I've been noticing that the big media and other folks are becoming aware of the problem of High Fructose Corn Syrup in a wide range of food products from soda pop to jelly to whole grain bread.I've considered the Corn Grower's Association's attempt to placate the unwashed masses. They have called those of us who question their product's safety stupid. How dare I question their great product that makes food cheaper with a longer shelf life - especially baked goods.
I've considered their argument, which is their product is fine as long as you use it "in moderation..."
Yes. That's quite a consideration. I've been considering a lot silly things like facts along with their suggestions. Too much natural cane sugar or HFCS - either way, if you eat too much of anything - you'll get fat. I have been mulling that over for a while, and trying to balance their argument in my head. I've decided that their argument has some merit. The fact is, that you can eat pretty much whatever you want - and you won't gain weight - as long as you eat just below the total calorie number that you need based on your size and metabolisim.
You or I can chow down on about 3/4 of an order of Chili's Awesome Blossom:2,710 calories
203 g fat 194 g carbs
6,360 mg sodium
As long as we don't eat anything else. For about a day. That's 24 hours. Technically, we'll be okay. Now, granted, thats about enough sodium to wreck Troy and if I'm going to eat that much fat, I'd rather just eat a big plate of bacon. However, I'm trying to illustrate a point.
However, it is when you wash it down with the 17 teaspoons of HFCS in a can of Cola... and at Chili's you've got bottomless glasses - so multiply that by at least 3. Let's just say now you're up to at least 33 teaspoons of the junk with your tasty Onion Bomb. Now you're over your calorie amount, and now you're packin' away the pounds.
Remember, we'll be fine, as long as you didn't have a breakfast or a dinner, and only drank water all day long. Sugar, fat, carbs, or HFCS - as long as you don't go over the number. This is the basis of Weight Watcher's system as well.
But this is Blasphemes, so you know there's going to be a catch somewhere.
But let's look back at the concept of "in moderation..." It is kind of funny, if you're completely unaware of how often you really are ingesting HFCS. And then there's the news from Con-Agra in regards to trace amounts of mercury found in HFCS-laced foods like ketchup. The thing is, people don't just eat ketchup. HFCS is in everything.
The PR spokesperson said a person would have to eat 100 pounds of ketchup a day to reach the safe exposure levels. Whew! But if you reverse-engineer this reassuring thought, just how much HFCS is in ketchup? Or that Cola? Considering that, plus the USDA's data that the According to the USDA, average person ate 128.3 pounds of HFCS in 2006, maybe we can figure out how much HFCS-related mercury people ingest a year, let's throw the hypopthetical worse-case scenario that all HFCS has mercury in it.
Also, mercury builds up in the muscle of fish, can we just assume the same for humans? Let's ask Jeremy Piven.
If people are eating all this HFCS regularly and little bits of mercury are adding up... then maybe that's something worth looking into? It's not necessarily a crisis, but it's also not as trivial as the spokesperson tried to make it sound. Unless you're a parent.
-- hmmmm... now here's a thought, the anictdotal link (meaning wrong) to the increase of autism in children was mercury and vaccines. What if they were on the right track, with the mercury, but it wasn't the vaccines? -- look I'm no scientist... but will someone ASK a scientist if this is possible?
PREVIOUSLY: Teeny Bits Of Mercury Found In High Fructose Corn Syrup Foods
HFCS is sugar.
ReplyDeleteOnly Technically, to make HFCS is a chemistry set of instructions compared to gleaning sugar from a cane/beet.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is produced by processing corn starch to yield glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. It all sounds rather simple--white cornstarch is turned into crystal clear syrup. However, the process is actually very complicated. Three different enzymes are needed to break down cornstarch, which is composed of chains of glucose molecules of almost infinite length, into the simple sugars glucose and fructose.
First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is industrially produced by a bacterium, usually Bacillus sp. It is purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers.
Next, an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose. Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely see little balls of Aspergillus floating on the top.
The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, is very expensive. It converts glucose to a mixture of about 42 percent fructose and 50-52 percent glucose with some other sugars mixed in. While alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it. Inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are used only once, glucose-isomerase is reused until it loses most of its activity.
There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that takes the mixture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is back-blended with the original mixture to yield a final concentration of about 55 percent fructose--what the industry calls high fructose corn syrup.
HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from cane or beet sugar but it is obviously much more complicated to make, involving vats of murky fermenting liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of which take place in one of 16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. Yet in spite of all the special enzymes required, HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It is also very easy to transport--it's just piped into tanker trucks. This translates into lower costs and higher profits for food producers.
Sugar on the other hand is very basic
Cut the Stalks
Crush the Stalks
Boil the juices
Extract the sugar
Put it in your Coke
No Chemistry, no PhD needed to make 'Sugar'