7 ms·

My personal, unsubstantiated opinion is that the food most people eat is now full of substances and chemicals that weren't there 50 years ago. A huge example i

by prirun 3y ago

My personal, unsubstantiated opinion is that the food most people eat is now full of substances and chemicals that weren't there 50 years ago. A huge example is high fructose corn syrup. Almost everything is sweetened with that instead of cane sugar. Food manufacturers IMO only care about making food cheap, making us crave it, and making it last a long time on the shelf. They aren't concerned about making sure it is healthy, as long as it doesn't immediately kill us. Another example is artificial sweeteners. Studies have shown that sucralose (Splenda) reduces insulin resistance something like 17%. Is anyone making sure that everyone knows that? Hell no.

cyounkins 3y ago
High fructose corn syrup is a very poor example. It is composed of fructose and glucose, both very familiar molecules to our bodies.
- AbsoluteCabbage 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - iambateman 3y ago
    Source? I googled and couldn’t find anything.
    - hammock 3y ago
      How could mercury have gotten into HFCS? Huge chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants using mercury cells produce “mercury-grade” caustic soda, hydro- chloric acid and other chemicals which are, in turn, used to produce thousands of other products, in- cluding food ingredients such as citric acid, sodium benzoate and HFCS.2 The mercury in these plants can contaminate their chemical products, as well as the broader environment. In HFCS production, caustic soda and hydrochloric acid are used to separate corn starch from the corn kernel, as well as to adjust the pH of the process. The HFCS industry, according to Vulcan Chemical Company, former operator of one of these plants, is a primary user of “mercury-grade” caustic soda and hydrochloric acid.2 The Environmental Health commentary provides data substantiating that mercury contaminating commercial HFCS is a problem. In the fall of 2008, we looked for total mercury in 55 brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS was the leading or second highest ingredient. An independent laboratory found total mercury, above the limit of detection, in about one in three products, including: dairy beverages, soft drinks, salad dressings, barbecue sauces, flavored syrups and jams. In other words, we found total mercury across the range of foods and beverages in which HFCS is routinely used.
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  They’re familiar, but not in the acute and frequent doses we receive it in these days.
- rcme 3y ago
  Fructose is an appetite stimulant, so eating a lot of it will change your eating habits. And we definitely eat more fructose than a few generations ago.
- rleigh 3y ago
  However, glucose can be stored and metabolised throughout the body whilst fructose requires processing in the liver. Our bodies are not designed to have a large instantaneous "hit" of fructose. They can cope with slow release of natural fructose in fruits, but in processed food it's soluble and released very quickly. The kinetics of how it's processed are very different.
  - UncleMeat 3y ago
    Apples are also much sweeter today than they were decades ago because of careful breeding. But this is perceived differently.
    - jessekv 3y ago
      I tried removing sugar from my diet at one point. My sense of taste changed, some varieties of apples became too overpoweringly sweet to enjoy.
  - searealist 3y ago
    Sugar is 50% glucose / 50% fructose. GFCS is 40%/60% at worst, not a huge difference.
    - red-iron-pine 3y ago
      Humans didn't eat a lot of sugar until fairly recently, too. And even if you did, you'd have to be very, very rich to be eating it 3 meals a day. Now you can get sugary cereal for breakfast, sandwich bread with HFCS for your lunchtime sammo, and a curry jam packed with palm oil and sugar for dinner. And that doesn't count the cookies or Pepsi you slam in between. Raw sugar of HFCS -- don't matter none, it's that you're slamming em at each meal, all the time.
      - searealist 3y ago
        All I am saying is HFCS and sugar are pretty much the same thing and it makes no sense to vilify one and not the other.
- klyrs 3y ago
  In the same way that we have cannabinoid and opioid receptors, and the molecules that activate them are very familiar to our bodies, yeah.
ulfw 3y ago
America is not the world. High fructose corn syrup is a very American thing. Over 90% of the nutritive sweetener used worldwide is sucrose.
- bombcar 3y ago
  It's almost entirely caused by the conflux of sugar tariffs and immense overproduction of corn in the USA.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    More specifically, sugar tariffs and corn subsidies.
- pengaru 3y ago
  Sure, but HFCS is also a bit of a red herring. Sucrose is half fructose, the difference from HFCS is minor - they're both problematic for humans to consume in excess.
  - rleigh 3y ago
    There's a very big difference between HFCS and sucrose. HFCS is soluble monosaccarides. Sucrose is a disaccaride which requires enzymatic cleaving to produce free fructose and glucose. The kinetics of the fructose processing are very different as a result--with sucrose the release is much slower because it's rate-limited by the quantity and kinetics of the sucrase enzyme. It's not going to hit your liver with a high concentration of fructose instantaneously, it's going to be a slower release over an extended period.
    - pengaru 3y ago
      That's not what the endocrinologist behind Sugar The Bitter Truth video tells us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&t=18m46s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&t=18m46s
      - 3y ago
bilegeek 3y ago
Not to blindly defend excessive food additives or anything, but putting questionable additives into food has been a thing for at least three times as long as you say; look up Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley[1] and swill milk[2]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Washington_Wiley?useskin=vector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Washington_Wiley?useski... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swill_milk_scandal?useskin=vector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swill_milk_scandal?useskin=vec...
aszantu 3y ago
this makes me so sad. I can't eat anything sweet and the one thing I found that I seem to tolerate well to a degree is sweetened with sucralose, sweet is addictive... I just ate 8 apples today when I lost control and I'm going to pay the price the next few days (food intolerance)
- pengaru 3y ago
  If binging on apples is the worst of your concerns you're doing just fine.
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  Are you intolerant to apples? If not, I think you’re in good shape as far as binging goes. I eat two or three apples just about every day. As far as food habits go I think it’s one of the best I’ve had.
  - aszantu 3y ago
    Seemingly intolerant to starches and sugar in general, leads to depression. Weirdly enough green stuff seems to give me panic attacks and suicidal ideation. Takes about 4 days to get into effect. Probably something to do with fermentation. Next one will be the 3rd Therapist, this time she's also a general practicioner. There are all kinds of doctors on youtube talking about this, but haven't found one in Germany who could give me a diagnosis... I'm so frustrated
    - steve_adams_86 3y ago
      Oh wow, that sounds incredibly frustrating. It seems wise to consider that it might be a fermentation problem, perhaps a serious imbalance of microbes or something. Good luck. I dealt with GI issues that lead to both physical and psychological misery once (after repeated courses of antibiotics), and my advice is to hang in there — you could find something that works for you, even it takes a while.
      - aszantu 3y ago
myegorov 3y ago
Sucralose (Splenda) increases insulin resistance.
nobodyandproud 3y ago
Not chemicals. It’s the processed foods and food science. And by processed foods, I mean foods that are designed to: - Minimize required mastication and digestion time. - Designed to subvert the satiation and cloying defense mechanisms, that tell our body to stop.
nazgulnarsil 3y ago
I run a health food company[1] and when going to trade shows to interact with reps from the big ingredient supplier companies it's all about touting that everything is 'Legally GRAS' or Generally Recognized as Safe and 'Clean Labeling' meaning that experimental ingredients can be put on the label under a more innocuous sounding name. Inquiring as to actual safety is met with blank stares. 1. Mealsquares.com
hatsune 3y ago
As if people 50 years ago had a life expectancy of 120. While healthcare is primary reason for its increase it is not scientifically rational to pray what was there 50 years ago. HFCS contributed to diseases so far less than cane sugar, with a lower volume dose as it is sweeter by far. As with making food cheap, I doubt what diet will be if local farming is the only choice. Suddenly no oranges from Cali, beef from Chicago, nor fishes from sea. How is it possible to have seafood diet if someone lives in Utah then? Fish out of the dead salty swamp? The single catch-all phrase of "that was not a thing 50 years ago, and there are bad things happening last 50 years, gonna blame them all" I'd rather unhelpful.

