An Unfortunate Marriage: Peanuts and Corn Syrup

To my shock and horror I discovered corn syrups and other sugars added to jars of peanuts.

I usually by peanuts in the shell, but I don't eat peanuts that often. I typically stick with more exotic nuts like macadamias, almonds, pistachios, pecans, cashews--because I'm so fancy.

I love a good peanut, though, dang it! I'm fortunate not to have allergies, and I realize and sympathize with those who are unable to experience the joy and tasty satisfaction that peanuts can offer. Luckily these days grocery stores are stocked with all kinds of nuts so our choice is not limited.

Last week, during our wonderful blizzard, I wanted peanuts. I visited the nut aisle (which is new to me because I usually buy my nuts at TJ's) and found a large variety of peanuts. I figured right off the bat that honey roasted peanuts would be off-limits. They were. I looked at some roasted, unsalted peanuts and they looked boring so I tried finding roasted, salted peanuts. I found several different brands, including the big "P" brand of peanuts, that added corn syrup, maltodextrin and corn syrup solids. Can you imagine why the heck these peanut companies are adding all this sugar to the poor, otherwise innocent peanut?

I finally found a grocery store brand of roasted, unsalted peanut and that turned out to be my only bet. All other peanuts had added sugars.

Two things I don't get:

1. Peanuts are naturally sweet, so why would they need sugar? Without added sugars, one serving size of peanuts (28 g/about 40 pieces) has approximately 1 gram of sugar. Peanut sugar. Let's say that peanuts were not sweet enough by themselves. Wouldn't it be just as easy to add sugar ourselves?
2. I've heard that sugar can act as a preservative. In this case, though, peanuts don't need preservatives. The jar I bought says, "SELL BY JUN 22 11". If my roasted, unsalted peanuts have a year and half shelf life, what gives? Do the corn syrup covered peanuts have a 10 year shelf life? Gross.
   

I have no idea why sugar is added to peanuts. It's not needed.

It's another must-read label, folks!

Sugar Versus Corn Syrup

It's funny to read an article about how sugar is making a major comeback into our food products. And how that is a good thing. People are excited about this. Really? Things of this nature truly depend on which way the wind blows. Today it's blowing in favor of sugar. Almost 30 years ago corn syrup was the more favorable of the sugary choices. To researchers and doctors, there is not much difference between the two when it comes to how it affects the body.

(Though there are many health-related problems arising from our consumption of sugars, I am going to focus on obesity for this article because it is a particularly alarming national epidemic.) 

Obviously, sugar has been studied longer than high fructose corn syrup, but so far, the research shows that both have a lot to do with obesity. Obesity has a lot to do with diabetes and heart disease. And we are supposed to be excited about our old friend sugar? 

Thank you to a reader who forwarded me this article from the New York Times. "Sugar, the nutritional pariah that dentists and dietitians have long reviled, is enjoying a second act, dressed up as a natural, healthful ingredient."

It made me giggle and cringe at the same time. I feel like the point is lost on people. There are those who have a vendetta against corn syrup, and those who have a vendetta against sugar. I started my blog because I had a vendetta against sugar. But, as I wrote about earlier, I realized that sugar is not evil. Read more about that here. Corn syrup is not evil. It is the food corporations and media and advertisers and people who push for sugar in our food products who are screwing with our minds and best intentions. Best case scenario is that no matter what is in our foods, we would eat in moderation. 

The problem is Americans have a very hard time with moderation. Moderation is not a motto we live by. (I just deleted an entire paragraph about restaurant buffets...)

Sugars are found in more food products today, I will speculate, than 50 years ago. I'm guessing because it is now so cheap to add to our food, why wouldn't a company add this simple, cheap sweetness, which will make a product stand apart from another. We like things that are sweet. We love a perfect balance between sweetness and saltiness. They know this and are preying upon our senses. The sugar industry folks and corn syrup folks have something in common. Neither of them care about our health individually, or the health of our nation as a whole. Rates of obesity are at an alarming, all time high. Not only are more people considered obese, but those once considered obese are now being considered morbidly obese. The money the United States spends on obesity and overweight issues is estimated to be about $90 billion annually. Billion.

