Friends:
Our nation is in terrible financial trouble. Our dollar is de-valued, and the President is urging cuts to spending that will seriously affect our infrastructure.
I have an idea on how to keep from doing this, get America back on an even financial keel, and keep us from bankruptcy and insolvency.
#1. Cut foreign aid.
Here is the amount we are spending in direct payments to foreign countries.
Rank Countries Amount
# 1 United States: $23,530,000,000.00
# 2 United Kingdom: $12,460,000,000.00
# 3 France: $10,600,000,000.00
# 4 Germany: $10,440,000,000.00
# 5 Japan: $7,500,000,000.00
# 6 Netherlands: $5,452,000,000.00
# 7 Sweden: $3,955,000,000.00
# 8 Canada: $3,900,000,000.00
# 9 Spain: $3,814,000,000.00
# 10 Italy: $3,641,000,000.00
# 11 Norway: $2,954,000,000.00
# 12 Denmark: $2,236,000,000.00
# 13 Australia: $2,123,000,000.00
# 14 Belgium: $1,978,000,000.00
# 15 Switzerland: $1,646,000,000.00
# 16 Austria: $1,498,000,000.00
# 17 Finland: $1,023,000,000.00
# 18 Ireland: $1,022,000,000.00
# 19 Korea, South: $455,300,000.00
# 20 Greece: $424,000,000.00
# 21 Portugal: $396,000,000.00
# 22 Luxembourg: $291,000,000.00
# 23 New Zealand: $259,000,000.00
# 24 Cyprus: $25,900,000.00
# 25 Iceland: $6,700,000.00
# 26 Lesotho: $4,400,000.00
#2. Bring our troops home from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places that we have invaded, and caused untold amount of death and destruction.
The war in Afghanistan has cost the United States $443 billion from 2001
through 2011, according to the Congressional Research Office.
There are a number of other things that can be done, but it is my considered opinion that if we start by eliminating those enormous drains on our economy, we will be well on our way t financial solvency.
Agape
Lee
Monday, February 25, 2013
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
November 7, 2012
A friend wrote to me this morning, expressing concern over the re-election of The President. I wrote back saying:
"I am very distressed that Obama appears to have won reelection. I fear for our country. I fear for the world. But, I know that in God's sight, these things must come to pass. In Matthew 24:8, Jesus says "All these things are the beginning of sorrows. I am firmly convinced that we are living in the end times, and that the things that preclude the end of the world as we know it are upon us. We have done what we can to stave off the day, but it is now at hand. Turn your heart to God through Jesus Christ, and though the body may perish, our soul will survive."
I thought that I would share that with my readers. There is not much else I can say about yesterday's elections. The people have spoken. Whether they are guided by the hand of God, or the hand of the devil, I do not know.
All I do know, is that I have done my political duty. I supported the candidates that I thought would best serve us. In the end, it will matter little. My human will continue through good, or evil , and when the time will come, it will cease to breath in. Then my soul will be free from this world, and as a little child, I will sleep safe in the arms of Jesus.
Agape
Lee
A friend wrote to me this morning, expressing concern over the re-election of The President. I wrote back saying:
"I am very distressed that Obama appears to have won reelection. I fear for our country. I fear for the world. But, I know that in God's sight, these things must come to pass. In Matthew 24:8, Jesus says "All these things are the beginning of sorrows. I am firmly convinced that we are living in the end times, and that the things that preclude the end of the world as we know it are upon us. We have done what we can to stave off the day, but it is now at hand. Turn your heart to God through Jesus Christ, and though the body may perish, our soul will survive."
I thought that I would share that with my readers. There is not much else I can say about yesterday's elections. The people have spoken. Whether they are guided by the hand of God, or the hand of the devil, I do not know.
All I do know, is that I have done my political duty. I supported the candidates that I thought would best serve us. In the end, it will matter little. My human will continue through good, or evil , and when the time will come, it will cease to breath in. Then my soul will be free from this world, and as a little child, I will sleep safe in the arms of Jesus.
Agape
Lee
Monday, October 29, 2012
Update From The Farm
So I get this message from my beaucoc son saying something like why haven’t you written on your blog? I miss reading it. So, I figured I’d better get off my duff, and write. Or, I suppose, more accurately, I’d better get ON my duff, in front of the computer, and write. So here’s the latest from Fringe Benefit Farm.
The Sugarbeet harvest is over here in the Lower Yellowstone Valley. As you know, I drive a truck in the harvest, hauling beets from the field to a receiving station, where they are piled and then transferred to Billings to be processed into sugar.
It’s really a good job. Sort of a vacation for me, whose life now that I’m retired is pretty much a vacation anyway. For a few weeks, I get to go to work driving a semi again. This year I got upgraded fro the International that I had been driving for several years to a Kenworth. Say... Bigtime!
The harvest went well. We had a little rain, and couldn’t get into the field for a couple of days, and then had to be towed through the field for several days in order to load the beets. Ytrying, and sometimes frustrating, but, all in a day’s work.
The beets are planted in rows, and irrigated by enormous sprinklers. When they are ready to harvest, a worker drives a tractor pulling a defoliator, which cuts the green leafy tops off, and flails the greens into virtually nothing. Then a worker, in this case, my boss, Steve Lachman, who owns the farm, drives a tractor pulling a beet digger. The digger cuts them out of the ground, cleans most of the dirt off, and deposits the beets into a semi trailer pulled by a big truck tractor. The beets are transferred to the piler, where they are weighed, graded, and tested for sugar content. They are then transferred to Billings to the Western Sugar Co-op refinery to be turned into the delicious stuff that makes your tea sweeter, and your crumpets tasty.
It is October 29th, as I write this. The elections are getting close, and I have been busy campaigning for the Libertarian Party candidates.
I am terribly worried about the direction the United States is taking under the leadership of the Republican and Democratic parties. I am among a large number of people who think that the government is not following constitutional guidelines, and as the horsey set says, is about to come a cropper.
I have been a follower of Ron Paul for a number of years, and not that he is no longer in the running, have switched my allegiance to Gary Johnson, the candidate of the Libertarian Party.
I have been a member of the Libertarian Party for a number of years, and believe that they have the right approach to the governance of our nation. That approach is pretty much summed up as “Leave us alone, we can do it better by ourselves without outside, and especially government interference, thank you very much.”
I could go on for hours, but I won’t. (I can see the readers all saying, “Whew! he’s finally off of that political stuff”.)
The Lord has been blessing me recently as a preacher. I have been delivering some (I think,) particularly good messages lately. I record all my sermons, and in listening to the playback, sometimes say, “Wow! That guy really is a preacher!”
If you want a CD containing some messages, I have them available for free. I would ask that you kick in a couple of bucks for postage, and supplies, though. If you can’t afford it, I’ll send them out anyway, but it does rather put a strain on my income, which is largely Social Security. (What!?!, a Libertarian on Social Security?!?) Yep. I paid. I draw, but I don’t abuse.
The blank CDs cost something, The labels, and the ink to print them cost something. I DO NOT want to maker a profit, as mine is pretty much a self supported missionary effort. Kinda ,my way of paying back some of the goodness that has been given me by God’s wonderful grace, and the atoning blood of Jesus.
I thought about transcribing one of my sermons here, but I’m not all that good a typist, and it takes hours to do a sound to writing transcription. But if you are deaf, I will. Hey! Gotta get the message out about Jesus any way I can.
I am still doing freelance radio commercials from mky little studio here at home. - See my website - leethevoice.com
I am currently doing commercials for The Marks Group. It is a combine of eight or ten radio stations, and four or five TV stations. I mostly do spots for our local outlets here in Montana and North Dakota, but have done several for the entire chain.
I have done a couple of ads running nationwide for Betty Kilbride who is an author and friend. I also recorded one of her books for an audio book, but don’t know when it will be released. I’m pretty proud of the fact that I did it though. Not many people get to do that.
One of my ambitions is to do voice-overs and narrations for TV and films. I’d like to do stuff like narrating National Geographic videos and the like. I have a friend in California who does, or did, the voice over for Disney documentaries. That looks like a pretty good gig. I’d like to do cartoon voices too. May not happen, but I can dream.
We had a little bit of snow a couple of nights ago, but not enough to measure. It’s Deer season in Montana, and My friend Ron and I plan to go out and pursue the wiley stag. If things go as they uysually do, we’ll have a cold snap and a heavy snow driven into a blizzard on the day we plan to go out. It won’t stop us though. That way the hunting stories are better.
