Healthy Bytes

read time: 436 words, about two minutes

Some of the worst ingredients we consume are sweeteners – the artificial ones, the processed ones and the chemically altered ones.

The similarities to heroin are frightening…
-> it’s addictive
-> we crave it
-> it pretty much has nothing but bad effects on our brain and our body
-> it crowds out good stuff

Corn is much in the news these days because of the whole ethanol thing.

I have no comment on that. What I do have comment on is HFCS – high fructose corn syrup.

2005 corn subsidies in the US were $9.4 BILLION.
There are 300 million people in the US (fewer in 2005)… so that pencils out to roughly $31.38/person.

Subsidies were changed in the 1970’s to heavily support corn and soybean agriculture.
Also in the early 1970’s HFCS was created… in a lab of course.
HFCS is a chemically altered sweetener way sweeter than regular ole sugar.

You say so what, you don’t have any in your cabinet.
Think again. HFCS is used in nearly every processed and prepackaged food product.
In the last 25 years consumption is up 1,000% and it currently is 40% of ALL sweeteners added to food products and beverages.

So what again. Ahh, here’s the big so what…
Regular sugar is 50% fructose, 50% glucose.
HFCS is 55% fructose, 45% glucose.

That seemingly small difference of 5% makes a huge difference when it passes your lips.
Fructose is a masterfully stealth robber. Unlike glucose, it DOES NOT trip the chemical reactions and hormones that get your brain to close your mouth and stop eating.

And fructose doesn’t reduce the stomach hormone ghrelin. Ghrelin in that “lion” in your stomach that roars to be fed.

And fructose doesn’t decrease the fat cell hormone adiponectin which makes you more insulin sensitive which in turn helps control appetite and weight.

But WAIT, there’s more…
Fructose is not digested and metabolized – it goes straight to fat production. (It’s used for cholesterol and triglyceride).

You know those “IV drips”… it’s a glucose solution. You can live on it.
If you replace it with a fructose solution – you’ll get fatty liver. That’s not something you will survive.

So all that HFCS you’re subsidizing with your tax dollars is contributing to increased caloric consumption (with less nutrition consumed), raised LDL, lowered HDL, increased triglycerides, decreased satiety sensitivity, increased insulin resistance and some other nasty odds and ends.

Read labels. You’ll be frightened how many products have HFCS.

Oh yea, that soybean subsidy. We get something for that as well… hydrogenated soybean oil, AKA trans-fat.

Makes ya want to buy an island and have your own country sometimes.

read time: 504 words, about three minutes

Oopps, Kraft Foods is being sued AGAIN for a product label.
As reported in the Palm Beach Post, Linda Rex of Boyton Beach, Florida has filed a “deceptive packaging” lawsuit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

The Kraft legal department and hurry up and re-label it department must be much too busy for any time off these days.

The product in question:
Capri Sun juice drink

The deception:
“All Natural”

Capri Sun in fact contains the way too prevalent ingredient HFCS – High Fructose Corn Syrup.
We’ll concede corn is “natural”, but as for this concoction… home chemistry buffs aren’t well equipped enough to produce it. It’s strictly an industrial product.
I’ve assigned it to the worst food products team.

HFCS is a sweetener. Much cheaper than cane or beet sugar. But, by golly, it’s not actually a food… it’s a concoction. Not recognized by the body as food.

So? Well here’s some so… when you eat calories from real foods, they tickle your satiety center and turn off hunger signals in your brain.
HFCS isn’t recognized as food. No effect on satiety. So you keep eating past “full”. Which of course is over eating. Which of course translates into weight gain… you’ve seen the movie, probably even had a starring role more than once.

HFCS has become VERY prevalent in packaged foods since it hit the market in 1967, INCLUDING “low fat” foods. People tend to choose low fat foods for the single reason that they perceive they are consuming fewer calories.

***Once again, reading the label is wonderously illuminating***

side note: the word “natural” has no regulated definition. You’ve no doubt noticed how frequently the word graces the labels of food and cosmetic products. Terms such as “low fat” and “organic” do have regulated definitions. So don’t fall for the perception that natural on the label means healthy.

George Bray, professor of medicine at Louisiana State University is an authority on obesity. According to Bray, consumption of HFCS increased more than 1000% between 1970 and 1990, mirroring the upward trend in obesity statistics.
Americans now consume 36 pounds of HFCS a year… 128,000 calories.

HFCS has been associated with liver toxicity, specifically – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. It’s also believed to decrease the effectiveness of insulin… leading to overeating and diabetes.

Another issue with high fructose corn syrup - by continually upping the sweetness in products, your tastebuds become less sensitive to small amounts of sweetness. You come to “demand” more sweetness. Same with salt. Folks that eat heavily salted foods don’t detect mild saltings.

Marc Firestone, Kraft’s executive vice president for corporate and legal affairs, said well shucks, we’ve been reformulating that line and packaging for about a year. By golly, the new Capri Sun will be going into production in two weeks.

Firestone said:

“The new packaging … will say that Capri Sun contains ‘no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives’ …With this action, the phrase ‘All Natural’ is being removed from the package”

Hmmm, Kraft folded pretty quickly on this lawsuit. I guess the stars were (almost) aligned for them being just two weeks from label makeover.

You’ve seen it with trans-fats. I predict you’ll next see a big push against HFCS.