High-fructose corn syrup linked to obesity

Everskyward said:
That works if you are at home but most of my eating out is done on the road. I just leave it on my plate but it kills a lot of people to do that.
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I do that too now. I admit, it was kinda hard to get over the "I paid for it, I'm gonna eat it if it kills me" feeling I used to get. I like leaving the table feeling sated but not stuffed, so I don't sweat it any more. If I'm on the road, and there's a hotel fridge, I might take it home and repurpose it as lunch or something, but if not, hey, I don't need the extra cals.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I'm one of them. I was expected to normally finish my food at dinner, and my school brainwashed me with the whole thing about starving children in Africa. We were taught not to waste food.
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Reminds me of Alan Sherman's introduction to one of his songs back in the 60s. Being told to clean his plate because children were starving in Europe. "So I cleaned my plate, 4 or 5 times a day. It didn't help. They kept starving and I got fat!"
 
We raised 3 children and the rule at mealtime was "Don't take more than you can eat."

So if they loaded up, they finished. It was a lesson, not a rule.

None of us are obese because the other rule was "Go outside!"

We had "mandatory fun" hikes they still laugh about. We also limited TV time (which is easy when there is only one TV).

While other parents catered to childish menu requests, we insisted that everyone eat real food.

While jimmy was allowed to spend all Saturday monring watching TV, we were outside.

Of course such common sense, what's the-big-deal ideas such as these are now looked upon as downright medieval.
 
Our rule is "single bite."

I don't care if they finish. All I care is if they have a bite of everything on their plate. They don't want it, that's their problem, but they're going to have to try it. I try to make healthy food to please the family, on average. On average, they eat enough. It works.

"Clean plate rule?" That's nuts.
 
This is one more of those topics that we tend to discuss with an ego-centric point of view.

While it's quite true that there are many people are obese simply because they eat too much, exercise too little and it's their own fault, what we don't consider is that there is a significant percentage of our society who have few nutritional options because they have no access to healthy foods. For example, there are entire cities in the US that don't have a supermarket inside the city limit; Detriot for one. In many of our large cities the inner city poor have little choice but to buy groceries at the local convenience store and/or eat at fast food restrauarants. All the healthy options have moved out of town to the 'burbs following the money.

This doesn't fully excuse the individuals but when you have no vehicle and no grocery store in your neighborhood (or entire city) then you're left with few options. And, yes, if you eliminated HFCS from the "groceries" that these folks have access to then you'd be doing some good.

But as Trapper John said...the likes of Cargill and ADM certainly won't roll over without a fight.
 
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IMO
The quality of calories you consume DOES matter....its just not as simple as calories in =calories out. If you eat crap calories you will perform like crap.
I used to eat like total crap...then I found P90X about 2 years ago...changed my life.....
I also believe an even bigger "food problem" is high sodium...are food is loaded with tons of it...have to avoid it.
 
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EdFred said:
Uh...there's a bunch of grocery stores in Detroit.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...=42.306769,-83.007545&spn=0.192713,0.527&z=12
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I didn't say there were no small, specialty, neighborhood grocery stores in Detroit and that's all I saw in your link inside the city limits (with the possible exception of one).

I said was there were no supermarkets...something that provides a wide array of options at a reasonable price.

All I'm trying to point out is that most of us discuss this topic from a nice middle (or upper) class point of view and we don't take into consideration that a large portion of our population isn't as fortunate as we are.
 
timwinters said:
I didn't say there were no small, specialty, neighborhood grocery stores in Detroit and that's all I saw in your link inside the city limits (with the possible exception of one).

I said was there were no supermarkets...something that provides a wide array of options at a reasonable price.

All I'm trying to point out is that most of us discuss this topic from a nice middle (or upper) class point of view and we don't take into consideration that a large portion of our population isn't as fortunate as we are.
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Krogers? I know that's a super market...
Food Pride looks like what I'd call a super market (from their web site photos)
Same with Save-A-Lot

Using "supermarket" as a search instead of "grocery" you get;
Parkway Foods

The ones I list are those that "look like a supermarket". I haven't been in Detroit proper. After reading NewsWeek a week or two back, I'm surprised there's anything in Detroit. Lots of people just left...many abandoned properties.
 
timwinters said:
I didn't say there were no small, specialty, neighborhood grocery stores in Detroit and that's all I saw in your link inside the city limits (with the possible exception of one).

I said was there were no supermarkets...something that provides a wide array of options at a reasonable price.

All I'm trying to point out is that most of us discuss this topic from a nice middle (or upper) class point of view and we don't take into consideration that a large portion of our population isn't as fortunate as we are.
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And it's a very good point. Even here in cowtown, we have big grocery chains wanting to leave inner city areas for greener pastures. I'm not suggesting that stores should be forced to be kept open in an untenable location, but when the same chain is trying to get tax abatement and other economic incentives to relocate to an area with better demographics, it presents an interesting public policy problem to solve. And frequently in these cases you end up with nothing but Mickey D's when the supermarkets leave. If you don't believe it, take a look at the marketing strategy behind McDonald's, "I'm lovin' it" ad campaign - it's not aimed at suburban white kids.


