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Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot Com. Join Josh and Chuck,
Speaker 1: the guys who bring you Stuff you Should Know, as
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Speaker 1: all new super Stuffed Guide to the Economy from house
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes. Hey,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant, right, Josh,
Speaker 1: you want to bite? I thought you loved me mine, dude,
Speaker 1: pick two bites. But it's got high fruit toast corns
Speaker 1: for it in it, so well, you know what they
Speaker 1: say about that stuff? What that it's uh that uh
Speaker 1: that it's made from corn, has the same calories as sugar, honey,
Speaker 1: and it's fine and moderation. You only brought one the
Speaker 1: end and seen, Chuck. I feel dirty right now. We
Speaker 1: were clearly riffing on popular commercial yes, touting high fruit
Speaker 1: toast corn syrup. Yeah, um, which is kind of a
Speaker 1: big deal these days, right Chuck? It is indeed? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So Chuck and I are going to talk about um
Speaker 1: high fruit toast corn syrup, and you know, maybe some
Speaker 1: of the concerns what it is and whether or not
Speaker 1: it actually is bad for you. So we will get
Speaker 1: to that right this moment. Right, And welcome to Matt,
Speaker 1: our guest producer for the week. Yes, thank you for
Speaker 1: Matt for filling in for Jerry, who is on vacation
Speaker 1: hopefully not enduring any life threatening circumstances as is usually
Speaker 1: the case. Right, And we love young and talented Matt,
Speaker 1: so welcome. Yeah, young talented and well groomed Matt. How's
Speaker 1: it going, Matt? Alright, so on the high fruit toast
Speaker 1: corn syrup. Chuck. Okay, so this stuff didn't exist before
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven. Did you know that? Okay? Um, let
Speaker 1: me explain. Let me explain a little further. Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: So in ninete some researchers figured out that you could
Speaker 1: take a glucos and corn syrup. I think corn syrup
Speaker 1: is like all glucose, and glucose is uh one of
Speaker 1: our primary energy sources. And did you know that insulin's
Speaker 1: job is to actually go in and basically open the
Speaker 1: cellular membrane to let the glucoast in for burning. Okay, um,
Speaker 1: well anyway, so if you want a lot of energy,
Speaker 1: you could basically pound a bottle of corn syrup, just
Speaker 1: playing old corn syrup. Um. But these these researchers figured
Speaker 1: out in nine that if you added a couple of
Speaker 1: enzymes at different stages, you could convert glucose into fruit
Speaker 1: toast and fruit tose josh, as you know, is naturally occurring.
Speaker 1: It's a simple sugar. It's produced by a lot of
Speaker 1: different plants, and it's really really sweet, and it's more
Speaker 1: soluble in water than glucose, which is also a simple sugar.
Speaker 1: So that's why it's good for things like soft drinks
Speaker 1: and products like that. Plus it's also cheaper. Well yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: and we'll get to the reason why it's twoper in
Speaker 1: a minute. Did we mention my cold in this one?
Speaker 1: Uh no, you have a cold. I have a terrible cold. Everyone.
Speaker 1: I'm very sorry if I do that, so in advance,
Speaker 1: right right, But we also should say really quick to
Speaker 1: just so people have their sugar understanding. There's also table
Speaker 1: sugar is what people probably think of a sugar that
Speaker 1: is sucross, and that's what you get when you combine
Speaker 1: fruit toast and glucose. Well that's what UM high fruit
Speaker 1: toast corn syrup is as well. Is it common. It's
Speaker 1: sucros too, it's just in a slightly different amount. There's
Speaker 1: about tim percent more fruit toast and high fruit toast
Speaker 1: corn syrup than there isn't common table sugar, which doesn't
Speaker 1: sound like a lot initially it doesn't, but don't don't
Speaker 1: give it away. Yeah, okay, so UM seven they figure
Speaker 1: this out, there's the enzymatic action and then budda boom baha,
Speaker 1: being you've got high fruit toast corn syrup. I get
Speaker 1: the impression that at the at the time it was
Speaker 1: probably a very costly process. And then in the seventies
Speaker 1: people went back to it and and uh they basically
Speaker 1: UM perfected the process made it cheaper. Now, the concept
Speaker 1: of like using UM high fruk test corn syrup really
Speaker 1: dovetails nicely with what we hear in the States called
Speaker 1: a farm bill, and that is this massive bill which
Speaker 1: they they deliberate every five or seven years. I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: actually I can't remember either. Um anyway, Uh, the farm
Speaker 1: bill uh gives tons of money to corn producers to
Speaker 1: the point where, uh you can overproduce corn corn we
Speaker 1: do not need because everybody's got a cob in their mouth,
Speaker 1: and um, they'll still get money for it. Plus, corn
Speaker 1: is useful in a lot of different ways, so like
Speaker 1: corn syrup, and so we have an abundance and over
Speaker 1: abundance really of corn and chuck out. That's absolutely true.
