Fructose Watch...

[redneckgaijin]

One other consequence of the flea market experiment, apparently, has been me gaining a few pounds back.

A year and a half ago, when I hit 245, I decided to take a simple step to cut back on calories- switch from soft drinks to a zero-calorie drink mix such as Crystal Light. Unfortunately, this only works at home; when I'm out for extended periods, it's damn near impossible to find a cold drink that isn't a carbonated and/or sweetened beverage. Tea is about the only option, and I can't stand the taste of boiled leaves.

There's also another factor: virtually every soft drink made that isn't a "diet drink" is sweetened not with sugar, but with high fructose corn syrup. Sugar (sucrose) turns into glucose (blood sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar) in the stomach at about a 50-50 ratio; HFCS is usually heavier on the fructose, either 55/45 or 90/10 depending on the product it's in.

Unlike glucose, fructose doesn't really digest properly. Instead it's metabolized in the liver, usually turned direct into fats (specifically, "bad cholesterol" VLDLs). In the process the syrup scars the digestive system, the fructose scars the liver, and most of all, fructose triggers hormones which INCREASE, not decrease, hunger. (And on top of that, fructose doesn't trigger the production of insulin, which is one reason why fructose increases the risk of diabetes.)

Bear in mind that high fructose corn syrup is not the same as plain old corn syrup, which is nearly all glucose. Corn syrup is about as good a sugar as there is, although all sugar is bad in anything more than small doses. HFCS is made through an extensive processing system- and this is the part that galls me- SUBSIDIZED BY OUR FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS. In other words, Washington is paying Archer Daniels Midland and three other companies to poison us, and we gobble and guzzle it down happily and ask for more.

If y'all could do me a favor? Check the stuff on your shelves and what-all, as you use it. Look in the ingredients. Look especially to see if the words "high fructose corn syrup" appear BEFORE "sugar." Sugar might not be in there at all. I'm going to avoid future purchases of products which are sweetened primarily or entirely with HFCS. Satisfying a sweet tooth is one thing, but HFCS is another.

(Happily, Blue Bell ice cream seems to be primarily sugar sweetened, with some corn syrup but not HFCS.)

OH- and you know how many states, including Texas, are forcing schools to abolish sodas in favor of fruit juices and drinks? Most fruit drinks have HFCS added- or even pure fructose- making them in MORE FATTENING THAN COKES.

I shit you not.

Your tax dollars at work, folks.

Comments

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Products found in my home thus far:

Coca-Cola
Sprite
Hunt's Tomato Ketchup
Kraft Barbecue Sauce
Chef Boy-ar-Dee Beef Ravioli
Hy-Top canned pasta (various kinds)
Clover Valley Condensed Soup (various flavors)
Great Value Condensed Soup (various flavors)

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

when I'm out for extended periods, it's damn near impossible to find a cold drink that isn't a carbonated and/or sweetened beverage. Tea is about the only option, and I can't stand the taste of boiled leaves.

Let me be the first to tell you the joys of Propel. Propel (and others like it) is a 0-20 calorie flavored water. The Black Cherry might as well be soda, except it's not carbonated and has no sugar.

If you can't stand Propel or other "fitness waters" (fitness water and flavored water ends up being the same thing, taste wise), check out Crystal Light On-the-Go. These are tubes of Crystal Light powder formulated for 20 ounces or so. You buy any of the standard bottled waters, dump one in, shake, and drink.

As I can't have either sugar or carbonation, I have learned these things. And they work and are good. For the record.

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

As a side note -- the emergence of Splenda has greatly increased the number of 0-20 calorie noncarbonated drinks on the market. And more and more of the diet sodas are going to Splenda as well.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I've tried the new formula Diet Dr. Pepper, which still tastes as rank as the old formula. Coke Zero is only half as bitter as Diet Coke, and I suppose I could develop a taste for it... but it's barely available off the shelf, much less in coolers or (heavens forbid) in fountains at the drive-through.

If I hadn't cut the flea market thing short, my next plan was to make up a gallon waterjug full of Crystal Light and drink that while "on the job." I did that during the hurricane, and the insulated jug I have kept some ice in the thing for as long as four days in 100-degree temps.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Neither Propel nor Crystal Light On-the-Go are on the convenience store shelves around here. "Fitness water" is limited to Gatorade knock-offs, which are usually half again the price of sodas by volume. (Well, I omit Red Bull, but I'm actively avoiding caffeine as well.)

I've had flavored water, black cherry and lemonade flavors, and it's not bad... but nobody around here chills it. It's only available off the shelves alongside the cases of canned soda, BYOrefrigeration.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I'd heard about the high-fructose thing elsewhere recently. I think I need to start taking a hard look especially at my favorite junk foods -- it's possible that I could drop some weight just by changing the kinds of prepared food I eat. It's less of a problem for Russ, because he doesn't like most snack/junk foods, and we tend to cook mostly from scratch (or nearly so) around here.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Canned soda tends to just say "High Fructose Corn Syrup and/or Sugar" so that they have the option of using sugar in some markets without having to print separate cans (for instance, ISTR that Dr Pepper is made with sugar for the El Paso area).

I've tried Diet Dr Pepper and didn't mind the taste, I just don't see the point. I drink soda because I want the calories. :) Otherwise, I just drink icewater. A LOT of icewater. I like icewater.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I'm indolent enough by nature that I don't need any spare calories if they can be done without. In San Antonio I could at least tolerate the city water, if it was cold enough. The well water here at the house is very hard, chalky, and rusty (though not as bad as in my childhood, when we used a shallower aquifer). It needs Crystal Light to be palatable at all to me- otherwise it tastes most bitter indeed.

As for the "and/or" thing, I agree, but in such cases the presumption must be HFCS- not only because it's subsidized to make it cheaper than sugar, but because sugar is also subsidized to make it -more expensive- through import tariffs on sugar and, of course, the Cuba embargo.