Text 3942, 145 rader
Skriven 2006-07-30 17:14:34 av Dave Drum
Ärende: What Happened to Co'Cola
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High Fructose Corn Syrup or What Happened to Coca-Cola?
Posted by JR on July 22, 2006 - 6:13pm

To me, the best thing about being a TimesSelect subscriber is that I can
save an article indefinitely and consider it closely when I'm ready. On
July 3, the Paper of Record published a love song to high fructose corn
syrup (HFCS) called "A Sweetener With a Bad Rap":

* In the news media and on myriad Web sites, high-fructose corn syrup 
* has been labeled "the Devil's candy," a "sinister invention," "the 
* crack of sweeteners" and "crud." Many scientific articles and news
* reports have noted that since 1980, obesity rates have climbed at a
* rate remarkably similar to that of high-fructose corn syrup 
* consumption. A distant derivative of corn, the highly processed syrup
* was created in the late 1960's and has become a hard-to-avoid staple
* of the American diet over the last 25 years. It spooks foodies,
* parents and nutritionists alike. But is it really that bad?

If that doesn't get your corporate shill radar detector going I don't
know what will.

I'm actually going to ignore the Times' question, and ask a different
one: Why is it that Americans eat so much of it? Why exactly has HFCS,
in the words of the NYT article:

* "become a ubiquitous ingredient in American processed foods.
* High-fructose corn syrup provides the sweet zing in everything
* from Coke, Pepsi and Snapple iced tea to Dannon yogurt and Chips
* Ahoy cookies. It also lurks in unexpected places, like Ritz 
* crackers, Wonder bread, Wishbone ranch dressing and Campbell's
* tomato soup."

You'd think American had been begging the food industry for more cheap
sugar. "I'm sorry, $1.49 for 64 oz. of Coca-Cola is just way too
expensive. I think it should be cheaper than water."

So why do food companies use so much HFCS? The answer is simple: It's
really cheap. In other words, they do it for themselves, not for us. As
Michael Pollan illustrates so beautifully in The Omnivore's Dilemma,
America is sitting on a mountain of corn, so HFCS is much cheaper than
corn. Furthermore, since the stuff is made of corn, they can call it a
"natural" ingredient (as I just discovered by reading the can of
Hansen's Natural Soda that I mistakenly bought my daughter).

I've had it in for High Fructose Corn Syrup ever since I read Greg
Crister's Fat Land. He writes:

* HFCS also had one attribute that posed a potentially troubling 
* question to those in the food industry. Fructose, unlike sucrose
* or dextrose, took a decidedly different route into the human
* metabolism. Where the latter would go through a complex breakdown
* process before arriving in the human liver, the former, for some 
* reason, bypassed that breakdown and arrived almost completely 
* intact in the liver, whereupon the organ set upon it as it would
* anything else . This unique feature of fructose, which was
* intensified by the high concentrations of it in HFCS, would come
* to be called "metabolism shunting." In food circles, it raised
* eyebrows but, as several scientists present at the time not, not
* warning flags.

But let's ignore science for a moment and talk taste. While the average
teenager undoubtedly makes me look like a tee-totaler, I have a weakness
for Coca-Cola. I know it's bad for me (and especially my teeth), but I
don't like coffee so it's my primary choice when I think I need
caffeine. When I was in Romania (and a few other European cities) I read
the ingredients on the cans, and you know what? Every country I went to
listed "sugar" (zahar in Romanian) on the Coke can without a "fructose"
in sight. And you know what? The stuff tasted much better without it. It
makes the stuff here taste sickly sweet.

In fact, I'm not the only one who feels this way. As independent bottler
Jerry Dudley told Constance Hays for her history of the Coca-Cola
company:

* "When I was little, I used to love these drinks, but they don't 
* taste the same anymore...They used to be made with real sugar. 
* We'd haul these big sacks of sugar up and dump them into the mix. 
* Now it's high-fructose corn syrup.." One bottler in Dublin, Texas, 
* continued to make Dr. Pepper with cane sugar. "People drive in for 
* miles," Lesley Dudley said.

So in the end, it's not JUST that HFCS might be bad for you, it's that
it doesn't taste as good as better kinds of sugar. I think Michael
Pollan has the best way to think of HFCS:

* [W]hat chef uses high-fructose corn syrup? Not one. It's found only
* in The pantry of the food scientist, and that's not who you want
* cooking your meals.

Now that I've had Coke made the old way, it will be much easier for me
to give it up completely (at least inside the borders of the good old
USA).

http://www.buyblue.org/node/6573

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal Master(tm) v8.06

      Title: BEEF POT ROAST
 Categories: Beef, Vegetables
      Yield: 6 servings

      2 lb Pot Roast
      1 tb Oil
      1    Onion; diced
      1 c  Carrots; thin sliced
      2 c  Coca-Cola (Classic) *
      2 c  Chicken Stock
      1 ts Salt
      1 c  Frozen Peas; defrosted (opt)

  *Use Kosher For Passover Co'Cola if you can get it as it tastes
  much different (better) than the HFCS sweetened "regular" Co'Cola
  found on most stupormarkup shelves.

  Heat oil in a pot, add the meat and brown well on both sides.
  Remove the meat and pour out the fat. Replace the meat and add
  onion, carrot and Coca-Cola. Place over medium heat and cook 5 
  minutes. Add stock and salt, cover and cook for 1 1/4 hours or
  until meat is tender. Add the peas and cook another 5 minutes.

  NOTE: I have made the peas optional as I do not often do peas 
  with beef roast - but, do with beef stew.

  Recipe Source: www.recipelink.com

  Uncle Dirty Dave's Kitchen

MMMMM

ENJOY!!!
--------
UNCLE DIRTY DAVE'S KITCHEN --
Home of Yaaaaa Hooooo Aaahhh!!! HOT SAUCE and Hardin Cider
 
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