Caffeine and hacking (was Re: Soldering)

[Cameron Kaiser]

> > Refined cane sugar (sucrose) isn't really any less evil, chemically,
> > than HFCS, but it tastes better.
>
> Actually it is.  While too much sugar in your blood is bad from an
> insulin level and resistance point of view, the glucose part of sucrose
> can be metabolized by any cell in your body.  fructose OTOH can only be
> metabolized by liver cells, and in the process causes damage to your
> liver - as much as alcohol, and in the same ways, without any of the
> enjoyment.
> 
> see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
> 
> That new agave syrup stuff is an abomination, it's a super high fructose
> syrup.

K, time for medical reality before this swings too wide.

- Truth: fructose metabolism is essentially exclusive to the liver.

- Truth: people who report a large amount of fructose intake also have
  higher rates of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, and upregulation of the
  enzymes responsible for fructose metabolism in liver biopsies.

- Not yet? truth: an actual smoking gun. Many such studies haven't controlled
  for other liver-deleterious dietary problems (and to their credit admit
  it), and because of recall bias, may not be able to control for it by
  design. It is entirely possible that it's a marker, not a cause, and other
  factors may lead to the liver damage. See, for example,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2423467/?tool=pmcentrez
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15051594 [full text available]

If we wanted to be totally non-evil, then we should be all eating glucose,
but if you've tasted glucose you will also realize that based on the taste
demands of the populace, that won't happen.

-- 
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
  Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- Mistakes are often the stepping stones to catastrophic failure. ------------