Modified Intensive Gardening Combined With Succession Planting of Our Pole Beans.

In a previous post I explained how I was planting my pole bean seeds this year in a different manner than usual for our garden. Rather than plant a single row of seed, on April 30th  I planted a double row with about a six inch space between rows. That was the modified intensive gardening approach. Theoretically, I should at least double the amount of my harvest from last year.

The weeds got a big jump on me this year between the bean rows, but I took care of them in the last couple of days. Thankfully they are a type of weed with big leaves and spindly stalks, so I was able to dispose of them by weeding three rows each day for two days.

I was unable to perform the second planting until June 9th. I planted the second batch of bean seeds in that six inch space between the first double row planting. When they germinate I am anticipating that they will readily follow the outer sets of vines and go right to the fence fabric and begin their climb. As of this writing, I have 1,440 Fortex green bean seeds in some state of growth in our garden, with additional seed to go in when the time is right. I actually calculate the number of beans needed per row, count them out in a small bowl, then put each row's allotment into an individual zip lock bag.  When I'm hand sowing, I use up each bag for each row, thereby ensuring adequate spacing of the seeds. It might seem tedious, but it sure takes the guesswork out of it.



I've included some pics to show the condition and density of the bean vines. They look very healthy.

These are my six 20 foot rows of Fortex pole beans. They are 40 days old and growing very vigorously. I water them almost every day since there are so many of them. Our high temperature here yesterday was 102 degrees, so the soil was very dry on top. That temperature was confirmed on three different thermometers in three locations. We already had another day where the temperature hit 101 degrees and it's only early June. I hope that's not an indication of what summer will be like.

Notice the density of the vines thanks to the double row planting.

Last year, I planted four single rows of seed and let them run their cycle, and when they were through producing, I planted more beans. The trouble with doing it that way is that my harvest totals had to endure going through the phases of a dwindling production period, then the germination period and  then waiting for plant maturity. The end result for the year was simply two total harvests from four 20 foot long rows of pole beans.

This year I added two more rows of beans. I began with the double row planting and then 40 days later planted a second crop that will be germinating and maturing while the first crop is producing green beans. That equates to overall production from three rows of pole beans. When the second planting is approaching maturity (in approximately 40 days on July 20th) I'll plant additional seeds for the third planting. Since we began with a double row, the July 20th planting would be the equivalent of the fourth planting of rows of pole beans. There will be plenty of time for still another planting on September 1st, which should be ready to begin harvesting on November 1st, as it is usually still warm at that time. That would be the fifth planting of rows of pole beans for the year. Overall, doing it this way has the potential of harvesting two and a half times as much in the same area as last year, not including the two additional rows of this year. This is possible since the "wait time" for germination between crops is eliminated and three additional crops are planted as compared to previous years. Historical data from my spreadsheets show the following harvests of Fortex green beans:

2009 spring crop - 58 pounds
2009 summer crop - 32 pounds
2009 fall crop - 22.25 pounds
2009 Total Fortex Green Bean Crop - 112.25 pounds

2010 spring crop - 21.5 pounds
2010 summer crop - 38 pounds
2010 fall crop - None. I was away from home and didn't get the third crop planted.
2010 Total Fortex Green Bean Crop - 59.5 pounds


During this entire time I will be adding cured compost to the rows as it becomes ready. This whole thing is like a long experiment. We'll see what the results are later in the year.

Now for a few more bean pics...

Notice how even when the vines get to the top of the fence material they keep reaching upwards.

It always surprises me when the vines go up so far looking for something to grab on to. They really want to stretch out there! If I don't take each one and braid it into the fence fabric it will cross over to the next row. It's a wonder that they don't break in the wind.

The tops of these vines are reaching towards the east. Could it be possible that they are stretching toward the morning sun?

The blossoms are getting ready to open up. The vines are covered with them, so I hope I'll be getting a good crop.

Notice all the vines reaching up past the top of the fence fabric. Even though the planting is dense, all the vines appear to be very healthy. They must really like the composted soil.

That concludes my post on the modified intensive gardening and succession planting of our pole beans. I hope you found it interesting and informative. It will be interesting to see what the results are in my end of the year Harvest Report.

I extend a sincere "Thank You" to each person reading this and hope that it will inspire someone to try new methods for growing vegetables for your family food supply. Think about it. Maybe that someone is you!

