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Artificially-Sweetened Prices Sarah Carlsruh, November 11, 2009 Do America’s sugar policies harm consumers? “America’s highest remaining trade barriers are aimed at products mostly grown and made by poor people abroad and disproportionately consumed by poor people at home,” wrote Daniel Griswold in a September 29th Washington Times article. He then identified numerous government trade policies that adversely affect low-income populations: Chinese tire tariffs increased the price of low-cost tires, cash-for-clunkers increased the price of used vehicles, and the 2008 farm bill imposed tariffs on staples such as “imported sugar, milk and cheese.” Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade...

If worms are any indication, all the sugar in your diet could spell much more than obesity and type 2 diabetes. Researchers reporting in the November issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, say it might also be taking years off your life...

What parent hasn't used candy to pacify a cranky child or head off a brewing tantrum? When reasoning, threats and time-outs fail, a sugary treat often does the trick. But while that chocolate-covered balm may be highly effective in the short term, say British scientists, it may be setting youngsters up for problem behavior later. According to a new study, kids who eat too many treats at a young age risk becoming violent in adulthood. The research was led by Simon Moore, a senior lecturer in Violence and Society Research at Cardiff University in the U.K., who specializes in the...

Nutrition and public policy expert Marion Nestle answers readers' questions in this column written exclusively for The Chronicle. E-mail your questions to food@sfchronicle.com, with Marion Nestle in the subject line. Q: I saw you on "The Colbert Report" (Aug. 19) talking about sugar policy. Explain, please. I don't understand why sugar policy is a topic for Comedy Central. A: Neither did I until I saw Stephen Colbert douse himself with 5 pounds of sugar over the impending "crisis." We have a sugar crisis? According to processed food manufacturers, we are about to run out of sugar. Horrors! Earlier in August,...

Get ready for the sugar shock. Raw sugar futures have almost doubled this year amid fears of a shortage, which could lead to slightly higher prices for candy but also a spike in the price of ethanol. Much of the rise in sugar prices has come in just the past few weeks as drier-than-normal weather in India, the world's largest consumer, threatens to leave production there far short of demand... The bigger impact may be felt at the gas pump, where the sugar shortfall is likely to drive up the cost of ethanol, increasingly used as a substitute for gasoline....

Big companies warn of a shortage and ask the U.S. to ease import quotas. Domestic sugar producers say there's plenty available and that raising quotas could drive them out of business. The price of sugar on world markets has soared this year, prompting a coalition of the nation's largest food manufacturers to warn of a pending shortage and to ask the Agriculture Department to ease quotas on imports. But although prices have risen domestically and abroad, analysts say fears of empty supermarket shelves are overblown and that the gloomy outlook of big food companies is really part of a larger...

Large U.S. food companies have been pushing the Obama administration to ease sugar import curbs, threatening higher consumer prices and possible job losses, citing forecasts for unprecedented sugar shortages. In a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack dated August 5, companies and groups that include Kraft Foods Inc, General Mills Inc and Hershey Co warn that "our nation will virtually run out of sugar," if a USDA forecast is accurate. But the letter was written a week before the Agriculture Department said Wednesday that the closely watched stocks-to-use ratio in the U.S. sugar market for 2009/10 stood at 6.7...

India Searches Detained North Korean Ship For Nuclear Materials 8 hours ago (RTTNews) - Indian scientists and police on Monday carried out extensive search operations for nuclear materials on board a North Korean ship, which India seized last week, said officials on Monday. Indian officials said that they have not found any nuclear material in the search operations so far, but added that the North Korean vessel would be released only after the experts are satisfied there is nothing wrong with the consignment. According to Indian officials, the North Korean vessel appeared to be carrying a consignment of sugar. They...

The sugar market is watching the heavens as bad weather in Brazil and India, the world’s two largest producers, threatens crops and pushes prices skyward. Traders and industry executives say, in rare agreement, that prices could hit a 28-year high – above 19.73 cents per pound – this year because of poor weather, steady consumption and low global inventories.

Researchers at Georgia State University have found that diets high in fructose — a type of sugar found in most processed foods and beverages — impaired the spatial memory of adult rats. Amy Ross, a graduate student in the lab of Marise Parent, associate professor at Georgia State's Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, fed a group of Sprague-Dawley rats a diet where fructose represented 60 percent of calories ingested during the day. She placed the rats in a pool of water to test their ability to learn to find a submerged platform, which allowed them to get out of...

