Sugar under attack:

More on sugar being evil:

UCSF scientists declare war on sugar in food:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/01/BA891N1PQS.DTL


Someone at CNN thinks we should regulate sugar like alcohol:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/01/health/opinion-regulate-sugar-alcohol/

I guess sugar is the new smoking, or fat, or not wearing a seatbelt, or a riding a bicycle without wearing a helmet, or spanking, or drunk driving, or pot, or...

Today's lesson: Just because something is a good idea, it doesn't mean it should be a law.

Honey and Maple Syrup...

If one subscribes to the "fructose is bad, no matter how it gets into you" theory, you need to avoid honey, and perhaps maple syrup too.

Honey is basically HFCS, with bee barf: roughly 48% fructose, 47% glucose, and 5% sucrose, according to Wikipedia.

That actually matches what my acupuncturist said years ago, "Honey is a refined sugar too, just refined by bees."

Maple syrup is nearly entirely sucrose and water, with small amounts of other stuff, so it in theory is metabolized the same way as cane sugar. However, "maple syrup's natural phenols – potentially beneficial antioxidant compounds – inhibit two carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzymes that are relevant to type 2 diabetes." (also according to Wikipedia).

Interestingly, that also matches with what my acupuncturist told me years ago, "You should only sweeten things with maple syrup." That was before anyone was thinking about HFCS, too.