by prirun 3y ago

cyounkins 3y ago

High fructose corn syrup is a very poor example. It is composed of fructose and glucose, both very familiar molecules to our bodies.

AbsoluteCabbage 3y ago
[flagged]
- iambateman 3y ago
  Source? I googled and couldn’t find anything.
  - hammock 3y ago
    How could mercury have gotten into HFCS? Huge chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants using mercury cells produce “mercury-grade” caustic soda, hydro- chloric acid and other chemicals which are, in turn, used to produce thousands of other products, in- cluding food ingredients such as citric acid, sodium benzoate and HFCS.2 The mercury in these plants can contaminate their chemical products, as well as the broader environment. In HFCS production, caustic soda and hydrochloric acid are used to separate corn starch from the corn kernel, as well as to adjust the pH of the process. The HFCS industry, according to Vulcan Chemical Company, former operator of one of these plants, is a primary user of “mercury-grade” caustic soda and hydrochloric acid.2 The Environmental Health commentary provides data substantiating that mercury contaminating commercial HFCS is a problem. In the fall of 2008, we looked for total mercury in 55 brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS was the leading or second highest ingredient. An independent laboratory found total mercury, above the limit of detection, in about one in three products, including: dairy beverages, soft drinks, salad dressings, barbecue sauces, flavored syrups and jams. In other words, we found total mercury across the range of foods and beverages in which HFCS is routinely used.
steve_adams_86 3y ago
They’re familiar, but not in the acute and frequent doses we receive it in these days.
rcme 3y ago
Fructose is an appetite stimulant, so eating a lot of it will change your eating habits. And we definitely eat more fructose than a few generations ago.
rleigh 3y ago
However, glucose can be stored and metabolised throughout the body whilst fructose requires processing in the liver. Our bodies are not designed to have a large instantaneous "hit" of fructose. They can cope with slow release of natural fructose in fruits, but in processed food it's soluble and released very quickly. The kinetics of how it's processed are very different.
- UncleMeat 3y ago
  Apples are also much sweeter today than they were decades ago because of careful breeding. But this is perceived differently.
  - jessekv 3y ago
    I tried removing sugar from my diet at one point. My sense of taste changed, some varieties of apples became too overpoweringly sweet to enjoy.
- searealist 3y ago
  Sugar is 50% glucose / 50% fructose. GFCS is 40%/60% at worst, not a huge difference.
  - red-iron-pine 3y ago
    Humans didn't eat a lot of sugar until fairly recently, too. And even if you did, you'd have to be very, very rich to be eating it 3 meals a day. Now you can get sugary cereal for breakfast, sandwich bread with HFCS for your lunchtime sammo, and a curry jam packed with palm oil and sugar for dinner. And that doesn't count the cookies or Pepsi you slam in between. Raw sugar of HFCS -- don't matter none, it's that you're slamming em at each meal, all the time.
    - searealist 3y ago
      All I am saying is HFCS and sugar are pretty much the same thing and it makes no sense to vilify one and not the other.
klyrs 3y ago
In the same way that we have cannabinoid and opioid receptors, and the molecules that activate them are very familiar to our bodies, yeah.