The sugar industries: cane, beet and corn continue to market and sell their products because somehow we have been convinced that "in moderation" is okay. Really? I am an expert on one thing. Going without sugar for one year. It was one of the most challenging things I have ever done. Sugar/Corn syrup was in practically everything. How do those industries propose that we eat it in moderation, when they serve a disproportionate amount of sugar in their "suggested serving size?" 

Though the pendulum swings back towards an increase in sugar consumption instead of corn syrup, I believe that we still have the same problem on our hands. That is, our addiction to sweet things and our "need" for sweets in greater and greater amounts. Since going without sugar, I've come to realize that eating too much sugar and corn syrup is a problem, but so is eating too much honey and agave and brown rice syrup and dried fruit. They are all carbohydrates which our bodies turn into glucose and if we eat more calories than we burn in a day, our glucose is stored as fat. Our bodies don't care what the source of the carbohydrate is. If it's a carb, it turns into glucose (with the exception of some fiber). Obviously, if a type of natural sweetener is less likely to spike our blood sugar, it is probably better for us for that reason, but when it comes to carbs, calories and weight, we are pretty much comparing apples to apples. 

I don't typically make generalizations like this. However, I have to make the distinction between choosing something based on morals versus choosing something based on health. When it comes to white sugar and corn syrup, I don't eat either one because of health and moral reasons. Morally, I won't eat corn syrup because most corn is grown using GMO's and pesticides. I just don't support that kind of farming. Morally, I don't eat white refined sugar because I don't support the organizations selling it. It has no place in our food supply. It is empty calories, which means that it offers no essential nutrients but is extra calories in our diet that most of us don't need. I can't support the sugar and corn industries that are fattening us to death. 

Morally and for health reasons I don't eat artificial sweeteners or the new stevia products (I eat pure stevia, but not the new products of processed stevia.) Most of these products have not been around long enough to have long-term research studies done to determine their safety. I feel good about eating natural sweeteners, but I have to be careful not to overindulge. Yes, honey is natural, but to be completely grass roots and organic about it, if I were living out in nature, the fact is that I would probably only be able to swipe a finger full of honey from a bee hive before getting chased out of the area by a swarm of territorial bees. It would not be possible to eat a large amount of honey at one time. Yet, because of the industrialization of food, I can go buy a jar of honey and sit with a spoon and eat to my heart's content. But I have not evolved to eat honey in those kinds of proportions. 

I would not have the facilities to make agave or brown rice syrup or molasses in nature. I am currently questioning my consumption of these products, as well, in an effort to be eating how I was meant to be eating, not what the media or latest fad would have me believe. In my perfect world, I would dry my own fruit, squeeze my own juice by hand and collect honey in moderate amounts before the bees got to me. These sweet items would satisfy my sweet tooth, and because of all the whole foods I would be eating, only, I wouldn't have insane cravings. In my perfect world. I am working on making this a reality, but to participate in society, I am faced with difficult food choices--eating with friends, family and going out to eat. So, in my perfect world, everyone else figures out that eating healthy is the secret to happiness and longevity and we all thrive happily. One must dream...

New Hip, Sugar-Free Convenience Store: Locali

We have created the demand, so here is our supply: Locali.

Hot off the press, MSNBC describes this new convenience store with a conscious: "A hip version of the mom and pop corner store, Locali's aim is simply to bring healthy, fun and delicious food and beverages to a diverse range of communities across the country. There is an emphasis on local and organic food artisans, producers and growers in the inventory line-up. However, refined sugar, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup and genetically modified products are missing from the shelves."

