High-Fructose Corn Syrup
High-fructose corn syrup seems to be in everything these days. My mother in law recently asked me for a plant-based meatball recipe. You’re probably familiar; meatballs in a crock-pot with BBQ sauce and grape jelly. Not healthy, not even when you use the plant-based meatballs. However, like most dietitians, a familiar motto is “everything in moderation”. I make these on occasion for parties or special treats. My MIL was appalled when she discovered that store bought BBQ sauce had high fructose corn syrup in it. I guess she stopped there, as she made no mention of any further devastation due to the grape jelly label. I came upon the following parable.
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An Ancient Fable
An ancient Hindu fable tells of six learned blind men who approach an elephant. All are highly esteemed, but all are blind. The first blind man approaches the elephant and happens to bump up against its broad and sturdy side and declares “the elephant is very like a wall!” The second blind man feels the tusk and cries an elephant is “very much like a spear!” The third happens to grab the elephant’s squirming trunk in his hands and boldly declares the elephant is “very like a snake!” The fourth blind man palpates the leg of the elephant and declares “it is clear the elephant is very like a tree!” The fifth blind man who happens to touch the elephant’s ear declares “even the blindest man can tell that the elephant is very like a fan”. The sixth blind man happens to grasp the swinging tail and declares to his comrades the elephant is “very like a rope!”
What then ensues is a long, passionate argument filled with heated dispute amongst these learned men which gets them nowhere. Although each is partly right, none of them has seen the whole picture (while learned, they are blind, after all!). This fable has been utilized in many different eras and many different cultures to recount arguments in areas as diverse as theology and politics. It illustrates the inaccuracy of seeing only a part of a subject and assuming that it is the whole. It is a cautionary tale that even learned men can sometimes be misled by their preconceived notions or only seeing a portion of the whole.
In the complex world of nutrition and particularly in the study of how the foods we eat relate to such chronic conditions as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD), we are somewhat like the six blind men. Each of us sees a part of the complex puzzle and may assure our colleagues that, in fact, we have solved the entire riddle for how nutrition relates to various disease processes.
The scientific and medical communities have gone down the road of speculating cause and effect without conclusive evidence many times. We blamed salt consumption for contributing to hypertension [1], yet recent evidence suggests that this relationship is far more complex [2,3]. We blamed dietary cholesterol for contributing to heart disease and warned a generation of Americans to avoid eating egg yolks, although that advice has subsequently been found to lack scientific justification [4]. Read full article here.
The Big Picture
The thing is, too much sugar is not good for you and that includes high fructose corn syrup, refined white sugar, brown sugar, and artificial sugars. Too much salt is not healthy. Too much fat is unhealthy. You get the picture. Too much of anything can be bad for your health unless they are whole fruits and vegetables.
I’m always trying harder to include more variety of fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet, choose whole grains over refined ones, include foods and drinks proven to be beneficial, such as cold brewed white tea, and eat less of foods that I know aren’t helping my body, such as bacon or potato chips. But, will I eat a piece of cake on my birthday? Yep! Will I use regular peanut butter with added sugars because I can’t stand the natural peanut butters with no sugar? Uh-huh. Am I going to make catchup, BBQ sauce, grape jelly, and black bean meatballs to have sweet and sour meatballs? H#@* no. I simply will not.
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How I See It
There was a time when I would only buy organic foods. I was spending more money on groceries than our mortgage. I was reminded of Matthew 6:25-27,34.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink: or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than the clothes? Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
I will not pretend I do not worry. But, I work very hard to not allow it to consume my life and every decision I make, including every single food I put into my mouth. I try to focus on the big picture. It’s an ongoing process, ya’ll.
I would absolutely love to receive your feedback and read your comments and personal stories!
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