I’d like to take my Kids and grandkids out hunting with me, but they all live a thousand miles away in the east and the west. There is not a lot better place to live than Montana, but I do miss spoiling grandkids, and being a pest to my kids.
We are having some friend in for Thanksgiving this year. Mom, Buck and Mary were up last year. That was one of the better things that happened in a long time. I miss my family. We are a pretty tight knit bunch, and our numbers are starting to diminish more rapidly than I would like. We lost Judy and Virginia this year, and the older generation is looking pretty shakey. Hmm. Guess Im pretty close to that age myself. Oh, well. I’ve enjoyed the trip so far, and am looking forward to the destination. I can see it now. “Lee, wipe your feet. I don’t want you tracking gold dust all over the floor.”
That’s about all for now from Fringe Benefit Farm. Hope to be a little more faithful in writing in future, but no promises.
Agape
Lee
The Sugarbeet harvest is over here in the Lower Yellowstone Valley. As you know, I drive a truck in the harvest, hauling beets from the field to a receiving station, where they are piled and then transferred to Billings to be processed into sugar.
It’s really a good job. Sort of a vacation for me, whose life now that I’m retired is pretty much a vacation anyway. For a few weeks, I get to go to work driving a semi again. This year I got upgraded fro the International that I had been driving for several years to a Kenworth. Say... Bigtime!
The harvest went well. We had a little rain, and couldn’t get into the field for a couple of days, and then had to be towed through the field for several days in order to load the beets. Ytrying, and sometimes frustrating, but, all in a day’s work.
The beets are planted in rows, and irrigated by enormous sprinklers. When they are ready to harvest, a worker drives a tractor pulling a defoliator, which cuts the green leafy tops off, and flails the greens into virtually nothing. Then a worker, in this case, my boss, Steve Lachman, who owns the farm, drives a tractor pulling a beet digger. The digger cuts them out of the ground, cleans most of the dirt off, and deposits the beets into a semi trailer pulled by a big truck tractor. The beets are transferred to the piler, where they are weighed, graded, and tested for sugar content. They are then transferred to Billings to the Western Sugar Co-op refinery to be turned into the delicious stuff that makes your tea sweeter, and your crumpets tasty.
It is October 29th, as I write this. The elections are getting close, and I have been busy campaigning for the Libertarian Party candidates.
I am terribly worried about the direction the United States is taking under the leadership of the Republican and Democratic parties. I am among a large number of people who think that the government is not following constitutional guidelines, and as the horsey set says, is about to come a cropper.
I have been a follower of Ron Paul for a number of years, and not that he is no longer in the running, have switched my allegiance to Gary Johnson, the candidate of the Libertarian Party.
I have been a member of the Libertarian Party for a number of years, and believe that they have the right approach to the governance of our nation. That approach is pretty much summed up as “Leave us alone, we can do it better by ourselves without outside, and especially government interference, thank you very much.”
I could go on for hours, but I won’t. (I can see the readers all saying, “Whew! he’s finally off of that political stuff”.)
The Lord has been blessing me recently as a preacher. I have been delivering some (I think,) particularly good messages lately. I record all my sermons, and in listening to the playback, sometimes say, “Wow! That guy really is a preacher!”
If you want a CD containing some messages, I have them available for free. I would ask that you kick in a couple of bucks for postage, and supplies, though. If you can’t afford it, I’ll send them out anyway, but it does rather put a strain on my income, which is largely Social Security. (What!?!, a Libertarian on Social Security?!?) Yep. I paid. I draw, but I don’t abuse.
The blank CDs cost something, The labels, and the ink to print them cost something. I DO NOT want to maker a profit, as mine is pretty much a self supported missionary effort. Kinda ,my way of paying back some of the goodness that has been given me by God’s wonderful grace, and the atoning blood of Jesus.
I thought about transcribing one of my sermons here, but I’m not all that good a typist, and it takes hours to do a sound to writing transcription. But if you are deaf, I will. Hey! Gotta get the message out about Jesus any way I can.
I am still doing freelance radio commercials from mky little studio here at home. - See my website - leethevoice.com
I am currently doing commercials for The Marks Group. It is a combine of eight or ten radio stations, and four or five TV stations. I mostly do spots for our local outlets here in Montana and North Dakota, but have done several for the entire chain.
I have done a couple of ads running nationwide for Betty Kilbride who is an author and friend. I also recorded one of her books for an audio book, but don’t know when it will be released. I’m pretty proud of the fact that I did it though. Not many people get to do that.
One of my ambitions is to do voice-overs and narrations for TV and films. I’d like to do stuff like narrating National Geographic videos and the like. I have a friend in California who does, or did, the voice over for Disney documentaries. That looks like a pretty good gig. I’d like to do cartoon voices too. May not happen, but I can dream.
We had a little bit of snow a couple of nights ago, but not enough to measure. It’s Deer season in Montana, and My friend Ron and I plan to go out and pursue the wiley stag. If things go as they uysually do, we’ll have a cold snap and a heavy snow driven into a blizzard on the day we plan to go out. It won’t stop us though. That way the hunting stories are better.
I’d like to take my Kids and grandkids out hunting with me, but they all live a thousand miles away in the east and the west. There is not a lot better place to live than Montana, but I do miss spoiling grandkids, and being a pest to my kids.
We are having some friend in for Thanksgiving this year. Mom, Buck and Mary were up last year. That was one of the better things that happened in a long time. I miss my family. We are a pretty tight knit bunch, and our numbers are starting to diminish more rapidly than I would like. We lost Judy and Virginia this year, and the older generation is looking pretty shakey. Hmm. Guess Im pretty close to that age myself. Oh, well. I’ve enjoyed the trip so far, and am looking forward to the destination. I can see it now. “Lee, wipe your feet. I don’t want you tracking gold dust all over the floor.”
That’s about all for now from Fringe Benefit Farm. Hope to be a little more faithful in writing in future, but no promises.
Agape
Lee
Monday, April 2, 2012
Losses
I really want to write something, but I don't know where to start. I am grieving. Last December, I lost our sister Judy. It was expected, because she had been fighting cancer for years. Surgery, radiation, chemo, and some wonderful experimental treatment in Missouri that prolonged her life for years. But it got her.
I remember her as a tiny little thing that Mama brought home from the hospital in 1944. She cried a lot. I was four years old, and was learning to tie my shoes. I didn't understand that babies cry a lot.
She grew up to be a pretty girl, and right out of high school, married the love of her life, Ron. He was a Forest Service guy, and is a brilliant man, who absolutely adored her. But she's gone, and there is a hole in the heart of Ron, her kids, our mom, my brother, and me. How can you replace someone like that.
Then, last month, I got a phone call late at night from Mama. I knew that it was bad, because she would never call at that time of night, unless it was. And it was. My oldest daughter, Virginia was in a coma, and not expected to make it. I readied myself for the trip to California, and in the morning, just before I left, I got the message. She was gone.
I went out anyway. I tried my best to comfort her husband, Pat, my son-in-law. No, my son. He became part of my life, and always will be part of my life as a son. The same for Virginia's former husband, Dann. He is one of my sons too.
But a light has gone out in my life. My little Grinnie girl is gone. How I loved her. She had a hell of a life. More like a life of hell. Her Daddy, and her mom are both addicts of one kind an another. She was reared by a succession of step dads who did not always treat her well. I don't want to go into that right now, because this is a time for tears, and not a time for getting all pissed off. Besides, those guys are dead. One may still be around, but he's dead to me.
Virginia loved the sunshine. She loved to play out in the sun. She would spend most of her “Daddy Day” with me when I lived at the beach, picking up sand dollars, pretty shells and pretty rocks. Virginia loved pretty things.
And she loved to dance. If we had been rich, and could have afforded dancing lessons, she might have been a ballerina. But she wasn't. She was a beautiful, outgoing woman with an infectious smile that could charm anybody who ever saw it.
She loved animals. She got a wild mustang, and tamed it, and gentled it, and rode it all the time.
There was a down side. Alcohol. I am sorry to say that she inherited the family disease. She fought it, and struggled with it, and, like her dad, it cost her everything dear to her. One of my most cherished memories is being invited to speak at a major 12 step organization convention. (She wrangled it for me. Her and that grin.) My two girls were on the platform with me. Both sober and in their right minds. What a joy that was.
The bright spot in my story, is the booze didn't get her. An overdose of Tylenol did. Seems it accumulates in the system. Everything is fine until one day you take the recommended dose, and your grandmother calls your dad with bad news.
