High Fructose Bait and Switch

[JVParkour]

It is also proven that some HFCS contains mercury.... eek!

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20090127/mercury-in-high-fructose-corn-syrup

 

[Zippyjuan]

It is also proven that some HFCS contains mercury.... eek!

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20090127/mercury-in-high-fructose-corn-syrup

What is a "measurable amount" of mercury? One part per billion is measurable- but is that signifcant? How does that compare to products with sugar in them instead of HFCs? From the article:

Where Did the Mercury Come From?
Wallinga's report doesn't prove that the mercury in the tested products came from high-fructose corn syrup,

An FDA spokesperson tells WebMD that the FDA takes mercury contamination in food very seriously and that methylmercury is the form of mercury that's of the greatest concern. Dietary exposure to methylmercury comes almost exclusively from fish, and the new research on mercury in high fructose corn syrup doesn't provide enough information or analysis because it focuses on total mercury levels and the potential levels of exposure are extremely low, the spokesperson notes

http://www.mercuryfacts.org/mercurymyths.cfm

The mercury-in-corn-syrup myth stems from a deeply flawed January 2009 study by the Minnesota-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). The group found minute traces of mercury in 17 out of 55 grocery items that contained high fructose corn syrup, but they didn’t run mercury tests on any grocery products free of the sweetener. The absence of a control group leaves the study’s conclusions open to many alternative explanations. For example, the trace levels mercury detected in IATP’s samples could be uniformly common in products found on grocery store shelves. A 2003 study conducted by scientists at Health Canada found measurable mercury levels in dozens of common foods, including baby formula, broccoli, carrots, celery, blueberries, grapes, peas, raisins, raspberries, rice, strawberries, and tomatoes.

Since elemental mercury is present nearly everywhere in nature, any quantity of mercury should be put into perspective of its danger to human health. But the IATP study relied on measurements so minuscule that they were expressed in “parts per trillion.” As it turns out, one liter of clean and safe drinking water contains more mercury than any of the grocery products IATP tested.

 

[dannno]

I heard, haven't really looked into it though, that "Stevia in the Raw" is almost 90% table sugar...

So beware of stuff like that.

Uh, I don't think so.. maybe it tastes like 90% table sugar, but if it were 90% table sugar it wouldn't be nearly as potent.. u only use a little pinch in place of a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar or something like that.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Uh, I don't think so.. maybe it tastes like 90% table sugar, but if it were 90% table sugar it wouldn't be nearly as potent.. u only use a little pinch in place of a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar or something like that.

I think this may be a problem some people have with alternative sweetners. They are used to using a certain quantity and even though something like stevia is multiples of times sweeter than suger, they still put in a tablespoon or whatever like they do with sugar. This gets their body expecting even more sugar to come so they produce even more chemicals to try to digest it throwing their body even more out of balance.

 

[cybloo]

Uh, I don't think so.. maybe it tastes like 90% table sugar, but if it were 90% table sugar it wouldn't be nearly as potent.. u only use a little pinch in place of a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar or something like that.

/me walks to kitchen and gets out Stevia in the Raw box...

Ingredients: Dextrose, Stevia Extract (Rebiana)

This stuff is a god-send for me because I have fructose malabsorption. Sucralose and aspartame do horrible things to my insides, so to have a handy packet of dextrose/stevia is nice when FM problems hit.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Dextrose is a sugar. Anything "ose" at the end is a sugar. Glucose, sucrose, fructose, dextrose. Dextrose is often made from corn, like HFCs. They are just renaming the sugar so you don't recognize it as that.

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7040

Dextrose: Better known today as glucose, this sugar is the chief source of energy in the body. Glucose is chemically considered a simple sugar. It is the main sugar that the body manufactures. The body makes glucose from all three elements of food, protein, fat and carbohydrates, but in largest part from carbohydrates. Glucose serves as the major source of energy for living cells. It is carried to each cell through the bloodstream. The cells cannot, however, use the glucose without the help of insulin. When sampled in blood, glucose is tested in transit.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-dextrose-fructose-and-glucose.htm

Fructose is an extremely sweet sugar which is found in many fruits. The flavor is sometimes intensely cloying, as anyone who has eaten an overripe piece of fruit knows, and it is believed to be the most sweet of the naturally occurring sugars. Fructose can also be obtained through the breakdown of sucrose, which is made from linked fructose and glucose molecules. Fructose has a low glycemic index, which means that it takes a long time for the body to break down, resulting in a slow release of sugar, rather than a sudden rush. For this reason, it is sometimes recommended for diabetics.

Dextrose is simply a form of glucose. Some food packagers like to use "dextrose" on their packaging instead of "glucose" because they believe that people have negative associations with glucose. This sugar is extremely abundant in nature, and it can be found in numerous plant and animal tissues, often along with other sugars such as fructose. The body relies on glucose for energy, using this sugar to power cells. When people measure their blood sugar, they are actually measuring the amount of dissolved glucose in the blood.

