Sugar: The Bitter Truth

I find this thread rather amusing. We've known for well over 10 years that HFCS is very bad for you...someone posts one of many, many videos on the subject and everyone is shocked. Well I shouldn’t say “everyone” – mostly just conservatives who thought that they already knew everything (Kudos to Sagarin for already being on top of it).

This really is the tip of the iceberg for converting all you people who think that it's simply a matter of calorie in/calorie out.

Americans are not genetically predisposed to be obese, sloths, lazy, prone to diabetes, heart disease, ADHD, etc., it really is the diet. It's quite possible to be lazy, sloth-like and unmotivated and still not be overweight. It also is very likely that if you take more initiative in learning more about what you are ingesting you can improve your performances.

SLA - while your perspective is 90% there you're absolutely wrong about HFCS being equal to table sugar. It's a whole lot worse as is most processed foods nowadays. How the body responds to HFCS is more important than the chemical composition in a petri dish. This type of analysis is how we got to where we are today.

Next up… hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated vegetable oil = very, very bad. Lard = very, very good...

Honey can actually be very good for you as long as it's raw honey, pasteurized honey is empty in phytonutrient value but still sweet.

There's a whole world of information out there at your fingertips - just make sure the studies aren't funded by Kellogs, Coca Cola, Proctor & Gamble, etc.

As a general rule of thumb, eat what your Grandparents ate and not what your Parents did. I think that the cookbook Nourishing Traditions would be a great beginning course for many of you. Also the Westin A. Price Foundation has a lot of great information as well to get you started on taking ownership of your health.

Jefe in the CO wrote:

Next up… hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated vegetable oil = very, very bad. Lard = very, very good...

.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm lard

I've been back on real butter for a while and LOVE it. Everything tastes SO good now.

Put a stick of margarine outside next to a stick of butter. See which one the insects go after.

Alan

Jefe, I agree wholeheartedly that this is basically just one more version of a HFCS "revelation", a topic that's trumpted and debated ad nauseum, both on this board and elsewhere. I posted it because for whatever reason this guys explanation spoke to me in a way that was different enough for a significant "AHA!" moment, if you know what I mean. Perhaps it was the biochemistry and metabolism process description, the comparison to ethanol (ethanol without the buzz), even the comparison to glucose breakdown and the feedback satiation effects. I didn't accept everything he was saying as total absolute truth, so I posted it in case those who are far more educated than me can point out any ostentatious holes in the science.

At any rate, despite all the repetitious advice you find in health magazines and elsewhere about how one should eat whole grain and complex (good) carbs, I still shied away from them for fear of all carbs, and as a result my running suffered and I would inevitably binge after periods of severe restriction. This video in particular made me less afraid of not only good carbs but even glucose, and as a result I feel a lot better.

Again, this guy's message is not new or greatly unique, but sometimes it takes someone saying something in a particular way to be able to apply tried and true advice to our own lives, and for me this video was it.

HFCS = the devil wrote:

Again, this guy's message is not new or greatly unique, but sometimes it takes someone saying something in a particular way to be able to apply tried and true advice to our own lives, and for me this video was it.

Well spoken, Sir.

Jefe, I'm scratching my head at your comment about 'conservatives', and your tone in general. Maybe I just misunderstood you, but you come off like a real asshat when you try to tell people that their ignorance is a result of being 'conservative' or 'liberal' or whatever negative term is fashionable. Rather than massaging your ego and telling us how smart you are, just keep that to yourself and do your part to educate.

I thought everything else you had to say was very interesting, and I'm looking forward to learning more, but I was really put off by your attitude. For what it's worth...

I tried Pepsi Natural recently and I like it. I quit drinking soda when I was a kid. Pepsi Natural has a pleasant flavor.

12 oz/ 355ml

150 calories 38g sugar

Ingredients: sparkling water, sugar, natural apple extract (color), caramel color, citric acid, caffeine, acacia gum, tartaric acid, lactic acid, natural flavor, kola nut extract.

Caffeine content: 38 mg/12 fl oz.

This brings up a very good point, although I've never seen bread with with HFCS. I made a single change to my diet several years ago...I simply don't eat any food with HFCS in it. This has had the unintended effect of virtually eliminating any processed food in my diet. It forces me to eat fresh meat, vegetables, fruit.

