Day: September 7, 2010

Mainely Tipping Points 17: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Mainely Tipping Points 17

High Fructose Corn Syrup

 Despite the food industry’s attempt to tell us so, all food calories do not have the same impact on our bodies.  Nor are all sugars equal.  Most sweeteners are formed from three different sugars (sucrose, glucose, and fructose), and each has a different impact on the body. 

 Sugars are carbohydrates, and, according to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride in GUT AND PSYCHOLOGY SYNDROME (2004), all carbohydrates are made of tiny molecules, called monosaccharides, or monosugars.  Glucose and fructose are monosugars, so do not need digestion.  They enter the gut directly.  Sucrose is a disaccharides, or double sugar, and it and other double sugars (lactose from milk and maltose from starches) require “quite a bit of” digestive work in a healthy body to reduce them to absorbable monosugars.  Unhealthy bodies harbor these undigested sugars in the gut, and an unfortunate chain of disease begins as these sugars feed “pathogenic bacteria, viruses, Candida and other fungi,” which themselves begin to produce toxic substances that “damage the gut wall and poison the whole body” (79-81).        

Most sweeteners have different sugar compositions.  High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is typically 42-55 percent fructose and 45-55 percent glucose.  Honey is 50 percent fructose, 44 percent glucose, and 1 percent sucrose.  Only raw sugar is 100 percent sucrose  (“Sugar by Any Other Name,” NUTRITION ACTION HEALTH LETTER, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Jan/Feb 2010, page 4).  But, as Sally Fallon Morell and Rami Nagel explain in WISE TRADITIONS (Spring 2009), the type of fructose in HFCS is not the same as fructose from fruit and our bodies do not know how to process it into energy (“Worse Than We Thought,” 44-52).

Industry creates HFCS from corn starch, which largely comes from genetically modified corn.  For an amusing, but serious explanation of how HFCS is made, take a look at the movie KING CORN (2007).  A not-so-funny fact surfaced recently according to Morell and Nagel :  nearly 50 percent of samples of commercial HFCS contained mercury, which was found also in nearly one-third of “55 brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient” (47).

 Fructose in fruit, report Morell and Nagel, is “part of a complex that includes fiber, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.”  The fructose in HFCS is a free, unbound fructose with an important chemical difference.  Most fruit fructose is D-fructose, or levulose, but HFCS fructose is L-fructose, an artificial compound which has “the reversed isomerization and polarity of a refined fructose molecule.”  Thus, the fructose in HFCS is “not recognized in the human Krebs cycle for primary conversion to blood glucose in any significant quantity, and therefore cannot be used for energy utilization.”  Instead, HFCS, like all refined fructose sweeteners” is “primarily converted into triglycerides and adipose tissue (body fat).”  

Indeed, report Morell and Nagel, a new study published in the “Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, “found that obese people who drank a fructose-sweetened beverage with a meal had triglyceride levels almost 200 percent higher than obese people who drank a glucose-sweetened beverage with a meal.”  Chronic, high triglycerides, remind Morell and Nagel, cause increased insulin resistance, inflammation, and heart disease (47).

Nancy Appleton and G. N. Jacobs, in WELL BEING JOURNAL, reported that two published studies (2010) from Princeton University demonstrated that HFCS causes obesity in rats The researchers think that HFCS is more fattening than sugar because it is not bound to anything, which, in turn, allows it to be processed in the liver into fat—substantially abdominal fat—a risk factor for high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.  Sucrose is” metabolized by insulin from the pancreas and is more readily used as an energy source.”  Additionally, HFCS bypasses the body’s ability to create satiety, or feeling full (“High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity,” WELL BEING JOURNAL, Sept/Oct. 2010, 9-10).  Morell and Nagel note that since all fructose is metabolized in the liver, the livers of test animals “fed large amounts of fructose develop fatty deposits and cirrhosis, similar to problems that develop in the livers of alcoholics (48).”

