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Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

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Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#11

Post by ajkjk »

scotch_drinker wrote: post #8

Some day, I'm confident our current practices related to food and nutrition will be looked back upon with horror and dismay. The lack of decent regulation, the lack of understanding of basic nutrition, the desire to somehow improve upon the foods that nature intended, all will be seen as the disasters they likely are. Our chemically created foods are likely killing us in a variety of ways we are only just now beginni…

I think we'll also be remembered as the era that started figuring that out and solving it with science, though. It's not all hopeless; at least we're trying.

Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#12

Post by hammock »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #4

>..it might surprise you to learn that, over the past 15 years or so, some makers of ice cream and many other processed foods—from pasta to ground beef products—have changed their recipes to swap out some of the table sugar (sucrose) with a sweetening/texturizing ingredient called trehalose that depresses the freezing point of food. How the hell is the food industry not regulated more strictly. FDA spending on regula…

It's in the ingredients list...it is regulated. You just aren't looking.

Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#13

Post by no_flags »

scotch_drinker wrote: post #8

Some day, I'm confident our current practices related to food and nutrition will be looked back upon with horror and dismay. The lack of decent regulation, the lack of understanding of basic nutrition, the desire to somehow improve upon the foods that nature intended, all will be seen as the disasters they likely are. Our chemically created foods are likely killing us in a variety of ways we are only just now beginni…

Absolutely. We don't even know what the right regulations would be. Trans fat is a prime example. The FDA classified it as safe for years and then had to do a 180 on their position.

Anyone interested in the decline of our modern diet should check out Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, by Weston Price. He was a prominent dentist in the 30s that visited remote populations around the world, documenting their traditional diets and the health effects when switching to a "modern" diet. Available for free on Project Gutenberg http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html

Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#14

Post by ComputerGuru »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #4

>..it might surprise you to learn that, over the past 15 years or so, some makers of ice cream and many other processed foods—from pasta to ground beef products—have changed their recipes to swap out some of the table sugar (sucrose) with a sweetening/texturizing ingredient called trehalose that depresses the freezing point of food. How the hell is the food industry not regulated more strictly. FDA spending on regula…

How do you go from “x is in foods” to “x is in foods without any regulatory oversight or fda approval?”

Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#15

Post by zwieback »

scotch_drinker wrote: post #8

Some day, I'm confident our current practices related to food and nutrition will be looked back upon with horror and dismay. The lack of decent regulation, the lack of understanding of basic nutrition, the desire to somehow improve upon the foods that nature intended, all will be seen as the disasters they likely are. Our chemically created foods are likely killing us in a variety of ways we are only just now beginni…

Sure, there are lots of foods that are legal but unhealthy but you don't have to eat them. It doesn't take much to get informed about the basics of nutrition.

The broad goal of FDA regulations is not really to prevent you from eating unhealthily but rather to prevent eggs, milk, meat and produce from making you sick. In that respect the food industry and FDA regulations have been spectacularly successful. Any nostalgia for a bygone era of healthy and plentiful food is misguided.

You could make a case for forcing people to eat healthier but that will be an uphill battle, both economic interest and poor consumer habits are aligned against that. There have been some success stories (e.g. outlawing transfats) but they are few and far between.

Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#16

Post by byproxy »

lima wrote: post #6

There are other interactions like that: for instance, magnesium is known to massively increase the replication of rhinoviruses (common cold). Magnesium is also a common food supplement...

I've been taking magnesium supplements for the past few months. Coincidentally, I've been blowing my nose continually for the past week. Wasn't aware there could be a potential link.

Edit: Although, I've been taking a Zinc supplement (as well as a D3 supplement) and according to my lay-understanding of this blog-post[a], the Zinc should cancel out magnesium's effect?

[a] http://www.virology.ws/2009/12/16/rhinovirus-and-zinc-part-5...

Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#17

Post by [deleted] »

byproxy wrote: post #16
lima wrote: post #6

There are other interactions like that: for instance, magnesium is known to massively increase the replication of rhinoviruses (common cold). Magnesium is also a common food supplement...

I've been taking magnesium supplements for the past few months. Coincidentally, I've been blowing my nose continually for the past week. Wasn't aware there could be a potential link. Edit: Although, I've been taking a Zinc supplement (as well as a D3 supplement) and according to my lay-understanding of this blog-post[a], the Zinc should cancel out magnesium's effect? [a] http://www.virology.ws/2009/12/16/rhinovirus-a…

[deleted]

Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#18

Post by gooseus »

tptacek wrote: post #9
scotch_drinker wrote: post #8

Some day, I'm confident our current practices related to food and nutrition will be looked back upon with horror and dismay. The lack of decent regulation, the lack of understanding of basic nutrition, the desire to somehow improve upon the foods that nature intended, all will be seen as the disasters they likely are. Our chemically created foods are likely killing us in a variety of ways we are only just now beginni…

Our chemically chaste pre-industrial food supply did a fine job of killing without much help from us.

Right, and those people looked back in horror and dismay at all the famine that did a fine job of killing their predecessors.

Must any criticism of modern practices equate to an endorsement of dialing back to ancient ones?

Is anybody building AI to catch these sorts of obvious fallacies? Now that would be pretty damn impressive for an AGI skeptic such as myself.

Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#19

Post by tptacek »

gooseus wrote: post #18
tptacek wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our chemically chaste pre-industrial food supply did a fine job of killing without much help from us.

Right, and those people looked back in horror and dismay at all the famine that did a fine job of killing their predecessors. Must any criticism of modern practices equate to an endorsement of dialing back to ancient ones? Is anybody building AI to catch these sorts of obvious fallacies? Now that would be pretty damn impressive for an AGI skeptic such as myself.

You take the good with the bad, is I guess all I'm saying.

Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic

#20

Post by teilo »

lima wrote: post #6

There are other interactions like that: for instance, magnesium is known to massively increase the replication of rhinoviruses (common cold). Magnesium is also a common food supplement...

There is a balance of zinc-magnesium that needs to be maintained in the body. In a mineral-poor diet, supplementing magnesium without zinc can cause side effects like this.

Calcium has a similar problem, but it's even more complicated. It needs corresponding levels of magnesium, vitamin D, boron, and K2 for proper utilization.

Supplementation should not be done in a shotgun fashion. This is why, as much as I appreciate the nutritional research which identifies common deficiencies, I hate the nutrient fads which result from them. People hear "You need magnesium" so they rush out and take magnesium with no understanding of its function in the body, nor the nutrient balance that the body needs.

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