Just in case it needed clarification.
I really, really don't like high fructose corn syrup.
And there are more people like me every day. Which is why the "Sweet Surprise" campaign started running ads like this one:
Oh-ho! Those wacky lobbyists! They totally got me dead to rights with the straw-man "You know what they say" guy who just stutters and stammers when asked to elaborate. We're all just empty-headed dum-dums who are buying into a senseless panic!
Or, you know he could have pointed out that Fructose -- while fine in the levels it appears in fruit, where it occurs naturally -- is a horrible health hazard in the levels that appears in, say, Coca-Cola, to name just one brand that uses massive quantities of it.
Oh-ho! I'm just ranting and raving about nothing, though, right? Just like the guy being offered the popsicle! There I go with my vague, it's-not-natural-it-must-be-bad hate speech! Oh, I'll buy anything, won't I?
Buckle up, Bunky, because here comes the science.
Scientists have proved for the first time that a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks can damage human metabolism and is fuelling the obesity crisis.
Fructose, a sweetener derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.
...
Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a strictly controlled diet, including high levels of fructose, produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems.
People in both groups put on a similar amount of weight. However, researchers at the University of California who conducted the trial, said the levels of weight gain among the fructose consumers would be greater over the long term.
Fructose bypasses the digestive process that breaks down other forms of sugar. It arrives intact in the liver where it causes a variety of abnormal reactions, including the disruption of mechanisms that instruct the body whether to burn or store fat.
But, hey, I'm sure that the folks who grabbed Ephedra and threw it off the shelves because people had health problems after deciding to use it in spite of the warnings on the label will be just as quick to crack down on High Fructose Corn Syrup. I mean, it's not like they have a particularly strong and well-funded lobby or anythi--
Oh. Crap. We're all doomed, aren't we?
I have a lot of breakfast/dessert recipes, but I can give you anything you'd be interested in. I'd love the veggie quesadilla recipe! I'm not moving yet - just trying to figure things out, I don't know if that will be in VA or not...