Speaker 1: There was, Um you can use corn and ethanol. You
Speaker 1: can't use it in high freak toast corn serrup. The
Speaker 1: thing is is we used to before the seventies and
Speaker 1: we we started throwing corn into corn syrup production. Um,
Speaker 1: we used to send a lot of that surplus corn
Speaker 1: to Africa right as food aid. So in the seventies,
Speaker 1: on the day that they perfected the high fruit toast
Speaker 1: corn syrup process, some poor Ethiopian uh shuddered and didn't
Speaker 1: know why that was why. Oh yeah, food aids definitely
Speaker 1: dried up. And people also make the argument that the
Speaker 1: same we're gonna have an even bigger problem with with food,
Speaker 1: not just exporting it, but here too if it becomes
Speaker 1: a viable fuel like ethanol. So they're basically going to
Speaker 1: be using up the corn for the high fruit disc
Speaker 1: corns are up ethanol, and there's not enough to feed
Speaker 1: the world. Is that what you're saying, they'll use it
Speaker 1: for whatever they can make the most money off of. Obviously,
Speaker 1: good point. Yeah, um so okay, so that was my
Speaker 1: little aside, my little hippie liberal aside there, Chuck, very nice. Okay.
Speaker 1: So in the seventies we've got the high fruk toast
Speaker 1: corn syrup thing down and the world becomes a wash
Speaker 1: in the stuff. It's in absolutely everything it is, and
Speaker 1: it's in products that you would never even think associate
Speaker 1: with sweetness, like it becomes. Corn syrup isn't very sweet initially,
Speaker 1: but high fruit dost corn syrup is really sweet, and
Speaker 1: it's in things like crackers that you wouldn't even imagine.
Speaker 1: And they're starting to put it in meats too because
Speaker 1: it's a great preservative. So that's again, there's only ten
Speaker 1: percent more fruit toast in high fruit toast corn syrup
Speaker 1: than there is a regular table sugar, and everybody knows
Speaker 1: you should eat sugar and moderation, right, So, um, I
Speaker 1: guess approaching it in that respect, you wouldn't really think
Speaker 1: that there's any kind of problems with it, right, But
Speaker 1: it's really taken hold it has And also this I
Speaker 1: think the thing that that really started to generate concern
Speaker 1: is over the past couple of decades, it's become clear
Speaker 1: that about the time high fruc toast corn serr replaced
Speaker 1: table sugar um in um products like soft drink, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Um, the incidents of type two diabetes
Speaker 1: and obesity in the US started to climb as well. Right,
Speaker 1: I got a step for you. I want to hear
Speaker 1: if you're talking, how much it's really taken over the
Speaker 1: other sugars. In nineteventy more than of sweetener consumed in
Speaker 1: the US was sucros by It dropped to almost in half,
Speaker 1: and the rest of the sweetener sent was hyproc dose
Speaker 1: corns scrupt and that was at seven. Now I bet
Speaker 1: it's even off the charts here, it's even more prevalent.
Speaker 1: Yeah and and uh so yeah, so public opinions starting
Speaker 1: to turn, which is why the Cord counselor somebody started
Speaker 1: the ad campaign. Right, um, and uh, what's what's the problem. Well,
Speaker 1: the problem is I got another stat which is kind
Speaker 1: of indicated. Uh. They did a study in of middle
Speaker 1: school students and they found that nearly one third of
Speaker 1: their caloric intake was added sugars and we're not talking
Speaker 1: about like fruits and vegetable sugars. No, those are called
Speaker 1: natural sugars. They're not usually taking into account when you're
Speaker 1: talking about sugar intake. Added sugar and stuff like high
Speaker 1: fruit toast corn service not naturally occurring. So one third
Speaker 1: and so in two thousand five they didn't not a
Speaker 1: study another study. Sorry, and Americans uh that year consumed
Speaker 1: forty two pounds of high fruc dose corn sup per person. Okay,
Speaker 1: but again you can say, well, they could be consuming
Speaker 1: table sugar in the same amounts. They could be getting
Speaker 1: the same caloric intake from table sugar in the same amounts.
Speaker 1: What's the problem? Why is everyone picking on high fruit
Speaker 1: corn STARp. Do you want me to tell you that
Speaker 1: sounds like a great set up? Okay, thanks, I just
Speaker 1: set myself. You know, there's like self aliops, you throw
Speaker 1: it up and then you jump up and slam it.
Speaker 1: You dunk it. Have no idea a boomerang, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's like a frisbee that you can play with by yourself.
Speaker 1: We'll go no, it's not like that at all. It's basketball. Uh.
