I know why people are obese

[GeaugaFletcher]

High Fructose Corn Syrup is a pretty insidious thing. According to the (mildly alarmist) things I've read, HFCS doesn't send the normal "I'm full" message to the brain...so a person will consume quite a bit more than if the food were sweetened with cane sugar, for example. Common sense should dictate when to quit, but it doesn't help that so much food is engineered such that the normal unconscious triggers are disabled.

See how much mundane food has HFCS in it...dang near everything. If it's not that, it's MSG.

People have forgotten how good REAL food tastes. As much as I like Coke, it tastes like a chemistry project compared to good sweet corn. Even Mexican coke sweetened with cane sugar tastes noticeably better. Chocolate chip cookies made with good ingredients are three-roller-coasters' worth of amazing in your mouth and Toll House tastes like cardboard. What do most people eat? Not the good stuff...

It's become more expensive to buy good 'raw material' foods to cook for real (DIY food!) than it is to buy processed junk at the store. It's cheaper to take three kids to McDonalds for dinner than to cook for them and every item in their happy meal comes with HFCS (and probably MSG).

 

[Shannow]

I've seen fructose in the supermarket labelled as "glucose free" and sugar free, with mention of diabetes...and they get away with it.

 

[dwendt44]

fructose is fruit sugar. It's still sugar, but some diabetics can tolerate it.
Expensive though.
Splenda is made from sugar, BTW, it's just not absorbed by the body.

 

[moribundman]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
I've seen fructose in the supermarket labelled as "glucose free" and sugar free, with mention of diabetes...and they get away with it.


Fructose is just fine if consumed in moderation. Unlike sucrose (table sugar), fructose does not raise insulin levels (which over time causes insulin resistance), and that's why fructose was once praised as a suitable sweetener for diabetics. Now we know that consumption of LARGE amounts of fructose can cause elevated serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Essentially, switching the majority of ones sugar intake to fructose can possibly cause heart disease. Naturally occurring fructose is of no health concern (unless consumed in vast quantities -- death by oranges

).

 

[Shannow]

LOL, I think that a person who consumed enough fruit (as opposed to fruit extract) to kill themselves would die very healthy indeed.

Funny sucrose is a glucose and fructose.

Funny also that the "handedness" of thalidomide either made it work, or made birth defects.

 

[Virtuoso]

Originally Posted By: GeaugaFletcher
It's become more expensive to buy good 'raw material' foods to cook for real (DIY food!) than it is to buy processed junk at the store. It's cheaper to take three kids to McDonalds for dinner than to cook for them and every item in their happy meal comes with HFCS (and probably MSG).


Unfortunatly this is all too true. To buy acutal healthy foods, you have to spend an arm and a leg. And maybe your first born, if you have more than one. Has anyone forgotten a gallon of milk is just as expensive as gas? Fruits and veggies = $$$. You can load up on carbs and fats all you want cheap cheap.


It's the fat children that kill me - my kids are bean poles, and I don't think it was that hard to keep them that way.

 

[moribundman]

Making MREs (include all fast food and express lunches) cheaper than from scratch cooked meals in your own home is just another way to stimulate the economy. It also creates a generation of future invalids who can be further bled.

I eat out maybe once a month. I'm sure I spend more on food than someone who eats out (say lunch) every day.