Finally, a store that, "promotes conscious consumerism and healthy living." Can you imagine walking into a store knowing you don't have to fend for yourself among an ocean of tricky labels, false advertising, and products from China? Actually, I can't. We are actually thinking of taking a trip to LA to check out this store! I checked out Locali's website and they are eager to expand. This will happen. We are entering the Age of Transparency. People are thinking about the ramifications of their food selections like never before. Hormones and antibiotics and corn syrups and GMO's will hopefully become a thing of the past. Droves of people are starting farms and CSA's of their own, in an attempt to live more sustainably, provide local food and connect with people.

"Founders and co-owners, Greg Horos and Melissa Rosen, are a husband and wife team equally passionate about food, wellness and sustainability issues. They see Locali as part of the bridge towards a more sustainable future, providing an opportunity for themselves and others to lead more fruitful, responsible and ultimately healthier lives."

-http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28920514/

Pepsi Co. & Coca-Cola Listen and Are Changing Their Ingredients!

Just kidding, kind of. I found an interesting article today about Montagne (owner of both PepsiCo. and Coca-Cola) looking into changing their formula from artificial sweeteners to stevia. I am very interested to see where this is going to go. I would like to think that they paid some of their marketing and PR staff to cruise my blog thoroughly to see what they should do. Of course they would read about Splenda, Aspartame, and other highly informative articles and report back immediately that it's urgent they change their formula!

We'll see if they credit me at all in their big switch.

As excited as I first was when I read the article, I fear that the soda companies may be coming full circle as far as switching ingredients to meet the demand of the consumer. What I mean is that if all they are going to do is refine the hell out of stevia, then they might as well go back to using sugar cane. The only reason they can never go back to using sugar is that consumers are savvier today and want a sugar alternative. A lot of people have heard about how wonderful stevia is, and it is, if it is not refined down to another cocaine-like substance of white powdered crystals.

Here is an interesting piece of the article....Merisant Co., the maker of Equal and other artificial sweeteners, is the company responsible for working to obtain FDA clearance for rebaudioside A, a compound of stevia. Stevia has been used for centuries but there is already controversy about the breakdown of stevia at a scientific level. Check out Wikipedia for more information on this.

I'll play the waiting game for now, and know in my heart that going a year without sugar had the power to influence a multi-billion dollar soft drink industry!

Coca-Cola's New Stevia Product: "Truvia"

You won't believe this. The Coca-Cola Company has come out with a "healthy" sweetener that is now available to consumers. It is a stevia-derived sweetener that has no calories, and is now being marketed as "Truvia: A healthy alternative to artificial sweeteners." "Rebiana" is the trade name for this sweetener, probably named after the compound Rebaudioside A, which they isolated from the stevia plant. The reason they have isolated this compound is because it is apparently the sweet part of the plant separated from its usual bitter aftertaste. I do not know how much processing is involved in turning the stevia leaf into "Truvia", but I am guessing from the tiny, pure white granules that there is quite a bit of processing involved. Could we be looking at the same sort of processing that goes on with sugar cane and sugar beets? These are healthy plants--until they have been processed to death!

What I find highly amusing is that stevia has been used as a sweetener for years (for centuries in some countries) and has health benefits including: treating obesity, high-blood pressure, glucose intolerance and diabetes, to name a few. The amusing part is that despite stevia's health benefits and ability to be used as an alternative sweetener, in 1991 it was ousted by the FDA. The FDA labeled stevia "unsafe" and banned it until 1994 when the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act got the FDA to revise their stance. Even then, however, it was only considered safe to be used as a dietary supplement, not a food additive!

Here is what has happened over the years: Coca-Cola comes out with soda in the late 1800's. It is loaded with sugar and two main ingredients: cocaine and caffeine. They reconfigure the ingredients after 1904. The company is under the constant watch of nutritionists because of the links between its soda and diabetes, obesity, caffeine addiction and other health issues. In 1985 Coca-Cola switches its formula again. They now no longer use white refined sugar. It is now cheaper to use high fructose corn syrup. They are still under careful watch because corn syrup has its own list of negative side effects. The company is still under careful watch for using other controversial ingredients like sodium benzoate. In 2005 they come out with a soda containing Splenda and aspartame. Artificial sweeteners. Coca-Cola is currently working on phasing out the ingredient sodium benzoate, which has been linked directly to DNA damage and hyperactivity in children. They say they will phase it out as soon as they find an alternative ingredient to use in its place. Now, it's 2008 and they have produced Truvia, which sounds like a nice, natural sweetener to get the health nuts out there to lay off. But, not so fast! How is this processed? What are the effects of consuming this product, short term and long term? Is it still capable of being a health tool and treating obesity and diabetes? Or have those constiuents been left out because of the mildly bitter aftertaste?

