Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't mean to send the thread in another direction, but I've heard sort of the same discussion regarding virgin coconut oil (really good for you) vs corn oil (very bad for you). Basically the corn growing lobby in this country is too big to fight, yet it's probably the reason why almost everyone in this country is too fat.
The reason why many people in this country are too fat is because they have no willpower.
I think the argument could have been made years ago that the reason was a lack of nutrition education; people may have not known what is healthy and what is not. Today, I think the dead horse has been beaten many times over.
By the way, high fructose corn syrup is just sugar. These fat people you speak of need to eat less calories, which includes sugar. I have been overweight. The way that you lose weight is to eat less calories. See, it's not complicated, it's just that some (most) people don't want to leave their "comfort zone" of any food, any time.
There is a huge difference between cane sugar and HFCS and this thread has explained it. In the late 1950s, food manufacturers found out that they could make food taste just as sweet using HFCS instead of sugar and it was cheaper, thus padding their bank accounts without cutting the price to the consumer. Little did they know, they were setting off a firestorm of health problems that future generations would experience.
As some people here have posted, Americans are fat because they eat too much. That is partly true but it's not exactly how much they are eating but rather what they are eating that is causing obesity and other health problems.
We do have a greater population in the U.S. than we did in the 1950s but more of those citizens are now experiencing greater health problems. I attribute those problems to what they are eating and how little they are moving their bodies.
I've heard others say that only people with money can afford to eat better but I question that logic. It makes better sense to give your child an apple with a little peanut butter on it or even a little cheese than it does to hand them a bag of chips and a sugary soda. The former will keep them satisfied longer than the latter. Moreover, it will keep their blood glucose from skyrocketing.
Oh sure, kids today are more sedentary than they were in the 50s, 60s and even the 70s but combining that sedentary lifestyle with a bad diet and you've got a recipe for disaster and early death. I think this next generation will have a shorter lifespan than the previous generation and I believe it will be caused by what they are eating.
Until consumers stop buying these nasty prepared foods and get back to eating fresh foods and lay off the sugar, HFCS products, hydrogenated oil products, nothing will improve and the health care providers will reap the benefits in their bank accounts, not to mention the insurance companies.
Changes are starting to happen, though. Bread, for example, has been made with HFCS until recently when several companies have changed back to cane sugar. Better yet, there are breads at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Markets that contain no sugar and no sodium. Granted, they are a bit pricey but, in my opinion, bread shouldn't be consumed at every meal, either.
Bottom line, eat fresh, cut out processed foods, move more.
Everything I eat and drink tastes really fantastic to me. High Fructose Corn Syrup is just fine by me.
WOW, ^^^ that goes for me as well. this world is begining to be run by "naysayers" & "doomsday" folks. We all are gonna die of something. I'm just gonna die happy.
Why consume something that has no food value in it to start with????
but it is not just sodas it's a lot of other foods that are introduced into our culture that planely are not food . People eat so much because they run out of gas before meal time,having eaten stuff that is filler not food.
artetries clog up because of all the dead food old and over cooked.
Our bodies are designed to process and live on living tissue, not dead tissue . But don't listen to me , hey I work for a medical prosthesis manufacturer , we'd go out of business if people started eating right.
keep gobbling up all that phony food , I need a raise.
The fact is that there is huge correlation between HFCS consumption and obesity, and all sorts of obesity related conditions like diabetes and heart disease. Nobody disputes that. The problem arises when people make the common error of mistaking correlation for causation. There's an equally valid correlation between obesity and dirty dishes. The cause of obesity and obesity related diabetes is overeating more calories than you burn. It makes no difference whether you overeat food containing pure cane sugar, food containing HFCS, or organic spinach: Too many calories is too many calories, and you'll become obese and suffer the same obesity related complications no matter what you ate to get you there. Fat is fat.
So if it doesn't matter, why do American companies put HFCS in so many food products? The answer is simple: Farming conditions here are generally better for corn than for sugar. We have to import a lot of our sugar, mainly from Brazil, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. To protect American corn farmers, we hit those sugar imports with tariffs. In retaliation, those countries put similar tariffs on the HFCS they import from us. Presto, HFCS stays cheap in the US, and sugar stays cheap in Latin America. Thus, Mexican Coke is made with sugar, and American Coke is made with HFCS.
High fructose corn syrup is not only cheaper for American companies, its being a liquid makes it a lot handier to use. It's easier and cheaper to transport, for one thing. It has certain advantages in baking, browning, and fermentability. It doesn't recrystalize after baking like sugar can, and makes foods moister.
And from the American Medical Association study:
Quote:
Conclusions: Because the composition of HFCS and sucrose are so similar, particularly on absorption by the body, it appears unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. We all are gonna die of something. I'm just gonna die happy. 
Sodas are not good for you to begin with
