In a small study, Texas researchers showed that the body converts fructose to body fat with “surprising speed,” said Elizabeth Parks, associate professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The study, which appears in The Journal of Nutrition, shows how glucose and fructose, which are forms of sugar, are metabolized differently.
Looks like more evidence of the dangers of refined sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Those of us on a low carb diet we already knew this or are at least protected from it by the fact we’re avoiding foods that are high in carbs.
Read food lables for lists of ingredients and stay away from anything that contains High Fructose Corn Syrup, HFCS or anything similar.
Caitlin suggests watching King Corn, a documentary that picks up where Super Size Me left off and exposes the health problems associated with corn. You can of course get it at Amazon…
King Corn (Green Packaging)
Price: —
9 used & new available from 14.95
Picking up where Super Size Me left off, King Corn examines America’s health woes through the multifaceted lens of one humble grain. Director Aaron Woolf and co-writers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis offer irrefutable proof that the US is virtually drowning in the stuff. Corn meal, corn starch, hydrologized corn protein, and high fructose corn syrup fuel a multitude of products, from soft drinks to hamburgers. The starchy vegetable grows with ease and government subsidies insure over-abundant production. Woolf documents the 11-month effort of college friends Cheney and Ellis, who trace their ancestry to the same small Iowa town, to raise their own crop. After finding a farmer willing to lend them an acre, they meet with agronomists, historians, and other experts before plowing, seeding, and spraying. Prior to harvesting, the easygoing Yale grads travel to Colorado to compare the grass-fed cattle of yore with today’s corn-fed counterparts; then to New York to explore the links between corn syrup, obesity, and diabetes. With assistance from author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), a whimsical score, and stop-motion animation–farm toys and corn kernels–Woolf and associates bring biochemistry to vivid life. On a micro level, this genial eye-opener celebrates friends and farmers; on a macro level, King Corn bemoans the subsidies and genetic modifications that have turned a formerly protein-filled product into the fatty “yellow dent no. 2.” Bonus features include a music video, photo gallery, and “The Lost Basement Lectures,” an amusingly fake instructional movie about the aims of agriculture. –Kathleen C. Fennessy
KING CORN is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naivete, college buddies Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America.
With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.
A graceful and frequently humorous film that captures the idiosyncrasies of its characters and never hectors (Salon), KING CORN shows how and why whenever you eat a hamburger or drink a soda, you re really consuming … corn.
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seriously… i have been avoiding high fructose corn syrup and all his friends for a long time now. its surprising how many products have these nasties in them. i got sick of checking labels every time i went to the grocery store so i started shopping at trader joes. TJs is generally less expensive than the grocery store, has lots of easy meals for just one or two people, and is mostly all natural or organic. it makes shopping a lot easier and faster too!
me and maren are unofficial corn experts.
ask us anything.
watch the documentary King Corn.
its awesome.