Speaker 1: Since Australians writing in now, yeah, we just raised their
Speaker 1: ire um again, I'm going to set myself up. Do
Speaker 1: you want to know why, I'll tell you why. Here's
Speaker 1: the problem with fruit toast our bodies don't use it
Speaker 1: like we use glue coast Like glue coast is such
Speaker 1: a common energy source for us that we can metabolize
Speaker 1: it just about any way. It can go to just
Speaker 1: about any cell or organ or you know, um, anywhere
Speaker 1: in the body and say hey, metabolize me pal, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we've got some energy. Right with
Speaker 1: fruit toast um, there's only one organ that can possibly
Speaker 1: metabolize it, and that's the liver. And the liver has
Speaker 1: a certain limit of what how much fruit toast it
Speaker 1: will process in their energy, and after that it turns
Speaker 1: them into triglycerize, which we like to call facts. So
Speaker 1: that's one of the problems. Well. And and and since it's
Speaker 1: in everything from like bread to crackers and things that
Speaker 1: seemingly and meets for preservatives, it's, uh, we're getting way
Speaker 1: way too much of it. Sure, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: that episode of Seinfeld where like everybody's eating this low
Speaker 1: fat yogurt. You can't believe it's low fat, but it
Speaker 1: turns out it's not they had it tested exactly. So
Speaker 1: everybody's putting on all this weight. And I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of what happened to America over the last couple
Speaker 1: of decades, where unknowingly consuming this tremendous amount of sugar
Speaker 1: uh and it gets converted into fats very easily, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we're a fat diabetic nation. I've
Speaker 1: got some stats. I love your stats to your hand
Speaker 1: on my knee while you read them. I will UH.
Speaker 1: In two thousand seven, and this is kind of makes sense.
Speaker 1: Colorado is the only state in the whole country with
Speaker 1: less than of his population uh qualifying as obese healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they hike in all that stuff, which is good. Um.
Speaker 1: And another one as far as diabetes goes, between ninety
Speaker 1: four and two thousand four, uh a new diagnosed ease
Speaker 1: of type two diabetes increased by which is a big jump.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people think that the the HFCs
Speaker 1: has something to do with that. Ye. Wait, a way
Speaker 1: to throw an acronym in there, buddy like that? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Can I say one other problem with fructose, okay, it
Speaker 1: is that there is ten more in high fruc toose
Speaker 1: corn syrup than in regular table sugar, and when you
Speaker 1: start to eat a lot of it and it starts
Speaker 1: to appear in all sorts of different foods, that ten
Speaker 1: percent really starts to add up. So that would also
Speaker 1: account for why we're a much a meteor country than
Speaker 1: we were before. Except Colorado. Of course, everything's fine in Colorado. Um.
Speaker 1: But but ultimately, again back on the metabolic level, UM,
Speaker 1: there's been studies that show that the taste of artificial
Speaker 1: sweeteners or added sugars like high fruit toose corn syrup
Speaker 1: actually make us want to eat more. And it's not
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with what we're doing with that metal.
Speaker 1: Likely it's the taste we love to taste so much.
Speaker 1: It's like crack to us. So when we eat something
Speaker 1: that contains glucoset right, um, and when we eat anything generally, uh,
Speaker 1: there's this chemical that's producing the stomach is called grellin.
Speaker 1: I know it's it's kind of terrible name, but it's
Speaker 1: actually really important. Grolan travels up to the brain and says, okay, stop,
Speaker 1: this person doesn't need to eat anymore. Here, she's full.
Speaker 1: We got all the nutrients we need down here, so
Speaker 1: just cut it off for a little while. And then well,
Speaker 1: you know, another chemical will let you know when we're hungry, right, Um,
Speaker 1: we don't produce grilling when we eat fruit toast, so
Speaker 1: the brains never getting those signals that it's used to
Speaker 1: getting saying stop. So, which is why you can sit
Speaker 1: there and eat Little Debbie brownies by the box full
Speaker 1: all day long. Yeah those are good. Twiss cake rolls
Speaker 1: ain't too bad either. Yeah, not to pick on Little Debbie.
Speaker 1: It's a Little Debbie is a fine, fine company and
Speaker 1: are from the only company using high fruit tose corn.
Speaker 1: It's everywhere, It's everywhere. So, Josh, I think we're at
Speaker 1: the point now where we can talk about what you
Speaker 1: can do if you're worried about something like this, which well,
Speaker 1: clearly everything in moderation, just like the cheesy little commercial
Speaker 1: says that we mocked. Um. But what you need to
Speaker 1: do is you need to start checking the packaging of
Speaker 1: your of your foods, and better yet, you can try
Speaker 1: to start avoiding package foods as much as you can.