I heard about King Corn when Nora Gedgaudas interviewed Curt Ellis, one of the film’s creators. Ellis and his co-creator Ian Cheney decided to learn about the dominance of corn in our food supply by growing an acre of corn in Iowa, then following where corn goes after it’s harvested. The short answer is: it goes into pretty much everything. People like to blame the big, bad food industry for turning us into a nation of corn-eaters, but it was clear to me (and yes, this fits nicely with my own bias) that the problem is rooted in stupid government...

Caffeine addicts face higher prices for their daily fix as the wholesale cost of both coffee and sugar rise sharply because of poor crops and robust demand.

Sugar, the nutritional pariah that dentists and dietitians have long reviled, is enjoying a second act, dressed up as a natural, healthful ingredient. From the tomato sauce on a Pizza Hut pie called “The Natural,” to the just-released soda Pepsi Natural, some of the biggest players in the American food business have started, in the last few months, replacing high-fructose corn syrup with old-fashioned sugar. ConAgra uses only sugar or honey in its new Healthy Choice All Natural frozen entrees. Kraft Foods recently removed the corn sweetener from its salad dressings, and is working on its Lunchables line of portable...

............This year also brings some new introductions, graphics and packaging innovations from PepsiCo, for which the company has high expectations. In CSD flavors, PBV will add Mountain Dew Voltage, which was the winning flavor in the brand’s Dewmocracy campaign. In the middle of April, PBV also will begin distributing Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback, which features those brands formulated with sugar. For the flagship PepsiCo brands, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist, PBV also is beginning to distribute the brands featuring their new redesigned graphics and packaging, which is part of a holistic campaign aimed at drawing...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Neither "New" nor "Classic," Coke is simply itself again. Two decades after adding the designation, the Coca-Cola Co. is removing the word "Classic" from its prominent location on the flagship cola sold in the U.S., a company spokesman said Friday. "The reason for being, for classic as a descriptor, has all but disappeared," spokesman Scott Williamson said. The "Classic" tagline -- right under the script Coca-Cola logo -- was added in 1985, when the company introduced a formula that consumers called "New Coke." New Coke never caught on and was sold sparingly until it was dropped...

Way to go Utes! Eleven sacks! Twenty one points in the first quarter alone. The announcers kept asking if Utah could handle the Tide's big front line. Well, the French had a big front line in the 1930's and that didn't work out so well either.

A new study shows that sugar may not be so sweet for the brain – and may lead to memory problems.

Almost anything can be considered colloquially 'addictive' if you like it enough - computer games, Reese's Peant Butter Cups, reading Scientific Blogging articles and the best science blogs on the planet. Clinical addiction is another issue, though, and Princeton University Professor Bart Hoebel and his team in the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute say they have evidence that sugar can be an addictive substance, wielding its power over the brains of lab animals in a manner similar to many drugs of abuse. So now sugar addiction can overtake "I have a thyroid condition" as the number one...

You drink diet soda, so you must be healthier. Right? That's what New York Gov. David Paterson is talking about with his proposal for an "obesity tax" — a 15 percent slap on non-diet sugary soft drinks. Think $1 for a Diet Coke, $1.15 for a Coke. There's just one problem: Studies have found links between drinking diet sodas and obesity and diabetes. A 2005 study at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, and separate studies released in 2007 at the University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Massachusetts found that diet soda drinkers were...

Where I live (the middle of nowhere), we were at the bottom of the list for having the 90% gasoline 10% corn ethanol brew at our local filling stations. This well-intentioned big-government mandate did eventually find us, however, and because I keep records of car mileage and fuel purchases, I can now affirm that the gas-ethanol mix does reduce fuel mileage. So I did some calculating, and . . . Oops! Looks like I’m "saving" the environment at the rate of using four additional 4 gallons of high-test per annum. And in the process, causing hunger in third-world countries because...

Against Depression, a Sugar Pill Is Hard to Beat Placebos Improve Mood, Change Brain Chemistry in Majority of Trials of Antidepressants By Shankar Vedantam Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 7, 2002; Page A01 A new analysis has found that in the majority of trials conducted by drug companies in recent decades, sugar pills have done as well as -- or better than -- antidepressants.Companies have had to conduct numerous trials to get two that show a positive result, which is the Food and Drug Administration's minimum for approval. What's more, the sugar pills, or placebos, cause profound changes in...

Eliot Spitzer to receive Ultimate Sugar Daddy title! New York, June 17 : Eliot Spitzer is set to receive a 'kinky' honour- the "Ultimate Sugar Daddy." The disgraced former Governor will be given the 'title' as a part of the first annual George Burns Memorial Sugar Daddy Awards. As a part of his winning, Spitzer will win a pound of sugar, a year's worth of free lap dances from strippers at the VIP Men's Club in Chelsea and an unlimited supply of testosterone pills. Other "honorees" include Woody Allen, Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Hugh Hefner and Bill Maher, all described...