Rats aren’t humans.  But epidemiologist Devra Davis in THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WAR ON CANCER (2007) notes that industry has been very adept at both decrying and promoting animal studies:  “Where animal studies on the causes of cancer exist, industry faults them as not relevant to humans.  Yet when studies of almost identical design are employed to craft novel treatments and therapies, the physiological differences between animals and humans suddenly become insignificant” (xii).  So, Davis argues, dismissing animal studies is a type of reasoning that is both “morally flawed” and “ignores one simple fact:  the same basic structure of DNA is found in all mammals (8)”  Davis writes that she has witnessed in her professional life “the maturing of the science of doubt promotion,” or “the concerted and well-funded effort to identify, magnify and exaggerate doubts about what we could say that we know as a way of delaying actions to change the way the world operates” (xii).  Thus, “treating people like experimental animals in a vast and largely uncontrolled study,” while ignoring data from animal studies showing direct cause-and-effect data, is ”morally indefensible” (8).

Morell and Nagel report that HFCS entered the market in the early 1970s, but the FDA did not grant it GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status until 1996, “after considerable pressure from the industry” (mainly Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill) as negative research begin to emerge.  Nevertheless, “HFCS represents the major change in the American diet over the last forty years” as it has replaced more expensive sugar in most soft drinks and is “increasingly replacing sugar in baked goods, bread, cereals, canned fruits, jams and jellies, dairy desserts and flavored yoghurts.”  This substitution is occurring despite research showing that while refined sugars have “empty, depleting, addictive calories,” HFCS is “actually worse for you” (44-45).

 The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CPSI) notes that industry has added so many sugars to processed foods that “the average American swallows 350 to 475 calories’ worth of added sugars each day,” all of which are empty calories (“Sugar Overload,” NUTRITION ACTION HEALTH LETTER, Jan/Feb 2010, 3-8).  Dr. David A. Kessler, a former FDA commissioner, in THE END OF OVEREATING (2009), focuses on how industry has added sugar, salt, and bad fats to processed foods, which is changing a pattern where “for thousands of years human body weight stayed remarkably stable” (3). 

The HFCS story gets worse.  A team of researchers at the University of California Los Angeles Jonsson Cancer Center released a study on 2 August 2010 revealing that pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate.  Dr. Anthony Heaney said that tumor cells thrived on glucose, but used fructose to proliferate.  He specifically referred to Americans’ use of refined fructose consumption.  Our use of HFCS has increased 1000 percent between 1970 and 1990 (Maggie Fox, “Cancer Cells Feed on Fructose, Study Finds,” 2 Aug. 2010, Reuters).         

HFCS can cause high blood pressure.  A study from the University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center recorded the eating habits of over 4,500 adults to determine that amount of HFCS each was consuming.  Those consuming “more than 74 grams of HFCS (the equivalent of 2.5 servings of soft drinks) exhibited `significantly increased risk of developing hypertension.’ “  Indeed, “the study concluded that HFCS consumption can raise blood pressure in adults with no history of hypertension, independently of any other causes” (“High Fructose Corn Syrup = High Blood Pressure, WELL BEING JOURNAL, March/April 2010, 6).   

 Connections are being made between HFCS and gout.  Fructose increases uric acid, and uric acid causes gout.  A study of about 46,000 men who got “at least 12 percent of their calories from fructose” were” twice as likely to be diagnosed with gout” (“Sugar Overload,” NUTRITION ACTION HEALTH LETTER, Jan/Feb 2010, 7). 

 I found much more information showing that HFCS is a dangerous product that is causing humans significant harm.  It’s also likely that industry knows how dangerous it is, but uses it anyway because it is sweet and cheap.  Remember that industry is legally organized to behave this way.  What you can do is to eat nutrient-dense, organic, local foods to maintain your health.

Turkey Tracks: Bottled Sunshine

Turkey Tracks:  September 7, 2010

Bottled Sunshine

Fall is here.  The light is changing again, and it is unlikely we’ll feel like swimming any more with the arrival of cooler weather.  The trees have not really started to change much, though a few are tinged with color.  The beans and summer squashes are slowing down, but the tomatoes are coming in.  In Maine, September is the red month.