Trapper John
 
Trapper John said:
And it's a very good point. Even here in cowtown, we have big grocery chains wanting to leave inner city areas for greener pastures.
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And it is not just where the stores are. Years ago I lived in Brooklyn, in what was termed a transitional neighborhood. The local major chain which I won't name but you can guess: A Prominent regional if not national chain at the time, merchandized the local store much differently than the same brand name store in a fine neighborhood less than 10 blocks away. Guess which one had the rotten produce? The higher prices? The mangy meat? I went local only for canned and paper goods.

Why even do that at the local store? Because we had to hand carry all we bought back, so we tried to get the heavy loads at the nearest store.

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
And it is not just where the stores are. Years ago I lived in Brooklyn, in what was termed a transitional neighborhood. The local major chain which I won't name but you can guess: A Prominent regional if not national chain at the time, merchandized the local store much differently than the same brand name store in a fine neighborhood less than 10 blocks away. Guess which one had the rotten produce? The higher prices? The mangy meat? I went local only for canned and paper goods.

Why even do that at the local store? Because we had to hand carry all we bought back, so we tried to get the heavy loads at the nearest store.

-Skip
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Often one store is better than another because the manager/buyers will put out what they think will sell.
 
dmccormack said:
Often one store is better than another because the manager/buyers will put out what they think will sell.
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It wasn't so much the selection of goods. In these stores the shelves were stocked identically from store to store.

The difference was the poor quality and condition. It seems if something didn't sell, it just sat there until it was raunchy enough to hop off the shelf and walk away on its own. But the prices were higher. Hey, aged beef, vintage wine... old is good, right? Doesn't work so well with fresh produce and poultry, etc. :eek:

-Skip
 
Cap'n Jack said:
And the others?
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Well, the Meijer on the list is out in Lincoln Park along with the Kroger. But we're arguing the wrong thing here. Even if there is a supermarket inside the city limits of Detroit (I was repeating a statistic that I heard in an expose on inner city obesity) the fact remains that in many inner cities, including Detroit, there are few if any options for buying healthy foods.

My daughter lives in St. Louis immediately west of the botanical gardens. She drives to Maplewood to do her shopping because there is nothing in her area. And, if you look at N. St. Louis (the area bounded by the river, 70, 270 & 170) you'll see that it's a large area with no options.
 
timwinters said:
Well, the Meijer on the list is out in Lincoln Park along with the Kroger. But we're arguing the wrong thing here. Even if there is a supermarket inside the city limits of Detroit (I was repeating a statistic that I heard in an expose on inner city obesity) the fact remains that in many inner cities, including Detroit, there are few if any options for buying healthy foods.

My daughter lives in St. Louis immediately west of the botanical gardens. She drives to Maplewood to do her shopping because there is nothing in her area. And, if you look at N. St. Louis (the area bounded by the river, 70, 270 & 170) you'll see that it's a large area with no options.
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I guess it's like a lot of NE (and probably other places)- not a lot of choice unless they drive awhile.

I guess a lot of people don't actually cook for themselves...I looked through my larder and the only corn syrup is in the soda I have infrequently. I suppose I've have more corn syrup if I bought ready-made meals (like Stouffers, for example- just using a brand - I don't know what ingredients they use) or if I ate out more often.
 
flyersfan31 said:
Simple solution. Cut it in half and take it home with you. That's what I do any more.
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I had a LOT of trouble doing that - fact is, I work out of my car, never seemed to remember to take a cooler for the left-overs (did I mention I'm not a morning person? :rolleyes:)... I'm finally at a point where I see it as a "health payment" if I pay for the whole thing, but only eat half. (I used to call it a "health tax", but Joe Selch led me to re-evaluate the name!) The Health Payment is what I pay when I spend the same amount of money to get a sandwich and drink as I would have spent to get a sandwich, drink and FRIES. So I pay the same and don't get the fries...

This idea, plus exercise, has me almost 9 pounds less than I was last month. :)
 
etsisk said:
I had a LOT of trouble doing that - fact is, I work out of my car, never seemed to remember to take a cooler for the left-overs (did I mention I'm not a morning person? :rolleyes:)... I'm finally at a point where I see it as a "health payment" if I pay for the whole thing, but only eat half. (I used to call it a "health tax", but Joe Selch led me to re-evaluate the name!) The Health Payment is what I pay when I spend the same amount of money to get a sandwich and drink as I would have spent to get a sandwich, drink and FRIES. So I pay the same and don't get the fries...

This idea, plus exercise, has me almost 9 pounds less than I was last month. :)
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I tend to cary a nalgene filled with water as often as I can, then all I order is the sandwich. I try to stay away from Soda, I don't like ice tea and the Lemonade most places have isn't much better then Soda.
 
Missa said:
I tend to cary a nalgene filled with water as often as I can, then all I order is the sandwich. I try to stay away from Soda, I don't like ice tea and the Lemonade most places have isn't much better then Soda.
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I'm with you Missa. I drink nothing but water all day long after a few cups of coffee in the morning. My theory is that if you drink God's fluid all day long then you can drink a little devil's juice at night and break even for the day.

