The future security of the United States is becoming increasingly threatened by the obesity epidemic which is accelerating among its youth. Currently, 75% of young people aged 17-24 are unfit for service in the military and the biggest reason is obesity. Obesity levels are now 4 times higher than what they were only a generation ago (a generation sounds like a long time, but it is really only about 25 years). One out of every three children ages 10-17 are overweight or obese! This startling report from Mission: Readiness, a nonprofit organization consisting of senior, retired military leaders. http://www.missionreadiness.org/
Couple this sobering report with the fact that most parents don’t even “see” their child’s weight problems let alone do anything about it, and a looming crisis for our National Security is clearly on the horizon.
This is not the time for more studies and no, we don’t need billions in government funds to help stem this crisis as suggested by Mission: Readiness. All we need is for folks to do one simple thing in their homes: take out the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). If families did just this one thing and didn’t change anything else, the growth of obesity would stop increasing from where it is right now and start to decline. Lose the sodas (or at least buy sodas made with sugar and not HFCS), juice boxes, and other foods sweetened with this deadly, factory produced sweetener and huge benefits would rapidly ensue. Schools that can the soda vending machines have now been shown to have reduced obesity levels, even if home consumption remains unchanged.
I’m not one for excessive government regulation, but this just might be the time for a law outlawing high fructose corn syrup as well as ANY type of sweetener that metabolizes in a similar fashion (like agave nectar). Maybe Congress could actually do something that would REALLY reduce healthcare dollars spent – outlaw high fructose corn syrup.
High fructose corn syrup was introduced into the American diet in 1975 – wait, that is one generation ago when the obesity epidemic started! No coincidence there, folks. This from Dr. Joseph Mercola:
“When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. “
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The time has come to take high fructose corn syrup out of the American diet for good. Our National Security is depending on it.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Let them make Kombucha!
Jean
if people treated their car like they treat their bodies, they would be in the shop before the sun came up! buy just 5 pounds of fat from your local butcher and carry it everywhere you go for about a week. divide the number of pounds of weight you need to loose by 5… and that is about how many months it’ll take for you to be proud you own a mirror. make your doctor proud. and be proud of yourself…;-)
Hi Mehgan, there is much more going on that what you listed. Why are we seeing so many thin parents having fat kids these days? It's way beyond the genetics of being heavy at this point.
This is simplistic.
Table sugar is not glucose, it is sucrose – which is a sugar dimer of glucose and fructose. The same as HFCS, the proportions are just slightly different. The obsiety epidemic stretches much further and is more complex than one food ingredient.
A more sedentary lifestyle, increased formula feeding rates, more processed foods (even those without HFCS), a poor diet in general, lots of medications, etc. all contribute.
It's also not a matter of nature/nurture for these kids. Genetics, from conception, is highly interactive with the environment. A baby's environment changes which genes are expressed (and how they are expressed), which can influence the child's metabolism (and many other processes) for life.
Please note that it is FRUCTOSE that is the problem. HFCS is really not all that dissimilar to sugar and agave nectar in it's fructose concentration. and yes honey has fructose in it too….
if you decrease your FRUCTOSE intake.. particularly concentrated forms like HFCS, Table Sugar, Cane Sugar and Agave Nectar and limit Honey and higher fructose containing fruits… then things will change.
as such we have a sugar addiction in this country and in other countries as well. HFCS is just the current bad boy on the block… simply replacing it with raw sugar is not enough.
Fructose is processed like a toxin, just like ethanol, only in and by the liver and produces no insulin release and can not cross the blood brain barrier. When it does not trigger a hormone response our blood sugar soars with out the insulin present to move it out and will damage cells… hence type 2 diabetes and increased degenerative processes. Not crossing the blood brain barrier keeps fructose from being used as fuel for the brain. It also produces uric acid which clogs joints and strains the kidneys. as has been already stated it has a huge percentage of sugar to fat conversion. There is absolutely ZERO benefit to consuming fructose at all. None… unless you like diabetes, gout, weight gain, accelerated aging and liver disorders…just to begin with.
While raw fruits have small amounts of fructose and other compounds to help mediate some of the effects of fructose… it should never be a staple of the diet.
Desserts and Sweets should be kept to special occasions… not every night, not multiple times a day and probably not even every week. Forget the fruit drinks and soda's period.
I, personally, like to treat it like an addiction… (which i was blessed to never like really like… i was a butter and meat and veggies child.. not a sweet's child) don't buy the stuff or allow it in your house, period.
I keep sparkling mineral water around for when i get a craving for soda… which i have found, for me, is more about the carbonic acid and bubbles than the flavor of the drink, surprisingly.
the best thing to do… is just don't buy it.. write it off as a toxin…because it is processed in your body like a toxin and not a food substance. giving your child (or self) a sugary drink is the same as handing them a beer/alcohol. Because Fructose and Ethanol are processed the same way… immediately sent to the liver to be processed as toxins. (except ethanol crosses the blood brain barrier..hence getting drunk)
🙂
Thanks for your note. I couldn’t agree more!! What I don’t understand is how sugar toxins and excitotoxins could be tolerated in our diet? Oh well, in any event, they are not acceptable in MY diet and don’t have to be in anyone else’s either. I realize people don’t ‘know’ what harm it does…. You are SO lucky to have skipped the addiction. What we’ve all realized is that these toxins are truly in EVERY processed product. The ONLY way out is to cook at home and this life style is in complete opposition to the our current societal structure. The light in the kitchen is OUT in America. We, men and women, need to get back in there already!
Just a quick note on the fruit. I am quoting from the attached lecture.
“Fiber is important. When God made the poison (sugar), He packaged it with the antidote. Fructose is a poison. But, wherever there is fructose in nature, there’s way more fiber. Eat your carbohydrates with fiber. That’s the only way that fruit is okay. Because it limits the amount of fructose your getting and it comes with an essential nutrient (fiber) that you needed in the first place.
Why fiber is important:
1. Reduces rate of intestinal carbohydrate absorption, reducing insulin response.
2. Increases speed of transit of intestinal contents to ileum and induces satiety.
3. Inhibits absorption of some free fatty acids to the colon, which suppresses insulin.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
The healthfood store has many brands of soda made with sugar and not HFCS for that occasional splurge or party.
Yikes! We're really trying to kick any sort of pop habit in our house but they are tasty to enjoy every now and then. I like that Pepsi has their Pepsi Throwback–but why only for a limited time? If they know HFCS is bad, couldn't they have a growth in their throwback section?
It seems like you really have to search for the sugar only sodas…there's Jones Soda but that's about it at Publix, for example. Otherwise you have to go to the health food stores, which are less convenient/few & far between (wish there were more)!