Corn Syrup Conspiracy

[annuin]

*Reads label of her potato salad in disgust*

Why is there fucking high fructose corn syrup or corn syrup in nearly every fucking food product in this country?

It's not a huge surprise this nation battles obesity like it does when there's corn syrup or sugar in everything, even savoury products that shouldn't have it (bread, pasta sauce... and not just a touch either, to the point where it actually tastes sweet too *shudder*).

Comments

[arianadii.livejournal.com]

It really is annoying. I am diabetic and even if I wasn't I would not want high fructose corn syrup in everything I eat. :/

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

I can only begin to imagine your frustrations when food shopping. Shopping for the vegans in my circle of friends when we have a party or gettogether is frustrating enough, and it's made me so aware of how hard it is for people with restricted diets to buy food products that don't contain one or another ingredient they can't eat.

It also doesn't surprise me that something like Atkins is supposedly so effective, when you consider that sugar is a carb, and they cut carbs... if the average person cut out most of their sugars, considering it's in nearly everything, then you'd automatically loose at least some weight.

[arianadii.livejournal.com]

Shopping used to be extremely frusting for me. The grocery store looked like a big well organized mine field. I am both diabetic and celiac (extreme wheat allergy) and there is either sugar or wheat in almost everything. The high fructose corn syrup is the worst kind of sugar for diabetics. That stuff is bad news.

Now on a high raw food diet it's much easier and I don't even need my medication if I stick to it.

Cutting carbs is effective for weight loss and diabetes for another reason. All carbs must be turned to simple sugar in the body before they can be digested. Bread and pasta require even higher production of insulin for that purpose resulting in a supression of glycogen. It causes hormonal imbalance and slows the metabolism.

When I cut these foods I lost a ton of weight and normalized my blood sugar.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Do you have any resources for the raw food diet?

Anything that's lower in sugars and the like, and will help in the quest to lower the unhealthy food intake and lose a bit of that winter padding is good.

[vinlander71.livejournal.com]

There seems to be some controversy on the raw food diets. Raw food people seem to think that cooked food is poisonous, but there's no supportive research.

Neither vgnwtch nor I could find any substantial evidence one way or the other, though, eating more raw fruit and veg in your diet is generally a good thing anyway.

Getting rid of refined sugar in one's diet makes a HUGE difference. Heck, it gave vgnwtch a stronger immune system!

[vinlander71.livejournal.com]

You might be better off at a health food store. Stuff there I have seen labelled as "gluten-free".

[arianadii.livejournal.com]

Yes. I usually shop at Whole Foods. I eat mostly fresh produce now anyway but the ingredients on the packages at Whole Foods are not as evil. :)

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

Do you know why McDonald's have pickles on their cheeseburgers?

It's been shown, time and time again, that a large proportion of their customers don't like the pickles, and pull them off their burgers. But McDonald's HAVE to keep their (uber salty, you'll notice) pickles on their cheeseburgers so that it doesn't have to be labelled "confectionery" - because of the sugar levels in the bun.

Don't know if it's happening in the US, but what with the "healthy" changes to the menu happening over here, the TV is advertising "low sugar buns coming soon!".

Makes me want to throw up.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Oh man... eww...

Most processed American bread I've encountered is sweet. It grosses me out. We lived almost next door to a bakery for years back in Holland, and so I dislike processed loaves of bread anyway, because nothing beats getting a fresh loaf in the morning that's been baked that night (and you could smell getting baked if you walked past the bakery at like 4-5am), so having that factory made bread was already icky, but having it unnecessarily sweet was just gross. I actually rarely eat sandwiches anymore as a result of it, usually I end up buying rolls at the store becuase they're freshbaked on the premises, not factory processed.

My vegan friends keep recommending I buy a bread machine :)

McDonalds is just vile, I don't think there's really another word for it. Some guy did a documentary on McDonalds food called Super Size Me, for which he ate nothing but McDonalds for a month (to the horror of his vegan chef girlfriend), and he documented the results on his body. I believe his liver was almost toxic within days. He gained 25 pounds that month, he had mood swings, had less energy, less sex drive, was puking out of his car window after like 3 days of the "diet", and basically scared his doctors with his rapidly declining health.

I believe they're actually releasing the documentary around the US starting tomorrow.

Shortly after that documentary started gaining attention due to winning a prize at Sundance, McDonalds started introducing their healthier food options, whilst claiming it wasn't influenced by that documentary... sure...

Of course then there was controversy over their salads, which apparantly had more fat in them than their burgers (they like to douse their salad with dressing over here... actually, they should call it dressing with salad you get so much of the stuff). Blergh.

[arianadii.livejournal.com]

I like pickles.

I hate McDonalds. :)

[sublimecontessa.livejournal.com]

I didn't find any in the dry goods or canned vegetables, but it was in other canned things... and surprisingly close to the top of the ingredients list. -.-

MMM... high fructose corn syrup. Hook it to my veins!

[thetragicclown.livejournal.com]

Have you ever noticed that all the prices end in "9"? Damn, that's eerie.

- trag, quoting Kevin Smith movies

[zoomusikgrl.livejournal.com]

bread machines are a shit ton of fun- my mother has one, and she used to make all these homemade loaves with like oats and nuts and whole wheat in them, and they were soooOOOooo good!

i never noticed how much sugar was in american food until my cavities got real bad recently. before, eating a candy bar would send me reeling with pain. sometimes a sandwich has the same effect- and that's just sick!

you sho

cat stepped on the keyboard

[zoomusikgrl.livejournal.com]

you should check out this month's issue of marie claire- they have an article where american woman and a french woman switch diets for a week, and it's pretty much in line with what yr talking about.

[lunamoth42.livejournal.com]

I had a Dr. Pepper the other day that was made with REAL SUGAR. It was GOOOOD. Heh heh. ;)

[ddurkee.livejournal.com]

This has to be one of the most interesting thread of comments I've read on your journal, but then again that's because I'm a food scientist and I love this stuff. I lost most of my weight by cutting down on bread and sugar stuff. I disagree with Atkins because cutting out carbs nearly completely is not healthy, and cutting back on things that go right through you like processed sugars does help a lot. One reason I have tried to cut back on those is because two members of my family have Type II diabetes. Eating a lot of processed foods can contribute to insulin resistance, but eating things with a low glycemic index and that require more processes in the body to digest (proteins, etc.) or can supress insulin response by slowing down the rate at which things hit the bloodstream and are absorbed (complex carbs, fiber, etc.) can help prevent insulin resistance. Just my two cents worth... I do agree there is too much HFCS in foods these day... it's so cheap and provides functionality that food technologists like. Hopefully someday that will change.