Cutting out High-Fructose Corn Syrup--has anyone?

http://uctv.tv/shows/Sugar-The-Bitter-Truth-16717

If you're worried about how it affects your weight, satiety, and health, then you should cut down on all added sugar, not just HFCS. Fruit gets a pass from Dr. Lustig (famous for the above video). But fruit juice is a no according to him.

Many people think he's an alarmist, but he's a pediatric endocrinologist with credentials in diabetes research reviews (he and another author tied up causation between increased consumption of sugar in populations with increased rates of diabetes in those populations). I'll listen to him before some random internet poster who will come tell you sugar is fine in all forms and quantities. Your opinion may vary. Do your own reading and lecture watching, make up your own mind.

Alan Aragon debated him.....judge for yourselves....


http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/02/19/a-retrospective-of-the-fructose-alarmism-debate/


http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

Do you consider stuff like bread, ketchup and tomato soup to be "processed foods"? I think they're pretty basic and natural, but the only way to get them without HFCS apparently is to buy an organic brand.

Are you serious or is there something wrong with my irony detector?

Unprocessed food for me is what I'm buying from the fresh meat/fish counter, fruits and vegetables, and staples like dry rice and beans without additives. Kind of unprocessed for me is a tin of tomatoes which contains nothing but tomatoes.

From a European perspective these are the things most people seem to buy (maybe apart from the UK) for their daily diet. Bread can be a hit or miss, but generally there's not too much weird stuff in it, same with pasta. Cheese and meats for on the bread: not too bad either.

Though I must admit that during those two business trips to the US and Canada I had a seriously hard time finding fresh, little processed food in supermarkets. Seriously! Cheese that doesn't taste like cheese, sweetish bread with lots of salt (and I bought the one with least sugar), even sweet and rather unmeaty tasting meat for my bread. If ever I should be offered a great job over there I will refuse based on the food alone. I just love my food too much.

Of course not everything is great. The Nordic country I used to live in for a while had some marvelous chocolatieres, which all advertise their products with things like 'hand-made with the best natural ingredients'. When I asked one of them what kind of sugar they're using they told me it's HFCS! O.o I guess I rather stick to slightly bigger manufacturers which actually do label their products.

If our food tastes nasty to you, maybe the American processed food industry isn't giving us Americans what we want after all. Maybe they're the ones who have shaped what we want and now we don't know any better.

I didn't try to cut it out… It just happened naturally based on my eating habits. No noticeable effects.

^^ This.

I will also read labels and will not buy anything that has HFCS in it. I also try and keep away from things that have a lot of added sugar as well.

There are so many things out there that have HFCS and added sugar and it's unnecessary.

Yes on avoiding HFCS. I noticed my body had a poor response to HFCS in the 1970s -- long story how. Irregardless, I can't even eat a cracker without reading the box first. Basically, it knocks me out. I remeber snacking on some crackers at work once and getting a horrible case of the head-bobs and falling asleep at my keyboard (aka, QWERTY forehead) as a result. Totally embarrassing.

One of my most recent accidental exposures happened when my other half picked up a jar of spaghetti sauce that was on sale and didn't read well enough: 'Less than 2% HFCS." Less than 20 minutes after dinner, my energy drained, mild headache formed and I was asleep for 10 hours. I wake up feeling 'hung over' without any alcohol being consumed and it takes about 2 days for my energy levels to return after an 'exposure' to HFCS. Ice cream: easy choice, Ben & Jerry's. Most chain store brands use it in my experience.

Anyone else ever experience this? No, I am not diabetic. Been tested several times.

I've had similar responses to sugary drinks. For me, it has happened with the Pepsi throwback as much as HFCS. I think it may be some kind of reactive hypoglycemia. Maybe there's something about HFCS that triggers an excessive insulin response in your body, causing blood sugar levels to drop?

I've just learned to avoid sugary drinks altogether (I can have orange juice only if it's with a protein-heavy meal, sugared soda and other drinks are generally a complete no-no). It's probably wise for you to avoid the HFCS like you do :flowerforyou:

I have practically cut it out of my diet and I have not got heavy eyes after eating anymore. I just started week 3 today and I feel wonderful! I wouldn't cut them out I would just intake it in moderation or before bed ahaha

Yes, this is in a lot of processed foods. You can cut it out, it will require more time in the kitchen or a higher grocery bill, if you can find things in the store that don't have it. Since we live on a budget, I have gotten great at making just about anything in the kitchen. There are TONS of clean (non-processed, non-additive, no preservative, real food) recipes online. You might need to get a few kitchen gadgets and utensils, yet it is totally doable. I feel so great knowing that everything we put in our bodies is REAL food. You'd be surprised as how much all those chemicals and preservatives, different forms of sugar can affect your body. I definitely recommend you do some reading online on clean foods, there is a website whole30.com that has great information.