For those of you that can walk and chew gum at the same time, here’s an article you must read. (WILMINGTON -- An artificial sweetener can be deadly for dogs, and a local dog owner learned that the hard way. Anna Frazelle rushed her dog, Scout, to the Dineen Animal Hospital when she noticed her King Charles Spaniel acting strange. "He was using the wall to hold himself up," said Frazelle. She was shocked by the diagnosis of sugar free gum poisoning. Sugar free gum contains Zylatol, a sugar substitute found in almost any sugar free food, which can be...

How Sugar Changed the WorldBy Heather Whipps, LiveScience's History Columnist posted: 02 June 2008 09:26 am ET What's not to like about candy, ice cream and all those other sweet treats made with everybody's favorite indulgence, sugar? Plenty, as it turns out, beyond the way it expands waistlines and causes cavities. It's unlikely that many candy-lovers in the United States think about history while quaffing an estimated 100 pounds of sugar per year, but sweet stuff once played a major role in one of the sourest eras in modern times. White Gold, as British colonists called it, was the engine...

Dr. John White is the founder & president of White Technical Research, a consulting firm serving the food and beverage industry for nearly 15 years. He has worked with high fructose corn syrup for more than 25 years, and his expertise has been quoted by numerous news outlets. Organizations such as the American Council on Science and Health in Washington, D.C., the Institute of Food Technologists in Atlanta, and most recently the Corn Refiners Association have turned to him and his expertise on the sweetener for answers. Now, QSR talks with him to set the record straight about the similarities...

http://www.amyrisbiotech.com/news.html Amyris Biotechnologies, a synthetic biology company focused on developing renewable hydrocarbon biofuels (earlier post), and Crystalsev, one of Brazil’s largest ethanol distributors and marketers, are establishing a joint venture to commercialize advanced renewable fuels—including diesel, gasoline and jet fuel—made from sugarcane. The partners are targeting their first product, a renewable diesel that works in today’s engines, for commercialization in 2010. Scale-up and testing work to date indicate that this fuel scales more quickly and economically than currently available biofuels, and reduces emissions by 80% over petroleum diesel. Amyris Biotechnologies uses synthetic biology techniques to create new metabolic pathways in...

Pranksters put sugar in gas tanks to foul engines and halt cars in their tracks. But a Virginia Tech scientist is developing a way to run cars on sugar. Y.-H. Percival Zhang's "sweet engine" runs on hydrogen made from starch, a clean-burning and potentially renewable alternative to fossil fuels. Although hydrogen fuel cells are much more efficient than combustion engines, hydrogen is difficult to transport, store, and distribute – as well as expensive to produce. But Professor Zhang's method, which he presented April 9 at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, circumvents the need for...

NEW YORK: Sugar-powered cars may be in our future. Researchers have developed a "revolutionary" process for converting plant sugars into hydrogen, which they claim could be used to cheaply and efficiently run vehicles. According to the researchers, the conversion process involves combining plant sugars, water and a cocktail of powerful enzymes to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide under mild reaction conditions. The new system helps solve the three major technical barriers to the so-called "hydrogen economy" the roadblocks involve how to produce low-cost sustainable hydrogen, how to store hydrogen and how to distribute it efficiently, the researchers said. "This is...

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Venezuelan armed forces occupied 32 sugar plantations Thursday, the latest in a wave of takeovers that some say is a bid by President Hugo Chavez to regain political momentum and reverse his recent slide in the polls. The farms in Lara state were taken over by army units at the request of the Chavez government's National Land Institute, or INTI. The institute in recent years has handled the takeover of thousands of acres of farmland and turned them over to worker cooperatives. The government last week said it would seize privately owned cement manufacturers, and Wednesday it...

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. (Feb. 12) - Specialists arrived Tuesday to help extinguish a five-day-old sugar-refinery fire burning too intensely and deeply for standard firefighting to douse, and officials feared the deadly blaze could once again trigger explosions. Thick masses of molten sugar were smoldering at temperatures as high as 4,000 degrees and three more fires ignited Tuesday, even after a helicopter dumped thousands of gallons on the fire. "We're dealing with a dormant volcano full of lava," said Capt. Matt Stanley from the fire department in nearby Savannah. Six people are confirmed dead in Thursday's fire and two other workers...

USING an artificial, no-calorie sweetener rather than sugar may make it tougher, not easier, to lose weight, US researchers said today. Scientists at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, studied rats that were fed food with the artificial sweetener saccharin and rats fed food with glucose, a natural sugar. In comparison to rats given yogurt sweetened with glucose, those that ate yogurt sweetened with saccharin went on to consume more calories and put on more weight and body fat. The researchers said sweet foods may prompt the body to get ready to take in a lot of calories, but when...

