Fructose increases diabetes and heart disease

Re:Fructose increases diabetes and heart disease by anigbrowl on Monday December 14, 2009 @10:02PM (#995756)

If the conclusions of this study are validated, the food industry is going to be hit by a wave of class-action lawsuits that'll make cigarette litigation look like an amicable chit-chat.

If I was in the market I'd be shorting Archer Daniels Midland and a whole bunch of end-product companies starting with Coke and Pepsi. And when you consider how much of the meat industry has switched to feeding cattle on corn instead of grass...yikes. It may take a few years, but governments beset by rising medical care costs (many of which are obesity-related) are inevitably going to try for some recovery.

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Re:Fructose increases diabetes and heart disease by nvasilak on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @01:04AM (#996018)

Lawsuits? Who wouldn't want a nice, insulating layer of fat to protect their heart? I use a Pepsi IV daily and haven't gotten sick in at least a week and a half.

On a more serious note, the food industry has an immense amount of power in Washington and I think change in just a few years is highly optimistic, but I hope you're right.

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Re:Fructose increases diabetes and heart disease by jamesbritt on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @01:44AM (#996069)

"On a more serious note, the food industry has an immense amount of power in Washington and I think change in just a few years is highly optimistic,"

For sure. This is an industry that arranged so that they can sue you if you diss them.

http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2009/11/burger-... http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q2/eat.html

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Re:Fructose increases diabetes and heart disease by anigbrowl on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @02:33AM (#996114)

I agree, but Washington isn't the only game in town. These socioeconomic/medical issues are costing European governments plenty too, and it would suit them just fine to denounce high-fructose corn syrup as an American imposition as a sop to their domestic farming lobbies (even though European food scientists are just as concerned with maximizing saleable weight at minimum cost as their counterparts here).

It may not take all that long: consider the history of tobacco litigation (also a powerful lobby) and the fact that federal and particularly state finances are in a tight squeeze, in which soaring medical costs play a significant part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Master_Settlement_Agree...

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Re:Fructose increases diabetes and heart disease by pwnstigator on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @09:17AM (#996477)

Countries with first-world (i.e. universal) healthcare systems tend to be a lot more proactive in regulating their food supply and environment than we are, because they view health problems as a common cost, whereas we view them as an individual cost.

This is one of many positive side effects of universal healthcare.

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Re:Fructose increases diabetes and heart disease by ars on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @03:56AM (#996184)

There won't be lawsuits.

The same thing happened with margarine vs saturated fat (butter). Margarine (trans fat) was billed as healthier since it had no saturated far. Ha - that was quite wrong, and probably killed thousands to millions.

No lawsuits from that.

To have a lawsuit you must also show they knew it was bad, but did it anyway, AND concealed it.

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