ulfw 3y ago

America is not the world. High fructose corn syrup is a very American thing. Over 90% of the nutritive sweetener used worldwide is sucrose.

bombcar 3y ago
It's almost entirely caused by the conflux of sugar tariffs and immense overproduction of corn in the USA.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  More specifically, sugar tariffs and corn subsidies.
pengaru 3y ago
Sure, but HFCS is also a bit of a red herring. Sucrose is half fructose, the difference from HFCS is minor - they're both problematic for humans to consume in excess.
- rleigh 3y ago
  There's a very big difference between HFCS and sucrose. HFCS is soluble monosaccarides. Sucrose is a disaccaride which requires enzymatic cleaving to produce free fructose and glucose. The kinetics of the fructose processing are very different as a result--with sucrose the release is much slower because it's rate-limited by the quantity and kinetics of the sucrase enzyme. It's not going to hit your liver with a high concentration of fructose instantaneously, it's going to be a slower release over an extended period.
  - pengaru 3y ago
    That's not what the endocrinologist behind Sugar The Bitter Truth video tells us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&t=18m46s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&t=18m46s
    - 3y ago

bilegeek 3y ago

Not to blindly defend excessive food additives or anything, but putting questionable additives into food has been a thing for at least three times as long as you say; look up Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley[1] and swill milk[2]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Washington_Wiley?useskin=vector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Washington_Wiley?useski... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swill_milk_scandal?useskin=vector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swill_milk_scandal?useskin=vec...

aszantu 3y ago

this makes me so sad. I can't eat anything sweet and the one thing I found that I seem to tolerate well to a degree is sweetened with sucralose, sweet is addictive... I just ate 8 apples today when I lost control and I'm going to pay the price the next few days (food intolerance)

pengaru 3y ago
If binging on apples is the worst of your concerns you're doing just fine.
steve_adams_86 3y ago
Are you intolerant to apples? If not, I think you’re in good shape as far as binging goes. I eat two or three apples just about every day. As far as food habits go I think it’s one of the best I’ve had.
- aszantu 3y ago
  Seemingly intolerant to starches and sugar in general, leads to depression. Weirdly enough green stuff seems to give me panic attacks and suicidal ideation. Takes about 4 days to get into effect. Probably something to do with fermentation. Next one will be the 3rd Therapist, this time she's also a general practicioner. There are all kinds of doctors on youtube talking about this, but haven't found one in Germany who could give me a diagnosis... I'm so frustrated
  - steve_adams_86 3y ago
    Oh wow, that sounds incredibly frustrating. It seems wise to consider that it might be a fermentation problem, perhaps a serious imbalance of microbes or something. Good luck. I dealt with GI issues that lead to both physical and psychological misery once (after repeated courses of antibiotics), and my advice is to hang in there — you could find something that works for you, even it takes a while.
    - aszantu 3y ago

myegorov 3y ago

Sucralose (Splenda) increases insulin resistance.

nobodyandproud 3y ago

Not chemicals. It’s the processed foods and food science. And by processed foods, I mean foods that are designed to: - Minimize required mastication and digestion time. - Designed to subvert the satiation and cloying defense mechanisms, that tell our body to stop.

nazgulnarsil 3y ago

I run a health food company[1] and when going to trade shows to interact with reps from the big ingredient supplier companies it's all about touting that everything is 'Legally GRAS' or Generally Recognized as Safe and 'Clean Labeling' meaning that experimental ingredients can be put on the label under a more innocuous sounding name. Inquiring as to actual safety is met with blank stares. 1. Mealsquares.com

hatsune 3y ago

As if people 50 years ago had a life expectancy of 120. While healthcare is primary reason for its increase it is not scientifically rational to pray what was there 50 years ago. HFCS contributed to diseases so far less than cane sugar, with a lower volume dose as it is sweeter by far. As with making food cheap, I doubt what diet will be if local farming is the only choice. Suddenly no oranges from Cali, beef from Chicago, nor fishes from sea. How is it possible to have seafood diet if someone lives in Utah then? Fish out of the dead salty swamp? The single catch-all phrase of "that was not a thing 50 years ago, and there are bad things happening last 50 years, gonna blame them all" I'd rather unhelpful.