Posted on 07/23/2007 3:13:48 PM PDT by HarmlessLovableFuzzball
I have recently stopped drinking aspartame-sweetened diet colas. If definitely felt as if there was a habit-forming ingredient in them.
Or the water, caffeine, artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, or preservatives.
Did this study have a group of subjects which drank water in place of soft drinks?---No, I didn't think so.
My little experiment(not scientific by any means) did not prove that out, unless it’s some sugar elevation that would not show up on a meter.
Muawiyah — Like a lot of people, you are confusing corn syrup with high fructose corn syrup. They are NOT the same thing. HFCS is much worse for you. The main problem with it is not the corn syrup; it’s the fructose. Your body metabolizes fructose directly into fat.
HFCS also carries a ton of calories, but your body doesn’t even recognize them as such. There have also been studies that show that HFCS switches off your natural appetite control system.
It’s bad stuff.
No, I eat oat granola.
On the other hand when I eat fructose it's instantly broken down into simpler sugars which are then recombined into the type of sugar my body can use ~ which is glucose.
Fructose doesn't taste as sweet as sucrose. So, they concentate it ~ that's called high fructose corn syrup.
Any leftover sugar not needed for immediate energy requirements is quickly stuffed into fat cells by insulin.
If you live like I do, with an absolute minimum of sugar/starch input, when you need energy your liver will convert something ~ usually fat, and then when that's burned up, protein ~ into glucose or glycogin.
It's not quite as instantaneous as the other way around, but it works.
Sugar levels are readily measured.
On the other hand, I can tell you when I'm short insulin and sugar. It feels different.
Then, there's the hunger ~ the hunger of a predator who needs a surge of fats for glycogen and a chunk of protein for sugar, to live right, and I look around and notice that the squirrels do look good today, and my mouth waters.
One of the most harmful artificial ingredients ever created? Do you feel the same way about sugar (sucrose)? Because both HFCS and sugar are made up of the same two ingredients in almost identical proportions. Dangerous? Hardly.
HFCS is a substitute for sucrose. Where there was once (or would be) sucrose there is now HFCS. HFCS consumption has replaced sucrose on a nearly one-for-one basis over the past thirty years.
In many ways, diet soda is actually more harmful than regular. Sugar is bad, but aspartame is a cancer-causing ingredient that is probably worse.
Aspartame is made up of phenylalanine, an essential amino acid, aspartic acid, another common amino acid found in plant proteins, and methanol which is abundant in fruits and vegetables. How combining these ingredients could cause cancer is a mystery. Gotta be careful of what you read on the internet. There's a lot of misinformation out there.
You are incorrect. Corn syrup is glucose. Look it up.
HFCS, on the other hand, has gone through a process that makes it about half fructose and half glucose.
Again — HFCS is not beneficial, period.
Corn starch is just another variation and your body converts it to sugar too, but the sugar you can use.
Look, this stuff goes into your gullet, gets churned around, absorbed in the small intestine (and elsewhere interestingly enough), and is sped by the blood stream to the liver where its converted into human usable sugar.
If you don't use it right away for energy insulin sticks it in your fat cells.
Pre-processing has no effect on what your liver is going to do with the stuff.
If you are a Type II diabetic your best bet is to quit eating all carbohydrates and stick to the oils, fats, meats and fibrous veggies God meant you to eat.
You won't miss the other stuff.
No, I do not feel the same way about sugar (sucrose), because it is not the same substance as HFCS.
Repeat — these are different substances. You cannot assume that HFCS is nearly identical to sucrose. This would be patently incorrect.
In sucrose, the glucose and fructose are linked together at the molecular level. Making this a completely DIFFERENT SUBSTANCE than HFCS, which has both glucose and fructose but which are not linked. Saying that they are the same because each has identical portions of the same ingredients is an error in logic.
HFCS contains no sucrose.
Also, yes, HFCS did not exist until the 1970’s and thus has largely replaced sucrose as a sweetening substitute in food. And this is a tragedy.
Read up on HFCS — not just on the Internet but in medical journals. You will see that what I’ve said is correct.
As for aspartame: Just because a particular ingredient is commonly found in natural foods such as fruits and vegetables does not mean that the same ingredients are safe when extracted, processed and concentrated. There have been numerous studies pointing to this product’s dangers. The issue is still controversial, but I, personally, will not take that risk. I am quite content to drink liquids that do not contain artificial, extracted or processed sweeteners.
This is a pre-scientific belief that the more natural your foods are the better they are for you.
I don't argue with rawfood advocates because they gloss over the existence of bacteria, viruses and certain types of poisons found in many raw foods (e.g. unprocessed tapioca, uncooked tree nuts of many species, etc.)
I've already lived longer than Euell Gibbons by cooking my food.
Just quit eating and drinking anything and you can live forever.
Muawiyah — Believe what you want to believe, but as far as HFCS goes, I again respectfully suggest that you are vastly oversimplifying the effects on the body of these various — and quite different — substances. You are lumping them all into carbohydrates, or separating them into two simple groups of sugar and fiber. Then suggesting that all of these substances are processed “in your gullet” in the same manner. This is absolutely incorrect.
Corn starch is NOT the same as sugar, it is not the same as sucrose, and it is absolutely not just another variation of HFCS. Corn starch is a raw ingredient used in the creation of HFCS, but the final result is NOT analogous. They are different substances with different chemical structures.
Corn syrup is +90% glucose. There are two types of HFCS being commercialized today. One is approximately 55% fructose and 45% glucose and is used mainly in beverages. The other is 42% fructose and 58% glucose and is used mainly in baked goods, cereals and other processed foods. Sucrose (table sugar) is 50% fructose and 50% glucose.
This really doesn't matter because the fructose you consume is easily converted by the body into glucose. What's needed for immediate energy is used. The rest is converted to glycogen until the glycogen reserves are full. Then it's converted to depot fat. Your body does not metabolize fructose directly into fat.
HFCS also carries a ton of calories
Just like any other carb, HFCS offer 4 calories per gram.
...but your body doesn’t even recognize them as such
Your body doesn't recognize or metabolize glucose and fructose? What have you been reading?
There have also been studies that show that HFCS switches off your natural appetite control system.
You can find studies on the internet showing just about anything I suppose. Glucose and fructose from hydrolized sucrose has the same chemical structure as glucose and fructose from HFCS. The glycemic index of both are almost identical as are their satiety profiles.
It’s bad stuff
The only 'bad' here is your source for information.
I drink fruit juice in moderation — usually just drinking water or sometimes vegetable juice — but when I do, I try to stick to low-fructose fruit juice like nectarine, tangerine grapefruit or peach.
Think of yourself like a gigantic bumble bee but with hard bone things. You take on carbs, you convert them to a useable form, you stow them away, you call them out, you burn them.
It's all carbs.
Sorry, I try to do without them completely. You guys with the mutant genes can do a debate about which are gooder than others and badder than others. For me they are ALL bad.
I put juice right there in the same category as sweetened ice tea.
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