Scratch your head no longer because I was trying to be an "asshat" with regards to the conservative comments...if it helps the rest of my post came straight from the heart.Here's to a renewed interest in healthy eating...and keep in mind that HFCS is really just the tip of the proverbial healthy eating iceberg.

Going a little off course here....but still related.

I was shopping for a few things tonight at the market. When I was headed to the checkout line, I got behind a woman and her 10-ish year old son. When I saw what they were buying, this thread immediately came to mind (I'm fully addicted to lrc...i have a problem, but that's for a different thread). Anyhoooooo, On that bottom shelf of the cart - no fewer than eight 2-liter bottles of soda. Inside the cart - three stacks of Healthy Choice microwave meals and 6-8 individual frozen pizzas. I'd give the mom 275-300 lbs. I'd give the 10 year old about 190-200. I'm not kidding. I'm not making fun. It was sad. I just wanted to shake some sense into the mom, but what can you do? poor kid.

Isaac Newton wrote:

This brings up a very good point, although I've never seen bread with with HFCS. I made a single change to my diet several years ago...I simply don't eat any food with HFCS in it. This has had the unintended effect of virtually eliminating any processed food in my diet. It forces me to eat fresh meat, vegetables, fruit.

Have you stopped eating honey, too? Because it has the same glucose:fructose ratio that HFCS does.

Interesting how the rise in HFCS use coincides with the rise in obesity...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Usda_sweeteners.png

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44310000/gif/_44310527_global_child_obesity_gr416.gif

Just because HFCS has the same % as a naturally occuring food doesn't make it the same as a naturally occuring food.

It's still man made crap.

Margarine is very similar to butter....but insects won't eat it.

Alan

Thanks for that rebuttal, Sir Lance-alot. My sentiments exactly.

bump to spread the truth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXCvduiAbs&feature=related

vdawg wrote:

bump to spread the truth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXCvduiAbs&feature=related

I've lost 10 lbs since watched this for the first time in April. All I did was cut out sugar.

TheAngryMob wrote:

We should go burn down all the coke plants around the world, and while we're at it, destory all the fruit farms everywhere. And anyone who ever eats sugar again should be shot on sight for exposing us all to the poison FRUCTOSE! Those evil capitalist and their plans to kill us all with their addictive sugary beverages! I mean they forced us all to drink them since birth, we can't help ourselves, we are the mindless masses, oh save us from ourselves!!

Well, you got the second half of your rant right.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Interesting how the rise in HFCS use coincides with the rise in obesity...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Usda_sweeteners.pnghttp://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44310000/gif/_44310527_global_child_obesity_gr416.gif

I have to say that while the average person's diet really sucks, I've seen enough people balloon in the their mid 20s-early 40s to know that lifestyle has a huge slice of this pie. We have a lot of pretty fit 20-22 year olds that "graduate" into the wake up-get coffee-commute-work-commute-happy hour/crack beers-sleep routine and wake up 20 years later 100+ lbs overweight. I see people I work with who won't take the stairs to go up ONE flight. And many of them are in decent physical shape.

Yes, it's the diet, and the rancid Applebees/Chili's/Friday's menu has a big role, but the american white-collar way of life is pretty shitty. Whether a calorie is truly a calorie or not is one thing, but you have a lot of people (A LOT - I MEAN A F***ING LOT - OF PEOPLE) in this country who do absolutely nothing to promote their physical fitness. If they ate nothing but alternate grains, etc, doesn't matter, instead of gaining 100 lbs over 20 years, they'd gain 40. Better, but not good. The elevator may have been the worst invention for human health.

I've lost 10 pounds the last month and all I did was eat more cane sugar and poop more often.

On the other hand I haven't consumed any beverage with HFCS in 30 years. I now only drink water and beverages that contain barley in them.

tucknroll wrote:

re: very interesting study on dairy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/slim/calcium.shtml

The promised land - the land of milk and honey! My new training theory is eat what your body craves, it knows what it's doing. Years ago I tried that 'eat to win' approach and it was disasterous, worst year ever. If I crave it I must need it.

Well, I crave Krispy Kreme, Pepsi and potato chips. Guess I need it.

Honestly, can you really say you did not see that coming?^^

mopak wrote:

I hve found no foods in my house that say they contain HFCS. I am wondering whether it isn't used in Australia?

No, I don't think vegemite has HFCS.