in researching your statement, I got an education.
Yes, the body does “break down” HFCS; but bot by way of digestion - by the liver directly.
“HFCS is metabolized dfferently than sugar, and it is very stressful to the pancreas.....Corn syrup is made from corn starch and it bypasses digestion going directly to the liver where enzymes are released telling the body to store fat. This can elevate triglycerides and LDL ( bad cholesterol). It is known that HFCS does not stimulate insulin, so you do not feel full. You may also lose chromium, needed to protect you from developing Type 2 Diabetes.”
from: http://www.leaflady.org/fructose.htm
Where that writer was pointing, possibly, in any HFCS vs diabetes debate, is it’s possible contribution to obesity coming from how it reacts with the liver functions; and many physicians today do point to some relationship between stored body fat - obesity - and diabetes.
“I hate to tell you, but I work in a restaurant here in Amish country and they like sweets and fried foods as well or better than anybody. If we see a big group of Amish coming in we start frying double portions of chicken strips because that’s what they like best at our place.”
Yes, I know all that.
But, as far as I know, you do not see much diabetes among the Amish, and the Amish don’t make and don’t use much HFCS in what they make or what they eat; because they mostly eat what they themselves make, using “natural” sugar.
The Bum Rap on Biofuels
American Thinker | 5-13-08 | Herbert Meyer
Posted on 05/14/2008 3:59:06 AM PDT by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2015711/posts
Campaign to vilify ethanol revealed
ethanol producer Magazine | May 16, 2008 | By Kris Bevill
Posted on 05/17/2008 9:22:13 AM PDT by Kevin J waldroup
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017389/posts
From the tomato sauce on a Pizza Hut pie called "The Natural," to the just-released soda Pepsi Natural, some of the biggest players in the American food business have started, in the last few months, replacing high-fructose corn syrup with old-fashioned sugar.Tonight I went to the store and picked up Diet Coke with Splenda (not sure that's nationally available, Grand Rapids is a big test-market town) on special, 4 cases for $11. I had been getting low, and true to form three have vanished (hey! who's drinkin' my sodas? Oh, that's right, I live alone) since I sat down here. Also got 3 cases of Diet Right Black Cherry (also Splenda) for $10, but that's not yet cold. Diet Right is great stuff, but definitely (for some unknown reason) is, in my opinion, a drink best quaffed very cold.
“Corn Pops” used to be “Sugar Pops.”
...and Captain Crunch and Honey Comb used to taste REALLY good. Had some recently and bleah!
working to stay sub-7!
“Just direct me to the Coca-Cola made with sugar instead of corn syrup.”
check your local kosher deli (if you can find one in your area). there is a version of coke specially made with sucrose to accommodate dietary restrictions on certain holidays.
Pepsi Natural is being test marketed here, in my area. It was on ‘special’ four little retro bottles (I think maybe 16 ouncers). My 11 year old ‘wanted’ it (he tried it in the store...the four pack was $4.99 (expensive)...but he was being a good helper, and I promised him ‘something.’ So thinking I need my head examined, bought it, brought it home, in the fridge, chilled, poured...awesome!!! It dawned on me that you don’t need a huge drink of this...the small bottle was the perfect size. It was really good. I would buy it again (in a cheaper, plastic two litre please Pepsi people). There is a huge (or hugh and series) difference in the taste, fizzy texture, etc. It was a treat!!!
This is quite true. It’s available here in the little tiendas up and down South Cobb Drive. And it does taste better than the corn syrup stuff.
Around here (San Francisco), I’ve only seen ‘Kosher for Passover’ Coke in 2-liter bottles. That might be okay if you had a large household of Coke drinkers, but if you’re like me and only drink a glass or two per day, it’ll be flat (or nearly flat) before you finish the bottle.
[Bisphenol A is a xenoestrogen, a known endocrine disruptor, meaning it disturbs the hormonal messaging in our bodies. Synthetic xenoestrogens are linked to breast cancer and uterine cancer in women, decreased testosterone levels in men, and are particularly devastating to babies and young children. BPA has even been linked to insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes.]
Oh I envy you!
I can’t wait to get my hands on a bottle. I asked my husband earlier if he will get me some and he said soon as he see some he will. Yip EEEE!
...He's hiding from his wife, down at Smokey's Bar...
Cheers!
I thought I was alone with the corn allergy. It’s a dubious comfort to you two that I am glad to have found others that share my affliction. I don’t feel so lonely now. We can cheer ethanol on together, though, we all three probably aren’t environmentalists.
trusted.md - Which plastic water bottles don't leach chemicals?
They print the labels in quantity way ahead of time. Whether its soybean or cottonseed oil depends on their best price for one or the other when their actually making it. Bases are covered. Just so you know. ;-)
I definitely taste a difference in the Passover Coke -- it's better than the HFCS version. It also holds a foamy head when poured into a glass, like a mug of draft beer would do.
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