high fructose corn syrup

alright so if you know me and have spent much time around me, you know my rant about high fructose corn syrup. somewhat a joke among my peers, i believe this stuff is terrible. and while i love to laugh at a good snl skit like this one:

i think there is a valid point to be made there. sure, a lot of folks would like us to believe that HFCS has no harm, and is just like sugar, but the fact is, i dont think thats the case. there has been a lot of research done on this topic, and while i don't claim to be an expert, i will summarize and regurgitate some of the into i have found.

just like the snl skit shows, high fructose corn syrup has replaced sugar in a lot of kid-friendly products, and is thought to have a correlation to the excessive levels of childhood obesity we find in our country today. researchers at Princeton have found that rats gain more weight on HCFS than regular sugar when caloric intake is the same (here) "In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides." (same source) yikes. additionally, "The second experiment -- the first long-term study of the effects of high-fructose corn syrup consumption on obesity in lab animals -- monitored weight gain, body fat and triglyceride levels in rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup over a period of six months. Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly. Male rats in particular ballooned in size: Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet." (same source)

and while the corn farmers would like you to believe that HFCS is just "corn sugar" (here), research shows that their proposition is a bit misleading.

there have been other concerning findings with HCFS, including mercury traces in over half the samples, as well as an abundance of reactive carbonyls, which are found in diabetics blood. also, research has shown that high consumption levels of fructose can also lead to diabetes. (all found here)

HCFS is anything but natural, and in fact, is highly processed. "High-fructose corn syrup starts out as cornstarch, which is chemically or enzymatically degraded to glucose and some short polymers of glucose. Another enzyme is then used to convert varying" (here)

and while it might be ok in small amounts, as the corn sugar supporters suggest, the truth is, its near impossible because its everywhere these day!  "The commercials claim that just like sugar, high-fructose corn syrup isn't unhealthy when consumed" in moderation. But it's hard to know exactly how much of it we're actually consuming because it shows up in so many unexpected foods. "It was in my children's vitamins!" said Elise Mackin. Because high-fructose corn syrup extends the shelf life of foods, and farm subsidies make it cheaper than sugar, it's added to a staggering range of items, including fruity yogurts, cereals, crackers, ketchup and bread — and in most foods marketed to children. So, unless you're making a concerted effort to avoid it, it's pretty difficult to consume high-fructose corn syrup in moderation."(here)

im sure at the end of the day, anything is fine in small amounts. but i think it is very much important for us to know what we are putting in our body, and to strive to keep it as natural as possible (part of the reason i stopped drinking diet cokes & other soft drinks). since around my junior year of college, i have strived to not consume high fructose corn syrup. its a sneaky little booger because it is in everything- even healthy products marketed as "natural." i am very used to flipping over the container and seeing the first or second ingredient on something being HCFS, and then sighing and putting it away. it seems like only time will tell the truth about this. heres one more good article for you to read. what are you thoughts? i'd love to hear them!

the us credit rating

tonight, after a fun night out and about, nathan and i jumped on the couch (after fixing the internet), grabbed our ipad and macbook, and each immediately pulled up our favorite news sites (its kind of a habit we have, always checking and staying in the know). quickly, i stumbled upon an article that caught my eye because of the link- on the drudge report, it simply said "downgraded." whoa- what?! while nathan and i had been enjoying our five guys & zesto, apparently the guys over at the s&p  were busy. i clicked the link and then told nathan to look- could it really be that what we had been hearing about for weeks, even months, now had finally happened? could our great country really no longer be among the most highest rated in the world?

while i don't want to get to much into my political beliefs here, i do want to say that i believe this has the potential to be very good for our country. while it will mean some pain in some areas, i think this is the kick in the pants we've needed. we all know that our economy is in shambles, our politicians are playing some sort of sick version of "monopoly" with play money in the trillions, and things have to change. nathan and i can't spend more than we make. i mean, i guess we could, but not for long. so why on earth can our government spend way more than they bring in? and as much as we would like to just "adjust" our income to match our spending (and we could do that, to an extent) we can't just charge our employer more because we can't live within our means. and i don't believe that the government should be able to regularly do that. i am glad that the s&p down grounded our credit rating, because it shows that someone agrees with me, and hopefully, things will change.

if you haven't read it yet, take a look at the report here. one of the things they say is, "More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011. Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics any time soon. "

wow!  i hope and pray that the leaders of our great nation will recognize that their actions and their partisanship are what are hurting america.  may we take this action by the s&p as a warning as what is to come- and make decisions accordingly.