What has happened is that Coca-Cola can not last without revamping their product model. It is common knowledge that their ingredients are less than desirable, have been studied to show health risks, and they don't want to be sued! They are going to jump on the "natural sweetener" gravy train, if you will, and offer a product to people who will believe they now have unprecedented rights to consume all they want without any risk. Imagine the FDA banning stevia now. It's never going to happen now that the giant, multi-billion dollar Coke company has begun using it. How they have been using it is still in question.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia -http://truvia.com/

Cereal, Sugar and You: A Health Food Person's Worst Nightmare!

I have been reading a lot about cereal lately, and thought I should further investigate the ingredients of mainstream, popular cereals, their advertising campaigns, and the result of eating cereal regularly as part of a daily habit. I'll start by saying that since I have given up refined sugar, it has been extremely hard to find cereal without any sugar. Sugar comes in the form of: corn syrup, evaporated cane juice, organic sugar, raw sugar, organic cane sweetener, etc. Most of these ingredients you will find in "healthy" varieties of cereal, otherwise, the ingredient label will most likely just read, "sugar". I have recently decided to eat only whole grains for breakfast and no more packaged cereal. I just know better but have been lazy! I mean, I have been eating cereal with no sugar, but even then, I know it's not as healthy as fresh sprouted grains and fresh fruits.

Cereal was brought to my attention by (http://paynowlivelater.blogspot.com/2008/08/worst-sugar-pushers-of-all-health-food.html) including that even health food stores don't discriminate much when it comes to packaged food ingredients. You may find that there are no "trans fats" (very trendy words right now) and maybe even no corn product, but you will most likely be sure to find sugar as an ingredient. The marketing behind the cereal/sugar pushers is outrageous! They are so good at making their product look good, that I find myself doing a double take when I see advertisements like this one: http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/specialk/challenge.aspx, which is called "Kellogg's Special K Challenge", where they advocate eating two bowls of their cereal to help you lose weight! Let me tell you that Special K does not care about the health of their customers! If they did, they would promote whole foods, vegetables and fruits at every meal, and would not try and sell crap in a box (here are the ingredients in an American sold box: Rice, wheat gluten, sugar, defatted wheat germ, salt, high fructose corn syrup, dried whey, malt flavoring, calcium caseinate, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), alpha tocopherol acetate (vitamin E), reduced iron, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin (vitamin B2), thiamin hydrochloride (vitamin B1), vitamin A palmitate, folic acid, and vitamin B12.). What I think is so interesting, is that Special K changes their ingredients for different countries. Although they include "sugar" as an ingredient for all countries, the UK and Australia do not have the "high fructose corn syrup" that we have. Weird! Special K is a giant marketing beast and care only about monetary gain. How they get that money is through very believable, expensive marketing.

I don't mean to pick on any one cereal company, in fact, there are plenty of "healthy" cereals that are doused with loads of sugar! It is so ironic to me. You can't trust any one store, or any one brand. I would say trust your instincts, but I guess if we truly did that, we wouldn't eat anything packaged to begin with!

High-Fructose Corn Syrup

"The Process:

1. Cornstarch is treated with bacteria to produce shorter chains of sugar. It is purified then shipped to HFCS manufacturers.
2. It is then treated with a fungus and put in a fermentation vat where one would likely see balls of the fungus floating on the top. The sugar has now turned into glucose.
3. The next process chemically changes the sugars once again to create a high percent of fructose. An enzyme is packed into columns and the sugar mixture passes over it. The enzyme is very expensive so it is reused until it loses most of its activity.
4. It then goes through two more processes to bring it to a fructose level of 90 percent, then back down to the final concentration of 55 percent fructose.