I don't know where to go with this. As an inventory step, I know that I am not at fault, but I am still walking around with a hole in me... Two holes. Both of them caused by the loss of two of my most cherished people.
My life will go on, and I will survive another 24 hours, and another 24 hours until one day I get the chance to see them again. And I will, because I know that they were both committed, born again Christians, and we will meet again in heaven. My soul rejoices in that. But right now, my human is very lonely.
Agape
Lee
Saturday, January 28, 2012
A Nice Morning
Good morning!
At 7:00am, I could see well enough to not have to feed the chickens in total darkness. The sky is lightening nicely with just the remainder of a few clouds moving off to the east. It is still pretty cool, at 17f above, but at least it's above. I think it is going to be a very nice day.
It has been a very dry winter here at Fringe Benefit Farm. We have received less than 6" of snow, and a total of around 2" of rain. That is not going to be good for the grass. I hope to be able to buy a couple of wiener calves this spring. We plan to sell one in the fall, and eat the other. Hoping for enough soil moisture to be able to provide enough grass to feed them without supplementing. So, like every other cattleman, - Hey, a herd is a herd, no matter the size- I'm hoping for enough rainfall, or snowfall to provide the soil moisture to grow the grass that will grow my stock.
One of the neighbors has put cattle in on the the harvested corn field across the ditch. He asked if he could put up a fence along my side of the ditch. I was delighted. I really didn't have enough money to build the fence to keep my cattle in, so it was a good thing for all concerned. He put up the posts, and strung one wire, which he electrified. All I have to do is buy enough wire to string four more, and Tadaa! a fence. Ain't God good?Barbed wire is expensive, but fence posts are really expensive, and while calves are not too bad, they still cost. Hopefully, God will provide so that I can provide.
That's what farmers do. We provide. We provide for our families, and provide food for a hungry world. In the end, there's not a lot of monetary profit in it, but the satisfaction index is very high. We know when that truck leaves with the last load of cattle, or sugar beets, or grain, or vegetable produce, we have done our part. Hopefully there will be enough to satisfy the banker too. But we all survive.
Not much else, Still busy making commercials here and there, and preaching the word of God. All is well on Fringe Benefit Farm.
Agape
Lee
At 7:00am, I could see well enough to not have to feed the chickens in total darkness. The sky is lightening nicely with just the remainder of a few clouds moving off to the east. It is still pretty cool, at 17f above, but at least it's above. I think it is going to be a very nice day.
It has been a very dry winter here at Fringe Benefit Farm. We have received less than 6" of snow, and a total of around 2" of rain. That is not going to be good for the grass. I hope to be able to buy a couple of wiener calves this spring. We plan to sell one in the fall, and eat the other. Hoping for enough soil moisture to be able to provide enough grass to feed them without supplementing. So, like every other cattleman, - Hey, a herd is a herd, no matter the size- I'm hoping for enough rainfall, or snowfall to provide the soil moisture to grow the grass that will grow my stock.
One of the neighbors has put cattle in on the the harvested corn field across the ditch. He asked if he could put up a fence along my side of the ditch. I was delighted. I really didn't have enough money to build the fence to keep my cattle in, so it was a good thing for all concerned. He put up the posts, and strung one wire, which he electrified. All I have to do is buy enough wire to string four more, and Tadaa! a fence. Ain't God good?Barbed wire is expensive, but fence posts are really expensive, and while calves are not too bad, they still cost. Hopefully, God will provide so that I can provide.
That's what farmers do. We provide. We provide for our families, and provide food for a hungry world. In the end, there's not a lot of monetary profit in it, but the satisfaction index is very high. We know when that truck leaves with the last load of cattle, or sugar beets, or grain, or vegetable produce, we have done our part. Hopefully there will be enough to satisfy the banker too. But we all survive.
Not much else, Still busy making commercials here and there, and preaching the word of God. All is well on Fringe Benefit Farm.
Agape
Lee
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Gambling And Growth - A Prophecy
Of all the addictions from which I suffer, and continue to struggle against in my recovery, gambling is not one. I admit to have pulled a few handles on slot machines, played a bit of roulette, and engaged in some poker games in my youth, but I am not driven by the urge to gamble. For one thing, when I pull a handle, and win, I want to see that money hit the tray, not a little icon that tells me that I have won, and then take a little chit to someone for a payout. For me, at least, that ruins the fun.
There are those for whom gambling, like addiction to substances such as alcohol and other drugs, is a problem. This message is not directed to them. This message is about gambling as an industry, and it's effect on a little town on the Northern Plains.
The town of Miles City, MT. is the focus of this message. Our county seat has fallen on hard times. They were founded as a support community for an army post. In the beginning, there were a few stores for supplies, and a large number of saloons, gambling halls, and brothels. The stores are still there, as are the saloons and gambling halls. The brothels went the way of all things, and the girls now work the saloons as pretty much free lance entrepreneurs.
The military bases went away with the folding of the cold war. One of the two railroads which served the area and provided much of the income to residents is defunct. The other has tracks through town, but no longer stops there, and the people employed by the road are very few.
Miles City was a rail head for the cattle drives of the 1880s and '90s, but that has long ago faded into history. They do have a very active, and good livestock sales yard, but although it employs a few people, can hardly be called the town's major industry.
The town is dying by degrees. A major big box store came in and has driven out most of the locally owned stores. They are an out of state owned company, and since Montana has no sales tax, very little of the money made from sales there goes to the city, county, or state. Other than the few big stores, government employees, and there are many, are the major source of income to the town. The other major source of income is still saloons and gambling halls.
There are coal mines nearby,and the railroad serves them. A short line terminating in Miles City has been proposed which would cut hundreds of miles from the route. Obstructionists to progress, and an anti-growth faction have curtailed it. Meanwhile, another line is being built to the south, which will take the coal to the power plants in the east on a less circuitous route. The long range forecast is that the existing railroad will pretty much stop hauling coal through our region within the next 50 years.
The once bustling downtown area is dead and dying. Most of the businesses have, or are moving to the Haynes Avenue strip on the east end of town. Nearly the only thing left downtown are some of the century old saloons and gambling halls.
I have come up with a solution. Make downtown a gambling mecca. Put in giant casinos with big name entertainment. Lights, glitz and glitter. Turn downtown Miles City into Las Vegas Montana. There were once a large number of hotels there, but they are gone except for one. Rebuild them. Make Miles City the tourist, and entertainment capital of Montana.
The detractors will say "Oh! but that will bring in crime!" Probably, but the police department would grow and expand to cope with the problem. Or, "Oh! Miles City is too remote.Nobody would come!" Consider Las Vegas. A little railroad siding in the middle of the most inhospitable region of Nevada, has become one of Western Americas largest,most prosperous cities. No. as the line from a movie said, "If you build it they will come."
I realize that sin is hardly a means by which the area should grow, but I don't think building a big church on every corner of the downtown area would draw many tourists. No, Casinos are the only way to go. (In the meantime giving preachers a much larger field in which to work.) Otherwise, the lovely little down of Miles City will continue it's decline. The downward spiral will increase in speed until there is nothing left but an unused siding on a little used, and soon to be removed railroad line.
Lee Akers
There are those for whom gambling, like addiction to substances such as alcohol and other drugs, is a problem. This message is not directed to them. This message is about gambling as an industry, and it's effect on a little town on the Northern Plains.
The town of Miles City, MT. is the focus of this message. Our county seat has fallen on hard times. They were founded as a support community for an army post. In the beginning, there were a few stores for supplies, and a large number of saloons, gambling halls, and brothels. The stores are still there, as are the saloons and gambling halls. The brothels went the way of all things, and the girls now work the saloons as pretty much free lance entrepreneurs.
The military bases went away with the folding of the cold war. One of the two railroads which served the area and provided much of the income to residents is defunct. The other has tracks through town, but no longer stops there, and the people employed by the road are very few.
Miles City was a rail head for the cattle drives of the 1880s and '90s, but that has long ago faded into history. They do have a very active, and good livestock sales yard, but although it employs a few people, can hardly be called the town's major industry.
The town is dying by degrees. A major big box store came in and has driven out most of the locally owned stores. They are an out of state owned company, and since Montana has no sales tax, very little of the money made from sales there goes to the city, county, or state. Other than the few big stores, government employees, and there are many, are the major source of income to the town. The other major source of income is still saloons and gambling halls.
