Should Trans-fats & High Fructose Corn Syrup be banned? by chrisisall

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Should Trans-fats & High Fructose Corn Syrup be banned?

POSTED BY: CHRISISALL
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 12:58
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VIEWED: 1753
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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 10:39 AM

...or would that be taking away your God-given right to kill yourself slowly without even knowing it?

See, cigarettes come with a warning- why not these evil substances?

The laughing Chrisisall

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 11:18 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Nah, no need for bans, no need for additional labelling either.

Just make damn sure it's listed as an ingredient if it's in there, and let folks ire do the rest - that's what more or less wiped out aspartame.

But then, I *would* recommend prosecuting deliberate obfuscation of it's presence, like they do with MSG, and that ought to be accountable too.
http://www.msgmyth.com/hidename.htm
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html

The real HFCS horror is on the bottled pancake syrup shelf, not only does every bottle but the real deal have it, the one labeled "CONTAINS NO HFCS"?
Pick it up, turn it around, first ingredient on the list... Corn Syrup.

Not to mention whatever the hell Sodium hexametaphosphate is, that don't sound too tasty, and those microwaveable bottles, which of course not only leech Bisphenol-A into the product, the amount leeched increases radically with temperature change, so one can just imagine the twitchies seein those things cause.

And yet, thanks in great part to consumer demand and backlash, sittin right up there next to em ?
REAL maple syrup, in a glass bottle.

Damn happy to see that, given I was *this* close to goin out there and pounding in a tap myself, yanno ?

-Frem

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 11:30 AM

MINCINGBEAST

generally, i'm partial to bans, myself. nothing says "i am in charge, you are definitely not in charge," or enacts the power of the state, like preventing someone from doing something fun.

i question banning food, however. there are better things to ban: words, thoughts, etc...and it seems to me that attempts to ban certain foods (I can't believe I'm calling HFCS a food) are part of an ongoing effort to moralize health and our diets. For example, if you're fat, its not a health issue, but a public safety issue, and a morality issue (so selfish being so fat!). Hence, this is one ban I'm not too comfortable with. If people want to eat crap, that should be their choice, and I can't believe I'm actually coming down on the side of choice...

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 11:37 AM

THESOMNAMBULIST

Hell no!! We need Corn Syrup! It's one of the main ingredients for fake blood no?

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 11:40 AM

MINCINGBEAST

dude, you don't eat fake blood, do you?

how does it taste?

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 11:49 AM

DICKCHENEY

Quote:
Originally posted by mincingbeast:
dude, you don't eat fake blood, do you?

how does it taste?

Tastes like babies!

Go Fuck Yourself!

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 11:56 AM

THESOMNAMBULIST

Quote:
Originally posted by mincingbeast:
dude, you don't eat fake blood, do you?

how does it taste?

...would it read better if I ate real blood?

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 1:32 PM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Should Trans-fats & High Fructose Corn Syrup be banned?

Hell no.

Let Darwin do his job.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 2:59 PM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Should Trans-fats & High Fructose Corn Syrup be banned?

Hell no.

Let Darwin do his job.

You must just hate the uneducated, eh?

It's a conspiracy to shorten the life expectancy of the undesirables & non-whites.
While of course boosting profits.
You think I jest? Think again, Geeze.

Juvenile diabetes up. Stroke & sudden aneurysms UP.
The graying of America must end.
We buck the trend, my friend. Be a good dupe & suck down that s**t for the good of the New American Order.

See you in Hell.

The Han Solo Chrisisall

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 3:29 PM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Should Trans-fats & High Fructose Corn Syrup be banned?

Hell no.

Let Darwin do his job.

I know you're kidding but it brings up an interesting point: are people who don't have access to information uneducated?

I think it's one of the few tenants of Liberalism that I agree with, that people who have greater knowledge are responsible for sharing it with people who have less. Often those distinctions are along very obvious economic lines and I think that is where Conservatism breaks down, NOT wanting to empower/inform those that have less information, which appears like prejudice against the poor.

