High Fructose Corn Syrup

Lately here over in the States the corn lobby (Read Iowa) has been producing These mind numbing commercials Now this is just straight up wrong. This article is pretty good and straight forward.

I'm not saying I don't partake in HFCS I probably take in more than I should but this stuff is worse than cigarettes and it's in everything!

Im not saying we should ban it or even put "warning" labels on it, people can make there own decisions I'm just on my soap box

Stop raining on our sugary parade.

I love the fact that their ad campaign is "It's just as healthy as sugar!" :laugh4:

I'm not convinced that it's significantly worse than sugar though.

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I'm not convinced that it's significantly worse than sugar though.

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It's not worse than sugar, it's simply that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and Corn is in everything Americans eat.

HFCS is in most drinks (diet drinks excluded), candy, and most processed food (Pop-tarts namely). Like the ad said, it's good in moderation, but how can you moderate HFCS intake when most of the food one can buy has HFCS?
Corn is even worse, since the meat one eats is fed with corn or corn meal. Most breads, unless they are whole grain, have corn as filled. The entire nation is fed off corn grown in the US Midwest. What they don't tell you is that the corn grown, almost entirely, is inedible. You can't eat it or process it naturally. They feed that corn to cows, pigs, chickens, etc. or mix it into HFCS. All this corn is grown because farmers get subsidies from the US government to grow corn instead of wheat, barley, oats, or any other grains, or to raise other crops. The farmers then get subsidized fertilizers to help grow the corn. If they don't grow corn, it isn't profitable.

PBS:KING CORN

Fast Food Facts

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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.

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Mayo Clinic

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While research continues, moderation remains important. Many beverages and other processed foods made with high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners are high in calories and low in nutritional value. Regularly including these products in your diet has the potential to promote obesity — which, in turn, promotes conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease.

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Women's Fitness Diet Tips

Accidental Hedonist List

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Baking and Cooking ingredients

Kellogg's® Corn Flake Crumbs
Nabisco Oreo Cookie Crumbs
Shake n Bake - Tangy Honey Glaze
Shake n Bake - Honey Mustard Glaze
Stove Top Stuffing - Chicken
Stove Top Stuffing - Cornbread
Stove Top Stuffing - Homestyle Herb
Stove Top Stuffing - Pork
Stove Top Stuffing - Turkey

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Good point on the meats. I try to buy the grass fed stuff but even here where most of the cows are raised it still costs a pretty penny.

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Originally Posted by Strike For The South

Good point on the meats. I try to buy the grass fed stuff but even here where most of the cows are raised it still costs a pretty penny.

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Nothin' wrong with the corn in feed. Just don't eat it.

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Originally Posted by Strike For The South

Good point on the meats. I try to buy the grass fed stuff but even here where most of the cows are raised it still costs a pretty penny.

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Mrs. Lemur sources our meat from local farmers, but you're right, it costs more to eat the grass-fed stuff. We treat red meat like a special occasion now, eating it maybe once a week. The rest of the time it's chicken (clean chicken is a lot less expensive than clean beef) or pork, or no meat. I'm not convinced this is a bad way to eat. I doubt our ancestors had a half-pound of red meat every day.

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Originally Posted by Shinseikhaan

Nothin' wrong with the corn in feed. Just don't eat it.

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It is when messes with the moo-moo cows my friend.

I'm glad I live in Australia, here we produce too much cane sugar! And it's in everything! ~:wacko:

(Red meat is pretty reasonably priced here too!) :2thumbsup:

This is an article from George Will from a few weeks back. Very insightful:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...030602070.html

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I doubt our ancestors had a half-pound of red meat every day.

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Nail meet Mr. Hammers head. :yes:

I changed my diet considerably after my coronary. I didn't eat much red meat before but now I only eat it once or twice a week. Chicken's better but even there they add all sorts of stuff to the feed. Antibiotics, hormones etc. Fish is better still, though I don't s'pose there's much cod in Iowa! :laugh4:

I'm lucky that I can cook from scratch. I taught myself over the years, I had too. Mrs. Apache MKI was a looker and all that but cooking left her in a maze. I'd have clemmed to death if I'd had to depend on her cooking skills.