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. — Six people are dead, and up to 20 people are missing after an explosion at a sugar refinery in Georgia. State fire officials told FOX News that six bodies have been found in the Imperial Sugar Company refinery. Savannah-Chatham County Police Chief Michael Berkow said Friday he could not say exactly how many were missing. He told families of missing workers that rescue efforts at the refinery, which continued to burn through midday Friday, had shifted to recovery operations hours after the explosion erupted late Thursday.

Explosion at Chatham County Sugar Refinery There was an explosion just after 7 p.m. at the Imperial Sugar Co. in Chatham County. Between 50 and 100 people were possibly injured. News 3 crews are on the scene. http://www.wsav.com/midatlantic/sav/home.html

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. (AP) - Authorities in Savannah say dozens of people were injured in an explosion and fire at a sugar refinery that was felt by residents throughout the suburb of Port Wentworth. No deaths are reported immediately at the plant owned by Imperial Sugar and known as a longtime Savannah landmark as the Dixie Crystals plant. But a witness describes widespread damage. Sergeant Mike Wilson of the Savannah-Chatham County police says there are an unconfirmed number of injuries, but possible from 50 to 100. Ther is not immediate word of what caused the explosion about 7 p.m. Nakishya...

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- For years, the idea of taxing soda to beat back obesity has been tossed around in medical circles. But now, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is proposing a tax on beverages high in fructose corn syrup. Newsom says obesity accounts for tens of millions of dollars in city health care costs. He cites a recent San Francisco Health Department survey that found nearly a quarter of the city's 5th, 7th and 9th graders were overweight and that high sugar drinks make up a tenth of a kid's daily calorie count. Newsom reportedly wants all big box...

<p>U.S. sugar policy stands for all that's bad about our political system. The government restricts imports through a series of quotas, pushing U.S. sugar prices to between two and three times the global market rate. As a result, a handful of sugar producers, notably in Florida, a battleground electoral state, pocket $1 billion a year in excess profits. To protect this cozy arrangement, the sugar barons plow a chunk of their revenue back into the political system. During the 2004 election cycle, two Florida sugar companies gave a total of $925,000 to election coffers.</p>

sugar tariffs, put in place by law and enforced by the USDA, are so complicated that many people give up worrying about it. After all, paying $2.25 for a five pound bag of sugar is no big deal. Unless you consider that we could be paying as low as a dollar for that five pound bag, and wholesale purchases of sugar by companies like Coca-Cola, Heinz, and Kraft would pay even less. So here's the Sugar Tariff in action: First, USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation lends money each year to sugar cane processors at a specific rate per pound of sugar....

Research Presented at American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session Reports D-Ribose Improves Ventilatory Efficiency in Congestive Heart Failure Patients MINNEAPOLIS, Mar. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- MINNEAPOLIS, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Ventilatory efficiency is recognized as an important predictor of survival and disease progression among patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). Thus, improving ventilatory efficiency in this population is of prime importance. A research report presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session 2005 in Orlando, Florida, suggests that D-Ribose can play a significant role in this key pursuit.It is well accepted that failing hearts are energy starved...

Obesity is more dangerous than smoking and will dramatically shorten the lives of millions, a landmark study has found. While smoking reduces life by an average of ten years, the research says being seriously overweight can cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years. The Foresight report, written by 250 leading scientists, says Britain's obesity crisis is so severe that it would take at least 30 years to reverse. If current trends continue, by 2050 about 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women and 25 per cent of children in the UK will be clinically obese...

Giving up sweets and avoiding vitamins could help you live longer, German researchers said on Tuesday. They found that restricting glucose -- a simple sugar found in foods such as sweets that is a primary source of energy for the body -- set off a process that extended the life span of some worms by up to 25 percent. The key was boosting the level of "free radicals" -- unstable molecules that can damage the body and which people often try to get rid of by consuming food or drinks rich in anti-oxidants such as vitamin E, they said in...

In the down-is-up world of American biofuels, success carries enormous costs. The latest evidence of these costs is an amendment tucked into the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill: As Mexican granular sugar flows into the U.S. in 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will oversee a supply-balancing program where the extra sugar can be purchased, at government-subsidized prices, by American ethanol makers. Sweet, eh? Moreover, if you think American corn growers are angered by seeing part of their fast-growing ethanol market legislatively handed to imported sugar, think again. Ethanol, after all, is the rabbit hole that swallowed logic...