There are coal mines nearby,and the railroad serves them. A short line terminating in Miles City has been proposed which would cut hundreds of miles from the route. Obstructionists to progress, and an anti-growth faction have curtailed it. Meanwhile, another line is being built to the south, which will take the coal to the power plants in the east on a less circuitous route. The long range forecast is that the existing railroad will pretty much stop hauling coal through our region within the next 50 years.
The once bustling downtown area is dead and dying. Most of the businesses have, or are moving to the Haynes Avenue strip on the east end of town. Nearly the only thing left downtown are some of the century old saloons and gambling halls.
I have come up with a solution. Make downtown a gambling mecca. Put in giant casinos with big name entertainment. Lights, glitz and glitter. Turn downtown Miles City into Las Vegas Montana. There were once a large number of hotels there, but they are gone except for one. Rebuild them. Make Miles City the tourist, and entertainment capital of Montana.
The detractors will say "Oh! but that will bring in crime!" Probably, but the police department would grow and expand to cope with the problem. Or, "Oh! Miles City is too remote.Nobody would come!" Consider Las Vegas. A little railroad siding in the middle of the most inhospitable region of Nevada, has become one of Western Americas largest,most prosperous cities. No. as the line from a movie said, "If you build it they will come."
I realize that sin is hardly a means by which the area should grow, but I don't think building a big church on every corner of the downtown area would draw many tourists. No, Casinos are the only way to go. (In the meantime giving preachers a much larger field in which to work.) Otherwise, the lovely little down of Miles City will continue it's decline. The downward spiral will increase in speed until there is nothing left but an unused siding on a little used, and soon to be removed railroad line.
Lee Akers
Saturday, June 18, 2011
A Little Homework On Sugar
I posted something on facebook today about corn sugar. The respondent, who is anti-corn sweetner, told me to do my homework. So, here it is.
A Little homework on sugar.
High fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar that is handled by your body like sugar or honey.
Whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.
HFCS is a kind of corn sugarHigh fructose corn syrup is composed of either 42 percent or 55 percent fructose, with the remaining sugars being primarily glucose and higher sugars. In terms of composition, high fructose corn syrup is nearly identical to table sugar (sucrose), which is composed of 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose. Glucose is one of the simplest forms of sugar that serves as a building block for most carbohydrates. Fructose is a simple sugar commonly found in fruits and honey.
For the most part, you'll find high fructose corn syrup, a sugar from corn, in the same kinds of products in which you would find sugar or other sweeteners. Many healthy foods are made with caloric sweeteners, which often play a key role in the integrity of these products that has little to do with sweetening. At the same time, corn sugars offer some unique functional benefits that help companies offer more choices in food products. High fructose corn syrup enhances fruit and spice flavors in foods such as yogurt and spaghetti sauces, gives chewy breakfast bars their soft texture and also protects freshness. High fructose corn syrup keeps products fresh by maintaining consistent moisture.
Chemical formula for sugar
Sugar is white cystalline solid group of soluble carbohydrates that are sweet tasting in nature. These sugar molecules include glucose, sucrose, lactose, fructose, maltose, lactose and galactose. Sugar molecules are classified as monosaccharides or disaccharides.The following table lists the common sugar molecules are their chemical formula.
Name
Type of sugar (mono =1 or di =2 sugar units)
Chemical formula of sugar
Glucose
Monosaccharide
C6H12O6
Fructose
Monosaccharide
C6H12O6
Galactose
Monosaccharide
C6H12O6
Lactose
Disaccharide (glucose + galactose)
C12H22O11
Sucrose
Disaccharide (glucose + fructose)
C12H22O11
Maltose
Disaccharide (glucose + glucose)
C12H22O11
The monosaccharides glucose, galactose and fructose all have the same molecular formula but they vary in their molecular structure.
The three common disaccharides lactose, sucrose and maltose also have the same molecular formula but differ in their structural formula
Lactose is also known as ‘milk sugar’ because it is primarily found in dairy products. Lactose intolerance is a genetic disorder which affects many people who lack the enzyme necessary to break down lactose into glucose and galactose. This prevents lactose being absorbed by the body.
Sucrose is obtained from sugar cane and sugar beet and is commonly called table sugar.
Chemical formula for sucrose
Sucrose or common table sugar is a sweet white cystalline solid often used as a food additive.
The chemical formula for sucrose is C12H22O11 and its molar mass is 342.30 g/mol. The solublity of sucorse in water at 20 ̊C is 211.5 grams /100 mls.
The structural formula for sucrose is reprented by the following diagram
Sucrose is a made up of the two simple sugars glucose and fructose which are joined togther by a chemical bond known as a glycosidic bond.
Sucrose is a disaccharide sugar. During the digestive process the sucrose molecule is broken down into the two monosaccharides glucose and fructose which can be easily absorbed through the villi of the intenstine.
Sucrose + water =hydrolysis=> Glucose + Fructose
C12H22O11 + H2O =hydrolysis=> C6H12O6 + C6H12O6
Simple Facts
Learn the facts about high fructose corn syrup
High fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar that is handled by your body the same as sugar or honey.
“All sugar you eat is the same. That’s what we know now that we didn’t know in 2004.”
Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Market Report on TBD.com, May 5, 2011
“When high-fructose corn syrup and sugar are absorbed into our bloodstream, the two are indistinguishable by the body.”
Joan Salge Blake, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., Clinical Associate Professor at Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, Redbook, June 2010
Many people do not realize that high fructose corn syrup is composed of the same simple sugars found in table sugar and honey — glucose and fructose — in virtually the same ratios.
“White sugar, brown sugar, sucrose, honey, maple syrup, even high-fructose corn syrup are all roughly the same mix of the simple sugars called glucose and fructose.”
Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N., Nutrition and Health Expert for The TODAY Show, Woman’s Day, May 1, 2010
For the most part, you’ll find high fructose corn syrup in the same kinds of products in which you would find sugar or other sweeteners.
“HFCS is a useful ingredient because of its sweetness and ability to blend with other food and beverage ingredients. When methods for producing HFCS improved, food and beverage companies replaced other sweeteners with HFCS.”
International Food Information Council, Questions and Answers About Fructose, September 29, 2009
High fructose corn syrup — corn sugar — has been used in the food supply for more than forty years to make high fiber foods palatable, maintain freshness and enhance flavors in foods and beverages. Additionally, high fructose corn syrup keeps our foods affordable.
“HFCS was developed in the 1970s when the food industry began looking for alternatives to traditional cane sugar that could provide similar sweetness, taste and quality for a fraction of the price. All forms of HFCS come from corn starch, and are mixtures of the natural glucose and fructose that exist in the starch itself. No artificial ingredients are used in the manufacturing process. The resulting HFCS product is extremely similar to table sugar (sucrose) and has a similar taste.”
Phil Lempert, The Supermarket Guru ®, Food, Nutrition, & Science from The Lempert Report, April 30, 2010
A sugar is a sugar whether it comes from corn sugar or cane sugar. All are safe and natural. Your body can’t tell the difference.
“Regardless if it’s honey, cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup or just plain sugar, we metabolize it the same.” Carrie Taylor, R.D., L.D.N., Registered Dietitian for Big Y Foods, ABC 40 News At 12, April 8, 2009
Like all foods, sweeteners should be consumed in moderation as part of a balanced diet.
“… consumers can safely enjoy a range of nutritive and nonnutritive sweeteners when consumed in a diet that is guided by current federal nutrition recommendations … as well as individual health goals.”
American Dietetic Association, Use of Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, February 2004
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) — also called glucose-fructose syrup in the UK, glucose/fructose in Canada, and high-fructose maize syrup in other countries — comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert some of its glucose into fructose to produce a desired sweetness. In the United States, consumer foods and products typically use high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. It has become very common in processed foods and beverages in the U.S., including breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments.
The most widely used varieties of high-fructose corn syrup are: HFCS 55 (mostly used in soft drinks), approximately 55% fructose and 42% glucose; and HFCS 42 (used in many foods and baked goods), approximately 42% fructose and 53% glucose. HFCS-90, approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose, is used in small quantities for specialty applications, but primarily is used to blend with HFCS 42 to make HFCS 55.