Have a great gardening day!
Veggie PAK

Our Garden Harvest for June 6th, 2011.

Our harvest for this week included the seed saving results for Waltham 29 broccoli and  also the chives in addition to our vegetables.

It took much longer than I thought it would to dry out those broccoli seed pods you see in the two containers below.

I brought the containers inside at night, and took them back out into the sunshine in the morning for about ten days straight, turning the contents several times each day. Finally it was time to remove the seeds from those pods.

Most of the materials I have read about extracting the seed from the pods recommended that you take a mallet of some sort and crush the pods. Even if the mallet was hard rubber, you still run a high risk of damaging a lot of the seeds depending upon the surface you were crushing them against. I found such a procedure to be unnecessary. I simply took a handful of seed pods at a time and thoroughly crushed them in my hands while holding them over a large tub to catch the debris. This wasn't the tedious part though.

Separating the seed from the chaff was a difficult task. As with the Brussels sprouts seeds, I first used a 1/4 inch mesh screen and then I used a finer mesh screen. After that wasn't very successful, I used a metal kitchen colander since the holes were smaller than those a plastic one has. I did that 7 or 8 times, and while it helped remove some, it left a lot of chaff still in with the seeds.

The last method I used was to take a long stainless steel steam line tray and tilt it on the length at about a 30 degree angle in front of a fan. All the seeds and chaff were in the tray at the low end. I took small handfuls of it and held it up at the low end of the tray about 4 or 5 inches high, or whatever worked best for the air movement. I gradually released a little at a time at that height and the fan caused the air to catch the chaff and blow it up and over the end of the tray onto the shop floor. While the air caught the material and blew a lot of the chaff away, the incline of the tray allowed the heavier seeds to drop onto the high end of the tray and slide back to the bottom so they weren't lost. I did this many times, judging the need by the amount of chaff left in with the seeds after each time. I know we all want good seeds, and I noticed that along with the chaff, some tiny seeds were also being blown out. The way I see it, they were immature seeds that wouldn't have produced good plants, so their removal wasn't a loss.

I ended up with 6 3/4 ounces of organic Waltham 29 broccoli seeds that can be stored for 5 years. I plan to divide them up and store them in small mylar bags with oxygen absorbers to extend their shelf life even further.

My chives bloomed recently. I noticed that the flower heads were now looking dull so I decided to see if I could capture some of the seeds from them and it worked. Now I'll have plenty for next year.

We picked 1.75 pounds of Ruby Red Swiss chard that grew from the seed my grandaughter Celie planted in the container in our kitchen on December 30th, 2010. There were 156 transplants and this harvest represents only a very small number of them. The video of her planting the seed is provided below so folks won't have to go look for it if they want to see it.

Celie is a sweetie!

After they germinated, I transplanted those seedlings to the garden and they did very well.

This is the first harvest from the first seeds that Celie planted in her little two year old beautiful life.

The Giant Marconi peppers weighed 1.63 pounds. There are several buds and flowers on all of the plants and I didn't want to inhibit their growth so I picked these Sunday.

That's all for this week's harvest info. I hope everyone is enjoying beautiful gardening weather!

Thanks for visiting.
Veggie PAK

Reliance Grape Problems on June 5th, 2011.

Last year, my Reliance grapes had the most vine growth out of the three types of grapes that I have. The other two types are Himrod and Glenora. All are seedless varieties. The other two types are doing excellent, each having dozens of clusters of grapes. This year, the vine that was the very best last year didn't even show signs of growth other than two small leaves at ground level. They have since withered away. The other Reliance vine came back and has many clusters of grapes on it. However, I think it is dieing. Take a look at this video of the vines and see what you think. This is a big impact on the gardening morale since I have been nurturing these vines for three years. Now in the fourth year when they are supposed to really produce, they get this. But, no one ever said growing things was easy. (Other than the directions on seed packets.)

I've contacted the Virginia Cooperative Extension Office (which, thankfully, is only two blocks over from our house) and I was asked to bring them a sample on Monday morning and they're going to send it right to their lab on the Virginia Eastern Shore to see if they can determine what the problem is.

All my vegetables and fruits are organic. I don't want to spray or treat them with anything that is not organic, since my grandchildren actively help me in the garden.

If anyone has any thoughts or experiences with this problem that you would like to share, I welcome your comments.

