Stossel Food Bunk II ~ Just Some Notes on Other Guests

Just some notes on the non-Taubes/Attia portions of John Stossel's Food Bunk program.  I managed to catch and tape a rerun of it and watched in the background the other day. It still may be rerun (or watch online?) for anyone interested on FNC or FBC. It was on food freedom, government regulations, laws/bans and all that. 

It began with Joel Salatin v. Felix Ortiz a NYC Councilman responsible for transfat ban, posting calorie counts, etc. Salatin came off rather well here in my opinion. Stossel shows video of a raid on a food coop. Scary. Ortiz was challenged on juices -- if you limit soda sizes, how about juice? His answer was more like "I ate my orange today" which disturbs me in spite of my recent defense of OJ.  So many of the politicians and folks like Lustig and Diet Doc Eenfeldt are all in for banning and regulating and taxing their pet dietary peeves.  They believe butter cannot be fattening, so Denmark's misguided butter tax was foolhardy, but tend to support idiotic things like Nanny Bloomie's cup size limits.  In this regard, kudos to Salatin!  I've had some less than favorable reactions to his notions of supermarket addiction.  Unlike some, he comes off unhypocritical here -- I'm sure to say he's no fan of junk food would be an understatement, but he focused on the overarching unintended consequences of many of these regs/taxes supported by Ortiz.

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Lingering Flavors ... Emulsifiers & Stabilizers

You can file this one in the random thoughts file ;-)

Think about foods you tend to overeat once you have some.  Nuts come to mind.  They are usually salted, and something about the yummy nut flavor mixed with the salt seems to stay on the tongue longer.  It lingers.  I know that if I'm having cashews (yes, I know, not technically a nut) I want more and more and more if there is a ready supply of more.  So I tend to grab nuts, when I do, in single serve packets or on the way out the door.  If I have them in the house, I take a handful or whatever from the kitchen and go eat in another room.  But when that handful is done, while that flavor persists in my mouth, I always want more, and it's not hunger or craving or any desire to binge.  It seems to be the lingering flavor.  (Brushing one's teeth helps with this big time!)

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The Metabolic Advantage of Fructose

Is fructose making us fat?  Apparently the answer is no if you get your fructose in the form of candy!

Thanks to MM for sending me this paper.

Candy consumption was not associated with body weight measures, risk factors for cardiovascular disease, or metabolic syndrome in US adults: NHANES 1999-2004 

For the purposes of this study, candies were defined as follows:

Sugar candy consists of sugar in crystalline form or semisolid (amorphous) forms with other ingredients including flavors and colors; examples include peppermint, lollipops, licorice, and gum drops. Chocolate candy is a mixture of processed cacao, cocoa butter, and sugar and often contains other ingredients, including milk, fruit, nuts, and caramels.

 This group analyzed 3 sets of NHANES data to look at candy consumption defined as:

Candy consumers were defined as those participants consuming any amounts of candy/confection except gum and were placed in 1of 3 overlapping consumption groups: (a) any candy (including chocolate candy and sugar candy), (b) chocolate candy only, and (c) sugar candy only

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Random thought on sugar, carb & wheat "junkies"

We've all heard the stories of the alcoholic downing cough medicine, vanilla extract, mouthwashes or even other alcohols in desperation when a palatable/usual source of the ethanol they are addicted to is not around.

So I've often wondered why the "carbaholic", sugar addict, wheat addict, etc. doesn't do the same.  Addiction is often blamed for binge behavior and overeating certain foods.  They're addictive and worse yet, we have to eat. The addict must abstain completely, you would't offer alcohol to an alcoholic after all.  Etc. etc.

But I've been in desperate situations in my binge disordered life where there's been nothing binge-worthy in the house but lots of raw materials.  If it's just the carbs I so desired or were addicted to, or wheat proteins, why did I get in the car and drive however far to find a "fix" rather than eating flour from the bag?  Or mixing it with diet soda or something.  Sounds gross?  Sure, but so would some of the conconctions I once binged on in a pinch.  My point being, if one is addicted, wouldn't you want the most concentrated quick fix?  Why eat all the "fillers"?  Most hard core alcoholics I've known don't drink beer, they tend towards hard liquor with small amounts of mixer.   Same would go for sugar.  If it is the drug, why not just eat it as straight as possible rather than mix it with other stuff?

This is what leads me to seriously question the whole addiction angle of foods and the obesity epidemic.  If it were just the starch or the sugar or the bioactive veggie protein, an addict would seek out the most concentrated source.  After all, any study I've ever seen implicating foods in addiction involve large doses.  Surely if it is purely physical, our bodies would crave the concentrated source, palatability be damned.  Straight booze, especially cheap stuff, tastes pretty horrible, but if someone is jonesing for a drink and they can afford the "nip", they're not mixing it with something first.  So, if carbs and sugar etc. are as addictive as heroine (as I've seen many describe them), why don't addicts just get their fix from the plain stuff, at least in a pinch?