Our solo chickie, Orphan Annie is 2 months old this week.  Here she is, perched on her inside box, which she is rapidly outgrowing.  I put a screen over the top, and we are up to two books now to weight it down.  She was “OUT OUT” to be with us, but she is NOT reliable about pooping.

 

 She still looks like a female.  And, she scratches like one.  There are some little bumps where spurs might grow, so I have to get one of the big hens down and see if they have marks there.  I’m letting her loose more now with the big hens, as long as John or I are there to run interference.  The Wheatens are not aggressive with her, but her mother and the others are.  Especially if she is eating something they want.  She spends the day outside in a smaller pen that Rose lent me, and she hates it.  Maybe I’ll try penning her under the big coop later today.

We visited Rose and Pete last Sunday.  I wanted to see how the Barbanter chicks were developing.  They are about 3 weeks older than Annie.  Rose has mixed them into her flock, but they have a protective mother–the large Copper Black Maran to the right.  There are 4 chicks:  the fourth is in the upper right part of the picture.  Look for the speckles.  The red hens are Red Sex-Links.  And, they are egg-laying machines and very sweet.  Their beaks have been cut though; I think I wrote about that in an earlier post.  They lay a dusty rose-brown egg.

Rose and I first saw the Barbanters when we picked up the Marans and the Americaunas last March.  They are clean-legged and long and slender, with fluffy top-knots on their heads.  They lay a white egg, which in an egg box, can just bring the other colors alive.  Rose thinks one of these four chicks is a rooster.  Yeah!!  That means there will be more next spring… 

Here is a close-up of one of the chicks so you can see the coloring better.  The top knot is not yet fully developed.

 

I spent most of yesterday processing food.  I had enough tomatoes to make 2 quarts of sauce.  I have to freeze my sauce since it has oil in it.  The recipe mostly comes from Anna Thomas’s THE VEGETARIAN EPICURE. 

Tomato Sauce:  Bottled Sunshine

I scald the tomatoes, skin them, cut them into chunks and throw them into a WIDE stainless steel skillet that’s about 5 inches deep.  You want to spread out the sauce as much as possible.  I add a good 1/4 cup of REALLY GOOD olive oil, some salt (I only use minimally processed sea salt), and turn on the heat.  When the tomatoes have broken down, I add 5 or 6 garlic cloves–just smashed or cut into big pieces and a handful or two of fresh basil leaves.  Cook down the mixture until the excess water has cooked off and the olive oil is starting to pool on the top.  At the end, you have to stir more frequently.  Spoon into canning jars, turn upside down on the counter until cool, then freeze.  Remember to leave enough room for freezing expansion.  Now you have bottled some sunshine for a cold winter day. 

 

We don’t eat pasta very often, so it’s quite a treat to reheat one of these quarts, spoon it over penne pasta, and top it all off with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  It’s a complete meal with some French bread to sop up the sauce and a salad.  But, perhaps a better use is to add one of the jars, especially pint jars, to a chicken bone-broth soup. 

 

Roast Chicken Bone Broth

Bones have disappeared from American supermarkets.  But, bones are full of fabulous minerals.  It’s one of the healthiest things you can make.  And, it’s dead easy.

I roast a chicken about once a week.  Remember that we raised our current chickens with Rose and Pete Thomas, and we got a slower-growing type that we didn’t slaughter until they were 12 weeks old.  That meant that their bones had fully developed–unlike chickens raised to be 4 to 5 pounds in 6 to 8 weeks.  Having seen this process first hand, I can tell you that raising a chicken to be that big in that period of time is so not ok on so many levels besides the obvious one involving what nutrients they possess. 