Thanks, and happy gardening!
Veggie PAK

 

Veggie PAK's First Blogging Anniversary on May 31st, 2011.

I began my blogging adventures one year ago today. It has been very interesting and fun. I have learned a lot about different methods of growing vegetables from a wide array of kind-hearted people that I have met during this past year.
To celebrate my blogging anniversary, I decided to do a little post on the status of our garden.

The petaluma gold rush beans are doing well planted where the chayote was located last year. The beans have been climbing vigorously the last couple of days and are looking nice and healthy.

The raspberries are growing pretty good, so there should be a nice total harvest this year.

The sorrell is ready for harvesting again. It's growing very well in this container.

The few seeds of bouquet dill have grown fairly well in the containers I planted them in.

The tomatoberry has sprouted two green tomatoes since my grandson Noah helped me transplant it to this pot.





My grapes are going to produce a wonderful harvest for us this year. The vines are full of grape clusters with more on the way. I can hardly wait for them!

Figs.

You can see the figs that I circled in order to see that there will be quite a few on the tree this year.

The whiteout corn is growing very nicely. It's time to side dress it and hill it up.

The six rows of fortex snap beans are doing great!  On June 1st, I'll be sowing the next planting of seed directly underneath the fence fabric. The existing vines will guide the new vines to the fence fabric.

The ruby red Swiss chard is doing very well and is almost ready for a harvest. We enjoy stuffed Swiss chard leaves for dinner from time to time.







Giant Marconi Green peppers are doing very well. It won't be long and these will be ready for picking.

The Big Boy tomatoes are flowering out very well. Thank goodness for all the honey bees from two doors down for pollinating them!

That's it for this anniversary post. I thank each person that helped me by answering my questions during this time. I also thank my wife for proofreading most of my work. She's been a big supporter of mine and I appreciate her efforts.

Happy gardening to all.

Have a wonderful day.
Veggie PAK

Food For Thought.

I want to share with you how important it is to keep a good supply of food stored in your home. We never know what could happen to impact the food supply, including the delivery of it. We should be prepared for some type of interruption during our daily lives.

On May 24th we had a terrible storm. The wind was so strong that it blew down groups of telephone poles because the wind resistance on the cables was too much for the poles to support. Many of the wooden poles had the "T" tops completely broken off of them and they were left swinging in the air. If the wind did that to power poles, you can imagine the number of trees that took additional wires down.  It left over 170,000 people without power. Some of those were without power for several days.

On the second day after the storm we went to our Big Box store and found a large portion of the refrigerated section looking like this:

Now the point here is not that the shelves are almost empty. The point is the speed at which this occurred. Just 24 to 48 hours and the store shelves looked like that. Are you prepared for something that happens that fast? I don't know if people bought all the food, or if the store lost their refrigeration and they threw the food away, or if the delivery trucks couldn't get through the maze of closed roads and streets. The cause is irrelevant but the end result is the same: EMPTY SHELVES. Thank the Good Lord that this wasn't a long drawn out event. Can you imagine two or three weeks of this? The damage here was minor compared to other places in the Country recently hit so hard by tornadoes.

Read about food storage methods that are in use today. Canned goods (all types) and dry goods (beans and rice) are the things to have on hand for those "just-in-case" scenarios. The water that those canned goods are packed in could be a lifesaver as well. If your water supply is out, you can drink the water the canned goods were packed in.

Home canned produce could be a lifesaver in a severe situation. I hope everyone tries their hand at home canning their produce.

Think about it.Wouldn't it be a good thing to do for yourself and your family?

Thanks for visiting.
Veggie PAK

Our Organic Seed Harvest Monday for May 23rd, 2011.

Our harvest for this week is organically grown Brussels sprout seeds.

These are two of our plants that I let go to seed. They are right at six feet tall. It's hard to tell in this pic, but the major portion of both plants are bent over on the left from what you see contrasted against the fence all the way down to the ground.

This is another angle showing the portion of the plants that are leaning over.

A close up pic shows how nice and full the pods are as well as how abundant they are.

After pulling them I hung the plants in my shop with a fan blowing on them to help them dry faster.

I undertook the tedious task of cutting each individual pod off the branch that it was connected to and collected them in this plastic tub.

This video shows how I got the process of seed removal going. After crushing all the seed pods I sifted out the larger pieces of hull using the top of my son's old iguana tank. The hardware cloth on it had holes that were about 5/16 of an inch square, so it kept out all the larger pieces.