Honey
Honey is a mixture of different types of sugars, water, and small amounts of other compounds. Honey typically has a fructose/glucose ratio similar to HFCS 55, as well as containing some sucrose and other sugars. Like HFCS, honey contains water and has approximately 3 kcal per gram. Because of its similar sugar profile and lower price, HFCS has been used illegally to "stretch" honey. As a result, checks for adulteration of honey no longer test for higher-than-normal levels of sucrose, which HFCS does not contain, but instead test for minute quantities of proteins that can be used to differentiate between HFCS and honey
Processing Cane sugar
Traditionally, sugarcane processing requires two stages. Mills extract raw sugar from freshly harvested cane, and sometimes bleach it to make "mill white" sugar for local consumption. Refineries, often located nearer to consumers in North America, Europe, and Japan, then produce refined white sugar, which is 99 percent sucrose. These two stages are slowly merging. Increasing affluence in the sugar-producing tropics increased demand for refined sugar products, driving a trend toward combined milling and refining.
Refining
Sugar refining further purifies the raw sugar. It is first mixed with heavy syrup and then centrifuged in a process called 'affination'. Its purpose is to wash away the sugar crystals' outer coating, which is less pure than the crystal interior. The remaining sugar is then dissolved to make a syrup, about 60 percent solids by weight.
The sugar solution is clarified by the addition of phosphoric acid and calcium hydroxide, which combine to precipitate calcium phosphate. The calcium phosphate particles entrap some impurities and absorb others, and then float to the top of the tank, where they can be skimmed off. An alternative to this "phosphatation" technique is 'carbonatation,' which is similar, but uses carbon dioxide and calcium hydroxide to produce a calcium carbonate precipitate.
After filtering any remaining solids, the clarified syrup is decolorized by filtration through activated carbon. Bone char is traditionally used in this role.[9] Some remaining color-forming impurities adsorb to the carbon. The purified syrup is then concentrated to supersaturation and repeatedly crystallized in a vacuum, to produce white refined sugar. As in a sugar mill, the sugar crystals are separated from the molasses by centrifuging. Additional sugar is recovered by blending the remaining syrup with the washings from affination and again crystallizing to produce brown sugar. When no more sugar can be economically recovered, the final molasses still contains 20–30 percent sucrose and 15–25 percent glucose and fructose.
To produce granulated sugar, in which individual grains do not clump, sugar must be dried, first by heating in a rotary dryer, and then by blowing cool air through it for several days.
Processing Beet Sugar
After they are harvested, beets are hauled to a factory.
After reception at the processing plant, the beet roots are washed, mechanically sliced into thin strips called cossettes, and passed to a machine called a diffuser to extract the sugar content into a water solution.
Diffusers are long vessels of many metres in which the beet slices go in one direction while hot water goes in the opposite direction. The movement may either be caused by a rotating screw or the whole rotating unit, and the water and cossettes move through internal chambers. There are three common designs of diffuser: the horizontal rotating 'RT' (Raffinerie Tirlemontoise, manufacturer), inclined screw 'DDS' (De Danske Sukkerfabrikker), or vertical screw "Tower". Modern tower extraction plants have a processing capacity of up to 17,000 metric tons per day. A less common design uses a moving belt of cossettes, with water pumped onto the top of the belt and poured through. In all cases the flow rates of cossettes and water are in the ratio one to two. Typically cossettes take about 90 minutes to pass through the diffuser, the water only 45 minutes. These are all countercurrent exchange methods that extract more sugar from the cossettes using less water than if they merely sat in a hot water tank. The liquid exiting the diffuser is called raw juice. The colour of raw juice varies from black to a dark red depending on the amount of oxidation, which is itself dependent on diffuser design.
The used cossettes, or pulp, exit the diffuser at about 95% moisture but low sucrose content. Using screw presses, the wet pulp is then pressed down to 75% moisture. This recovers additional sucrose in the liquid pressed out of the pulp, and reduces the energy needed to dry the pulp. The pressed pulp is dried and sold as animal feed, while the liquid pressed out of the pulp is combined with the raw juice, or more often introduced into the diffuser at the appropriate point in the countercurrent process. The final byproduct, Vinasse, is used as fertilizer or growth substrate for yeast cultures.
During diffusion, there is a degree of breakdown of the sucrose into invert sugars. These can undergo further breakdown into acids. These breakdown products are not only losses of sucrose but also have knock-on effects reducing the final output of processed sugar from the factory. To limit (thermophilic) bacterial action, the feed water may be dosed with formaldehyde and control of the feed water pH is also practiced. There have been attempts at operating diffusion under alkaline conditions, but the process has proven problematic. The improved sucrose extraction in the diffuser is offset by processing problems in the next stages.
Carbonatation
Carbonatation is a procedure which removes impurities from raw juice before it undergoes crystallization. First, the juice is mixed with hot milk of lime (a suspension of calcium hydroxide in water). This treatment precipitates a number of impurities, including multivalent anions such as sulfate, phosphate, citrate and oxalate, which precipitate as their calcium salts and large organic molecules such as proteins, saponins and pectins, which aggregate in the presence of multivalent cations. In addition, the alkaline conditions convert the simple sugars, glucose and fructose, along with the amino acid glutamine, to chemically stable carboxylic acids. Left untreated, these sugars and amines would eventually frustrate crystallization of the sucrose.
Next, carbon dioxide is bubbled through the alkaline sugar solution, precipitating the lime as calcium carbonate (chalk). The chalk particles entrap some impurities and absorb others. A recycling process builds up the size of chalk particles and a natural flocculation occurs where the heavy particles settle out in tanks (clarifiers). A final addition of more carbon dioxide precipitates more calcium from solution; this is filtered off, leaving a cleaner, golden light-brown sugar solution called thin juice.
Before entering the next stage, the thin juice may receive soda ash to modify the pH and sulphitation with a sulfur-based compound to reduce colour formation due to decomposition of monosaccharides under heat.
Evaporation
The thin juice is concentrated via multiple-effect evaporation to make a thick juice, roughly 60% sucrose by weight and similar in appearance to pancake syrup. Thick juice can be stored in tanks for later processing, reducing load on the crystallization plant.
Crystallization
Thick juice is fed to the crystallizers. Recycled sugar is dissolved into it, and the resulting syrup is called mother liquor. The liquor is concentrated further by boiling under a vacuum in large vessels (the so-called vacuum pans) and seeded with fine sugar crystals. These crystals grow as sugar from the mother liquor forms around them. The resulting sugar crystal and syrup mix is called a massecuite, from "cooked mass" in French. The massecuite is passed to a centrifuge where the liquid is removed from the sugar crystals. The remaining syrup is rinsed off with water and the crystals are dried in a granulator using warm air.
The remaining syrup is fed to another crystallizer from which a second batch of sugar is produced. This sugar ("raw") is of lower quality with a lot of color and impurities and is the main source of the sugar that is dissolved again into the mother liquor. The syrup from the raw is also sent to a crystalliser. From this, a very low-quality sugar crystal is produced (known in some systems as "AP sugar") that is also redissolved. The syrup separated is molasses, which still contains sugar but contains too much impurity to undergo further processing economically.
Actual procedure may vary from the above description, with different recycling and crystallization processes.
Corn Sugar Processing
Corn refiners make high fructose corn syrup from corn starch, which must be separated from other components of the kernel. Cleaned, shelled corn is soaked in warm water containing 0.1% to 0.2% sulfur dioxide, which softens the kernels and facilitates separation of the various components: starch, hull, protein and oil.
The soaked corn is milled to release the oil-containing germ, which is separated from the components by hydrocyclones.
The resulting starch, hull and protein components are then finely ground and screened to remove the hull. The resulting slurry is passed to a continuous centrifuge to separate the starch and protein components.
The starch is washed and concentrated in a series of hydrocyclones.
The enzyme alpha-amylase is added to a slurry of starch and water to liquefy or reduce the particle size of the starch to produce glucose polymers. Enzymes are nature's catalysts to get things done. This step is followed by saccharification with the enzyme glucoamylase, which breaks the glucose polymers down to their basic building blocks. The resulting glucose mixture is filtered and clarified by centrifugation, carbon filtration and ion exchange.
A small amount of magnesium is added to the purified glucose solution. Glucose isomerase, an enzyme, is used to convert a portion of the glucose to fructose. The resulting mixture is 42% fructose, 53% glucose and 5% higher sugars. The mixture is refined with carbon filters and ion exchange. The fructose content of the resulting syrup is enriched by chromotographic separation, accomplished by passing the syrup through a column of adsorbent containing calcium or other cation that attracts the fructose portion of the syrup. This step produces a syrup that is about 90% fructose, which is then blended with the 42% fructose syrup to produce one that is 55% fructose, 42% glucose and 3% higher sugars.
