http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
I dont know if this is a cause of CFS/ME, but I am an older man who first worked for my father, delivering
products to farmers. Back in the day, Sugar Beets were a major crop in the counties where I lived in the US.
We had sugar beet refinery plants all over, employing lots of workers, and even had Sugar Queen contests in our counties. Back then, obese people were around, of course, but most people tended to be relatively HWP, unlike now. My parents and grandparents were not obese.
Then, during the 1980's, it seemed that the sugar beet crops were being phased out slowly, until some of
the refineries started closing down. At the same time, looking back all those years ago, lots of HFCS's
(High Fructose Corn Syrup) were being used in our foods and soft drinks, instead of beet sugar, which is
pretty much identical to the sugar made from sugar cane, which is more given to being grown in more tropical climates, like Cuba and the like.
Now there are NO sugar beets being grown in my original home state, and all the sugar beet refineries
have been closed for two decades or more. All the while BIG Corn seems to be the "king crop", and not just
for food or HFCS, but it is also added to the gasoline in many states as Corn-made Ethanol, to increase octane levels, and supposedly lower tailpipe emissions, which is dubious, at best according to all the information I have read about on the subject, as I am knowledgeable in both
automotive fuels and automotive mechanics. I have seen no studies that indicate that Ethanol
lowers emissions whatsoever.
Ethanol only produces half the horsepower of gasoline, so when gasoline is mixed with 10 percent Ethanol, you are losing 5% or more horsepower per gallon, thus decreasing power and gas mileage. Also, Ethanol in gasoline tends to destroy the fuel systems of small motors used in lawn mowers, chain-saws, weed-eaters
and other such devices, that are not as expensive as a motor vehicle, costing owners more money for repairs.
I have often wondered why so many Americans are obese these days, compared to 30+ years ago, and this seems to be a part of the problem, as far as I can tell, from what I have read. Is it time to tell King Corn to take a hike out of our foods, and go back to cane or beet sugar? And, yes, reducing both our HFCS and sugar intake would help too, in that regard.
I dont know if this is a cause of CFS/ME, but I am an older man who first worked for my father, delivering
products to farmers. Back in the day, Sugar Beets were a major crop in the counties where I lived in the US.
We had sugar beet refinery plants all over, employing lots of workers, and even had Sugar Queen contests in our counties. Back then, obese people were around, of course, but most people tended to be relatively HWP, unlike now. My parents and grandparents were not obese.
Then, during the 1980's, it seemed that the sugar beet crops were being phased out slowly, until some of
the refineries started closing down. At the same time, looking back all those years ago, lots of HFCS's
(High Fructose Corn Syrup) were being used in our foods and soft drinks, instead of beet sugar, which is
pretty much identical to the sugar made from sugar cane, which is more given to being grown in more tropical climates, like Cuba and the like.
Now there are NO sugar beets being grown in my original home state, and all the sugar beet refineries
have been closed for two decades or more. All the while BIG Corn seems to be the "king crop", and not just
for food or HFCS, but it is also added to the gasoline in many states as Corn-made Ethanol, to increase octane levels, and supposedly lower tailpipe emissions, which is dubious, at best according to all the information I have read about on the subject, as I am knowledgeable in both
automotive fuels and automotive mechanics. I have seen no studies that indicate that Ethanol
lowers emissions whatsoever.
Ethanol only produces half the horsepower of gasoline, so when gasoline is mixed with 10 percent Ethanol, you are losing 5% or more horsepower per gallon, thus decreasing power and gas mileage. Also, Ethanol in gasoline tends to destroy the fuel systems of small motors used in lawn mowers, chain-saws, weed-eaters
and other such devices, that are not as expensive as a motor vehicle, costing owners more money for repairs.
I have often wondered why so many Americans are obese these days, compared to 30+ years ago, and this seems to be a part of the problem, as far as I can tell, from what I have read. Is it time to tell King Corn to take a hike out of our foods, and go back to cane or beet sugar? And, yes, reducing both our HFCS and sugar intake would help too, in that regard.
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