:D
 
An interesting report to be certain, although the physiology of a rat is sufficiently dissimilar to that of a human to cast some doubt as to the applicability of the very nuanced conclusions.
 
EppyGA said:
Tom, you've hit one of my pet peeves. I would be happy to have have of what they serve at a restaurant while paying a 1/3rd less. I'm sure that sounds kind of dumb but I think they could do that and we'd be plenty happy.
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Mary and I often split entrees at restaurants nowadays.

Prolly ****es them off, but so what? If they're dumb enough to give me enough food for two adults in one serving, I'm smart enough to split it between the two of us.
 
timwinters said:
I'm with you Missa. I drink nothing but water all day long after a few cups of coffee in the morning. My theory is that if you drink God's fluid all day long then you can drink a little devil's juice at night and break even for the day.

:D
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As I've passed 50, I find myself drinking more and more water. If I drink pop, it's sugar-free only, and has been for decades. Mary and I once figured that we'd each weigh about 50 pounds more APIECE if we hadn't switched to diet pop (and sweetener in coffee and tea) in college, some 30 years ago. (Now, we can't stand sugared pop. It's like drinking honey, it's so sticky!)

I watch behemoths drink candy-water (regular, sugared pop) all day long, and just shake my head in wonder when they can't understand why they're overweight. WTF do they expect, when (calorically speaking) they are consuming the equivalent of an entire extra MEAL each day?
 
Jay, I find the largest people are the ones drinking diet soda. The artificial sweetners may have no calories, but they're metabolic inhibitors as well.

Water and other liquids from nature, they're the way to go.
 
ps. I saw my first "HFCS is good for you" commercial on HGTV of all places. Paid for by the Corn Refiners Association of course.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Hmm, now THAT explains a lot... :D
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Hey, now. :eek: :lol:

All I know is that if I replaced all the sweetener uses in my coffee and pop with real sugar, my weight gain over the course of time would be significant.

Figure a regular pop has, what, 120 calories? Coffee is somewhat less, but let's say maybe 20 calories a cup? I probably drink two diet pops a day, and maybe four cups of coffee. That's 320 calories a day I am avoiding by drinking sugar-free beverages.

Over the course of time, this becomes more significant. I am eliminating 116,000+ empty calories per year by following this diet. Had I not followed this course over the last 20 to 30 years, it's easy to see that I would now be tremendously overweight -- just like my father was at my age.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Jay, I find the largest people are the ones drinking diet soda. The artificial sweetners may have no calories, but they're metabolic inhibitors as well.
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I've also seen thin, petite people drink that stuff as well.

Where do you get that they're caloric inhibitors? I'm not saying that they are good for you...but there are a number of artificial sweeteners and I'm sure they don't all have the same effects on metabolism.

Ted DuPuis said:
Water and other liquids from nature, they're the way to go.
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No argument there.
 
A quick Google search will come up with no shortage of references.

I see the point that people make about counting calories, but it really is about more than just calories. I don't drink sodas very frequently anymore, having maybe 2 per week. I'm also scrawny. Of course, there's a bunch more to it than that, but just saying. :)
 
I like diet sodas much better than regular because they are not as sweet and don't have that sticky aftertaste and I don't have a weight problem. On the other hand I will use regular sugar in my coffee any day over the pink, blue or yellow stuff.
 
Funny that you say that, Mari, since to me I don't like diet sodas because they have an annoying aftertaste (plus I don't like their taste in the first place).

To each his or her own. :)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Jay, I find the largest people are the ones drinking diet soda. The artificial sweetners may have no calories, but they're metabolic inhibitors as well.
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woodstock said:
Not to mention the neurological problems you get from artificial sweeteners.
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Oh please! I can find internet references that say we didn't land on the moon and all sorts of idiotic stuff. Yes, if imbibed, too much artificial sweeteners can have adverse physiological effects, but so can anything else including water.

The obese people drinking diet soda are consuming more calories in some other fashion, and exercising insufficiently to burn the calories they ingest. And Ted is a mutant who can eat twinkies all day and not get fat. You hear, a MUTANT! My former chair was like that. Arrrrrggh!:mad3::mad3::mad3::mad3: :mad3: :mad3::mad3::mad3:
 
steingar said:
The obese people drinking diet soda are consuming more calories in some other fashion, and exercising insufficiently to burn the calories they ingest. And Ted is a mutant who can eat twinkies all day and not get fat. You hear, a MUTANT! My former chair was like that. Arrrrrggh!:mad3::mad3::mad3::mad3: :mad3: :mad3::mad3::mad3:
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Ahh, but I never eat Twinkies! ;)
 
Gary said:
I'd prefer genetically endowed - mutants have such a bad connotation. :D

Gary
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Maybe, instead of barbecue, this year's Fly-B-Que will feature wheat-grass shooters and tempeh patties, and we can all go to Adam's gym. Finish off the day with a refreshing papaya colonic and lemon water. I'll look like you guys in no time...

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
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