Comments on: Call Me Corny http://bifsniff.com/current-affairs/call-me-corny Arts & culture blog based in Cork Ireland Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:59:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Allen http://bifsniff.com/current-affairs/call-me-corny#comment-1470 Allen Fri, 26 Jan 2007 13:26:39 +0000 http://www.bifsniff.com/indefinable/call-me-corny#comment-1470 LS, thanks for pointing out the hypotheses. It is based on the fact that the average weight of the US population has risen dramatically, which is incidental to introduction of HFCS into the mainstream diet. HFCS is a (simple carbohydrate) refined/processed sugar that is quickly absorbed by the body. Therefore the sugars burn quickly and the unused portions are passed into cells and turned into fat. A side affect is that after this sugar spike, you crash and feel hungry again. This is a manmade abnormal hunger. Correlations can be made between anything but there is a clear chain of causation for HFCS to be a factor in the trend of obesity. Obesity can also be determined by genetics or psychology. But, if you think back to when sugar was less prevalent (grandparents days), obesity was rare. Statistically, today sugar intake is 30% of the average Americans daily diet. HFCS is a cheap way to make food taste better. And I have to ask, why not grow and cook the produce to have those characteristics? Reason, it's more labour intensive, therefore less economically viable. After all, a corporation is making the decision. LS, thanks for pointing out the hypotheses. It is based on the fact that the average weight of the US population has risen dramatically, which is incidental to introduction of HFCS into the mainstream diet. HFCS is a (simple carbohydrate) refined/processed sugar that is quickly absorbed by the body. Therefore the sugars burn quickly and the unused portions are passed into cells and turned into fat. A side affect is that after this sugar spike, you crash and feel hungry again. This is a manmade abnormal hunger. Correlations can be made between anything but there is a clear chain of causation for HFCS to be a factor in the trend of obesity. Obesity can also be determined by genetics or psychology. But, if you think back to when sugar was less prevalent (grandparents days), obesity was rare. Statistically, today sugar intake is 30% of the average Americans daily diet. HFCS is a cheap way to make food taste better. And I have to ask, why not grow and cook the produce to have those characteristics? Reason, it’s more labour intensive, therefore less economically viable. After all, a corporation is making the decision.

]]> By: Louisville Slugger http://bifsniff.com/current-affairs/call-me-corny#comment-1453 Louisville Slugger Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:54:13 +0000 http://www.bifsniff.com/indefinable/call-me-corny#comment-1453 I checked out the article you linked to about HFCS and obesity, but it seems to imply that there is no real link between the two things. The article says "we're not just overdoing HFCS-sweetened foods, we're consuming too much sweetened everything." So basically I don't see why we should demonize HFCS exclusively - we should be keeping an eye on a lot of the things we eat, not just HFCS. THanks though for explaining why HFCS is used here as a sweetener as opposed to sugar in the EU. That was pretty interesting. I checked out the article you linked to about HFCS and obesity, but it seems to imply that there is no real link between the two things. The article says “we’re not just overdoing HFCS-sweetened foods, we’re consuming too much sweetened everything.” So basically I don’t see why we should demonize HFCS exclusively - we should be keeping an eye on a lot of the things we eat, not just HFCS.

THanks though for explaining why HFCS is used here as a sweetener as opposed to sugar in the EU. That was pretty interesting.

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