Fructose Sweetener Linked to Obesity Rise

AP ^ | 03/25/2004 | STEVE HARTSOE

[Keith in Iowa]

>> Ban that posion fruitcose! It is a killer and all America needs to be safe from that death by sugar.

What we really need is to be saved from that evil dihydrogen-monoxide. That's a real killer.

[Bogey78O]

Splenda is pretty good.

The local brewery (the ones who make Abita beer) also have a rootbeer made with cane sugar. Now Barq's rootbeer back when it was a New Orleans only thing was great. But when it became fructose enriched it dropped in quality. The Abita Root Beer though is really great though.

[OrangeDaisy]

I was watching TV last night and an ad for Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice came on...

Try Ocean Spray Light Cranberry (or Cran Raspberry or Cran Grape). I drink the Cran Raspberry and it has 40 calories in an 8 oz glass, and it's ingredients are filtered water, grape juice, cranberry juice, raspberry juice, fructose, fumaric acid, pectin, ascorbic acid, sodium citrate and Splenda.

[rogueleader]

Yep, it's the corn.

Let me tell you something. I don't know what it is, but I am really suspicious of corn now. There's something going on, and it is not good.

Think twice before eating corn.

Let me put it to you this way. There must be a reason why corn visibly turns up in your stools. Why doesn't it digest like everything else?

[chantal7]

I certainly hope they do something about putting the corn syrups into so many foods. It's killing me. I'm very allergic to corn and lately I keep running into corn syrup solids which give me asthma attacks.

[.38sw]

High fructose corn syrup is in so many things. I bought some "light" yogurt last week, and didn't read the label until I got it home. While it is sweetened with Nutrasweet, it also has high fructose corn syrup in it! I guess I'll just start making my own yogurt. Look at salad dressing labels, too. It is often the second ingredient listed, which means there is a lot of it. I'm trying to get into the habit of reading labels before I buy any prepared foods, but it sure adds to my shopping time. *sigh*

[ServesURight]

The best soda ever! Better than Coke and Pepsi, IMO.

[nobdysfool]

I hope you don't work for NutraSweet...that stuff is poison, pure and simple!

I'm one of many who has an allergic reaction to NutraSweet (aspartame). I have to read labels all the time, because aspartame is being added to foods with no warning. I can't even chew sugarless gum, because virtually all brands have aspartame, where they didn't before. It's a poison, and produces toxic compounds in the body as it's broken down. I avoid it like the plague, because I don't enjoy splitting headaches and stomach pains so bad it bends you over in agony.

[BJClinton]

Shouldn't it be hydrogen hydroxide?

[BJClinton]

Homemade yogurt is great, and easy once you get a good set-up going. If you add berries and splenda it'll still be tasty and low carb.

[kevkrom]

What's really funny is how "reduced fat" foods (salad dressing, for example) replace the fat with sugar or HFCS. Fat people trying to diet just get fatter.

I never got anywhere with low-fat diets -- I was hungry all the time, and weight loss levelled off quickly. Doing the low-carb (Atkins) thing, I've lost 50 pounds in less than 3 months, and not having the sugars in my bloodstream has made me more energetic to boot.

While eating habits themselves are a big aprt of the problem, I do think over-liberal use of corn syrups contributes to it -- they get absorbed into the blood stream very quickly (high on the glycimic index) and lead to a "sugar high", which in turn makes you hungry for more.

[Terry Mross]

I wish the soft drinker makers would start using Splenda. I told my wife this morning they should make unsweetened cola and let me put as much sugar or Splenda as I want to in the damn thing.

On another note, there is a bottleling company in Central Texas that still uses sugar and you can still get Dr. Pepper in glass bottles. Mmmm! It burns when you swig it. I think that's because there's more carbonation in glass bottles with metal caps. And they probably had to sweeten 'em up once they started using cans and plastic because they had to decrease the carbonation.

[Charles Martel]

Hmmmmm......right after the Old Coke - New Coke - Old Coke event. New "Old" Coke is sweeter than old "Old" Coke.