Liberals = Inclusive. Conservatives = Exclusive.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 3:39 PM

CHRISISALL

Death to the poor morons; they're morally lower than us!

*munches carrot instead of Mickey-D fries*

The laughing Chrisisall

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010 3:54 PM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by pizmobeach:
people who have greater knowledge are responsible for sharing it with people who have less

Gorram Inependent!!! Go live on Miranda, brownish-coat!
Back on Earth-That-Was you'd be branded a "Liberal," you freebie-thinker.

The laughing Chrisisall

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 3:08 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Quote:
Originally posted by pizmobeach:
people who have greater knowledge are responsible for sharing it with people who have less

Gorram Inependent!!! Go live on Miranda, brownish-coat!
Back on Earth-That-Was you'd be branded a "Liberal," you freebie-thinker.

I apologize, a terrible moment of weakness on my part. I will not think of others ever again. Glory to the Self! Let's all get together and chant, ME! ME! ME!
(Ironical that, eh whot?

)

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 3:50 AM

BYTEMITE

You know, instead of mediocre efforts at offering a slightly more healthy menu and providing information when I'm pretty sure most people are still walking in and ordering the unhealthy stuff...

I wonder what if fast food burger joints went the direction of a horrifying restaurant I heard of? All of their food intentionally less healthy than a McGriddle (Ugh, the very concept nauseates me), buns and cheese dipped in grease and etc. They have "nurses" for waitresses walking around, and all their burgers carry with them a warning: this WILL kill you.

It's all tongue in cheek, but maybe that's better than providing dietary information on the menu. I wonder how much the average American really understands the concept of calories and how that ties in to fat and insulin production. Or why it matters if something is 1,000 calories compared to something that's maybe 90.

And it's still honest and informative. Just has a dark sense of humour.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 6:35 AM

YINYANG

You were busy trying to get yourself lit on fire. It happens.

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Or why it matters if something is 1,000 calories compared to something that's maybe 90.

I think that people understand this - 1000 calories means they don't starve. Or it means they have enough energy to keep them going through their day of hard labor. Even if it's crap food, and they know it's crap food, for a lot of people the primary thing they need is enough food. And I honestly don't think that many middle or upper class people are walking into McDonald's on a regular basis, because they've got other, better options.

I'd refer you to this*:

It's basically Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs applied to food. With "instrumental food" - i.e. healthy food - way at the top. But before people worry about that, there's a whole lot of other things that are important.

At this point, I don't really think education is the biggest problem in nutrition. It seems like everyone who has anything to say about it stresses eating more fruits and veggies and staying away from soft drinks and fast food and etc. With plenty of finger wagging about "bad" foods.

*Which I found here: http://www.fatnutritionist.com/index.php/if-only-poor-people-understoo
d-nutrition

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 6:53 AM

MINCINGBEAST

gosh, if only poor people understood nutrition, they would eat healthy, all natural, wholesome, nourishing vegan diets that would promote their total well being.

and gosh, if only poor people understood the importance of going green, they would all drive a prius, install low flush toilets in their houses, etc...

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 6:54 AM

BYTEMITE

Em, well. That's assuming that the 1,000 calories is the ONLY meal they're having per day... If not, then starving most likely isn't an issue.

But otherwise, yeah, there are people who subsist on 1,000 calories of just rice a day... Which is starvation level for an adult. (Rice has decent calories, but pretty much no other nutritional value. Hello malnutrition)

Mostly the fastfood thing probably is just what's cheap enough, and what's fast enough to fit in an eight hour work day, so, yes, you still have a point.

Probably even a bigger problem than the nutritional thing and the poor thing, though, is the ADDICTIVE thing.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 7:23 AM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

Maybe not banned, but I would like to see more things without HFCS and stuff. My options for food went down drastically when I stopped eating things with sugar or high fructose etc. Considering how many people have or are at risk for diabetes, a higher availability of foods that didn't destroy insulin receptivity might be a good idea. I mean, sure it's on the labels, but when you start reading those labels, you realize it's in 90% of food on the store shelves. I don't know why the crap has to be in, say, soup. Or sausage. Or any number of other things that you wouldn't think of as sugary, processed, or toxic to proper nutrient processing.