The final syrup is refined by carbon filtration and ion exchange and then evaporated to 77% solids for shipping.
Sweeteners Facts
Sweeteners that contribute calories to the diet are called caloric or nutritive sweeteners. All common caloric sweeteners have the same composition: they contain fructose and glucose in essentially equal proportions. All caloric sweeteners require processing to produce a food-grade product.
Fructose a simple sugar commonly found in fruits and honey
Glucose a simple sugar that serves as a building block for most carbohydrates
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) free (unbonded) fructose and glucose in liquid (syrup) form; produced from corn
Sucrose crystalline white table sugar; produced from sugar cane or sugar beets; fructose and glucose bonded together
Invert sugar free fructose and glucose in liquid (syrup) form; produced from the breakdown of sugar
Hydrolyzed cane juice free fructose and glucose in liquid (syrup) form; produced from the breakdown of cane juice
Honey liquid (syrup) product; principally free fructose and glucose with minor levels of other sugars and some trace minerals
Fruit juice concentrate concentrated, filtered, clarified fruit juice; fructose-to-glucose ratio varies by fruit source, but generally equivalent to other nutritive sweeteners (orange juice and grape juice have a fructose to glucose ratio of 1 to 1, while apple juice has a ratio of 2 to 1)
Nutritional Characteristics
Common caloric sweeteners share the same general nutritional characteristics:
each has roughly the same composition—equal proportions of the simple sugars fructose and glucose;
each offers approximately the same sweetness on a per-gram basis; one gram (dry basis) of each adds 4 calories to foods and beverages;
each is absorbed from the gut at about the same rate;
similar ratios of fructose and glucose arrive in the bloodstream after a meal, which are indistinguishable in the body.
Since caloric sweeteners are nutritionally equivalent, they are interchangeable in foods and beverages with no measurable change in metabolism.
What if caloric sweeteners are removed from foods?
To replace one caloric sweetener with another provides no change in nutritional value. To remove sweeteners entirely from their commonly used applications and replace them with high intensity sweeteners would drastically alter product flavor and sweetness, require the use of chemical preservatives to ensure product quality and freshness, result in a reduction in perceived food quality (bran cereal with the caloric sweeteners removed would have the consistency of sawdust), and would likely require the addition of bulking agents to provide the expected texture, mouth feel or volume for most baked goods.
Sources
Hanover LM, White JS. 1993. Manufacturing, composition, and applications of fructose. Am J Clin Nutr 58(suppl 5):724S-732S.
White JS. 1992. Fructose syrup: production, properties and applications, in FW Schenck & RE Hebeda, eds, Starch Hydrolysis Products – Worldwide Technology, Production, and Applications. VCH Publishers, Inc. pp. 177-200.
White JS. 2008. Straight talk about high-fructose corn syrup: what it is and what it ain't. Am J Clin Nutr 88(6):1716S-1721S.
Widdowson EM and McCance RA. 1935. The available carbohydrate of fruits: Determination of glucose, fructose, sucrose and starch. Biochem. J. 29(1):151-156.
American Medical Association
"After studying current research, the American Medical
Association (AMA) today concluded that high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute more to obesity than other caloric sweeteners..."
American Medical Association press release, June 17, 2008
"Because the composition of HFCS and sucrose are so similar, particularly on absorption by the body, it appears unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose."
American Medical Association Report 3 of the Council on Science and Public Health (A-08), June 2008
American Dietetic Association
"No persuasive evidence supports the claim that high fructose corn syrup is a unique contributor to obesity."
Hot Topics paper on High Fructose Corn Syrup, December 2008
"High fructose corn syrup ... is nutritionally equivalent to sucrose. Both sweeteners contain the same number of calories (4 per gram) and consist of about equal parts of fructose and glucose. Once absorbed into the blood stream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable."
Hot Topics paper on High Fructose Corn Syrup, December 2008
"Most scientific experts now agree that high fructose corn syrup and sucrose produce similar effects on human metabolic responses. Studies comparing high fructose corn syrup and sucrose have found no significant differences in fasting blood glucose, insulin, leptin and ghrelin. Satiety studies of the two sweeteners have found no differences in appetite, feelings of fullness or short-term energy intakes."
Hot Topics paper on High Fructose Corn Syrup, December 2008
"The source of the added sugar – whether sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, honey or fruit juice concentrate – should not be of concern; rather it is the amount of total calories that is important."
Hot Topics paper on High Fructose Corn Syrup, December 2008
"Thus, it is the position of The American Dietetic Association that consumers can safely enjoy a range of nutritive and nonnutritive sweeteners when consumed in a diet that is guided by current federal nutrition recommendations … as well as individual health goals."
Use of Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, February 2004
“Excess body fat [obesity] arises from the energy imbalance caused by taking in too much energy and expending too little energy. ... Obesity is a complex problem and its cause cannot be simply attributed to any one component of the food supply such as sweeteners.”
Use of Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, February 2004
Conclusion:
The major problem between sweeteners seems to be who gets the biggest slice of the financial pie. Whether it is the producers of Cane or Beet Sugars, or the producers of Corn sugar.
The bottom line is: “Whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.”
A Little homework on sugar.
High fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar that is handled by your body like sugar or honey.
Whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.
HFCS is a kind of corn sugarHigh fructose corn syrup is composed of either 42 percent or 55 percent fructose, with the remaining sugars being primarily glucose and higher sugars. In terms of composition, high fructose corn syrup is nearly identical to table sugar (sucrose), which is composed of 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose. Glucose is one of the simplest forms of sugar that serves as a building block for most carbohydrates. Fructose is a simple sugar commonly found in fruits and honey.
For the most part, you'll find high fructose corn syrup, a sugar from corn, in the same kinds of products in which you would find sugar or other sweeteners. Many healthy foods are made with caloric sweeteners, which often play a key role in the integrity of these products that has little to do with sweetening. At the same time, corn sugars offer some unique functional benefits that help companies offer more choices in food products. High fructose corn syrup enhances fruit and spice flavors in foods such as yogurt and spaghetti sauces, gives chewy breakfast bars their soft texture and also protects freshness. High fructose corn syrup keeps products fresh by maintaining consistent moisture.
Chemical formula for sugar
Sugar is white cystalline solid group of soluble carbohydrates that are sweet tasting in nature. These sugar molecules include glucose, sucrose, lactose, fructose, maltose, lactose and galactose. Sugar molecules are classified as monosaccharides or disaccharides.The following table lists the common sugar molecules are their chemical formula.
Name
Type of sugar (mono =1 or di =2 sugar units)
Chemical formula of sugar
Glucose
Monosaccharide
C6H12O6
Fructose
Monosaccharide
C6H12O6
Galactose
Monosaccharide
C6H12O6
Lactose
Disaccharide (glucose + galactose)
C12H22O11
Sucrose
Disaccharide (glucose + fructose)
C12H22O11
Maltose
Disaccharide (glucose + glucose)
C12H22O11
The monosaccharides glucose, galactose and fructose all have the same molecular formula but they vary in their molecular structure.
The three common disaccharides lactose, sucrose and maltose also have the same molecular formula but differ in their structural formula
Lactose is also known as ‘milk sugar’ because it is primarily found in dairy products. Lactose intolerance is a genetic disorder which affects many people who lack the enzyme necessary to break down lactose into glucose and galactose. This prevents lactose being absorbed by the body.
Sucrose is obtained from sugar cane and sugar beet and is commonly called table sugar.
Chemical formula for sucrose
Sucrose or common table sugar is a sweet white cystalline solid often used as a food additive.
The chemical formula for sucrose is C12H22O11 and its molar mass is 342.30 g/mol. The solublity of sucorse in water at 20 ̊C is 211.5 grams /100 mls.
The structural formula for sucrose is reprented by the following diagram
Sucrose is a made up of the two simple sugars glucose and fructose which are joined togther by a chemical bond known as a glycosidic bond.
Sucrose is a disaccharide sugar. During the digestive process the sucrose molecule is broken down into the two monosaccharides glucose and fructose which can be easily absorbed through the villi of the intenstine.
Sucrose + water =hydrolysis=> Glucose + Fructose
C12H22O11 + H2O =hydrolysis=> C6H12O6 + C6H12O6
Simple Facts
Learn the facts about high fructose corn syrup
High fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar that is handled by your body the same as sugar or honey.
“All sugar you eat is the same. That’s what we know now that we didn’t know in 2004.”
Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Market Report on TBD.com, May 5, 2011
“When high-fructose corn syrup and sugar are absorbed into our bloodstream, the two are indistinguishable by the body.”
Joan Salge Blake, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., Clinical Associate Professor at Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, Redbook, June 2010
Many people do not realize that high fructose corn syrup is composed of the same simple sugars found in table sugar and honey — glucose and fructose — in virtually the same ratios.
“White sugar, brown sugar, sucrose, honey, maple syrup, even high-fructose corn syrup are all roughly the same mix of the simple sugars called glucose and fructose.”
Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N., Nutrition and Health Expert for The TODAY Show, Woman’s Day, May 1, 2010
For the most part, you’ll find high fructose corn syrup in the same kinds of products in which you would find sugar or other sweeteners.
“HFCS is a useful ingredient because of its sweetness and ability to blend with other food and beverage ingredients. When methods for producing HFCS improved, food and beverage companies replaced other sweeteners with HFCS.”
International Food Information Council, Questions and Answers About Fructose, September 29, 2009
High fructose corn syrup — corn sugar — has been used in the food supply for more than forty years to make high fiber foods palatable, maintain freshness and enhance flavors in foods and beverages. Additionally, high fructose corn syrup keeps our foods affordable.
“HFCS was developed in the 1970s when the food industry began looking for alternatives to traditional cane sugar that could provide similar sweetness, taste and quality for a fraction of the price. All forms of HFCS come from corn starch, and are mixtures of the natural glucose and fructose that exist in the starch itself. No artificial ingredients are used in the manufacturing process. The resulting HFCS product is extremely similar to table sugar (sucrose) and has a similar taste.”
Phil Lempert, The Supermarket Guru ®, Food, Nutrition, & Science from The Lempert Report, April 30, 2010
A sugar is a sugar whether it comes from corn sugar or cane sugar. All are safe and natural. Your body can’t tell the difference.
“Regardless if it’s honey, cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup or just plain sugar, we metabolize it the same.” Carrie Taylor, R.D., L.D.N., Registered Dietitian for Big Y Foods, ABC 40 News At 12, April 8, 2009
Like all foods, sweeteners should be consumed in moderation as part of a balanced diet.
“… consumers can safely enjoy a range of nutritive and nonnutritive sweeteners when consumed in a diet that is guided by current federal nutrition recommendations … as well as individual health goals.”
American Dietetic Association, Use of Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, February 2004
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) — also called glucose-fructose syrup in the UK, glucose/fructose in Canada, and high-fructose maize syrup in other countries — comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert some of its glucose into fructose to produce a desired sweetness. In the United States, consumer foods and products typically use high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. It has become very common in processed foods and beverages in the U.S., including breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments.
The most widely used varieties of high-fructose corn syrup are: HFCS 55 (mostly used in soft drinks), approximately 55% fructose and 42% glucose; and HFCS 42 (used in many foods and baked goods), approximately 42% fructose and 53% glucose. HFCS-90, approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose, is used in small quantities for specialty applications, but primarily is used to blend with HFCS 42 to make HFCS 55.
Honey
Honey is a mixture of different types of sugars, water, and small amounts of other compounds. Honey typically has a fructose/glucose ratio similar to HFCS 55, as well as containing some sucrose and other sugars. Like HFCS, honey contains water and has approximately 3 kcal per gram. Because of its similar sugar profile and lower price, HFCS has been used illegally to "stretch" honey. As a result, checks for adulteration of honey no longer test for higher-than-normal levels of sucrose, which HFCS does not contain, but instead test for minute quantities of proteins that can be used to differentiate between HFCS and honey
Processing Cane sugar
Traditionally, sugarcane processing requires two stages. Mills extract raw sugar from freshly harvested cane, and sometimes bleach it to make "mill white" sugar for local consumption. Refineries, often located nearer to consumers in North America, Europe, and Japan, then produce refined white sugar, which is 99 percent sucrose. These two stages are slowly merging. Increasing affluence in the sugar-producing tropics increased demand for refined sugar products, driving a trend toward combined milling and refining.
Refining
Sugar refining further purifies the raw sugar. It is first mixed with heavy syrup and then centrifuged in a process called 'affination'. Its purpose is to wash away the sugar crystals' outer coating, which is less pure than the crystal interior. The remaining sugar is then dissolved to make a syrup, about 60 percent solids by weight.
The sugar solution is clarified by the addition of phosphoric acid and calcium hydroxide, which combine to precipitate calcium phosphate. The calcium phosphate particles entrap some impurities and absorb others, and then float to the top of the tank, where they can be skimmed off. An alternative to this "phosphatation" technique is 'carbonatation,' which is similar, but uses carbon dioxide and calcium hydroxide to produce a calcium carbonate precipitate.
After filtering any remaining solids, the clarified syrup is decolorized by filtration through activated carbon. Bone char is traditionally used in this role.[9] Some remaining color-forming impurities adsorb to the carbon. The purified syrup is then concentrated to supersaturation and repeatedly crystallized in a vacuum, to produce white refined sugar. As in a sugar mill, the sugar crystals are separated from the molasses by centrifuging. Additional sugar is recovered by blending the remaining syrup with the washings from affination and again crystallizing to produce brown sugar. When no more sugar can be economically recovered, the final molasses still contains 20–30 percent sucrose and 15–25 percent glucose and fructose.
To produce granulated sugar, in which individual grains do not clump, sugar must be dried, first by heating in a rotary dryer, and then by blowing cool air through it for several days.
Processing Beet Sugar
After they are harvested, beets are hauled to a factory.
After reception at the processing plant, the beet roots are washed, mechanically sliced into thin strips called cossettes, and passed to a machine called a diffuser to extract the sugar content into a water solution.
Diffusers are long vessels of many metres in which the beet slices go in one direction while hot water goes in the opposite direction. The movement may either be caused by a rotating screw or the whole rotating unit, and the water and cossettes move through internal chambers. There are three common designs of diffuser: the horizontal rotating 'RT' (Raffinerie Tirlemontoise, manufacturer), inclined screw 'DDS' (De Danske Sukkerfabrikker), or vertical screw "Tower". Modern tower extraction plants have a processing capacity of up to 17,000 metric tons per day. A less common design uses a moving belt of cossettes, with water pumped onto the top of the belt and poured through. In all cases the flow rates of cossettes and water are in the ratio one to two. Typically cossettes take about 90 minutes to pass through the diffuser, the water only 45 minutes. These are all countercurrent exchange methods that extract more sugar from the cossettes using less water than if they merely sat in a hot water tank. The liquid exiting the diffuser is called raw juice. The colour of raw juice varies from black to a dark red depending on the amount of oxidation, which is itself dependent on diffuser design.
The used cossettes, or pulp, exit the diffuser at about 95% moisture but low sucrose content. Using screw presses, the wet pulp is then pressed down to 75% moisture. This recovers additional sucrose in the liquid pressed out of the pulp, and reduces the energy needed to dry the pulp. The pressed pulp is dried and sold as animal feed, while the liquid pressed out of the pulp is combined with the raw juice, or more often introduced into the diffuser at the appropriate point in the countercurrent process. The final byproduct, Vinasse, is used as fertilizer or growth substrate for yeast cultures.
During diffusion, there is a degree of breakdown of the sucrose into invert sugars. These can undergo further breakdown into acids. These breakdown products are not only losses of sucrose but also have knock-on effects reducing the final output of processed sugar from the factory. To limit (thermophilic) bacterial action, the feed water may be dosed with formaldehyde and control of the feed water pH is also practiced. There have been attempts at operating diffusion under alkaline conditions, but the process has proven problematic. The improved sucrose extraction in the diffuser is offset by processing problems in the next stages.
Carbonatation
Carbonatation is a procedure which removes impurities from raw juice before it undergoes crystallization. First, the juice is mixed with hot milk of lime (a suspension of calcium hydroxide in water). This treatment precipitates a number of impurities, including multivalent anions such as sulfate, phosphate, citrate and oxalate, which precipitate as their calcium salts and large organic molecules such as proteins, saponins and pectins, which aggregate in the presence of multivalent cations. In addition, the alkaline conditions convert the simple sugars, glucose and fructose, along with the amino acid glutamine, to chemically stable carboxylic acids. Left untreated, these sugars and amines would eventually frustrate crystallization of the sucrose.
