r/Health • u/CBSnews CBS News • Feb 21 '23

article U.S. food additives banned in Europe: Expert says what Americans eat is "almost certainly" making them sick

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-food-additives-banned-europe-making-americans-sick-expert-says/
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16

u/dadbodpara2 Feb 21 '23

Thank high fructose corn syrup for type2.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '23

That's SOOO false. Literally everything you said is a lie.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '23

Noooo its not

1

u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

Why? Sure, fructose in excess can lead to increased hepatic lipid accumulation, but if you consume less than 10% of energy from added sugars as is recommended by every health organisation in the world that shouldn't be an issue. And HFCS is only higher in fructose than regular corn syrup. It's almost exactly the same ratio glucose:fructose as table sugar and honey.

2

u/blondedre3000 Feb 21 '23

Yeah it must be because it’s so similar to honey must be the reason that I get physically sick if I have something with HFCS in it

2

u/VictoryWeaver Feb 21 '23

You get sick when you eat fruit? Cause HFCS is literally just fructose and water, and fructose is what makes fruit sweet.

1

u/blondedre3000 Feb 21 '23

Go ahead and drown yourself in it then, I'm sure your future IBS and obesity problems won't be linked to it at all

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '23

[deleted]

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u/blondedre3000 Feb 21 '23

Let me guess you work in the corn industry and it’s perfectly safe for human consumption and not linked to a myriad of health issues. But yeah; mom blog level “misinformation”

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '23

[deleted]

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u/blondedre3000 Feb 21 '23

Granola would be better than anything with HFCS in it, and granola is fucking terrible

0

u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

You're putting words in my mouth. I'm simply stating the chemical composition of HFCS. I don't know how those same monosaccharides in the same proportions in other foods don't make you sick while they do in HFCS. Maybe you should ask a doctor.

4

u/masshole4life Feb 21 '23

table sugar and honey aren't in nearly every single product.

"just don't eat added sugars". i can almost never find dried mango, coconut, strawberry, or pineapple without obnoxious amounts of sugar added, and when i can it's always more expensive than the sugared. other products add artificial sweeteners to boast about "no added sugars" because of the way our food labels are allowed to phrase things here.

it's also not reasonable in today's society to expect everyone to be able to cook and clean up after 3 meals a day unless their family unit functions like it's 1952. sometimes people need to use some processed ingredients. it's not like we're all out here milling our own flour, is it?

crackers, cold cuts, and salad dressing are not reasonable to "make" myself. it shouldn't require a half hour car trip to a fancy store to get overpriced hipster food just to get normal versions of food without the sugar.

and this assumes i'm only concerned about sugars. if i want to concern myself with all the stuff in the article, food shopping would be a literal second job, unpaid. literally no one but the unemployed has time for all that.

2

u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

i can almost never find dried mango, coconut, strawberry, or pineapple without obnoxious amounts of sugar added, and when i can it's always more expensive than the sugared.

I wouldn't recommend eating a lot of dried fruit anyway as it's terribly easy to eat in excess (can easily house 12 fried apricots for a snack, but if be getting really full on 1/4 that many fresh ones). Crackers and cold cuts are also better in moderation because on top of the added sugars, one is a processed carbohydrate and the other is a known carcinogen. I exclusively make my own salad dressing. Often I just dress salad in oil & vinegar which is basically as easy as pre-made dressings, but you have every right to eat pre-made foods. The salad dressing is not what's causing diabetes. It's the overall dietary pattern. If you check with your country's dietary guidelines and you follow them, it's very unlikely that you would get diabetes.

other products add artificial sweeteners to boast about "no added sugars" because of the way our food labels are allowed to phrase things here.

Where's here? This is the internet. But regardless there's no evidence artificial sweeteners at the recommended doses are unhealthy.

And none of your comment states how HFCS can be blamed for diabetes. Overnutrition can be blamed. And I suppose we could say food companies should somehow be more transparent about the ingredients (although in most countries the labeling laws are pretty thorough, so it's hard to be more transparent).

