this article explains the epidemic of obesity, a common food additive, LINK

[sam sarrha]

some people that lack an enzyme at a specific level when they consume High Fructose Corn Syrup..HFCS.. their liver stores what they eat as fat and makes them hungry, it then depresses the mechanism that tells them they have eaten enough.. any wonder why Obesity is epidemic..??!!

It also has a link to Type 2 Diabetes..

http://www.noweightgaincookbooks.com/worse_than_sugar.htm

http://www.rense.com/general53/ob.htm

[ramapo]

1. hmmmmm

I'd say too much food, much of it bad, and too little activity are the primary culprits.

[jean]

2. so what is the enzyme, and is Big Pharma working feverishly to

produce an artificial version of it?



edit - spell check

[nickinSTL]

3. interesting

"...and makes them hungry, it then depresses the mechanism that tells them they have eaten enough."

I wonder if that is what is behind the fact that my hunger/fullness responses seem off.

I get hungry at absurd times (20 minutes after a meal...or less) and don't really feel full unless I've eaten a lot.

Interesting.

I've lost weight, partly because I've decided to ignore my hunger (within reason, I do still eat, just not every time I feel hungry) and also because I don't eat until I feel full, but just until I figure I've reasonably eaten enough.

I wonder if it's reversible?

Due to legitimate health reasons, I can't have aspartame, so I'd been stuck with HFCS soda for a long time. Now, with the growing use of Splenda, I've been able to cut way down.

Be interesting to see if my hunger/fullness responses return to 'normal'. They haven't yet...

[crikkett]

5. Try stevia, natural non-caloric sweetener from Peru, it's so good that

the manufacturers of aspartame lobbied the FDA to ban its import in the early 90s.

Stevia has the wonderful qualities of curbing plaque in your mouth and normalizing blood sugar levels.

It's an herb & I grow it in my backyard. Before it flowers I make an extract using a cold-infusion method (place bruised leaves in filtered water overnight). The solution is black and very sweet - I use it to sweeten tea and homemade lemonade.

http://www.rense.com/general37/stev.htm
Below is the story of Stevia and how industry and the FDA have tried to prevent the knowledge of its healthful effects, so that the deadly neurotoxic drug aspartame will have no competition. Aspartame, of course, can precipitate diabetes, keeps blood sugar out of control, destroys the optic nerve and can cause diabetics to go into convulsions. It also interacts with insulin and no doubt is responsible for the epidemic of diabetes.

[nickinSTL]

8. that's great...

I'd love to, but it isn't available in commercial products.

Splenda is.

I don't use sugar/sweeteners in baking/cooking/etc. (or at least very rarely) But, I do drink soda and other flavored drinks. (but I don't drink tea or lemonade)

[musiclawyer]

7. Without sounding like a preacher

You control your own health destiny and step one begin with stopping all man-made sugar intake cold turkey. They are either neuro-toxins or cause havoc with your pancreas etc. There's lots of forums in the lounge with links discussing the dangers of HFCS etc. Look at all labels for anything in a box, bread, soda, sweetened teas, sweetened "juice". 99% of them contain HFCS. Really, Really bad for you........Here's a soda substitute : carbonated water mixed with real lemon/lime juice and stevia to taste. You have a nice, sweet alkalining drink that you can have as much of as you want, with upside and no-downside.

[nickinSTL]

9. I have cut my HFCS, etc. intake drastically

It's good to see a solution for soda, though knowing myself as I do...

I have enough I watch (reduced protein, reduced saturated fat, etc.) I'm highly unlikely to go to the trouble of making my own soda.

Not making excuses, I realize the potential health benefits, but there's a limit to how much adjustment I can stand.