Realistically, we didn't change everything overnight. I do most of the shopping so I was able to control what we bought. Some things are easy, meats & protein don't usually have it. Fresh or frozen veggies don't have it. We don't eat dairy or bread so that was already out of our diets. I'm sure there are tons of bread recipes out there for you. Condiments are your biggest enemy here and like I said, you can make a lot of them yourself. You can do this, you don't need it to survive. Just pick and choose a little at a time until it's all gone. Any step toward a healthier lifestyle is a good one! Good Luck!

I didn't try to cut it out… It just happened naturally based on my eating habits. No noticeable effects.

What kind of eating habits do you have where you don't ever encounter it? It's in BBQ sauce, cereal, honey mustard, salad dressing, peanut butter, syrup, pasta sauce, granola bars, crackers, applesauce, yogurt...etc. It's even in medicines like cough syrup.

I guess raw-foods or all-organic would do the trick.

Read labels. You can get all or nearly all those items without HFCS or even added sugar, particularly apple sauce, peanut butter, yogurt, and dressing. Get pure maple syrup, agave nectar or honey instead of immitation syrup, natural/no sugar added pasta sauce (or make your own), etc. Items like BBQ sauce, honey mustard, and cereal will have a sweetener in them because they are supposed to be sweet but you can try and avoid corn syrup if you desire by reading the labels.

http://uctv.tv/shows/Sugar-The-Bitter-Truth-16717

If you're worried about how it affects your weight, satiety, and health, then you should cut down on all added sugar, not just HFCS. Fruit gets a pass from Dr. Lustig (famous for the above video). But fruit juice is a no according to him.

Many people think he's an alarmist, but he's a pediatric endocrinologist with credentials in diabetes research reviews (he and another author tied up causation between increased consumption of sugar in populations with increased rates of diabetes in those populations). I'll listen to him before some random internet poster who will come tell you sugar is fine in all forms and quantities. Your opinion may vary. Do your own reading and lecture watching, make up your own mind.

Alan Aragon debated him.....judge for yourselves....


http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/02/19/a-retrospective-of-the-fructose-alarmism-debate/


http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

The man knows his stuff. But he trains elite athletes. Look around you, how many people qualify and therefore probably don't have to worry about excess sugar consumption?

Ad hominem.

Judge the data and the arguments, not the source. Lustig is a moron, and Aragon ate him for lunch.

Not an ad hominem at all. He simply works with people who are far from the typical American.

I don't know if you can out exercise a bad diet, but I can't, and believe me, I tried!

Why do the clients he works with matter? I am reading the science.


"In my final rebuttal to David, I explain what discretionary calories are, and how their intended use further supports the point I made in my original article. To quote my response, “The discretionary allotment for an active male is 512 kcal, and a sedentary one is 290 kcal. The average of this is 401 kcal. Technically, it wouldn’t violate the AHA’s recommendations if someone’s entire discretionary kcals came from sugar, which in the case of 401 kcals is about 100g, which equates to 50g fructose, which brings us right back to the exact number I listed as the upper safe limit in my original article.”


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18996880

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19592634



http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/#comment-1226

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/#comment-1017

http://uctv.tv/shows/Sugar-The-Bitter-Truth-16717

If you're worried about how it affects your weight, satiety, and health, then you should cut down on all added sugar, not just HFCS. Fruit gets a pass from Dr. Lustig (famous for the above video). But fruit juice is a no according to him.

Many people think he's an alarmist, but he's a pediatric endocrinologist with credentials in diabetes research reviews (he and another author tied up causation between increased consumption of sugar in populations with increased rates of diabetes in those populations). I'll listen to him before some random internet poster who will come tell you sugar is fine in all forms and quantities. Your opinion may vary. Do your own reading and lecture watching, make up your own mind.

Alan Aragon debated him.....judge for yourselves....


http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/02/19/a-retrospective-of-the-fructose-alarmism-debate/


http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

The man knows his stuff. But he trains elite athletes. Look around you, how many people qualify and therefore probably don't have to worry about excess sugar consumption?

Ad hominem.

Judge the data and the arguments, not the source. Lustig is a moron, and Aragon ate him for lunch.

Not an ad hominem at all. He simply works with people who are far from the typical American.

I don't know if you can out exercise a bad diet, but I can't, and believe me, I tried!

LOL. So we're adding strawmen too, I see.

I see you don't want to consider the issue, you just want to attempt to run me around in pointless circles. You wont' succeed.

If you can out exercise a bad diet (i.e. a lot of added sugar in this case) and if you're convinced added sugar isn't a problem for you despite it causing a rise in diabetes in populations, fine. Eat up.

