NOTE: This post contains actual practical factoids
of value to beekeepers, rather than just 
musings about Diabetes and Obesity.

Lloyd said:

> EVERYTHING we eat seems to contain corn syrup

True Dat! - They are now even adding it to WATER.
Check it out - "Vitamin Water" contains what
they want to call "Crystalline Fructose":
http://teamsugar.com/group/366709/blog/541747
125 calories and 33 grams of sugar

It also has "electrolytes" (Rent or bittorrent 
the movie "Idiocracy" to see how that electrolyte
thing works out over the long term - I laughed 
hard at that movie).

Dee said:

> Cut out white sugar, use honey instead

Nope, that won't work - sugars are sugars are
sugars, and replacing white sugar with honey 
won't do a thing for your weight or your health.

The type of sugar in one's diet does not matter
one bit, not to humans, and not to bees. For
most humans, it is a simple issue of too many 
calories in, and not enough calories expended.

There are three major trends that have been going
on for most of my adult life:

1) Portion sizes keep getting bigger and bigger
   everywhere.  

2) "Low Fat" is what everyone wants,
and when one takes out fat, one ends up
with tasteless food, which is made more
tasty with the addition of HFCS, which
is a very flexible and useful additive
to the pre-packaged foods everyone buys
these days.

3) Cooking is now a spectator sport. Despite
all the cooking shows on TV, people actually
buy and eat the pre-packaged pseudo-food.
This is why the "Food Network" shows are
sponsored by the makers of the pre-packaged
convenience foods. No one seems to notice
this dichotomy until I point it out to them.
(It's like "This Old House" being sponsored
by a maker of Double-wide mobile homes!)

As an illustration of the whole "portion size"
issue, we can look at soft drinks. During the
last Great Depression (1930s, not to be confused
with the current Great Depression, where taxpayers
are forced to bail out the same banks that are
foreclosing on the taxpayers' homes) Cokes came
in 6-oz bottles.

Then Pepsi came out with a 12-ounce bottle for a
nickel, the same price as for the 6oz Coke.
This was the start of it all.

Fast forward to the 1970s, when 7-11 came out
with the "Big Gulp" - a 32-oz drink.
Then came the 44-oz "Super Big Gulp".
Then the 64-oz "Double Gulp". Yes, 1/2 GALLON.

The strange thing is that 7-11 also came out with
the 20-oz sized "Gulp" soon after the 64-oz size. 
Why? Psychology! People tend to NOT pick the 
smallest OR largest size of anything, a point that 
can be crucial to beekeepers who sell at farmer's 
markets and fairs.

You need to display at least THREE sizes of honey, 
maybe four, and you want to bottle only a small 
number of the largest and smallest sizes.  

Here's the science to back up the assertion.
Its from Duke.

(Ok, it is only a PhD thesis, but we can't assume
that the faculty reviewing this thesis was any
easier on these kids than they were on us back
when we got our tickets punched.)

http://tinyurl.com/3re4kd
or
http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/10161/616/1/D_Sharpe_Kathryn_
a_200805.pdf


Of course, there are some things out there that are 
indicative of a much deeper and serious problem.

Much, much deeper.

Like this - a 2,300 calorie Baskin Robbins milkshake,
each one containing roughly 1/2 pound(!!!) of sugar. 
http://tinyurl.com/44mdru
or
http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Nutrition/Product.aspx?Category=Beverages&id=BV
228

Recall for a moment that adult males are supposed to 
limit themselves to 2,500 calories per day.  

But what sort of main course would such a milkshake go with?

Here's what 30 seconds of google came up with:

1) Hardee's "Monster Thickburger" (two one-third-pound 
patties with bacon, American cheese, and mayonnaise on 
a buttered bun) 

2) Hardee's "Philly Cheese Steak Thickburger" (same
as above, minus one patty plus grilled steak, onions, 
peppers, and swiss cheese).

3) Carl's Jr.'s "Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger"

4) Wendy's "Baconator", (six strips of bacon, two patties, 
two american-cheese slices)

5) Burger King's "BK Stackers", in double, triple, and 
even quadruple sizes.

Here's a technical comparison of the giant burgers with
all the calories and grams of saturated fat and such:
http://tinyurl.com/6m32tx
or
http://www.portfolio.com/interactive-features/2008/01/Hardees

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