Labels, fructose and natural flavors

[Doc]

I've been reading labels to no avail.

I read an article about how bad fructose is for us.

Here is part of the article:

Fructose is one F-word that should really offend you.

The sweet half of sugar (as opposed to glucose, its more acceptable partner), is one of the biggest causes of “metabolic syndrome,” says Robert H. Lustig, MD, author of the new best-selling book, Fat Chance.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions, like obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure, that essentially leads to most of the diseases that cause early death among Americans—like heart disease, cancer, and dementia. And when it comes to the cause, “fructose is the big kahuna,” Dr. Lustig says.

“Glucose can be metabolized by every cell in the body,” he explains, “but only the liver can metabolize fructose.” So when too much shows up for the party, the liver can’t handle the volume. Here are three reasons that’s bad news for your health:

1. Fructose raises insulin levels. While the liver turns glucose into energy reserves your body can use, it can’t do that with fructose, so the sugar overwhelms the organ. This causes a chain of events that leads to insulin resistance in the liver, which means the pancreas has to release extra insulin. Excess insulin has lots of unwanted effects: it can force extra energy into fat cells, leading to obesity, drive the growth of certain cancers, and more.

2. Fructose creates fat. Since the liver can’t convert fructose into glycogen (the aforementioned energy reserves), it sends it straight to the mitochondria, your cells’ energy-burning factories. “This presents the mitochondria with more energy than they can possibly deal with,” Dr. Lustig says. “They have no choice but to take that excess energy and turn it into fat in the liver.” That fat can then be exported into the blood as triglycerides, which promote heart disease and obesity.

3. Fructose makes you eat more. ....

http://www.wellandgoodnyc.com/2013/0...-your-health/#

Then they go on to talk about 5 sources of fructose where you might not expect it, such as in Bread, Salad Dressing, Orange Juice, Cereal and Yogurt. Seemingly healthy choices are not always so healthy.

So, I'm reading labels and listed in the ingredients I see "Natural Flavors" on two artificially sweetened drink products (diet coke and propel). What the heck is natural flavors? Plus all the other ingredients that I've never heard of. It doesn’t help that the food industry has over 40 names for sugar—from the obvious “fructose” to the much trickier “evaporated cane juice” or “carob syrup.”

To say the least I'm frustrated with labels.

[joec]

I can understand, as a label reader myself. I've found over the years that natural just means it is something that is found naturally in nature but the end product has little to do with natural any more but they label it as such. Funny FDA rules that have been in existence for decades.

[luvs]

they find 1 thing after another on food. i look into a study before trusting findings, & the credibility of the ppl conducting the study, the # of participants (were they college people getting a term paper together, or- were there well-known, reputable hospitals conducting them, how many participants were there~, & have other sister studies preceeded/followed, & so on.) 'natural' was 1 of the ones they overused. 'natural' means, essentially, zip.
they have yet to regulate certain labelling terms. lite, fewer Kcals, 30% less sugar, natural, organic, reduced fat, new & improved!, choice, #1 selling,- a few're actually real. they could stamp the majority of the above terms on foods & leave a consumer confused & baffled. that's marketing fer 'ya.

[ChowderMan]

Doc -

last I looked, the label on the fresh apples / broccoli / etc /et al only specified the PLU item number.

okay, so roundaboutwhatI'mtryingtosay is:
don't buy prepared foods / components.
they are, to a huge huge huge degree, loaded with salts, sugars and other things - 'natural' / artificial -not yet "discovered" are fatal to humans. the "packaged" food suppliers are all in a race to make their stuff/brand taster "better" than the other chemical supplier.

there's most often no economy is buying prepared stuff -
there is a time / convenience factor in buying prepared stuff.
not everyone is a retired old geezer like me and has time to cook stuff from scratch.

I buy exceedingly few things "in a can" - salmon, chopped clams, Bush's baked beans, hominy, (some) condensed soups (sigh, I'm just not _that_ ambitious....), [reduced/no added salt varieties of] tomato paste, stewed tomato, crushed tomato, no added sugar applesauce.

then there's the 'organic' debate to many foodstuffs. I tend to organic for stuff we eat out of hand / raw / uncooked. it's not that's it's more nutritious - the point is not what's on/in the produce/fruit, the point is what is _not_ on/in the produce/fruit.

the question of 'organic cost' is a very mixed bag. prepackaged stuff - definitely higher.
fresh stuff - pricing is frequently not 'identical unit' - organic is 'per each' - not organic is 'per pound'
put the stuff on the scale and do the math - it is not at all unusual that the local fresh organic produce is _cheaper_ than the big name who-knows-sprayed-with-what stuff.

there are cases where on has to inject judgement - both priced "per pound" but organic leeks that are six feet long root to leaf tip vs not-organic trimmed stuff. I cope quite easily - just wait 2-3 days and the market trims the stuff down. broccoli is another big one for false economies based on the amount of stalk included.

but bottom line, organic costs are highly local and one has to do the math.

it's just like "sugar" topic
"sugar" is the linguistic term for stuff that tastes, to the human, "sweet"
there are many many chemical forms of "sugar"
the side effects may actually vary - what is currently true is the side effects vary by which medical expert and/or quack one believes. unfortunately history is chock-a-block full of individuals with "Doctor of xxx" degrees grinding their own personal axes and falsifying / publishing "misleading" data as "the ultimate truth"

eating a balanced and varied diet with moderation in everything is totally old fashioned.
but works.

