total hunt's move

[Choop]

HA HA-- wait


wait that totally changes what a hunt's move is.

[littlefallsmets]

Now I ain't no... nutritional anthropologist... but aren't sugar and high-fructose corn syrup just about equally as bad for you, just in slightly different ways?

Six of one, half dozen of the other sorta deal?

Both heavily-processed forms of empty calories that are just heavily-processed in different ways?

I mean, I'll admit I probably have too much of both in my diet but I don't really "get" how one is actually supposed to be functionally worse than the other.

It's all just chemically-treated empty carbs, yeah?

[theinevitable]

I have heard, and I do not know the basis of this, that HFCS is processed differently by your guts.

Although I think cutting down on both sugar and HFCS is a good idea for almost everyone.

[schnitzelbank]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
Here's the answer - all 89 minutes of it, and surprisingly entertaining.

[wombat]

I dunno about its health effects but I read a book with a whole chapter about how it is produced and that did it for me. It is totally an industrial product in a way that creeps me out.

[linnea]

I have heard that your body processes HFCS differently than normal old fructose or glucose. I have read that it makes you fatter quicker than regular sugar. I like the hippie turbinado sugar, I guess it is slightly less processed evaporated sugarcane juice or something. My biggest weakness is Coca-Cola, which is 140 calories of HFCS and a bunch of other acidic shit in a delicious ice-cold can. I try to limit myself to one can per week.

[greenkoolayd]

My biggest weakness is Coca-Cola, which is 140 calories of HFCS and a bunch of other acidic shit in a delicious ice-cold can. I try to limit myself to one can per week.

coke that was bottled in mexico uses real sugar, rather than HFCS.  also, i think some jewish stores/delis sell coke-made-with-sugar for passover.

[AugustWest]

It just a marketing move for Hunts.  They probably found some cheap source of sugar to exploit.

My problem with the HFCS is that it's a result of massive corporate agricultural subsidies for growing corn.  We've artificially lowered the price so we've got to put it in everything now.

[jaydub]

All of the above.  Regular corn syrup has fructose and glucose in it.  HFCS has been chemically modified to increase the fraction of fructose, because it requires less of it, per gram, to give the same sweetness.  That drives the cost down even further, and from a calorie point of view is helpful as it requires fewer grams of simple carbohydrate to sweeten whatever you're making.  Unfortunately your body does indeed metabolize fructose differently, in a way that apparently shifts the energy balance towards storage rather than immediate use.  That effect is arguably trivial though - its really just the sheer volume of calories you're dumping in your pie hole while living a lifestyle more sedentary than you realize, and a hell of a lot more sedentary than the 1930's era Italians that the basal metabolic index (e.g. an adult male with a moderate level of activity requires 2300 kcal to maintain equilibrium) assumes.

[greenkoolayd]

thanks mr wizard.

[Turbo Ninja]

For me, the HFCS issue is more about the resources devoted (as mentioned above) to growing corn and the subsidies required to make it worthwhile for all the nation's farmers.

I know sugar doesn't sprout up like dandelions or kudzu from coast to coast but I'd rather see a little variety in agriculture than have MORE corn.

[greenkoolayd]

they even grow corn just to burn.  seems a little backwards to me.....