I wonder if people's weird reactions of sugar is really due to these sugar alternatives being in everything.
We really need more research of the microbiome.
Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
#22A few general principles of biology examplified:
- When there's food, someone will show up to eat it.
- Almost everything is food for someone
Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
#23>..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?”
How about this?
1. Actually effective regulation takes money and resources. E.g. it requires hiring scientists and doing tests to measure safety, staff to administer compliance, etc.
2. There isn't much money or resources going to the regulator.
3. Therefore, de facto there cannot be much real regulatory oversight, since the money to measure and enforce the things you care about isn't there.
Like sure, you can wave your hands and say these things were de jure FDA approved or GRAS or whatever, but that could just be what an overburdened and underfunded agency just does by default.
We can debate whether ~$1bn is an adequate amount for the FDA to keep us safe from all the bad things it's supposed to, but certainly at some level of funding this argument must be correct. E.g. if your regulator was funded with $1mm / annum there's no way there was any real regulation.
Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
#24>..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.
I have a few serious food issues and have regularly read labels for decades. I'm surprised that I've never heard of trehalose. Perhaps they list it as disaccharides? Or is it just rolled up into 'sugar' on the label?
Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
But why? How about intelligently assessing the situation and doing away with The Bad?
Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
#26Earlier 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.
Not necessarily, but in this case it did. The grandparent comment talks approvingly of nature's intention.
Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
#27Some 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 created foods are likely killing us in a variety of ways we are only just now beginning to understand.
Seems to have worked out ok for the last few 100k years unless you think the other hominids we suspect of cooking got offed by it and we just got deliciously lucky.
Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
#28Trehalose is not that common an additive in the US. It is also a naturally occurring disaccharide found often in mushrooms. CD apparently has evolved the ability to metabolize it which is why it is now an issue.
Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's in the ingredients list...it is regulated. You just aren't looking.
I have a few serious food issues and have regularly read labels for decades. I'm surprised that I've never heard of trehalose. Perhaps they list it as disaccharides? Or is it just rolled up into 'sugar' on the label?
It can be listed as "natural flavor" http://nagaseamerica.com/news_release/treha-trehalose-availa...
Re: Study suggests sugar alternative contributing to C. diff epidemic
#30Trehalose is not that common an additive in the US. It is also a naturally occurring disaccharide found often in mushrooms. CD apparently has evolved the ability to metabolize it which is why it is now an issue.
Yet, Cargill suggests it can be added to many foods: https://www.cargill.com/food-bev/emea/sweeteners/treha
Bakery: - Baked goods - Flavor enhancement - Sweetness optimization texture - Crystallization inhibition
Beverages: - Mouthfeel - Flavor enhancement - Mild sweetness
Confectionery: - Flavor enhancement - Shelf life - Crystallization inhibition
Frozen Foods: - Stability - Cryoprotectant - Taste enhancement
Dairy: - Ice-cream - Texture - Spoonability
Dairy desserts: - Flavor enhancement - Moisture stabilization - Texture
Fruit: - Sweetness optimization - Stability - Shelf life - Color preservation
Tablets: - Compression agent - Excipient - Non-hygroscopicity - Stabilization