Speaker 1: That's really where it's at. I mean, I had a
Speaker 1: friend that had high blood pressure and his doctor said,
Speaker 1: you can do a couple of things. You can either
Speaker 1: get on this medication or you can start eating fresh
Speaker 1: foods and avoid package foods. Medication. No, yeah, absolutely no. No,
Speaker 1: he controlled it through diet, dude, and he quit buying
Speaker 1: anything in a box, anything in a package. He fresh
Speaker 1: like in the yard. Yeah, he ate fresh fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 1: He ate meat, um, and his blood pressure dropped dramatically.
Speaker 1: Meats he found in the yard. Cats he raised cattle
Speaker 1: in his good but um, yeah, I mean it's always
Speaker 1: best to avoid packaged foods. When you look at any
Speaker 1: kind of packaged food ingredients, it's it's kind of frightening
Speaker 1: what's in there. Well, one of the problems is that
Speaker 1: high frue toast corn syrup is substantially cheaper than regular sugar.
Speaker 1: It is, so that means the food prices are cheaper,
Speaker 1: which is I guess by extension or my hypothesis or theory,
Speaker 1: I would say, because I'm sure it's been tested. Why
Speaker 1: the poorer classes also tend to be the most malnourished
Speaker 1: because the stuff that they're eating is so processed, so packaged,
Speaker 1: and so chuck full of not just stuff like high
Speaker 1: fruit toast corn syrup, but all sorts of other preservative
Speaker 1: that we shouldn't be eating. But are cheap and allow
Speaker 1: companies to produce cheap food. It's a horrible vicious cycle.
Speaker 1: But I mean, try try eating organic in this economy. Pal,
Speaker 1: you can't do it. You have to be like filthy
Speaker 1: rich to eat organic these days. But you know what's
Speaker 1: not cheap? What the diabetes? No, that's true. It's an
Speaker 1: excellent in hospital stays and heart attacks. Uh so that's great.
Speaker 1: Do yourself a favorite. You'll save some dough in the
Speaker 1: long run if you if you eat better and take
Speaker 1: care of yourself. Plus you'll keep your foot. Yeah. True.
Speaker 1: So there's high freuk toast corn syrup. Um. We I
Speaker 1: guess we'll just sit back and expect an angry season
Speaker 1: desist letter from the corn Council or somebody right right,
Speaker 1: we love corn corns great, I love corn on the
Speaker 1: coblic You would not believe me too, It's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite anyway. Um, that's high freak toast cord syrup.
Speaker 1: And followed by our disclaimer that Chuck and I actually
Speaker 1: do like corn and American farmers in America in general.
Speaker 1: So there you go, And are we plugging anything these days?
Speaker 1: We can give a quick mention to the blog. You know,
Speaker 1: we have a blog on the website you can access,
Speaker 1: and I think most folks are catching on. Now we're
Speaker 1: getting some good numbers, and hell, let's plug the thing
Speaker 1: that we're making money off of. Well yeah, sure, okay,
Speaker 1: the super Stuff Guide to the Economy with Josh and Chuck.
Speaker 1: You can buy that for four bucks on iTunes and
Speaker 1: learn about econom x and get a little better understanding
Speaker 1: of what's going on in the world. And uh, it's
Speaker 1: a time for listener mail. Yeah, Chuck, So Josh, I
Speaker 1: was impressed with this one. This is uh not a
Speaker 1: high kup, but it is a poem. And a seventeen
Speaker 1: year old named Daniel in Colorado wrote us a sonnet.
Speaker 1: There's like more than an eight percent chance he's not obese,
Speaker 1: okays in Colorado force Alright, so here we go. From Daniel,
Speaker 1: I would that there were just one reason why the
Speaker 1: podcast did delight me fully, so that I might be
Speaker 1: in hasty time. Supply a nicely packaged blurb so you
Speaker 1: might know. I'll ask. No single reason will suffice. The
Speaker 1: podcast is a pleasure labyrinthine. To try to craft a
Speaker 1: reason too precise would make a burly rope of stingy twine.
Speaker 1: But in those fleeting moments in the night. One wonders
Speaker 1: does one really need to know whether one can really
Speaker 1: die of fright? Or if How Anger Works is at proposed?
Speaker 1: But though it may be triviality, the podcast comes to
Speaker 1: us completely free. How about that? That was great? I
Speaker 1: couldn't write one of these. Oh no, definitely not. Try
Speaker 1: try fitting labyrinthine in So Daniel in Colorado, seventeen years old?
Speaker 1: You is he? Is he an adult? He's seventeen? Okay? Great,
Speaker 1: good to know that he may or may not be
Speaker 1: an adult either way. Thank you very much, Daniel. We
Speaker 1: appreciate the effort, and we've always also said you can
Speaker 1: only gripe so much because it is free, right sure.
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Speaker 1: labyrinthine and uh in an email and send it to us, um,
Speaker 1: you can shoot that over to stuff podcast at how
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