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It's actually cured, and it's not better for you. When was the last time you read a story where the villain was celery? Pull up a chair.
The issue is that "uncured" bacon is actually cured. It's cured using exactly the same stuff — nitrite — used in ordinary bacon. It's just that, in the "uncured" meats, the nitrite is derived from celery or beets or some other vegetable or fruit naturally high in nitrate, which is easily converted to nitrite. In ordinary bacon and cured meats, the nitrite is in the form of man-made sodium nitrite. But the nitrite molecule is the same, no matter its source.
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by ilPapa on Tuesday April 23 2019, @02:15AM (10 children)
That assumes that "the nitrate molecule" is what is used and not some compound that contains nitrite. We see this argument a lot in regard to table sugar vs HFCS. "The molecule is the same". Well guess what? You're not just eating "the molecule".
I'm not so sure the source doesn't matter, despite the message from the processing companies/big agra/big pharma.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by el_oscuro on Tuesday April 23 2019, @03:49AM
The problem with HCFS is, it is very cheap (coming from subsidized corn) and very easy to incorporate into lots of food that shouldn't have it. So you wind up getting a lot more of it then if they had to use actual sugar.
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(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @04:16AM (5 children)
Well if someone said "the molecule is the same" when talking about table sugar in comparison to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) then they would be simply wrong. They are not the same molecules: "sugar" is sucrose, which is one type of molecule with formula C12H22O11 and HFCS is basically a mixture of glucose and fructose in roughly equal proportions (although it comes in different mix ratios), two different molecules with formula C6H12O6.
Now if one were comparing HFCS to honey, which is also basically a mixture of glucose and fructose in roughly equal proportions, then you could say "the molecules are the same".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @06:47AM (4 children)
Splitting sucrose into glucose and fructose is trivial: heat it in an acidic environment
So for example, suppose you made ketchup with sucrose. Ketchup is acidic. Ketchup is heated to bottle it. Well, there you go: sucrose splits into glucose and fructose.
This is also how one makes "invert sugar" or "golden syrup".
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Tuesday April 23 2019, @01:53PM (3 children)
True, but not relevant unless you're proposing that the human stomach provides sufficient heat to perform that process. Salt is just sodium (a poisonous metal) and chlorine (a toxic gas) loosely bound together with ionic bonds that rapidly dissociate in water - that doesn't mean it's safe to consume the constituent elements individually, or in different ratios.
That said, the human body does seem to rapidly break sucrose into glucose and fructose, but I believe it's by another method.
What puzzles me is, given the bad press, why do they keep making HFCS? After all, in making corn syrup they first make glucose from corn starch, and then process some of it to produce the sweeter fructose, which they mix with glucose to obtain the desired blend. Does a 55/45 blend really taste or behave substantially differently than a 50/50 blend which would no longer be "high fructose" (I think).
Of course, to the extent that there does seem to be some health problems associated with HFCS consumption rather than sucrose, my money is on contamination by othermolecules - perhaps glyphosphate from growing the corn, or the enzymes used in the conversion process. I could easily see the presence of a bunch of enzymes merrily converting glucose into fructose within your gut tipping the balance to becoming a much more pronounced problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @03:08PM (1 child)
thank you, sir.
sucrose FTW!
"HFCS" sounds like something that keeps water from freezing ^_^
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @06:26PM
To be fair, I am betting it would.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @03:25AM
Try adding pure glucose (dextrose is essentially the same thing) to your coffee and see how sweet it is. Not very.
Add sucrose, and it's a whole lot sweeter. The Fructose half of sucrose is considerably sweeter tasting than the glucose half.
HFCS's 45/55 (g/f) is noticeably sweeter tasting than the 50/50 mix.
As for health -- search for a lecture by a UCLA biochemist. (I'd link to it but, late, lazy...) He describes exactly why and how Fructose is very, very bad for you (about 9/12 as bad as alcohol). Glucose, not really bad for you (unless your body is putting too much of it in your blood, but a healthy body can deal with whatever quantity you eat of it.)
So, sucrose is 50% bad for you. HFCS is 55% bad for you. Yes, it's worse. About 10% worse.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deathlyslow on Tuesday April 23 2019, @12:45PM (2 children)
My two boys are both diagnosed with ADDHD and for them it's not about the nitrate/ite part but the fact that one is a naturally occurring substance than lab made. If we keep them from the artificial stuff they are able to be on a lower dose of meds. It's a little more expensive avoiding the artificial things, but it does show a noticeable improvement in our kids behavior if we can. We try to avoid all artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. Kind of a modified exclusionary diet. I've gotten pretty good at replicating most prepared foods from scratch. It's healthier to boot with less sodium and way fresher ingredients. It's a win win.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday April 23 2019, @05:02PM
Healthier, yes. It also requires more investment of time and effort. The question is "What's the optimal trade-off?". In your case you have a strong argument of totally natural. In my case the balance is less purist. I'm afraid I don't understand those who don't see it as a trade-off.
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(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Wednesday April 24 2019, @04:15AM
Brother, it can't be easy, but your sons are lucky to have parents who will put in an effort to finding a solution that works for them.
I wish you all well.
You are still welcome on my lawn.