Flash in the Pan

The headline has a lot of letters, but what it comes down to is that the Corn Refiners Association - the people who make high fructose corn syrup - must be nervous because of all the bad press that the liquid sweetener has been receiving. They've created a site called HFCSfacts.com. Let's look at some of the statements in it:

HFCS, table sugar, honey, and several fruit juices all contain the same simple sugars.

Not exactly, as I remember my high school chemistry. There are a number of relatively basic sugars, including fructose (fruit sugar), sucrose (the table sugar we use), lactose (a sugar found in milk), maltose (malt sugar found in beer and malt whiskey), and glucose (also called dextrose, found in plant saps and fruits). They are similar, but not exactly the same.

HFCS is safe and no different from other common sweeteners like table sugar and honey.

Now we're entering some real word twisting, so far as I can tell. Suddenly they are trying to pretend that the sugars are equivalent, and they aren't necessarily. Some people are "lactose intolerant," meaning that the particular form of sugar called lactose is something their bodies do not digest.

HFCS is equal in sweetness to table sugar.

Interesting, as I've always heard that industries like HFCS because 1) it's cheaper than regular sugar, and 2) it's sweeter, so they don't need as much.

Instead of just listening to these people, how about some nutritional information from the MayoClinic.com?

Labels: health, HFCS, nutrition, sugar

According to researchers at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, the seafood in 11 coastal Chinese cities is heavily contaminated with organochlorine pesticides (DDT and similar products) as well as hexachlorocyclohexanes. Some of these :

are ubiquitous in the environment and may continue to pose health threat to both wildlife and human beings, due to their persistency, bioaccumulative
ability, and potential toxicity.

Given that China has become a major seafood exporter and that the US is one of its big collective customers, you might want to put that shrimp in a decontamination chamber before putting them on the barbie.

Labels: China, health, pesticides, shrimp

A recent study in the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology suggests that relatively few restaurants train their workers on food allergies, and some of the misconceptions could be deadly for someone with a high sensitivity:

For example, restaurant personnel reported that consuming a small amount of allergen is safe (24 percent); fryer heat destroys allergens (35 percent); and,
removal of an allergen from a finished meal was safe (25 percent).

Supposedly 15 to 32 percent of fatal food reactions start with restaurant food. Makes you want to take up recreational cooking.

Labels: food allergies, health, restaurant, study