Inside the Body:

High Fructose Corn Syrup is a processed food that wreaks havoc on our bodies.

It goes directly to the liver and releases enzymes that tell the body to store fat. Because HFCS is in the form of a liquid (most commonly soda), the body absorbs it quickly. It slows fat-burning and causes weight gain. It inhibits the production of insulin, which creates a sense of being full. Therefore, people may eat more than they should.

Dangers to the Body:

1. Obesity
2. Heart attack
3. Restlessness in infants
4. see “Counting the Many Ways Sugar Harms Your Health” for a more complete list.

*If you are going to make only one change in your family’s eating habits, eliminate soda!!!"

(Thanks to Krista for contributing this information!)

For more information about high fructose corn syrup: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup

Bobcats and Book Clubs

The funniest thing happened last night! I was preparing some fruit for dinner and I happened to glance up and look outside. I saw some movement along the edge of the backyard, and what I initially thought was a dog ended up being a giant bobcat! (To back up a little bit, we are now staying out in the country for a few weeks, in Battleground, Washington.) I yelled for everyone to look and no one could believe it! Jeff promptly ran outside to get our dog who would not win a fight with that animal. The bobcat ran off and my mom immediately got on the phone to her neighbor to see if she had seen it. She had not seen it, and then asked my mom to let me know that she was having a book club meeting and that I was invited. By a very strange coincidence, her book club was discussing the very book I am in the middle of reading right now, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," by Michael Pollan. So after dinner I went next door and joined a great group of people! We had a lot of fun discussing the book and various topics that came up relating to issues in the book. One of which was corn syrup. Several chapters of the book are dedicated to corn: the history of, past and current production, statistics, politics, etc. Someone mentioned that corn syrup is known to be highly addictive. Someone also mentioned that corn products seem to be in most packaged items, especially corn syrup. Then someone else said they thought high fructose corn syrup has trans fats. These are great questions! Anyway, I really enjoyed discussing the book's issues and hearing other people's thoughts and experiences.

French Fries, Anyone?

Last night I ate pub food. I ordered a seared ahi steak and green salad with delicious purple onions and crisp cucumbers. My dinner was incredible and I felt satisfied and alert afterwards! I ordered french fries for an appetizer, but all of the dipping sauces had sugar in the ingredients! (Ketchup, Terminator Mustard, A-1 Sauce-corn syrup) After looking at these bottles of sugary dips, I ate my fries with a little bit of vinegar. If you like vinegar, this is a really excellent treat. If you don't like vinegar, like our server, then this is very stinky and will make you speak your mind!
Speaking of french fries, there is a rumor that McDonald's uses sugar to coat their french fries. The other rumor that I heard more recently is that they "lace" their straws with sugar. This seems like a silly rumor because what is the point since most straws will be plunged into a sugary drink anyway? I actually visited a McDonald's to ask about french fry ingredients, but that list was not available. However, McDonald's has an ingredients list of all of their foods online and here is what I found: Their french fries contain a lot of horrible ingredients (they are not just potatoes and vegetable oil like we would like to think):

• hydrogenated oils,
  
• partially hydrogenated oils,
  
• dextrose-"commercially the term ‘glucose’ is often used to mean corn syrup (a mixture of glucose with other sugars and dextrins) and pure glucose is called dextrose."-Wikipedia (This means a form of sugar is added to the fries!)
  

• TBHQ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tert-Butylhydroquinone)
• and other ingredients that you can look at:

(http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.categories.ingredients.index.html)

I could not find an ingredients list for straws. As gross as I believe McDonald's food is, I think it is awesome that they provide a list of ingredients. I've often wondered what would happen to the restaurant industry if all restaurants were required to post all ingredients either on their menu, or in their front window next to their hours.