Also don't they make that awful 'cider' White Lightning from corn syrup? A boon for the winos. :wall:

HFCS is in everything in the US - I think partly because the whole industry was subject to massive subsidies and govt intervention. Something to do with the US having to break reliance on Cuban sugar? (I could be wrong).

I've heard that your food all has a particular flavour because of it.

Personally I don't eat any processed sugar at all (except alcohol - and even there in moderation and generally in wine rather than beer).

It's also cheaper than sugar, by a long shot. Even without government subsidies it would be cheaper, the subsidies just drive the price down more. Theres a reason other nations use sugar in things where we stopped long ago. I think It also keeps longer, and in drinks it doesn't require shaking.

I only drink diet soda but will on occasion drink an old fashioned Coke or DP I can pick up in one of the ethnic stores because its made with sugar and just tastes better. Most juices sold at the grocery are mostly corn syrup, and the price of straight up cranberry without syrup is literally twice the syrupy crap, so I drink pretty much Apple only. Can't screw that up. At least not until they find a substitute for apples that is cheaper. Unfortunately a lot of people don't know this and drown their kids in Sunny D, because it looks like orange juice, and tropical punch because its red.

Meh, 'mericuns must eat corn or my understanding of the world will shatter. :shame:

The world has three great civilizations: Europe wheat, East Asia rice, and the Americas corn.

From their wheat the Italians make pasta, the French bread and the Belgians beer. Holidays, the pace of life, the use of space, settlement patterns, they are all the product of wheat. Wheat is the very essence, the very foundation stone of European civilization. From which all else is derived.

Rice functions likewise in East Asia. Asian population patterns, political systems, culture and customs are all to be traced back to the demands of growing rice.

The Americans, both north and South of the Rio Grande, before and after Columbus, have a civilization build on corn. (That, and free-roaming beef) This is the ulterior reason behind anything American, from where and how they live to the nature of their health problems.

So I must side with Iowa on this one. Corn - love it or leave America!

You just want me fat

I had no idea Louis was a plumplover.

Gah! You people American, or what? Eat yer corn!


All civilizations have a spiritual centre. For America, this is not New York. That is an island near America. Founded by Dutch traders, afraid of the interior. European, cosmopolitan, semi-detached from America.

America is the heartland. Carving out an existence here, tilling the soil is what makes an American. The heart of the heartland is Chicago. The real capital of America. The city that more than any other has historically captured the imagination of the outside world. Within Chicago, lies the sanctum sanctorum of the United States. Their Pyramids, their Acropolis, their Louvre. Here you have it, the essence of a civilization cut in stone:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2340/...db5b4c38c4.jpg


https://img217.imageshack.us/img217/...0505corn03.jpg

The Corn Cobs. What is more, it combines corn with that other essential ingredient of America: mobility and the automobile. Those are not windows in the bottom half, but parking places. Park a car, and it looks like a single corn kernel. During traffic hours, it looks like God is eating them like corn.

Brilliant, brilliant! With the exception of Disneyland, the very greatest works of art in America. They are simply perfect!!! :2thumbsup:

We'll still have apples Louis.

I was hoping the disastrous corn ethanol fiasco would raise the price of HFCS to the point where cane sugar could compete and we could see colas made the old-fashioned way. Oh well, it was not to be.

You can still buy Coca-Cola made with sugar, you just have to get the stuff from Mexico. It's against the law to use HFCS in drinks there, I guess. The supermercado in our little town carries the stuff; I picked up case for our last party. People really liked it.

Its good to see at least Louis understands that Iowa is the true capital of the USA. :yes:

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Originally Posted by Lemur

I had no idea Louis was a plumplover.

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Banquo:

I know he's a fellow moderator and all that, but is the SOME way we can ban him for this....please. :wall:

The scratches I inflicted on my eyes will take days to heal.