This is the sifted result after all the seed pods were processed through the tank cover.

To further sort the seed from the chaff, I used a kitchen colander. I kept the seed material directly on the bottom and only sifted a little at a time. The holes on the bottom are smaller than on the sides, so you can get a cleaner product using just the bottom. I put about a tablespoonful of unsifted product in there, then rather than shake the colander, I tilted it at about 30 or 40 degrees and tapped on it. This let the round seed roll across the holes and fall through instead of shaking it and having the chaff turn at an angle and fall through with the seed. It wasn't a fool proof method by any means though. I repeated this process about six times for the entire batch of seed.

After all the work was done, we ended up with 3 1/2 ounces of organically produced Brussels sprout seeds. If each seed germinated and developed into a healthy plant, that would be more Brussels sprouts than I could eat during the rest of my life!



That's it for this week's harvest. Don't forget to check out Daphne's Dandelions at:
http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/

Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK

5 Reasons High Fructose Corn Syrup Will Kill You.

If you love your family and kids, and I know you all do, I think you should read this entire post. It will absolutely make a difference in their lives if you pay heed to the information contained herein. If you read it you will have the weapon of truth in your arsenal against the unscrupulous food industry and it's government supporters. We are just dollar bills to them. You can see by the frightening quote below that deception for the dollar goes at least as far back as the Truman era.

"IF YOU CAN’T CONVINCE THEM, CONFUSE THEM."

—Harry Truman

Now, if that isn't the standard practice of today, please tell me what is. I think it is unconscionable.


The portion within the double quotes is taken from Dr. Hyman's website address below. I encourage each of you to visit it for more information.

Have a safe and nutritious day,
Veggie PAK


http://drhyman.com/5-reasons-high-fructose-corn-syrup-will-kill-you-5050/

""The current media debate about the benefits (or lack of harm) of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in our diet misses the obvious. The average American increased their consumption of HFCS (mostly from sugar sweetened drinks and processed food) from zero to over 60 pounds per person per year. During that time period, obesity rates have more than tripled and diabetes incidence has increased more than seven fold. Not perhaps the only cause, but a fact that cannot be ignored.


Doubt and confusion are the currency of deception, and they sow the seeds of complacency. These are used skillfully through massive print and television advertising campaigns by the Corn Refiners Association’s attempt to dispel the “myth” that HFCS is harmful and assert through the opinion of “medical and nutrition experts” that it is no different than cane sugar. It is a “natural” product that is a healthy part of our diet when used in moderation.

Except for one problem. When used in moderation it is a major cause of heart disease, obesity, cancer, dementia, liver failure, tooth decay and more.


The Lengths the Corn Industry Will Go To




The goal of the corn industry is to call into question any claim of harm from consuming high fructose corn syrup, and to confuse and deflect by calling their product natural “corn sugar”. That’s like calling tobacco in cigarettes natural herbal medicine. Watch the slick ad where a caring father walks hand in hand with his four-year-old daughter through a big question mark carved in an idyllic cornfield.



In the ad, the father tells us:



“Like any parent I have questions about the food my daughter eats – like high fructose corn syrup. So I started looking for answers from medical and nutrition experts, and what I discovered whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar. Knowing that makes me feel better about what she eats and that’s one less thing to worry about.”





Physicians are also targeted directly. I received a 12-page color glossy monograph from the Corn Refiners Association reviewing the “science” that HFCS was safe and no different than cane sugar. I assume the other 700,000 physicians in America received the same propaganda at who knows what cost.



In addition to this, I received a special “personal” letter from the Corn Refiner’s Association outlining every mention of the problems with HCFS in our diet – whether in print, blogs, books, radio or television. They warned me of the errors of my ways and put me on “notice”. For what I am not sure. To think they are tracking this (and me) that closely gives me an Orwellian chill.



New websites like www.sweetsurprise.com and www.cornsugar.com help “set us straight” about HFCS with quotes from professors of nutrition and medicine and thought leaders from Harvard and other stellar institutions.



Why is the corn industry spending millions on misinformation campaigns to convince consumers and health care professionals of the safety of their product? Could it be that the food industry comprises 17 percent of our economy?



But are these twisted sweet lies or a sweet surprise, as the Corn Refiners Association websites claim?