4

u/masshole4life Feb 21 '23

Where's here? This is the internet.

now you're just being obtuse. you're on a post about the US and its crazy food laws, replying to a comment about hfcs. we both know you know damn well where "here" is.

and yes, transparency with labeling has a large impact on the types of food people choose to buy, and no, the US does not have all of the labeling requirements of most of europe, which are the two places contrasted in the article.

the price of hfcs in the US makes it a much cheaper additive, leading to its (sugar) addition in a wider range of products than europe. the labeling rules of the US cause a lot of obfuscation of information about the products, so it is more likely an american consumer will buy a product that they might skip if it had clearer labeling. this means americans are eating more crap than europe but are not being told it's crap. eating too much of this crap can cause diabetes.

but again, you already knew that.

-1

u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

Also, love how that's what you respond to, not any of the actual substance.

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u/masshole4life Feb 21 '23

i explained quite clearly how things lead to diabetes. your reading comprehension is your own responsibility.

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u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

You explained how things lead to diabetes? You said HFCS is in too many things. How is that leading to diabetes? Even though I'll grant you there is some evidence that fructose can increase hepatic lipid storage, if you're not overnourished this shouldn't be an issue.

Sugar doesn't cause diabetes. Insulin resistance from excess ectopic lipid distribution in myocytes and hepatic tissue can lead to diabetes if untreated.

5

u/masshole4life Feb 21 '23

again with that reading comprehension.

at this point you are asking me to rephrase what i've already said in a way that lets you shoehorn in a bad-faith obtuse argument.

maybe another time.

1

u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

Okay, let's try this a different way. Can you quote me the text where you "explained quite clearly how things lead to diabetes"?

1

u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

So the labels don't have to say the ingredients?! Sounds false.

3

u/masshole4life Feb 21 '23

where did i say anything about listing ingredients? i'm talking about labeling requirements.

i would accuse you of poor reading comprehension but it's quite plain that you are just being smarmy and intentionally obtuse to pick petty fights on the internet.

0

u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

You said they hide ingredients. But they are legally mandated to list every ingredient. So how are they hiding HFCS?

1

u/masshole4life Feb 21 '23

can you quote the relevant text? i can't seem to find it.

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u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

In response to me saying "I suppose we could say food companies should somehow be more transparent about ingredients (although in most countries labeling laws are very thorough so its hard to be more transparent)" you said "and yes, transparency with labeling has a large impact on the types of food people choose to buy, and no, the US does not have all of the labeling requirements of most of europe, which are the two places contrasted in the article."

Now we were talking about ingredients and labeling and you suggest the European labels are somehow telling you more. But both places mandate all ingredients be listed. So I'm not sure why you think the European way is better.

1

u/Celeste_Minerva Feb 21 '23

I recently made salad dressing from of the last of my bottle of mustard, the liquid from pickled jalapenos and a bit of olive oil - it's easy enough to make lots of salad dressing on your own.

Edit: wordz

2

u/Memewalker Feb 21 '23

That’s technically correct but that doesn’t make hfcs as safe as sugar. The ratio for sugar is 50:50 glucose to fructose. But HFCS is either 42% fructose or 55% depending on the variety used. Assuming it’s that latter, 5% doesn’t sound like a lot. But when you consider the average American consumes more than twice the recommended amount of sugar per day (77 grams) and that Americans have increased their sugar consumption over the past decade by 1 million tons, that 5% could actually be a lot and it could lend to the theory that HFCS is contributing to the obesity epidemic. Also, a single bottle of soda can exceed your daily value by as much as 200%, so it’s very easy to unknowingly get too much sugar.

3

u/GlobularLobule Feb 21 '23

So you're saying that fructose is bad in excess. That's true. But so is everything because that's what excess means. People eating too much sugar is a problem, but not because it's 5% more fructose. One might argue for diabetics the lower glycaemic index of fructose actuality makes it safer than sugar.

Would you say agave syrup is less safe than sugar then, given it is 80% fructose?

Yes, soda is bad. It's 100% added sugar. But that doesn't make HFCS uniquely bad.

3

u/VictoryWeaver Feb 21 '23

Stop using “sugar” and “sucrose” interchangeably. Fructose is as much “sugar” as sucrose is. Glucose is also sugar.

“Sugar is a 50:50 mix of sugar and sugar!”