high fructose corn syrup and the health risks

By now we have all seen the commercials about HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and how it is not that bad for you in moderation. The problem is HFCS is in almost everything that we eat and in some of those products, soda for example, it is not used in moderation. Most Americans are eating way more then they should.

HFCS's chemical compound is very similar to sugar and just like sugar does nothing but ad empty calories to your diet. Both sugar and HFCS makes your blood sugar spike and then drop rapidly. We all know the myth that an hour after eating Chinese food you will be hungry again. Turns out this isn't a myth, the refined carbs of the white rice act on the blood sugar the same way HFCS and sugar do. Makes your blood sugar spike and drop rapidly making you hungry again sooner then you should be.

There are studies that show a coalition between HFCS and obesity and diabetes. It is no secret that obesity causes all kinds of problems for the body and is a major player in the increase of type II diabetes. Journal of the American Medical Association did a study that lasted from 1991 to 1999 and showed that women who drank more then 1 sugar sweetened beverage per week had greater magnitude of weight gain and were at a significantly greater risk of developing type II diabetes. How many people drink 1 or less sugar sweetened beverages per week? Most people are drinking at least one per day.

The majority of the sugar-sweetened beverages are sweetened with HFCS. Although they haven’t proved that HFCS directly leads to obesity and diabetes doesn’t mean that we can eat as much HFCS as we want.

Here is what has been shown in studies. Americans are obese and this obesity is leading to higher rates of type II diabetes. They also know that over consumption of sugar, including HFCS, refined grain products like white bread, white rice, white anything, are leading to this obesity epidemic.

My challenge to you is to look at the foods you eat the most and check out the ingredients. The higher on the list the more of that ingredient it has. So if HFCS is second on the list that means HFCS is by volume the second greatest ingredient in the product.

Another problem is that many products say “made with whole grains” on the front but if on the ingredient list it says anything other then “whole grain wheat” or rice or oats, then it is considered refined. If in doubt about the whole grain factor look at the amount of fiber in the product. It should have at least 1 gram of fiber per 90 calories and whole grain products will have at least that if not more.

HFCS may not be the only thing leading to health problems but it is one of the leading offenders.

Editorial #2 Final Draft

Nebraska Death Penalty

The Nebraska death penalty has recently come into question in the state unicameral. Electrocution was the sole method until the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled the method unconstitutional in February 2008. Nebraska tried to pass a life sentence without parole to replace the death penalty but it fell one vote short of passing. The death penalty is wrong and should be replaced with a life sentence without out parole.
The death penalty is cruel punishment. There are reports of botched deaths when it comes to any form of execution. The last reported case of an electrocution gone badly was July 8, 1999 in Florida. Blood had poured from the mouth of the man being executed and oozed through the buckle holes on the straps across his chest. There are a number of cases more resent then that where lethal injection has gone wrong. The problems reported with lethal injection is not being able to find a vein, going through the vain and the poison being pumped into the surrounding tissue, and unusual violent reactions to the lethal drugs. Even if you could guarantee that you could use lethal injection without harm to a person, killing someone is still wrong.
The death penalty is wrong because you may execute an innocent person. The death penalty is also a long and complicated process. It clogs up the courts and cost millions of dollars. This long process also causes prolonged pain for the victim’s family, who must relive the trauma through multiple court hearings and appeals. If there were a way to guarantee that no one innocent would be killed, if the cost of the death penalty were cheaper then life without parole, and if the death penalty helped the victims families, taking the life of another is still wrong.
The most compelling reason for revoking the death penalty, and replacing it with life without parole, is that to kill another human being is wrong. Most death penalty cases involve the defendant being charged with murder. We cannot claim that murder is wrong when we turn around and kill someone who is convicted of murder. We are all human and none of us have the right to say that because it is a jury, judge, or law (which were written by man) that means it is acceptable to kill the killer. No one has the right to judge who should live and who should die, that is why there are laws against murder. We should not look the other way when someone is being killed, even if it is the authorities that are making that choice.
Fourteen states do not have the death penalty. Nebraska needs to adopt this practice, too. We were the last state to have electrocution as our sole method of capital punishment. Let us become one of the early adaptors of life with out parole. We all have a responsibility to do what is morally just. Choosing to let the state murder someone is no more just then letting anyone else get away with it. We need to let our state know that we do not support the death penalty; that it is wrong and we will not stand to let any more blood be spilled, even when the blood is not that of an innocent person.