How sweet it is…not!

I think that it is a good time to talk about High Fructose Corn Syrup. I’m embarrassed to say this, but I was once a food scientist. In 1980 I was in a food processing plant and I looked up to see a cascading golden waterfall of liquid being poured into a large vat. I asked “that looks too dark to be soybean oil… What is it?”

“That is high fructose corn syrup”, the plant manager proudly announced.

I then asked ” You’re putting Karo syrup in salad dressing?”

“Of course not,” he said. ” This is altogether different.”

It is different, as it turns out. But let’s back up and give you some history.

10,000 years ago corn was actually a grass, which evolved to the grain that we knew 100 years ago from selective breeding by farmers. The corn 100 years ago was genetically variable and made up of complex carbohydrates or starch. Fructose on the other hand, is a simple sugar found in many plants, including tomatoes and berries. Glucose is also a similar simple sugar found naturally in plants. Table sugar, or sucrose, is glucose and fructose linked together.

Corn breaks down into cornstarch, which makes glucose syrup. So, why make corn into fructose? Well, because it’s cheap. Most American corn now called Dent corn, which is nearly inedible but produces an extremely high yield.

Researchers discovered an enzyme that could turn glucose from corn syrup into fructose. This process was improved upon and chemists started to mass-produce HFCS. A syrup with about 90 percent fructose is created, but then it is blended with glucose corn syrup (Karo syrup) to make a 50/50 blend of fructose and glucose in the final HFCS product. Point of that I guess, is to make it taste like the original table sugar.

So what’s the problem, you might be asking at this point? In my opinion, the problem is a couple of things. First, the processing of the corn into corn syrup includes a step where it is washed with sulfuric acid.

If you’re thinking that that doesn’t sound good, you would be right.

The other problem that I see is limiting the entire corn crop to one or two species (genetically speaking) of corn. This leads corn to the possibility of being wiped out by a disease or insect. Now here is where the genetic modification comes in. The chemists have genetically modified corn seeds not only to be sterile, but to include pesticides and resistance to herbicides that are sprayed from crop planes above. This created GMO corn.

Sounds yummy. There has been a lot of talk about what these genetic modifications can do to our bodies, but the truth is, we really don’t know yet. Should we eliminate all of the high fructose corn syrup from our diet?

Well good luck with that. It’s in almost everything. But if we choose local produce and fresh food all around, eat more food closest to its natural state (less processed), that would certainly be a good start. I am forming a team with many other like-minded people to make some changes in our legislation on the national level. I’ll keep you posted.

Back to the future. Again.

It’s easy for us to feel like there is a fix for whatever problems come our way. Just when we think that we have too much time to kill with nothing to do, there’s a new fancy-schmancy gadget to play on our TV/phone or a new contagious disease to worry about.

However, vitamin deficiencies and foodborne illnesses have sprouted up again and we may have to resort to old-fashioned remedies to fix these new problems. I am talking about the use of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer, which strips the soil of nutrients,  and our processed foods, which lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and cognitive difficulties.

 Yes, I know. This is old news to most of us who are paying attention. So, in my opinion, we begin to fix the future  by going back to what we did right in the past.

 Step one:  Eating locally grown fruits and vegetables. And what’s more local than your own backyard? Your own windowsill. Here is a video about growing vegetables from seeds.

 

 

 

Here is an old world Italian favorite of mine.

Shrimp with marinara sauce

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 chopped onion
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 large can of Pantene tomato sauce
¼ cup water or white wine
salt and pepper to taste
3 or 4 leaves of fresh basil, chopped

Cook on low heat for about 1 hour, if possible. Add a pinch of crushed red pepper. Meanwhile, boil plenty of water for fresh fettuccine or linguine. While the pasta is cooking, add olive oil to a saute pan and another clove of garlic. Saute fresh shrimp or scallops on high heat until just done.
Layer pasta, sauce, and fish. Serve immediately.