Latest research by scientists in Australia suggests that eating sugary breakfast cereals can improve the memory of teenagers. Earlier studies have shown mixed results with some researchers saying that sugary cereals could contribute to obesity while others claiming that it may sharpen the brain. As part of the new study, scientists studied 37 students, aged 14 to 17, who ate a popular corn-based cereal with a high Glycaemic Index or a high fibre bran-based cereal with a low Glycaemic Index. The researchers then tested the students to see how well they could memorise a list of 20 names of tools,...

Jefferson linked to BR sugar companyBy GERARD SHIELDS Advocate Washington bureau Published: Jul 3, 2007 - Page: 1A WASHINGTON — Baton Rouge-based Arkel Sugar was the subject of two 2001 meetings between federal Export-Import Bank officials and U.S. Rep. William Jefferson or one of his aides about a sugar plant in Nigeria, bank officials have confirmed. Jefferson, a New Orleans Democrat, was indicted June 4 on a wide range of public corruption charges, including that he solicited bribes from companies wanting to do business in Nigeria. Jefferson has pleaded innocent to the 16 counts. The indictment accuses him of trying...

snip. Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Georgia propose using polysaccharides, or sugary carbohydrates, from biomass to directly produce low-cost hydrogen for the new hydrogen economy. snip. Using synthetic biology approaches, Zhang and colleagues Barbara R. Evans and Jonathan R. Mielenz of ORNL, and Robert C. Hopkins and Michael W.W. Adams of the University of Georgia, are using a combination of 13 enzymes never found together in nature to completely convert polysaccharides (C6H10O5) and water into hydrogen when and where that form of energy is needed. This “synthetic enzymatic pathway” research appears in...

Researchers at Saint Louis University have developed a biodegradable bio fuel cell that runs on virtually any sugar source and has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single fill than conventional lithium ion batteries. They described their findings at the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Shelley Minter, an electrochemist at Saint Louis University, has been working on bio fuel cells for a number of years using a variety of different fuels, from alcohol to soybean oil. At the 229th national meeting of the ACS in 2005, she reported on fructose-based bioanodes...

Coke certainly powers many geeky writer types like me and now researchers have come up with a fuel cell that can run on virtually any sugar source. That includes my favorite caffeinated beverage, Coke! Researchers at the Saint Louis University in Missouri have developed a fuel cell that runs on any sugar source from soft drinks to tree sap. The fuel cell has the potential to run three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries we know and love today. Naturally this fuel cell is a shoe in to some day replace the rechargeable...

Today Bill OReilly blamed "Sugar" for our obseity. HE, like most Americans, has confused High Fruitose Corn Syrup with Sugar. In the Days when Soft Drinks and Fast Food actually used Sugar, 12 ounces was a BIG Pepsi. When Donut Batter included real Sugar, a box of a Dozen was expected to sevre 6 or more. We got Full, not FAT. Then Cuba fell to Castro. Industry discovered "Corn sweeteners". Today, Government and the Media call "High Fruitose Corn Syrup" SUGAR. Then they blame "SUGAR" for our Obeisity.

Week of Aug. 12, 2006; Vol. 170, No. 7 , p. 109 Blood sugar and spice Ben Harder Eating cayenne pepper with meals may mitigate a hormonal response that's linked to diabetes, a trial of two diets suggests. To compare the effects on insulin of different patterns of chili pepper consumption, researchers at the University of Tasmania in Launceston, Australia, conducted a study in 36 healthy adults who didn't typically eat chili peppers. Excess insulin production can presage diabetes. For 4 weeks of the study, each volunteer ate his or her usual bland diet, except for one chili-laden meal at...

Many people believe that government and business are warring factions, and that political parties typically align with one or the other. But the truth, as Timothy P. Carney points out in his new book, is that big business is often in bed with big government and that both Republicans and Democrats have helped forge a partnership that consistently rips off ordinary Americans. Carney's new book, The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, exposes this nasty partnership in detail—from Boeing subsidies to Ethanol mandates—and shows just how taxpayers lose their money and their voice in Washington....

Mel Gibson has become the designated Hitler-of-the-Month for August 2006, displacing both Saddam Hussein and Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the previous front-runners. However, conservative Christians, before rushing to condemn or defend their fallen hero, might ponder the incident for a moment, before presuming to form an opinion. To give credit where it is due, Zev Chafets, in his LA Times commentary “Slurring More than His Words”, makes several valuable points. To begin with, Mr. Gibson’s first line of defense—the Tequila made him do it—is absurd. As Chafets commnts, “Evidently Gibson wants people to believe that, although he personally loves Jews, the...