The great thing is that you had to check the whole video to make sure no frank'n'beans were shown. You're welcome!

Luckily Seamus, you got there first, so I have no idea what you're talking about.

Thanks for taking one for the team. :evil:

Why all the red meat hate? It's good for you.

I think the HFCS campaign is in response to some stories claiming it contained unsafe levels of mercury, which I'm pretty sure is also bunk. My only problem with HFCS is that it's prevalence is due to unfair subsidies.

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Originally Posted by Sasaki Kojiro

I love the fact that their ad campaign is "It's just as healthy as sugar!" :laugh4:

I'm not convinced that it's significantly worse than sugar though.

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HFCS contains slightly more fructose then granulated sugar. Which also depends on if it's cane or beat, and whether it's white or brown. Fructose in the presence of glucose turns into one of the highest gi carbs you can consume. You only need a few grams of fructose a day, the rest will be stored as fat. Their both still pretty bad though, beat white sugar is 50/50 fructose to glucose. Any kind of sugar should really be used sparingly

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Originally Posted by Lemur

Mrs. Lemur sources our meat from local farmers, but you're right, it costs more to eat the grass-fed stuff. We treat red meat like a special occasion now, eating it maybe once a week. The rest of the time it's chicken (clean chicken is a lot less expensive than clean beef) or pork, or no meat. I'm not convinced this is a bad way to eat. I doubt our ancestors had a half-pound of red meat every day.

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Chicken's fed with corn also. Also the wonderful lawyers of those meat companies have come up with ways to allow them to advertise that they are grass fed even though they've been corn fed. Cattle are fed up till the first 6 weeks off grass, after being weened. So most meat that states that it's grass fed is most likely still cornfed. You have to look for 100% grassfed, or 100% free range.

Oh and SFTS T-Nation kicks ***, good articles on there.

the problem with the unfair advantages of corn subsidies isn't so much as the HFCS issue etc, but more so that if ever the subsidies stop the price of meat and sugar-filled products will virtually skyrocket. And I'm talking huge increase in price for what people often see as food staples, so I can see how protecting the subsidies can be seen as protecting the consumers, nonetheless it's wrong, and as we in the army like to say its setting us up for failure

The over production of corn is actually a major environmental disaster. The run off from these lands is the primary cause of a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is about the size of the state of New Jersey.

dead zone

I thought HFCS doesn't counter the triggers that cause the desire for something sweet anywhere near as fast as cane sugar. Basically you need to consume far more of it before the body goes 'full' and the hunger pangs go.

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Its pretty hard here to get anything other then grass fed cattle.

Generally most meat cuts are $10 to $20 (sometimes up to $30) a kilo.

Or in US terms $3.50 to $7 a pound for most cuts with some things like scotch fillets $10 a pound.

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

I thought HFCS doesn't counter the triggers that cause the desire for something sweet anywhere near as fast as cane sugar. Basically you need to consume far more of it before the body goes 'full' and the hunger pangs go.

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Its pretty hard here to get anything other then grass fed cattle.

Generally most meat cuts are $10 to $20 (sometimes up to $30) a kilo.

Or in US terms $3.50 to $7 a pound for most cuts with some things like scotch fillets $10 a pound.

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Gah, even the finest cuts here are 7.99 per pound tops, and that for high end stuff thats fresh off the block. I can usually finds a 2 pound corn-fed London broil or Ribeye for about 9 US dollars fresh, 6 dollars 3 days old, and that not buying in bulk but at the grocer.

The grass fed stuff, however, is a good 25% more expensive straight up, and there's less of it around which raises the price during droughts. Honestly, I can't taste the difference unless theres also a fat content variable, but I'd rather not eat the corny beef as it does not contribute to the subsidy sham. Grass fed farmers have a hard scrabble and are highly vulnerable to weather fluctuations, and I'm more than happy to support them because they are the real farmers, not jimmy the corn king.