What the Science Says about HFCS



Let’s examine the science and insert some common sense into the conversation. These facts may indeed come as a sweet surprise. The ads suggest getting your nutrition advice from your doctor (who, unfortunately, probably knows less about nutrition than most grandmothers). Having studied this for over a decade, and having read, interviewed or personally talked with most of the “medical and nutrition experts” used to bolster the claim that “corn sugar” and cane sugar are essentially the same, quite a different picture emerges and the role of HCFS in promoting obesity, disease and death across the globe becomes clear.



Last week over lunch with Dr. Bruce Ames, one of the foremost nutritional scientists in the world and Dr. Jeffrey Bland, a nutritional biochemist, a student of Linus Pauling and I reviewed the existing science, and Dr. Ames shared shocking new evidence from his research center on how HFCS can trigger body-wide inflammation and obesity.



Here are 5 reasons you should stay way from any product containing high fructose corn syrup and why it may kill you.

1. Sugar in any form causes obesity and disease when consumed in pharmacologic doses.



Cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup are indeed both harmful when consumed in pharmacologic doses of 140 pounds per person per year. When one 20 ounce HFCS sweetened soda, sports drink or tea has 17 teaspoons of sugar (and the average teenager often consumes two drinks a day) we are conducting a largely uncontrolled experiment on the human species. Our hunter gather ancestors consumed the equivalent of 20 teaspoons per year, not per day. In this sense, I would agree with the corn industry that sugar is sugar. Quantity matters. But there are some important differences.



2. HFCS and cane sugar are NOT biochemically identical or processed the same way by the body.



High fructose corn syrup is an industrial food product and far from “natural” or a naturally occurring substance. It is extracted from corn stalks through a process so secret that Archer Daniels Midland and Carghill would not allow the investigative journalist, Michael Pollan to observe it for his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The sugars are extracted through a chemical enzymatic process resulting in a chemically and biologically novel compound called HFCS.



Some basic biochemistry will help you understand this. Regular cane sugar (sucrose) is made of two-sugar molecules bound tightly together – glucose and fructose in equal amounts. The enzymes in your digestive tract must break down the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are then absorbed into the body.



HFCS also consists of glucose and fructose, not in a 50-50 ratio, but a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio in an unbound form. Fructose is sweeter than glucose. And HCFS is cheaper than sugar because of the government farm bill corn subsidies. Products with HFCS are sweeter and cheaper than products made with cane sugar. This allowed for the average soda size to balloon from 8 ounces to 20 ounces with little financial costs to manufacturers but great human costs of increased obesity, diabetes and chronic disease.



Now back to biochemistry. Since there is there is no chemical bond between them, no digestion is required so they are more rapidly absorbed into your blood stream. Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol) this is why it is the major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a condition called “fatty liver” which affects 70 million people. The rapidly absorbed glucose triggers big spikes in insulin – our body’s major fat storage hormone. Both these features of HFCS lead to increased metabolic disturbances that drive increases in appetite, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia and more.



But there was one more thing I learned during lunch with Dr. Bruce Ames. Research done by his group at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute found that free fructose from HFCS requires more energy to be absorbed by the gut and soaks up two phosphorous molecules from ATP (our body’s energy source). This depletes the energy fuel source or ATP in our gut required to maintain the integrity of our intestinal lining. Little “tight junctions” cement each intestinal cell together preventing food and bacteria from “leaking” across the intestinal membrane and triggering an immune reaction and body wide inflammation.



High doses of free fructose have been proven to literally punch holes in the intestinal lining allowing nasty byproducts of toxic gut bacteria and partially digested food proteins to enter your blood stream and trigger the inflammation that we know is at the root of obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia and accelerated aging. Naturally occurring fructose in fruit is part of a complex of nutrients and fiber that doesn’t exhibit the same biological effects as the free high fructose doses found in “corn sugar”.



The takeaway: Cane sugar and the industrially produced, euphemistically named “corn sugar” are not biochemically or physiologically the same.



3. HFCS contains contaminants including mercury that are not regulated or measured by the FDA



An FDA researcher asked corn producers to ship a barrel of high fructose corn syrup in order to test for contaminants. Her repeated requests were refused until she claimed she represented a newly created soft drink company. She was then promptly shipped a big vat of HFCS that was used as part of the study that showed that HFCS often contains toxic levels of mercury because of chlor-alkali products used in its manufacturing.(i) Poisoned sugar is certainly not “natural”.