Maybe in a few years, after I have my fat/protein restrictions stabilized, I'll be ready to try the soda alternative.

edited to add: this is a great idea, though, and if it hasn't been posted widely, I'd encourage you to do so

[kiraboo]

10. Bingo! Although I can't say I've gone absolutely "cold

turkey" I can tell you that almost three weeks ago I decided to just say no to sweets and processed sweets in particular. I haven't had a poptart, any ice cream, sweetened cereal, candy, chocolate, sweetened beverage - none of that stuff. The first week was a little bit stressful but since then it's been *ahem* a piece of cake. I even bought ice cream for my kids' sleepover and felt not even a twinge of interest as I watched them snort it down. The results have been dramatic: my appetite which for years has been out of control, has just sort of disappeared. I eat normal portions and feel completely satisfied. The cravings that used to make me feel guilty are gone. I've had and indulged in the urge to exercise! which is unbelievable. And I have a nice waist again. It's the simplest healthy thing I've ever done for my body and it's working like a miracle.

Just sayin'

[FloridaPat]

4. Interesting.

[JPZenger]

6. Corn Syrup is Used Because of Cuba Embargo & Price Supports

The U.S. Sugar industry has been able to convince Congress to maintain trade and tarrif policies that make it hard to import sugar to the US. Sugar is also overpriced because we cannot import it from Cuba. (That is why some candy manufacturing has moved to Canada, where they can import it.) As a result, because sugar is expensive, many manufacturers shifted from sugar to high fructose corn syrup.

[SharonAnn]

11. ADM, Tate & Lyle, etc. lobby for sugar price supports

That way sugar is more expensive than HFCS.

ADM and their cronies do all their business through buying legislation that helps them sell and gives them tax credits and through price fixing.

They are the Organized Crime family of the food products industry. Don't believe their mushy commercials. They are thugs.

They are huge financial supporters and lobbyists for US sugar price supports.

Lifesavers cand company moved from Illinois to Canada so that they could continue to make their candy with affordable sugar. HFCS just isn't the same.

[Hekate]

12. The problem (and it's a big one) is that trying to avoid additives...

... is a full-time job. Shopping and cooking mean reading every label closely, a process not facilitated by tiny print or by things having more than one name.

I experienced this 25 years ago when my then-toddler son was sick with chronic diarrhea that started after I weaned him. His pediatrician finally told me that he lacked an enzyme to digest wheat and rye, and that at some point he would outgrow it (not quite true, I've since learned) but in the meantime I would have to eliminate those grains from his diet. Totally. Aside from what other people tried to feed him (:banghead:) there was the business about labeling. Rye can be readily avoided, but wheat? Wheat is in a broad spectrum of canned or packaged foods, and I was a working mother. My child's health was at stake so I managed, but it was not easy.

High-fructose corn syrup is going to turn out to be another one of those things, and this time I'm feeling a slow burn, because it's really unnecessary to add sweeteners to an awful lot of foods that turn out to have it. I am by now overweight, my brother now has diabetes, yet another cousin has been diagnosed -- in fact, diabetes now runs all through my mother's side of my family.

And high-fructose corn syrup makes you feel hungry when you shouldn't be? S**t. S**t. S**t. Thanks for the info. It's back to reading every label.

Sometimes I wonder if the aliens aren't using the US as a gigantic feed-lot.

Hekate

[Hekate]

13. self-delete

sorry, hit the button twice

[eridani]

14. The syrup and the sugar aren't really all that different

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040910.html

Is that increase due strictly to the allure of HFCS? Not likely. Sales of diet pop have increased at an even faster rate than that of the sugared kind, suggesting that we're not just overdoing HFCS-sweetened foods, we're consuming too much sweetened everything. Supersized portions and changes in eating habits no doubt partly explain why--the percentage of food kids get from restaurants and fast-food outlets increased almost 300 percent between 1977 and 1996. Critser's book includes a graphic showing that the rise in U.S. obesity roughly paralleled the rate at which junk-food products were introduced. Lack of exercise is a factor too. Obesity is lowest among kids who watch an hour or less of TV daily, highest among those who watch four hours or more.

Whatever chemical differences there may be between fructose and glucose, the difference between HFCS and traditional sugar is slight. Both sweeteners contain both compounds, and in roughly similar amounts--table sugar is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose, whereas the most common form of HFCS is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. For what it's worth, Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a frequent critic of the food industry, dismisses contentions that HFCS is uniquely to blame for the fact that we're fat.

[Moderator]

15. Locking

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