[/sig]

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 7:49 AM

BYTEMITE

If it's not filler to thicken up the texture, it might be for the same reason salt sometimes gets put in stuff that's ultimately supposed to be sweet; changes the flavour a little.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 8:07 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Quote:
I think it's one of the few tenants of Liberalism that I agree with, that people who have greater knowledge are responsible for sharing it with people who have less. Often those distinctions are along very obvious economic lines and I think that is where Conservatism breaks down, NOT wanting to empower/inform those that have less information, which appears like prejudice against the poor.

Bang on!

I saw a show that's on now about a Brit who is trying to bring education on unhealthy stuff to the US. He was working with a family from West Virginia or something, they were all very, very obese, including the kids, one of which was only four years old!! He took them all for checkups, and the young son showed signs of diabetes. Luckily he wasn't when they tested him, but this guy really educated the family on the danger they were in and how wrong it was to start kids out that way.

When the parents thought their son might have diabetes, the look on their faces saddened me; the mother actually started to cry softly. I was as glad as them that he didn't have it, but wondered if they'd learn anything.

They didn't; a check back showed they'd returned to their normal diet...those poor kids.
So you see, Pizmo, education doesn't always work.

What's not been brought up yet that I can see is that those who choose to eat horribly end up costing us all, and our country to boot. I don't believe in bans, they're stupid when it's something people have a choice about (in other words, banning dangerous chemicals and meds is okay with me)

Quote:
Mostly the fastfood thing probably is just what's cheap enough, and what's fast enough to fit in an eight hour work day

That's a large part of the problem, as I see it. Lower-income families often work two jobs, there isn't TIME enough to cook healthy, and fast foods are cheap enough that people go with them. Fast foods should really be called "convenience" foods. The root of the problem isn't the bad foods, it goes beyond that.

Rose is absolutely right on. Jo was shocked when she saw so much sugar in all our foods--expecially BREAD, all breads, and lots of it. In England she said they eat substantial food for breakfast, while we go for pancakes, donuts, filled croissants, etc.; in other words, SUGAR. We're not even aware of it, but just as Rose said, it's everywhere...so is too much salt!

Just as I consider Velveeta a "cheese-like substance", I consider bad fats and HFCS "food-like substances". Just look at Twinkies...that's a FOOD???

"I'm just right. Kinda like the sun rising in the east and the world being round...its not a need its just the way it is." The Delusional "Hero", 3/1/10

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010 12:58 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
I wonder what if fast food burger joints went the direction of a horrifying restaurant I heard of? All of their food intentionally less healthy than a McGriddle (Ugh, the very concept nauseates me), buns and cheese dipped in grease and etc. They have "nurses" for waitresses walking around, and all their burgers carry with them a warning: this WILL kill you.

Not only do they exist, I've eaten there, DAMN that stuff is good, hehehe.
http://www.heartattackgrill.com/
(And the mere schmuck bait factor would just encourage people, at least folk like you me and mikey!)

Thing is, it's so bitch hard, as mentioned, to find anything without all that damned processed crap in it, and if you're in a hurry, you take what you can GET.

I wouldn't mind taking Momofuku Ando's idea of cheap food for everyone a little further and offering something like people kibble, a minimal-flavored or even unflavored dry kibble which contains in a handful, the minimum necessary to sustain life for one day.

Sure, not as appetizing as a cheeseburger and fries, but trust me, there's plenty of folk in the world who would be damned happy to have even that much, and someone working hard at a 16 hour shift isn't gonna care too much WHAT makes their stomach stop growling so long as it does.

Plus the money, time and effort saved on storage and preparation...

Sure, it's not as much of a niche as junk food, but it'd be a godsend for the very poor, college students, and useful as hell in a foreign aid respect.

Of course, I got the idea from feeding my cats, who while they like table food (and have been verboten mostly from it!), are perfectly content to chomp their version of this stuff, and have been for well over ten years with no ill effects.

-Frem

PS. twinkies are actually lembas.
http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/theories/twinkies.htm

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