The molecular formula for glucose/dextrose and fructose is actually the same. Both sugars are considered to be hexoses, meaning that they have six carbon atoms attached to 12 hydrogen atoms and six oxygen atoms. The differing ways in which molecules can be attached cause various hexoses to behave differently, creating different chemical compounds which lend the hexoses some distinct properties.

Glucose is what is known as an aldohexose, meaning that it contains a compound called an aldehyde, located at the first position in the molecule. Aldehydes have a carbon atom which is attached to a hydrogen atom and also double bonded to an oxygen atom. Fructose, on the other hand, is a ketohexose, containing a ketone which consists of a single carbon atom double bonded to an oxygen atom. The ketone in fructose is attached to the second position in the molecule. Ketones play an important role in biochemistry.

The simple structures of these sugars allow them to be linked in a number of different ways to other molecules, creating more complex sugars which will behave differently in the body and generating some extremely unwieldy chemical formulas. For consumers, the important thing to remember is that labels which say "dextrose" really mean "glucose."

http://www.sugar.org/consumers/sweet_by_nature.asp?id=277

Pure cornstarch is by far the biggest source of the other carbohydrate sweeteners used by today’s food manufacturers. Cornstarch is split into a variety of smaller fragments (called dextrins) with acid or enzymes. The smaller fragments are then converted into the various cornstarch sweeteners used by today’s food manufacturers.

Hydrolysis is the term used to describe the overall process where starch is converted into various sweeteners.

Sweetener products made by cornstarch hydrolysis include dextrose, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, maltodextrin, high fructose corn syrup, and crystalline fructose.

 

[dannno]

I think this may be a problem some people have with alternative sweetners. They are used to using a certain quantity and even though something like stevia is multiples of times sweeter than suger, they still put in a tablespoon or whatever like they do with sugar. This gets their body expecting even more sugar to come so they produce even more chemicals to try to digest it throwing their body even more out of balance.

But the spoon that comes in a stevia bottle is TINY and it specifically states the ratios on the box..

I have never heard anything bad about stevia before, what evidence do you have that there is any detriment to using it?? It HELPS people with diabetes control their blood sugar!! You keep acting like stevia is just like all the other sugar alternatives and I don't know why.. you are the person who always wants to have scientific evidence for everything yet you are going off pure speculation.

 

[dannno]

Dextrose is a sugar. Anything "ose" at the end is a sugar. Glucose, sucrose, fructose, dextrose. Dextrose is often made from corn, like HFCs. They are just renaming the sugar so you don't recognize it as that.

I don't know why they call it stevia in the raw when there are other things in it. I think one reason is to make it so there is something substantial in there due to the high potency of the pure extract.

The stuff I have is stevia extract, there are lots of pure stevia extracts sold that don't have anything else. You can get it in liquid form with a dropper or powder form.

 

[Zippyjuan]

But the spoon that comes in a stevia bottle is TINY and it specifically states the ratios on the box..

I have never heard anything bad about stevia before, what evidence do you have that there is any detriment to using it?? It HELPS people with diabetes control their blood sugar!! You keep acting like stevia is just like all the other sugar alternatives and I don't know why.. you are the person who always wants to have scientific evidence for everything yet you are going off pure speculation.

I have not said anything bad about stevia so far. Thank you for the information about it using a smaller spoon- that is logical since it is multiples of times sweeter than sugar you would need less of it. I was merely commenting that many users may not be aware of this and try to use the same amounts of it that they are used to using with regular sugar.

 

[cybloo]

Gatorade G2 is NOW low calorie and contains SUCRALOSE instead of High Fructose corn syrup. Watch out for many other products to follow suit, many 'sugar free' products already have. Notice no more 'splenda' labels? This is why.. the sucralose is flying in under the radar.

Time to boycott anything that doesn't use real sugar.

I'm looking at my bottle of G2 and there is no Sucralose. The main sweetening ingredient is Sucrose. Maybe some Gatorade uses sucralose, but not the kind that everyone is selling all over my city. The only reason I drink G2 is because of the use of sucrose and dextrose and the primary sweeteners.

 

[idirtify]

Relatively small amounts of Sucralose gives me all the bad GI symptoms. I hate the shit. They are putting it in so many foods. Read labels!!!

 

[orafi]

Why? Sucralose is fine. People have a choice, you know.

Choice is kind of thrown out the door when government subsidizes the artificial alternatives and then taxes and restricts the real deal.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Choice also requires an informed consumer- both on existing (if any) alternatives and the impact of each of the different alternative sweetners would have on them. Most don't have the time to collect such knowledge so trust that companies will not sell them things which will harm them and base their decisions more on taste or prices.