5 ms·

In terms of fruitcakes, I was thinking more of the people that bring a political agenda or talk about "toxins" or what not. Long story short: fructose is only

by matrix 17y ago

In terms of fruitcakes, I was thinking more of the people that bring a political agenda or talk about "toxins" or what not. Long story short: fructose is only problematic if you are consuming it without dietary fiber (e.g. as fruit) for glycemic control, as well as all the other modulating effects fiber has. Fructose (and HFCS) sweetened foods are really just a sideshow to the the main issue: people making bad nutrition and lifestyle choices over the long term, e.g. drinking sodas every day. There's no easy, magic bullet that takes away one's responsibility for making good choices. Magically eliminating fructose or HFCS from our diets won't reverse the obesity trend. It'll help a bit, of course, but ultimately humans will need to find a way to adapt to over-abundance of temping, high-calorie foods. Meanwhile, a modicum of education and self-discipline are the keys.

Goladus 17y ago
The Lestig talk offers some fairly convincing arguments that what you say is not the case. Fructose is inherently problematic. Fiber merely mitigates the effects, which are still there and wouldn't have happened at all had you eaten something without sugar at all. Furthermore, while drinking sodas every day is perhaps a choice, what about the example of walking down the bread aisle and finding that something like 95% of the varieties listed HFCS as an ingredient? It's not just that sodas and juice drinks are ubiquitous, heavily-marketed, cheap, tasty, and designed to maximize consumption and therefore profit through use of diuretics and sodium and therefore people find themselves making the dietary choice to drink them with meals instead of water, but also the fact that HFCS is used in an enormous number of processed foods. Bread, pizza dough, tomato sauce, cookies, candy bars, chocolate, yogurt, sports drinks, salad dressing, BBQ sauce, chocolate milk... HFCS is everywhere because it's cheap, because it makes food taste better, and because it doesn't fill you up so people will consume (and therefore buy) more of it. On the one hand, fats are more calorie-dense, but sugar doesn't fill you up (and in my experience salt has a similar effect but I work out and sweat a lot so that could be why). So the combination of sugar and fat is the killer combination. Try this experiment: for a single day, try to eat 4,000 calories of nothing but a simple starchy food (like white rice) with some fat, like olive oil. This is a low fiber, high calorie diet. My guess is that you'll feel incredibly full after all the rice and oil. You may not even be able to reach 4,000 calories in 16 hours. You'll have to force yourself to eat by the end. Then, a few days later after you've sent some fiber through your digestive system to clear out any blockage you caused eating so much rice, try the same thing with soda and cookies. Get a couple boxes of your favorite HFCS-sweetened cookies and a couple of 2-liter bottles of your favorite soda or better yet, juice drink. See how hard it is to reach 4,000 calories now. My guess is that you'll have no trouble, although you may feel a bit ill by the end of the day.
- blueben 17y ago
  You have to applaud Coca Cola. Over a mere 70 years they have managed to teach the entire planet to consume a dessert multiple times a day; for some people multiple times in one meal. Imagine trying to convince the entire planet to eat ice cream or chocolate cake with every meal. That is an impressive manipulation of human behavior.

by matrix 17y ago

Goladus 17y ago

The Lestig talk offers some fairly convincing arguments that what you say is not the case. Fructose is inherently problematic. Fiber merely mitigates the effects, which are still there and wouldn't have happened at all had you eaten something without sugar at all. Furthermore, while drinking sodas every day is perhaps a choice, what about the example of walking down the bread aisle and finding that something like 95% of the varieties listed HFCS as an ingredient? It's not just that sodas and juice drinks are ubiquitous, heavily-marketed, cheap, tasty, and designed to maximize consumption and therefore profit through use of diuretics and sodium and therefore people find themselves making the dietary choice to drink them with meals instead of water, but also the fact that HFCS is used in an enormous number of processed foods. Bread, pizza dough, tomato sauce, cookies, candy bars, chocolate, yogurt, sports drinks, salad dressing, BBQ sauce, chocolate milk... HFCS is everywhere because it's cheap, because it makes food taste better, and because it doesn't fill you up so people will consume (and therefore buy) more of it. On the one hand, fats are more calorie-dense, but sugar doesn't fill you up (and in my experience salt has a similar effect but I work out and sweat a lot so that could be why). So the combination of sugar and fat is the killer combination. Try this experiment: for a single day, try to eat 4,000 calories of nothing but a simple starchy food (like white rice) with some fat, like olive oil. This is a low fiber, high calorie diet. My guess is that you'll feel incredibly full after all the rice and oil. You may not even be able to reach 4,000 calories in 16 hours. You'll have to force yourself to eat by the end. Then, a few days later after you've sent some fiber through your digestive system to clear out any blockage you caused eating so much rice, try the same thing with soda and cookies. Get a couple boxes of your favorite HFCS-sweetened cookies and a couple of 2-liter bottles of your favorite soda or better yet, juice drink. See how hard it is to reach 4,000 calories now. My guess is that you'll have no trouble, although you may feel a bit ill by the end of the day.

blueben 17y ago
You have to applaud Coca Cola. Over a mere 70 years they have managed to teach the entire planet to consume a dessert multiple times a day; for some people multiple times in one meal. Imagine trying to convince the entire planet to eat ice cream or chocolate cake with every meal. That is an impressive manipulation of human behavior.