It is Sunday, September 15 and there are only 101 days until Christmas.  K-Mart has already started the commercials for their lay-away program so that you can have “more Christmas.”  Today celebrates the natal anniversary of James Fenimore Cooper, Dame Agatha Christie and Henry Dreyfus Brant.  On this day in 1620 the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England with 102 pilgrims, in 1830 William Huskisson of England was the first person to be run-over by a railroad train and in 1970 Decca Records awarded Bing Crosby a second platinum disc for selling 300 million records.  It is Respect for the Aged Day in Japan, Mexico is celebrating Independence Day and the United Kingdom is observing Battle of Britain Day.

I don’t know about you, but I have been curious about all the gluten-free products lately and wonder what all the fuss is about.  Gluten is the major protein found in some grains.  It is present in all forms of wheat as well as barley and rye.  The kicker is that only about 1% of the population have a condition known as celiac disease.  This disease is triggered by gluten.  The rest of us are worried about it for no apparent reason. 

This is the type of thing you see all the time.  Someone has a problem (or in this case 1% of the population) and suddenly it is an issue for everybody.  After all, if it wasn’t a big issue why would all the food producers start advertising that they are gluten-free?  I sometimes think that these issues are manufactured by the TV news people so that they have filler when the real news is slow.  Then they run promos like, “Are you consuming gluten?  Do you know the dangers?  See our report at 11.”  But I digress …

If you check, you will find that many gluten-free products are more expensive than regular ones so I guess we know one reason why there is a big push to go in that direction.  What most people do not realize is that living gluten-free can make you fat.  That’s because they consume gluten-free packaged products that are often just as high in saturated fat, sugar and sodium as other junk food.  These products often contain high-glycemic refined ingredients that can affect your blood sugar and trigger cravings.

So if you are a manufacturer of snack foods, you want to be sure that your product does not have gluten.  That way people will eat your stuff and then develop a craving and end up eating more of your stuff.  As a food manufacturer you should also have something for weight watchers, since they are going to need it at some point.  You want to get really rich?  Make a product for weight watchers that is also gluten-free.  That will keep the cycle going forever!

Another issue that has puzzled me for some time is the big hubbub about high fructose corn syrup (hfcs).  I saw a commercial once that said sugar is sugar and there is no difference between sugar and hfcs.  Other commercials claim that hfcs is bad for you and it is blamed for everything from obesity to ingrown toenails.  I decided to look into this to find out what the story is.  I hope you all appreciate the lengths I go to make this blog informative and entertaining.

Anyway, I found that hfcs and sugar are basically the same both in terms of composition and the calories they contain.  It seems that there is no scientific evidence that hfcs is to blame for obesity and diabetes.  It is a natural sweetener that contains nothing artificial or synthetic and has almost the same level of sweetness as sugar.  Both sugar and hfcs are bad for your health when used in excessive amounts.

Hfcs is produced from corn starch and is used in food because it is less expensive.  White sugar is produced from sugar beets and sugar cane.  Am I the only one who thinks this whole controversy was created by the beet and cane farmers?  Were they losing out to the corn growers?  Our trip to Iowa back in August showed us that corn is an abundant crop.  That was just there.  I am sure other states grow corn, too.  Probably more than the states that grow sugar beets and sugar cane.   

I’m just saying  …

I hope this has helped you come to terms with the issues of gluten and high fructose corn syrup.  I am sure many of you have stayed awake at night trying to deal with these weighty issues.  You have probably had dreams where corn stalks and sugar cane fight each other in fields trying for domination of the sugar industry.  Or not.  I do hope this has at least shed some light onto these issues for you.

This week our fact tells us that 15% of Americans bite their toes.  The rest either cannot even see their toes because they have been eating too much gluten-free food or we simply cannot get to a point where we can get our foot to our mouth because our joints won’t let us.  Keep in mind that this is not the same as putting your foot in your mouth.

Putting your foot in your mouth is when you say something that is stupid or embarrassing.  I have heard this referred to as odontopodology.  A possible point of origin for the phrase traces back to the 18^th century.  Irish Parliamentarian Sir Boyle Roche once said, “Half the lies our opponents tell about me are not true.”  Someone remarked of Roche, “Every time he opens his mouth he puts his foot in it.”  I am not sure why his foot as opposed to anything else, but there it is.  

So, I have digressed enough for now.  Have a nice week and keep your feet out of your mouth, literally and figuratively.