Re: Trash-Bot

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Pooh Bear" <rabbitsfriendsandrelations@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

<stuff snipped>

> So why is obesity so particularly evident in the USA ?

After our failed attempt to retake Cuba in the 60's, we embargoed the island
and its sugar.  Americans were switched to a diet high in "natural"
sweeteners made from corn syrup.  Some research is beginning to indicate it
may not have been a one-to-one replacement for sugar.  In fact,
high-fructose corn syrup may act more like fat than sugar in the body:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8003-2003Mar10?language=printer

[registration required :-( ]

Fair use snippet: "Fructose is a different story. It "appears to behave more
like fat with respect to the hormones involved in body weight regulation,"
explains Peter Havel, associate professor of nutrition at the University of
California, Davis. "Fructose doesn't stimulate insulin secretion. It doesn't
increase leptin production or suppress production of ghrelin. That suggests
that consuming a lot of fructose, like consuming too much fat, could
contribute to weight gain." Whether it actually does do this is not known
"because the studies have not been conducted," said Havel."

All of this stuff's long-term effects have never really been studied in any
detail.  Other studies implicate it in a process called "pancreatic
burnout."

I'm willing to bet the public cost of consuming corn syrup will dwarf
tobacco's.  American kids eat it from birth.

--
Bobby G.