Comments | lynnticular: The Non-Hippie Evils of High Fructose Corn Syrup.

lynnticular

The Non-Hippie Evils of High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Jan 04, 2009 17:00

So I, like most people who have at some point lived in the Bay Area, have been barraged with anti-corn syrup slogans for the past couple of months. "Do you KNOW what it does to your LIVER?!?!?!" and other similar videos come to mind ( Read more... )

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wicket29 January 5 2009, 00:20:14 UTC

My mom buys all organics and I agree completely with you. There is no way to tell whether that carrot was grown without pesticides. In addition to that, what about the prices? It probably costs more money to grow organics (although I can't imagine why) but if it's better for us shouldn't it be cheaper? Now I have to spend an insane amount of money on something I'm not even positive is actually "organic"! And it's really stupid how bread and cheese and other products are dyed to be certain colors. Are people not going to eat cheddar if it's not orange? I guess the answer is yes ( ... )

gan_chan January 5 2009, 01:20:47 UTC

Cranberry juice is good for preventing urinary tract infections.

lynnticular January 5 2009, 02:24:02 UTC

I could go on forever about the food most of the world consumes. In fact, even after writing this post Mike and I had a lengthy conversation about the issue with most people in this country: people just don't know what's healthy and what's not! It's not hard science for the most part, it just takes reading the packaging and noticing that although most people assume that muffins are healthier than donuts or mcdonald's, it's not true. Those big packaged muffins that you see in grocery stores have 52 grams of fat per muffin. 52!!! That is more than the biggest big mac. And seriously, if I'm going to be eating 52 grams of fat, I'd much rather take the burger which at least has some protein ( ... )

wicket29 January 5 2009, 03:07:47 UTC

hehe Salads are my life! How can you say that? LOL. Nah, in all seriousness I could (and alot of the times do) eat salad everyday for lunch. But I eat real lettuce like Romaine or Red Leaf (not ICEBERG--which fyi you can't even feed to Rabbits, lol). I am a Kale ADDICT. I could eat Kale with no dressing right off the stem, and I practically do. I stick with oil and vinegar dressing unless I have no other choice and am stuck with an astronaut bag, lol. But on a regular basis I use Red Wine Vinegar. No oil, just the Vinegar. Which unlike Ranch or Thousand Island dressing which people pile on to loose weight, Red Wine Vinegar has a bunch of zero's in the nutrition facts. I also load my salad up with anything I've got. Broccoli, olives, peppers, cauliflower, grilled chicken, whatever. :)

Yes, I'm a rabbit. And I don't eat iceberg. :P

lynnticular January 5 2009, 10:44:07 UTC

Haha, that's definitely the way to eat a salad if you're going to! :)

frenchhie January 5 2009, 05:36:56 UTC

Craziness! I raised an eyebrow quite a few times when reading the ingredients in a store bought loaf of bread and that bread has been DYED. Ew. I'm well ahead of you though... I haven't bought a loaf of bread since early October. ;) And I'm all about sexing up my salads with all sorts of different vegetables. It looks so colorful, more appetizing and is more filling that way. I use a 1/2 cup of low fat cottage cheese instead of salad dressing. Have you heard of or used almond flour? I heard it was much healthier for baking than regular all purpose flour ( ... )

lynnticular January 5 2009, 10:46:58 UTC

I'm glad you found something useful here! :) I've had lots of issues with foods throughout my life so I've gotten to be a regular label-reader. :) I miss SF and I miss being able to WALK THERE! Where I live now has no where worth walking, but when I was in Vancouver I did nothing but walk - it's my favorite way to get exercise! I can walk for miles and miles.

Brown rice does have an icky texture. I try to keep my carbs to a low, but I always find it hard because carbs are my safety "not going to piss my stomach off" foods...so I'm trying to eat healthier ones like whole wheat bread and whole wheat pasta. The whole wheat pasta would probably be AWESOME with pesto...if only it didn't have cheese in it. >_< Cursed milk products!!!

frenchhie January 6 2009, 07:19:38 UTC

You should totally make this post Public! ;) Some of my friends would benefit from this thread.

lynnticular January 6 2009, 20:22:09 UTC

Done! :)

lynnticular January 5 2009, 02:48:09 UTC

Oh, btw, the reason why buying organics cost more is this: it's cheaper to mass produce things. It's cheaper to use pesticides because then you're not wasting your labor killing off the bugs in other ways. That's why those crop-duster planes are so popular. The whole reason we have corn syrup is that we have a senate in this country: every state, no matter the population, gets 2 votes. So, states like nebraska, wyoming, and all the other practically empty, heavily farmed states get a HUGE say and they want to protect the farmer. Farming is NOT what this country pictures it. It's isn't some small family trying to cut it. It's an industry and farmer, I am not joking, usually make at least 6 figures. SERIOUSLY ( ... )

wicket29 January 5 2009, 02:55:35 UTC

yep, sounds about right. Kindof like the Hybrid car. :P

lynnticular January 5 2009, 03:03:45 UTC

Yeah...I wish that hybrids were better. :P They help, but not nearly enough. The extra weight of the car just adds to the drag and gas mileage. But Americans won't buy a light-weight car because they think heavy = safe. Sigh. Dumb.

gan_chan January 5 2009, 05:54:43 UTC

Well, when you are in the automotive arms race that is the American highway, heavier is generally safer, all other things being equal. It's just physics.

Personally, I was hoping with $4/gal gas that we'd start to de-escalate (or de-Escalade, to coin a phrase), but it looks like it'll be a while yet.

lynnticular January 5 2009, 10:48:47 UTC

Heavier isn't safer. It's about crumple zones. The smart car, which is mostly fuel-efficient based on weight alone, has plenty of crumble zones which is why this works:

gan_chan January 6 2009, 04:32:59 UTC

True, modern car design with crumple zones helps safety, no question about it.

But consider that there's a big difference between that Smart ForTwo (curb weight 730kg) hitting a wall at 70 mph, and the same car hitting an oncoming Ford F-150 (the state car of Texas, with its total curb weight of 4743 lbs or 2151 kg, almost 3x as massive as a Smart ForTwo) traveling at the same speed (total momentum also almost 3x the Smart). (momentum conservation and its general effect on car crashes specifically, explained succinctly here.)

Here is a paper by the NHTSA that does some statistical analysis of real crash data. On page 31 it says, "A weight ratio of 2:1, not rare in actual collisions, results in a fatality risk ratio of about 10:1, even in collisions between two cars ( ... )

lynnticular January 6 2009, 20:24:23 UTC

Can't we just respond by taking all those ugly, heavy SUV's off the road? :P I hate driving in Texas...people here are insane in their cars.

I guess all I was trying to say that is that weight isn't all of it, though I guess it's more of it than I had been told. But cutting down on the weight is one of the best ways to cut down on the amount of fuel is takes, and that's my complaint with hybrids is that they're SO heavy that you're barely saving any fuel. It's sort of like, hybrids are great but they didn't take it NEARLY far enough and the market says, "Look at us, we've got this SOLUTION" but it's not...it's just one little, small, step.

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