But if you're convinced it doesn't cause that rise in diabetes at all, I'd like to see some evidence. Even if I could out exercise a bad diet (and this is after all in large part a weight loss forum so it's relevant to our interests) the diabetes link would give me pause.

http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/02/13591/quantity-sugar-food-supply-linked-diabetes-rates


In addition, the food industry seems to want us to continue to consume excess calories largely coming from sugars they add to their foods, then get home from work and burn them off so we don't suffer from obesity related disease and/or sugar consumption related disease.

Even if we could out exercise a bad diet and remain healthy with high added sugar consumption, I find it presumptuous of them to assume none of us has anything better to do than work out for two hours every day if that is not our natural enjoyable inclination.

I've pretty much cut it out, aside from an odd treat here and there, like a popsicle. I had to a buy a lot of new foods to replace what I had. I've also cut out soda (Pepsi was a weakness), aside from a little Sprite to take pills or for nausea. I don't miss the overly sugared feeling anymore!

http://uctv.tv/shows/Sugar-The-Bitter-Truth-16717

If you're worried about how it affects your weight, satiety, and health, then you should cut down on all added sugar, not just HFCS. Fruit gets a pass from Dr. Lustig (famous for the above video). But fruit juice is a no according to him.

Many people think he's an alarmist, but he's a pediatric endocrinologist with credentials in diabetes research reviews (he and another author tied up causation between increased consumption of sugar in populations with increased rates of diabetes in those populations). I'll listen to him before some random internet poster who will come tell you sugar is fine in all forms and quantities. Your opinion may vary. Do your own reading and lecture watching, make up your own mind.

Alan Aragon debated him.....judge for yourselves....


http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/02/19/a-retrospective-of-the-fructose-alarmism-debate/


http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

The man knows his stuff. But he trains elite athletes. Look around you, how many people qualify and therefore probably don't have to worry about excess sugar consumption?

Ad hominem.

Judge the data and the arguments, not the source. Lustig is a moron, and Aragon ate him for lunch.

Not an ad hominem at all. He simply works with people who are far from the typical American.

I don't know if you can out exercise a bad diet, but I can't, and believe me, I tried!

LOL. So we're adding strawmen too, I see.

I see you don't want to consider the issue, you just want to attempt to run me around in pointless circles. You wont' succeed.

If you can out exercise a bad diet (i.e. a lot of added sugar in this case) and if you're convinced added sugar isn't a problem for you despite it causing a rise in diabetes in populations, fine. Eat up.

Strawman. Nobody said you could out exercise a bad diet.

But if you're convinced it doesn't cause that rise in diabetes at all, I'd like to see some evidence. Even if I could out exercise a bad diet (and this is after all in large part a weight loss forum so it's relevant to our interests) the diabetes link would give me pause.



http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/02/13591/quantity-sugar-food-supply-linked-diabetes-rates

The rise in diabetes is linked to an excess of CALORIES, not just sugar. Please show me any evidence of a link to diabetes in a caloric balance (or deficit).

In addition, the food industry seems to want us to continue to consume excess calories largely coming from sugars they add to their foods, then get home from work and burn them off so we don't suffer from obesity related disease and/or sugar consumption related disease.

Even if we could out exercise a bad diet and remain healthy with high added sugar consumption, I find it presumptuous of them to assume none of us has anything better to do than work out for two hours every day if that is not our natural enjoyable inclination.

Another strawman. Nobody is recommending this.

Yes, that is exactly what food companies are attempting to push on us. Don't worry about added sugar and exercise more.


And the study shows added sugar calories is the cause, not just added calories.

Another article: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057873

Abstract

While experimental and observational studies suggest that sugar intake is associated with the development of type 2 diabetes, independent of its role in obesity, it is unclear whether alterations in sugar intake can account for differences in diabetes prevalence among overall populations. Using econometric models of repeated cross-sectional data on diabetes and nutritional components of food from 175 countries, we found that every 150 kcal/person/day increase in sugar availability (about one can of soda/day) was associated with increased diabetes prevalence by 1.1% (p <0.001) after testing for potential selection biases and controlling for other food types (including fibers, meats, fruits, oils, cereals), total calories, overweight and obesity, period-effects, and several socioeconomic variables such as aging, urbanization and income. No other food types yielded significant individual associations with diabetes prevalence after controlling for obesity and other confounders. The impact of sugar on diabetes was independent of sedentary behavior and alcohol use, and the effect was modified but not confounded by obesity or overweight. Duration and degree of sugar exposure correlated significantly with diabetes prevalence in a dose-dependent manner, while declines in sugar exposure correlated with significant subsequent declines in diabetes rates independently of other socioeconomic, dietary and obesity prevalence changes. Differences in sugar availability statistically explain variations in diabetes prevalence rates at a population level that are not explained by physical activity, overweight or obesity.