Archive for the ‘Obesity’ tag
High Fructose Corn Syrup
High fructose corn syrup, sugar and several fruit juices are all nutritionally the same, according to Audrae Erickson, President, Corn Refiners Association. She says that High fructose corn syrup has the same number of calories as sugar and is handled similarly by the body.
The American Medical Association in June 2008 helped put to rest misunderstandings about this sweetener and obesity, stating that “high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute to obesity more than other caloric sweeteners.”
That last statement though, is the rub. If you really want to eat food with less calories, and better nutritional values, then it’s recommended to cut out the empty calories that come with ALL calorific sweeteners, including both regular sugar, and HFCS.
So TGFC still thinks it’s a good idea to avoid HFCS as part of a sensible diet regimen.
It’s not just US
The United States has long had a reputation for being a nation full of overweight junk food eaters. Of course, that’s not true, and the US isn’t really far ahead (if at all) of nations like the UK, in the amount of take-out junk food they consume, and the amount of processed food that they buy.
However, what might surprise some are the concerns being raised in countries like India. As the average consumer in India gets more disposable income they too, are turning more and more to Western style junk.
In Madurai, in southern India yesterday, the Health Minister, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss said, “The union health and family welfare ministry would continue its war against junk food, alcohol, tobacco and drugs as they are mainly responsible for making India “the capital of diabetes, heart ailments and obesity”.
Fat Kids
A recently released study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that about 32 percent of children were overweight, 16 percent were obese, and 11 percent were extremely obese.
Meanwhile junk food companies continue to promote so-called healthy choices, such as diet sodas, and low-fat chips. Many cereal products are way less than healthy too, containing large amounts of sugar or the ubiquitous High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).
Whatever the recent commercials from the corn industry might say about HFCS, the bottom line is that it’s still empty calories, and eating less calories is one way to lose weight. Quite simply, if you burn more calories than you take in, you’ll eventually lose some pounds.
eyebee
