General

[pb101]

Originally Posted by jhyan

Comments like these get me so riled up. I've written half a dozen responses, and then went back and erased them because I felt like I started being to harsh on people.

HFCS is not a food additive. It's an ingredient. It acts in your body just like honey or regular corn syrup. Fructose is the sugar found in fruit. Is fruit bad? People need to understand that Americans are fat and diabetic more from how much they eat than any other reason. I'm not saying that you should get your carb calories from sugar, I'm saying that as far as simple sugars go, HFCS is no worse than Sucrose, Glucose, Galactose, Lactose, Fructose, etc. Reduce your intake of simple sugars... that's good. Pinning all the blame on one sugar... doesn't make sense.

The myth of MSG being dangerous has been thoroughly debunked.

People as a whole need to make sure they are checking where their information comes from. Fringe groups and fear mongers abound. Groups that sound like respectful groups, are sometimes not (ie; Center for Science in the Public Interest... that sounds great, but the are virtually anti-technology). I think I'll trust real scientific journals where articles are peer reviewed and crack pot theories are disproved by actual science.

Good post. Diets are for chicks.

[Siress]

Originally Posted by jhyan

Comments like these get me so riled up. I've written half a dozen responses, and then went back and erased them because I felt like I started being to harsh on people.

HFCS is not a food additive. It's an ingredient. It acts in your body just like honey or regular corn syrup. Fructose is the sugar found in fruit. Is fruit bad? People need to understand that Americans are fat and diabetic more from how much they eat than any other reason. I'm not saying that you should get your carb calories from sugar, I'm saying that as far as simple sugars go, HFCS is no worse than Sucrose, Glucose, Galactose, Lactose, Fructose, etc. Reduce your intake of simple sugars... that's good. Pinning all the blame on one sugar... doesn't make sense.

The myth of MSG being dangerous has been thoroughly debunked.

People as a whole need to make sure they are checking where their information comes from. Fringe groups and fear mongers abound. Groups that sound like respectful groups, are sometimes not (ie; Center for Science in the Public Interest... that sounds great, but the are virtually anti-technology). I think I'll trust real scientific journals where articles are peer reviewed and crack pot theories are disproved by actual science.

That sounds great. Care to cite these sources so that we, too, may learn?

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by jhyan

HFCS is not a food additive. It's an ingredient. It acts in your body just like honey or regular corn syrup. Fructose is the sugar found in fruit. Is fruit bad? People need to understand that Americans are fat and diabetic more from how much they eat than any other reason. I'm not saying that you should get your carb calories from sugar, I'm saying that as far as simple sugars go, HFCS is no worse than Sucrose, Glucose, Galactose, Lactose, Fructose, etc. Reduce your intake of simple sugars... that's good. Pinning all the blame on one sugar... doesn't make sense.

That's the American way though isn't it. Don't take responsibility for your problems, blame someone or something for it.

[secretweaponevan]

I just try to steer clear of HFCS because it is made from corn.

I'm only 1/16th Native American (Caddo) so corn has been ingested by my most of my ancestors for less than 200 years. If I want to eat corn I'll grab a cob now and then, but I don't want to pound it down my gullet on a daily basis in everything I eat (despite the caption beneath my avatar )

[jincay]

Originally Posted by ketzer

I'm sticking with steak.

Most steak in the US is made from corn anyway.

When you break down a steak in one those fancy machines you find all the carbon molecules are corn molecules, which can be identified apart from other grass carbon molecules. Cows eating mass quantities of corn in giant feed lots only end up made of corn (well dont forget the rendered cow fat and cow blood that is mixed into the corn feed along with hormones and antibiotics)

Someone put a mcD's soda in that machine it came back with 100% corn based carbon. Your soda is in fact nothing but processed corn diluted in some filtered water.

I think the machine is a gas spectrometer?

[jhyan]

Originally Posted by jincay

I think the machine is a gas spectrometer?

Gas chromatograph mass spectrometer.

[Mayvik]

Originally Posted by jhyan

That is quite a ridiculous statement. It's sugar. Just sugar. Your body handles it just like it handles any other sugar. How people got convinced it's some kind of radical new chemical just boggles my mind. Show me, chemically, how it is different than sugar and I will concede the point.

I agree that pure HFCS is a sugar by chemical composition. I'm not convinced that HFCS that makes it into the food supply is not tainted with trace byproducts of the extraction process. However, assuming we're talking about 100%, Grade A, HFCS...

Show me, chemically, how the human body "handles" concentrated doses of any sugar, natural, refined, created in a test tube, etc. NONE of them are good for you except in very small doses (i.e. what you'd normally find in naturally occurring food). I specified HFCS because a) that's what the topic is about and b) HFCS is vastly overdosed in most applications.

[oldschool]

Originally Posted by Mayvik

...
Show me, chemically, how the human body "handles" concentrated doses of any sugar, natural, refined, created in a test tube, etc....

Never been to a kids birthday party? It can be ugly....

[Christian Nelson]

quite the debate here great stuff, not getting into thed debate part since I really don't know the answers. Leaning towards not particularly more dangerous than any other sugar. But that in itself doesn't mean it shouldn't be reduced in our diet. Oh and the comment about it being in bread, I think that is for the yeast so it will rise, some of the chefs may wish to correct me if i am wrong, doesn't the yeast need some form of sugar to grow?

Any further info on it's use in Canada?

So far a couple people have said it isn't in soda pop, or ketchup, but no word as to why...

Anyone got any info on legality? I wish I had checked when I went to Honduras and Guatemala..

[secretweaponevan]

Yep, yeast needs some sort of sugar. As such, I have only found about 3 types of bread that don't have corn syrup in it (Arnold Health Nut, Pepperidge Farms 100% Naturals lines (5 flavors) and Ezekiel 4:9). That doesn't mean that there aren't more, but those are the ones I've found.

Heinz Organic and Muir Glen are corn-free ketchups, but I have moved to salsa for my egg whites since I eat a lot of them and salsa has onions and peppers to boot.