Next, carbon dioxide is bubbled through the alkaline sugar solution, precipitating the lime as calcium carbonate (chalk). The chalk particles entrap some impurities and absorb others. A recycling process builds up the size of chalk particles and a natural flocculation occurs where the heavy particles settle out in tanks (clarifiers). A final addition of more carbon dioxide precipitates more calcium from solution; this is filtered off, leaving a cleaner, golden light-brown sugar solution called thin juice.
Before entering the next stage, the thin juice may receive soda ash to modify the pH and sulphitation with a sulfur-based compound to reduce colour formation due to decomposition of monosaccharides under heat.
Evaporation
The thin juice is concentrated via multiple-effect evaporation to make a thick juice, roughly 60% sucrose by weight and similar in appearance to pancake syrup. Thick juice can be stored in tanks for later processing, reducing load on the crystallization plant.
Crystallization
Thick juice is fed to the crystallizers. Recycled sugar is dissolved into it, and the resulting syrup is called mother liquor. The liquor is concentrated further by boiling under a vacuum in large vessels (the so-called vacuum pans) and seeded with fine sugar crystals. These crystals grow as sugar from the mother liquor forms around them. The resulting sugar crystal and syrup mix is called a massecuite, from "cooked mass" in French. The massecuite is passed to a centrifuge where the liquid is removed from the sugar crystals. The remaining syrup is rinsed off with water and the crystals are dried in a granulator using warm air.
The remaining syrup is fed to another crystallizer from which a second batch of sugar is produced. This sugar ("raw") is of lower quality with a lot of color and impurities and is the main source of the sugar that is dissolved again into the mother liquor. The syrup from the raw is also sent to a crystalliser. From this, a very low-quality sugar crystal is produced (known in some systems as "AP sugar") that is also redissolved. The syrup separated is molasses, which still contains sugar but contains too much impurity to undergo further processing economically.
Actual procedure may vary from the above description, with different recycling and crystallization processes.
Corn Sugar Processing
Corn refiners make high fructose corn syrup from corn starch, which must be separated from other components of the kernel. Cleaned, shelled corn is soaked in warm water containing 0.1% to 0.2% sulfur dioxide, which softens the kernels and facilitates separation of the various components: starch, hull, protein and oil.
The soaked corn is milled to release the oil-containing germ, which is separated from the components by hydrocyclones.
The resulting starch, hull and protein components are then finely ground and screened to remove the hull. The resulting slurry is passed to a continuous centrifuge to separate the starch and protein components.
The starch is washed and concentrated in a series of hydrocyclones.
The enzyme alpha-amylase is added to a slurry of starch and water to liquefy or reduce the particle size of the starch to produce glucose polymers. Enzymes are nature's catalysts to get things done. This step is followed by saccharification with the enzyme glucoamylase, which breaks the glucose polymers down to their basic building blocks. The resulting glucose mixture is filtered and clarified by centrifugation, carbon filtration and ion exchange.
A small amount of magnesium is added to the purified glucose solution. Glucose isomerase, an enzyme, is used to convert a portion of the glucose to fructose. The resulting mixture is 42% fructose, 53% glucose and 5% higher sugars. The mixture is refined with carbon filters and ion exchange. The fructose content of the resulting syrup is enriched by chromotographic separation, accomplished by passing the syrup through a column of adsorbent containing calcium or other cation that attracts the fructose portion of the syrup. This step produces a syrup that is about 90% fructose, which is then blended with the 42% fructose syrup to produce one that is 55% fructose, 42% glucose and 3% higher sugars.
The final syrup is refined by carbon filtration and ion exchange and then evaporated to 77% solids for shipping.
Sweeteners Facts
Sweeteners that contribute calories to the diet are called caloric or nutritive sweeteners. All common caloric sweeteners have the same composition: they contain fructose and glucose in essentially equal proportions. All caloric sweeteners require processing to produce a food-grade product.
Fructose a simple sugar commonly found in fruits and honey
Glucose a simple sugar that serves as a building block for most carbohydrates
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) free (unbonded) fructose and glucose in liquid (syrup) form; produced from corn
Sucrose crystalline white table sugar; produced from sugar cane or sugar beets; fructose and glucose bonded together
Invert sugar free fructose and glucose in liquid (syrup) form; produced from the breakdown of sugar
Hydrolyzed cane juice free fructose and glucose in liquid (syrup) form; produced from the breakdown of cane juice
Honey liquid (syrup) product; principally free fructose and glucose with minor levels of other sugars and some trace minerals
Fruit juice concentrate concentrated, filtered, clarified fruit juice; fructose-to-glucose ratio varies by fruit source, but generally equivalent to other nutritive sweeteners (orange juice and grape juice have a fructose to glucose ratio of 1 to 1, while apple juice has a ratio of 2 to 1)
Nutritional Characteristics
Common caloric sweeteners share the same general nutritional characteristics:
each has roughly the same composition—equal proportions of the simple sugars fructose and glucose;
each offers approximately the same sweetness on a per-gram basis; one gram (dry basis) of each adds 4 calories to foods and beverages;
each is absorbed from the gut at about the same rate;
similar ratios of fructose and glucose arrive in the bloodstream after a meal, which are indistinguishable in the body.
Since caloric sweeteners are nutritionally equivalent, they are interchangeable in foods and beverages with no measurable change in metabolism.
What if caloric sweeteners are removed from foods?
To replace one caloric sweetener with another provides no change in nutritional value. To remove sweeteners entirely from their commonly used applications and replace them with high intensity sweeteners would drastically alter product flavor and sweetness, require the use of chemical preservatives to ensure product quality and freshness, result in a reduction in perceived food quality (bran cereal with the caloric sweeteners removed would have the consistency of sawdust), and would likely require the addition of bulking agents to provide the expected texture, mouth feel or volume for most baked goods.
Sources
Hanover LM, White JS. 1993. Manufacturing, composition, and applications of fructose. Am J Clin Nutr 58(suppl 5):724S-732S.
White JS. 1992. Fructose syrup: production, properties and applications, in FW Schenck & RE Hebeda, eds, Starch Hydrolysis Products – Worldwide Technology, Production, and Applications. VCH Publishers, Inc. pp. 177-200.
White JS. 2008. Straight talk about high-fructose corn syrup: what it is and what it ain't. Am J Clin Nutr 88(6):1716S-1721S.
Widdowson EM and McCance RA. 1935. The available carbohydrate of fruits: Determination of glucose, fructose, sucrose and starch. Biochem. J. 29(1):151-156.
American Medical Association
"After studying current research, the American Medical
Association (AMA) today concluded that high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute more to obesity than other caloric sweeteners..."
American Medical Association press release, June 17, 2008
"Because the composition of HFCS and sucrose are so similar, particularly on absorption by the body, it appears unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose."
American Medical Association Report 3 of the Council on Science and Public Health (A-08), June 2008
American Dietetic Association
"No persuasive evidence supports the claim that high fructose corn syrup is a unique contributor to obesity."
Hot Topics paper on High Fructose Corn Syrup, December 2008
"High fructose corn syrup ... is nutritionally equivalent to sucrose. Both sweeteners contain the same number of calories (4 per gram) and consist of about equal parts of fructose and glucose. Once absorbed into the blood stream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable."
Hot Topics paper on High Fructose Corn Syrup, December 2008
"Most scientific experts now agree that high fructose corn syrup and sucrose produce similar effects on human metabolic responses. Studies comparing high fructose corn syrup and sucrose have found no significant differences in fasting blood glucose, insulin, leptin and ghrelin. Satiety studies of the two sweeteners have found no differences in appetite, feelings of fullness or short-term energy intakes."
Hot Topics paper on High Fructose Corn Syrup, December 2008
"The source of the added sugar – whether sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, honey or fruit juice concentrate – should not be of concern; rather it is the amount of total calories that is important."
Hot Topics paper on High Fructose Corn Syrup, December 2008
"Thus, it is the position of The American Dietetic Association that consumers can safely enjoy a range of nutritive and nonnutritive sweeteners when consumed in a diet that is guided by current federal nutrition recommendations … as well as individual health goals."
Use of Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, February 2004
“Excess body fat [obesity] arises from the energy imbalance caused by taking in too much energy and expending too little energy. ... Obesity is a complex problem and its cause cannot be simply attributed to any one component of the food supply such as sweeteners.”
Use of Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, February 2004
Conclusion:
The major problem between sweeteners seems to be who gets the biggest slice of the financial pie. Whether it is the producers of Cane or Beet Sugars, or the producers of Corn sugar.
The bottom line is: “Whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.”
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