I use about a 3-inch high roasting pan, and I make a layer of chunked vegetables:  celery (not too much; it’s strong), onion (the more the sweeter), carrots, and garlic.  I salt it and drizzle fat over it.  I used to use olive oil, but I’m moving toward using coconut oil or rendered duck fat, or chicken fat since they take high heat better.  (I’m saving the olive oil for colder uses.)  Put the chicken on top–after drizzling it with salt and pepper inside and out.  You can put some lemon and herbs inside the cavity.  Use whatever seems good to you and what you have on hand.  Sometimes I sprinkle dried herbs over the top, though I vastly prefer fresh herbs.

After you’ve roasted the chicken and eaten your first meal, take the meat off the bones and put ALL the bones (yes, the ones you’ve gotten from people’s plates), the roasted veggies, and the juices into a bowl for overnight storage.  Put some water into the roasting pan and scrape up the dark bits and pour that into your bowl of bones.  The next day, or the day after that, put the bone mixture into a kettle, fill it with water, salt it, and simmer it for 6 to 8 hours or so.  Replenish water from time to time.  Pour off the liquid through a strainer.  Pick out the used-up meat bits and carrots for the dogs, and throw out the bones.  Let the broth cool before putting it in the refrigerator.

You’ll have enough for a delicious soup, for drinking as a hot drink, and/or to freeze. 

You know, the other thing that is missing from American supermarkets is something that Europeans take for granted.  When they buy a chicken, they get the head/neck and feet attached.  In other words, they buy the WHOLE bird.  We butchered our chickens this way, and let me tell you, the broth made with the neck, head, and feet added back in insanely delicious.  All the neck bones have so much good stuff in them, and the feet are full of gelatin that makes the broth chill out as thick as jello. 

Start asking for slower growing chickens from your LOCAL farmers (Silver Cross or, even better, Freedom Rangers, which are better foragers).  And, ask for the WHOLE carcass.  And USE IT ALL.  The cost of an organic chicken only seems prohibitive until you start using the whole thing.  John and I get–from about a 4 1/2 pound whole chicken–4 meat meals and 6 soup meals.  The cost of the chicken divided by 10 meals makes it seem more reasonable.  It’s definitely healthier, which subtracts from the cost of chronic illness.

Green Bean Overflow

We had at least 3 pounds of beans to process this week after picking up our food from Hope’s Edge, our CSA, and picking our own garden.  I have Dragon’s Tongue beans–the seeds were a gift from Mike and Tami last year.  They are a colorful, lavender and cream striped bean that is big, flat, and very nutty sweet.  I also have the old green, bush bean standby, Provider.  From Hope’s Edge, we got purple beans (they turn green when cooked), yellow beans, and a tender green bean.  Here’s a picture of a mixture of all these beans ready to be steamed.

   

 Aren’t they pretty?

But, it’s a LOT of beans.  So, after we eat some steamed and with fresh lemon juice and fresh butter, I freeze some in smaller packets.  They are not great to eat as they tend to get a bit mushy.  But, they are great in soups in the winter.  I throw them in a few minutes before the soup is ready, just to heat them through.  I save a few handfuls from the batch, refrigerate them, and use them to make a cold salad that’s quite delicious and that I discovered while combining leftovers with fresh produce.

Cold Green Bean Salad

Combine the cold beans with some freshly cut-up cucumber, some halved SWEET cherry tomatoes (we have Sun Gold here), and some garlicky, mustardy herbed vinaigrette.  The dressing is simple:  smash a garlic clove with some salt  in a mortar with a pestle or a bowl with the back of a spoon.  Add in some Dijon mustard (I’ve grow to love the extra bold kind)–say a tablespoon–some red-wine vinegar–say 3 tablespoons–and slowly stream in some REALLY GOOD (extra virgin, first cold pressed) olive oil while whisking with a whisk or a fork.  When the mixture thickens, taste it to see if you need more olive oil.  Add herbs–whatever you have–and pepper.

Zucchini

The zucchini are finally slowing down.  I’ve got at least one more pile to grate and freeze today.  Like the beans, small grated batches are good to throw into winter soups.  Grated zucchini can also be used to thicken a soup, much like the French use potato to thicken their vegetable soups.