one small victory against high fructose corn syrup

By
An agreement reported in the New York Times today means that soda pop will be removed entirely from most public elementary schools.

Count that as one small victory in the battle against a national and global epidemic of obesity.

While I support the companies taking this action and thank President Clinton and Governor Huckabee for working this deal...let's get real: processed sugar drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup have no place in the human diet. Period. End of sentence.

Comments

Matt said…
Do you realize how many things are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup? I'd be a deeply unhappy man without those things. Skinnier, but deeply, deeply unhappy.
4:11 PM
Anonymous said…
agreed, kid. that stuff should rightly be regulated as a toxin, it does so much damage to pancreases. replace it with honey and sugar if people need sweetness, but corn syrup is really unsafe, especially over time.
12:19 AM
RHerman said…
Kath, unfortunately your friends who smoke don't have the option to choose. Smoking is an ADDICTION on a par with heroin. The majority of smokers have tried to quit at some point, many have tried multiple times, but can't. There is no 'choice' here at all.
6:56 AM
kid oakland said…
My take on high fructose corn syrup is that we didn't choose for it to be substituted into....well pretty much everything, and we wouldn't, especially for kids.

There's a popular "quality" bread out here in CA whose trucks have this amazing picture of bread and all its ingredients on the side...including a glowing jar of honey. But when you go to the supermarket and pick up a loaf: it's sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

So, for me, to find this ingredient brought into our schools...where it has no place...and put into sugar based soft drinks (which just aren't good for anyone)...all while we've got an epidemic of childhood obesity going on is just plain wrong.

Now, I don't debate anyone's right to eat refined sugar or to eat bread (I don't eat much of either anymore...but that's another topic.)

But I do think that this government subsidized experiment on the nation's collective pancreatic function....ie. high fructose corn syrup...is nothing short of a crime and a disaster.
9:07 PM
katiebird said…
I'm a diabetic and I noticed a couple of years ago that when I ate something (salad dressing is where I first noticed it) sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, my blood sugar skyrocketed and stayed high for hours (even though I take medication with my meals.)

Now I think of it as rocket fuelled sugar for diabetics and don't allow it in the house. Which is very difficult.

I wish someone would do a study, I have an insane belief that the diabetes epidemic is fueled by the stuff. And since reading an article (Diabetes/Alzheimer’s connection? And what does it mean to us?) about the links between Diabetes and Alzheimer's, I'm wondering if it doesn't fuel Alzheimer's as well.

I would really love to participate in a National Boycott of High Fructose Corn Syrup. I agree with the character on Boston Legal who a couple of days ago said it was poison (They said that it shuts off a hormone that tells your brain when your full)
8:00 AM
Anonymous said…
I can't believe there are people commenting negatively on this. The food companies are poisoning us with this HFCS and you are in denial if you think it isn't affecting you. Next time you complain about high health care costs, think about what was being said in this post. Also, consider that you have had NO CHOICE at all about this unnecessary additive in your foods.
4:54 PM
Anonymous said…
Yesterday 11/24/07 I bought a cough syrup from a national drug store chain the next city for $6.43 (including .43 tax). Today 11/25/07 with receipt in hand I am returning this product and asking for a full refund. I am going to look for another product that DOES NOT CONTAIN HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP which is bad for my heart health per current issue of AARP and google it to find others such as the Mayo Clinic who confirm its long term effects are bad for you!!!JN in CA.
1:43 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

a serious moment

By
I was really struck by this photo , which graced the cover of Tuesday's New York Times, showing Ariel Sharon, Condoleeza Rice and James Baker attending a memorial of the late Yitzhak Rabin in Israel. There's something in that picture...in Rice's face, jaw set, eyes hidden behind rockstar sunglasses...and how she is flanked on either side by two men who've played hard-ball power politics for decades: Ariel Sharon, peering beneath his furrowed brow and, always conscious he is being observed, gesturing and thinking...and James Baker, completely hidden behind a permanent dimplomatic mask, an impenetrable sphinx. Of course, that photo sends a powerful message to the world. Rice was in Israel to do serious business . The fact that she brought Baker with her meant that the full weight of the U.S. military-industrial complex... the old guard ...was with her. That trip to Israel was important; and I would guess that U.S. plans and actions regarding Syria were part of that
Read more

James Watson: racism alive and well in the USA

By
I've spent the last 24 hours reading as the fires ignited by Nobel laureate James Watson have spurred hundreds of racist comments on message boards across the world . The racial views espoused by Watson are not simply pernicious, they are unamerican. The premise that you could walk out your door in the United States and make the claim, with a straight face and in a public place, that you presume that someone is less intelligent than you because of the color of their skin or ethnic background is abhorrent. Watson claims that everyone with Black employees “knows that they are not the equals of Whites” and, somehow, that is supposed to be acceptable? We are supposed to take him seriously…as a scientist? I don’t think so. Watson is about to lose his job and what was left of his reputation. The equality of every citizen, respect for each other including our differences and a sense of the potential inherent in each and every citizen, especially our children, is essential to what it m
Read more

Sharks, Carp and Dolphins: applying a model from business to politics

By
From where I stand, it is encouraging to read essays expressing creative and critical ways to think about Democratic strategy in what is shaping up to be a significant election year.   Thereisnospoon has served up another solid challenge (always welcome) to Democratic assumptions...and bmaples addendem to that diary (including a nice summary of some thoughts from Markos) extended the idea of a  "broad assault" on conservatism that I (with many others) advocated in the wake of Katrina with flipping the rock . What I'd like to do with this essay is adapt a paradigm from the world of business strategy that I think applies to the Democratic party in 2006.  I think you'll find these ideas dovetail with the above essays, and, I hope, will prove useful tools for thinking about Democratic strategy in 2006... Dudley Lynch's 1989 book Strategy of the Dolphin: Scoring a Win in a Chaotic World divided business strategy into three competing paradigms:  that of Sharks, that
Read more