[Doc]

Good replies all. Thanks.

More and more I'm coming around to this too:
eating a balanced and varied diet with moderation in everything is totally old fashioned.
but works.

[Cooksie]

Originally Posted by Doc

So, I'm reading labels and listed in the ingredients I see "Natural Flavors" on two artificially sweetened drink products (diet coke and propel). What the heck is natural flavors? Plus all the other ingredients that I've never heard of. It doesn’t help that the food industry has over 40 names for sugar—from the obvious “fructose” to the much trickier “evaporated cane juice” or “carob syrup.”

To say the least I'm frustrated with labels.

Reading labels can drive you nuts! I ran across this a couple of weeks ago, and it has been dancing around in my head ever since, especially when I eat
my yogurt with "natural flavorings" .


Beaver Anal Gland Juice


What it is: It's a bitter, smelly, orange-brown substance known as castoreum, explains Bradley. "In nature, it's combined with the beaver's urine and used to mark its territory."

Where it is: It's used extensively in processed food and beverages, typically as vanilla or raspberry flavoring.

Why it's bad: This gross ingredient won't show up on the label. Instead, companies using it in making processed food list it as "natural flavoring." This poses a dilemma for vegans and vegetarians—and anyone who wants to avoid eating any creature's anal excretions.

http://www.rodale.com/gross-food?page=7

Note: This is just something that I read. I have no idea if it's true or false. There is some other gross stuff on the link too, might make you think twice before you ever use canned mushrooms again .

[Doc]

Originally Posted by Cooksie

Reading labels can drive you nuts! I ran across this a couple of weeks ago, and it has been dancing around in my head ever since, especially when I eat
my yogurt with "natural flavorings" .


Beaver Anal Gland Juice


What it is: It's a bitter, smelly, orange-brown substance known as castoreum, explains Bradley. "In nature, it's combined with the beaver's urine and used to mark its territory."

Where it is: It's used extensively in processed food and beverages, typically as vanilla or raspberry flavoring.

Why it's bad: This gross ingredient won't show up on the label. Instead, companies using it in making processed food list it as "natural flavoring." This poses a dilemma for vegans and vegetarians—and anyone who wants to avoid eating any creature's anal excretions.

http://www.rodale.com/gross-food?page=7

Note: This is just something that I read. I have no idea if it's true or false. There is some other gross stuff on the link too, might make you think twice before you ever use canned mushrooms again .

OMG!!! That is truly bizarre. I hope it is false ...I hope I hope. I've noticed natural flavorings on multiple labels of things I eat regularly. I hope someone is trying to prank us all. I will look into this and if I find more I will report back here.

[ChowderMan]

you'll be happy to know,,,,
(gag) it's true

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/castoreum.asp

Rodale could be considered the modern-day 'father' of organic gardening.
he authored The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening - one of the most widely used "standard references" for the organic types.

his legacy is the Rodale Institute
which has multiple spin offs, and regrets to say some of them are so off the wall they make the "quackwatch" for their more outrageous "claims"

[Doc]

From my 5 minute search it looks to be TRUE. Here is what I found:

3. “Natural” vanilla flavoring: How can you know when a vanilla flavored food is made with actual vanilla or just castoreum, which is the oily secretion, found in two sacs between the anus and the external genitals of beavers? We can’t, thanks to the FDA. But at least we can credit Jamie Oliver for bringing the truth about castoreum to the national limelight for us; just as he did for “pink slime.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17365147

http://gentleworld.org/the-gross-tru...tural-flavors/

Let’s be honest. Knowing all this is fascinating and equally disgusting, but it’s not going to keep any of us from enjoying some Peeps. Especially not me. Happy Easter everyone!

http://www.parents.com/blogs/dadabase/tag/fda/

And the pic I found below the above post. To funny so I figured I'd share it with you all.

[ChowderMan]

frankly I wouldn't worry too much about it - just do the math....

how many tons of it is required for all the quadzillions tons of 'artificial and natural' flavors used ?

doubt there's that many beavers to go around . . .
mebets it's been synthesized fer sure

[Adillo303]

For my diet, I started cooking all my own food from scratch. Not much to cook on a diet LOL.

Result - I feel better and I believe that less chemicals has a good bit to do with it. It is more expensive, but, isn't that why they put the chemicals in anyway?

Still no control on what gets sprayed on the veggies of fed and injected into the beasties. Let's not even go to gentic engineering.

So far as the beaver excrement, where is that vanilla extract recipe of JoeV's when you need it.

[Adillo303]

Ummmmmm Here we go!

http://netcookingtalk.com/forums/sho...=vanilla+vodka

Leave it to beaver belongs on TV reruns, not in my belly.

[Cooksie]

"Castoreum is a product of the trapping industry. When beavers are skinned for their fur, these glands are taken out, and are sold after being smoked or sun-dried to prevent putrefaction…"

Well, at least it's smoked first .

That is so gross. I'm going to have a really hard time enjoying my vanilla yogurt now that I know it's true.

I'm guessing too that castoreum is an ingredient in musk oil perfume. Imagine rubbing that on your neck to make you smell good .