When HFCS is run through a chemical analyzer or a chromatograph, strange chemical peaks show up that are not glucose or fructose. What are they? Who knows? This certainly calls into question the purity of this processed form of super sugar. The exact nature, effects and toxicity of these funny compounds have not been fully explained, but shouldn’t we be protected from the presence of untested chemical compounds in our food supply, especially when the contaminated food product comprises up to 15-20 percent of the average American’s daily calorie intake?

4. Independent medical and nutrition experts DO NOT support the use of HCFS in our diet, despite the assertions of the corn industry.



The corn industry’s happy looking websites www.cornsugar.com and www.sweetsurprise.com bolster their position that cane sugar and corn sugar are the same by quoting experts, or should we say mis-quoting …



Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has published widely on the dangers of sugar-sweetened drinks and their contribution to the obesity epidemic. In a review of HFCS in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,(ii) he explains the mechanism by which the free fructose may contribute to obesity. He states that:



“The digestion, absorption, and metabolism of fructose differ from those of glucose. Hepatic metabolism of fructose favors de novo lipogenesis [production of fat in the liver]. In addition, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin production. Because insulin and leptin act as key afferent signals in the regulation of food intake and body weight [to control appetite], this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased energy intake and weight gain. Furthermore, calorically sweetened beverages may enhance caloric overconsumption.”





He states that HFCS is absorbed more rapidly than regular sugar, and that it doesn’t stimulate insulin or leptin production. This prevents you from triggering the body’s signals for being full and may lead to overconsumption of total calories.



He concludes by saying that:





“… the increase in consumption of HFCS has a temporal relation to the epidemic of obesity, and the overconsumption of HFCS in calorically sweetened beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity.”



The corn industry takes his comments out of context to support their position. “All sugar you eat is the same.”



True pharmacologic doses of any kind of sugar are harmful, but the biochemistry of different kinds of sugar and their respective effects on absorption, appetite and metabolism are different, and Dr. Popkin knows that.



David S. Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, and a personal friend has published extensively on the dangers and the obesogenic properties of sugar-sweetened beverages. He was quoted as saying that “high fructose corn syrup is one of the most misunderstood products in the food industry.” When I asked him why he supported the corn industry, he told me he didn’t and that his comments were taken totally out of context.





Misrepresenting science is one thing, misrepresenting scientists who have been at the forefront of the fight against obesity and high fructose sugar sweetened beverages is quite another.



5. HCFS is almost always a marker of poor-quality, nutrient-poor disease creating industrial food products or “food-like substances”.



The last reason to avoid products that contain HFCS is that they are a marker for poor-quality, nutritionally depleted, processed industrial food full of empty calories and artificial ingredients. If you find “high fructose corn syrup” on the label you can be sure it is not a whole, real, fresh food full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants. Stay away if you want to stay healthy. We still must reduce our overall consumption of sugar, but with this one simple dietary change you can radically reduce your health risks and improve your health.



While debate may rage about the biochemistry and physiology of cane sugar vs. corn sugar, this is in fact beside the point (despite the finer points of my scientific analysis above). The conversation has been diverted to a simple assertion that cane sugar and corn sugar are not different.



The real issues are only two.



1.We are consuming HFCS and sugar in pharmacologic quantities never before experienced in human history — 140 pounds a year vs. 20 teaspoons a year 10,000 years ago.

2.High fructose corn syrup is always found in very poor quality foods that are nutritionally vacuous and filled with all sorts of other disease promoting compounds, fats, salt, chemicals and even mercury.

These critical ideas should be the heart of the national conversation, not the meaningless confusing ads and statements by the corn industry in the media and online that attempt to assure the public that the biochemistry of real sugar and industrially produced sugar from corn are the same.""



""Do you think there is an association between the introduction of HFCS in our diet and the obesity epidemic?



What reason do you think the Corn Refiners Association has for running such ads and publishing websites like those listed in this article?



What do you think of the science presented here and the general effects of HFCS on the American diet?""

(You can go to Dr. Hyman's website to leave a comment for him on these questions he poses.)

""References



(i) Dufault, R., LeBlanc, B., Schnoll, R. et al. 2009. Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: Measured concentrations in food product sugar. Environ Health. 26(8):2.



(ii) Bray, G.A., Nielsen, S.J., and B.M. Popkin. 2004. Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 79(4):537-43. Review.""