Tuesday, March 03, 2009

That FSA apple

It seems that the FSA is suggesting that eating enough fructose will make a maggot eat your heart out! Some sense at last. Oh no! They think that apples are GOOD for you. But a maggot has certainly eaten a heart out of the apple... I suppose it's as accurate as suggesting that the temperature-drop induced phase change from liquid to solid of saturated fat, the one which blocks drains, will also block your arteries. Perhaps the FSA has a heart of ice!

My taxes are paying these idiots' wages!




To quote JohnN:

"What the apple hates anthropomorphically is the relentless human selection that gives rise to the grotesque size and fructose content of its fruit"

I love the concept of apples as grotesque!

Peter

12 comments:

thequickbrownfox said...

Worse yet:

"Cooking with sunflower oil or olive oil instead of butter can help you reduce your intake of saturated fat."

Another FSA "health" message with the obligatory heart symbol drawn in oil on the frying pan. It's the sunflower oil part that I find particularly annoying. Someone needs to inform them!

Stan Bleszynski said...

Re: informing

What for? I tried and it doesn't do any good at all! The effect was exactly the same as trying to advise my Irish wife's friends not to "invest" in property.

How about letting them eat their own stew?

Anna said...

Have you seen the McDonald's "healthy" kids meal packet of apple slices (soaked in some incredibly sweet preservative concoction), complete with caramel (HFCS) dipping sauce? But it's low in fat...

Or their apple slice & walnuts "healthy" snack (also preserved with something super-sweet that prevents oxidation)....sheesh!

I would say they should probably just sell plain apples, but if they did, they'd probably be those Washington State produce warehouse staples, Red Delicious variety. They look fantastic, but have the texture of styrofoam and about a much flavor, too.

Ugh. "Healthy"options, indeed! I prefer my apple and pear slices slathered with mascarpone cheese, or with thick slices of a nice aged cheddar, gouda, or Stilton, heavy on the cheese and light on the apple. A few soaked and dried walnuts on the side is nice, too.

ItsTheWooo said...

I'm pretty sure industry/money is the only thing considered when governments make these sort of recommendations. It is unfathomable that anyone remotely interested in the truth can still believe a high carbohydrate PUFA diet is the way to go. It's pretty well known that inflammation causes HD by now, it's known insulin is very inflammatory, it's known a high energy diet containing lots of carbohydrate raises insulin most.

I no longer pay attention at all to such things because I view them as logically the equal of a commercial for industry.

curiousfarmer said...

Peter,
I thought I was the only one eating a meat diet. http://curiousfarmer.wordpress.com/meat-diet/
If I'm a guinea pig, you are a lab rat conducting your own research. I am big on animal fats, never met anyone publicly against fruits and vegetables. I'm adding you to my blogroll.

Jase said...

The UK is still horribly dominated by 'low-fat' dogma. Go to any supermarket and see the onslaught of low-fat products.

I don't think anything is going to change for a very long time. The FSA has to turn around and say they were wrong. can you imagine that?

Peter said...

Curiousfarmer,

The WHEL, PPT and the Denmark flavanoid elimiation trials were pretty convincing that fruit and veg are at best neutral. No point doing these trials and then ignoring the results, you would have to be Dr McDougal or the EU to do that!

Jase,

Yes. A long way to go. The about turn on eggs has happened but I don't think we ever did the public anti egg thing the way we are getting the anti saturated fat campaign at the moment. The only thing which gives me hope is watching what is happening in Sweden. That's very exciting.

Peter

Valda Redfern said...

The FSA? Let them eat carrot cake. The best one can hope for is that the populace will ignore them as being just much a waste of space as the other FSA.

JohnN said...

A bag of fructose (which is what an over-bred Fuji apple seems like nowadays) is just as bad as a bag of Doritos.
However, I'm on the fence on this apple-bashing event. Definitely on the fence, body horizontal over the neighbor yard, inches from catastrophe, reaching toward the last of the blood oranges hanging of the branches, basking in the sun.
We're making do with the fine taste of the homegrown persimmon (Fuyu), Meyer lemon, blood orange (Moro) and even the spotted original Fuji apple, that can't seem to defend itself against the California insects, comforting in the knowledge that we're eating real foods in season. Hopefully, some of these will eventually switch on my Sir2 (of the deacetylases) and keep me around awhile longer.
If it's neither fat-free, nor fructose, nor fiber, nor potassium, nor flavonoid, nor antioxidant, nor structured-water that is good for you then what is it?
I'm betting on xenohormesis.

R K @ Health Matters To Me said...

Hi Peter,

I believe that fruits and veggies are entirely unnecessary and may even be harmful in large amounts. Fructose seems to be a no-win situation from what I've read from Taubes and others, messing with insulin production and triglycerides and such. Even if in "natural" foods with all the "beneficial" fiber and vitamins and antioxidants, I'm not so sure that fructose is the least bit health-promoting.

I eat an optimal diet, too. High-fat, lots of ghee and goat butter, meat, eggs, and potatoes or rice. Low-fiber starch seems to be the safest carb-source, as it breaks down to glucose as opposed to that nasty fructose!

Really enjoy the blog, by the way. Keep up the great work!

DancinPete said...

do you think there's any correlation with the Judeo/Christian "incident" of Adam being tempted by the evil apple? Did the people who wrote the bible stories know more about nutrition than our current authorities?

Peter said...

Hi Pete,

There's probably a lot more relevance to Caine and Abel about farmers vs pastoralists according to Daniel Quinn, but the apple and the serpent always cracks me up...

Peter