This is the only time year that sugar-sweetened Coke is sold in the U.S. (I believe it's still blended that way in Europe) - if you know of a grocery store with a large kosher foods section, the "Kosher for Passover" Coca-Cola might be on the shelf. It tastes just like the old stuff (too bad it comes in a plastic bottle - a one-liter, IIRC).

Only areas with significant Jewish populations usually get the stuff, though.

[Keith in Iowa]

I'm just going by http://www.dhmo.org/ - nasty stuff - it should be banned. ;)

[maryz]

the "Kosher for Passover" Coca-Cola

I think they stopped that a number of years ago. I saw an article in the WSJ about it and near Passover tried to find some for a Coke fan; never found it around here (Boston), where the Passover ads say, "Yes, you can still enjoy Coke at Passover! Drink Diet Coke!"

I don't recall the relevant years to know if this is a likely theory (and don't really care enough to check), but I've always wondered if Coke didn't go to corn sweeteners during the time it launched the New Coke, figuring they'd have to go back, but no one would notice the change after a break the way people would if one day they bought Coke with sugar and the next bottle was made with HFCS.

[SeeRushToldU_So]

I'm one of many who has an allergic reaction to NutraSweet (aspartame). I have to read labels all the time, because aspartame is being added to foods with no warning. I can't even chew sugarless gum, because virtually all brands have aspartame, where they didn't before. It's a poison, and produces toxic compounds in the body as it's broken down. I avoid it like the plague, because I don't enjoy splitting headaches and stomach pains so bad it bends you over in agony.

No one has ever died here where they load over 10 tons a day. If anyone was going to be over exposed to aspartame, it would be the people that make it. So you may be allergric to the stuff.

Heck, I am allergic to grass, I can't find anybody to sue over that. Take an asprin and stop crying.

[Overtaxed]

but I've always wondered if Coke didn't go to corn sweeteners during the time it launched the New Coke, figuring they'd have to go back, but no one would notice the change after a break the way people would if one day they bought Coke with sugar and the next bottle was made with HFCS.

If memory serves it was mid to late 80's. Anyway....the new "Old Coke" is sweeter and fizzier than the old Old Coke. I've switched to sparkling water with no sweeteners of any kind although I like a Coke once in a while.

[Charles Martel]

I think they stopped that a number of years ago. I saw an article in the WSJ about it and near Passover tried to find some for a Coke fan; never found it around here (Boston), where the Passover ads say, "Yes, you can still enjoy Coke at Passover! Drink Diet Coke!"

I don't recall the relevant years to know if this is a likely theory (and don't really care enough to check), but I've always wondered if Coke didn't go to corn sweeteners during the time it launched the New Coke, figuring they'd have to go back, but no one would notice the change after a break the way people would if one day they bought Coke with sugar and the next bottle was made with HFCS.

When "Coke Classic" finally appeared on grocers' shelves, it had the corn syrup sweetener. Whether or not the whole "New Coke" thing was a ploy to get the customers to embrace the modified formula is certainly open to question. If true, it certainly was an elaborate ruse.

The sugar-sweetened version is still available - check out the discussion HERE.

Looks like the stuff ships mid-March and is produced by a single facility. The "Drink Diet Coke" ads may address the problem that *lots* of people (not all Jews, certainly) track this stuff down and buy in quantity. There's probably one shipment of it each year, and if you miss out - the diet version is the closest you'll find.

[SaveTheChief]

I am waiting for a brilliant scientific study to be released that claims lack of exercise and a lifestyle of physical inactivity to be a cause in the obesity problem.

True, sugars contribute to the problem in a big way, but a lazy society (me included) with a self-induced slow metabolism due to lack of exercise is the main problem.

Bad convenience foods are also to blame, but you have to look at the reason these foods exist. Many people are too lazy to make healthy meals so they go out and get fast food, or buy packaged carbo-loaded dinners of whatever is easy to prepare. But again, this would not be so much of a problem if people would exercise.

I think, with very few exceptions, a lazy society is to blame for the obesity problem. I know that has certainly been my problem.

[maryz]

If true, it certainly was an elaborate ruse.

Actually, I always wonder about the timing when someone else lists the introduction of New Coke as one of the most boneheaded marketing decisions of all time. Was it or wasn't it? (Though I'm not sure who knows for sure.)