Cane Scrutiny

(Image from ACSH)

There is a fairly widespread notion that sweeteners made from cane sugar are healthier than those from corn syrup. However, nutritionists say that science does not support that belief.

What’s the difference between high-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar?

Sugars are carbohydrates with a sweet taste, said John Coupland, a professor of food science at Pennsylvania State University. Fructose and glucose are among the simplest of sugars. Other sugars, such as sucrose, are made up of combinations of these simple sugars. High-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar, which is a type of sucrose, are both made up of glucose and fructose.

The high-fructose corn syrup often used in soda is typically made up of 55% fructose and 45% glucose. Table sugar is composed of 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Both sweeteners are highly processed and refined.

“Both of them are just a natural food stripped way down to nothing but sugar,” said Kimber Stanhope, a research nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis.

To make high-fructose corn syrup, starch from corn is first turned into a syrup composed mostly of glucose. Manufacturers add enzymes to convert some of that glucose into fructose, which tastes sweeter, Coupland said.

To make table sugar, manufacturers use machines to squeeze juice out of sugar cane or sugar beets, then purify the liquid and refine it through heating and other processes to turn it into the white crystals we buy in bags at the supermarket.

Does cane sugar affect your health differently from high-fructose corn syrup?

Some studies have found little difference between the health impacts of drinks made with high-fructose corn syrup and those made with sucrose.

“The calories will be the same, the impact on blood sugar is almost the same, and the risk of obesity will be the same,” said Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

People who drank three servings a day of beverages with high-fructose corn syrup had higher levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides and more liver fat, markers of decreased insulin sensitivity and increased heart-disease risk, after 12 days, according to a study by Stanhope and colleagues. So did the people who had the same amount of drinks sweetened with sucrose. The study involved 75 participants and was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2021.

A (slightly) less bad option?

The modestly higher percentage of fructose in drinks with high-fructose corn syrup could make those products slightly worse for health over the long term, compared with ones with sucrose, Stanhope said. This is because of how fructose and glucose are handled by the liver.

The glucose that isn’t used by the liver is sent to the rest of the body to be used for energy. But when fructose gets to the liver, it largely stays there, she said. What isn’t needed for energy is turned into fat. Fat in the liver can cause inflammation and raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes.

“Maybe the negative consequences are slightly smaller, but don’t think you’re doing your body any favors” by picking soda with sucrose, she said.

I am psychologically inclined to prefer cane sugar because it reminds me of my childhood, when sugar cane and pineapple fields were plentiful on Oahu. A chunk of cane stalk had more intense sweetness than cotton candy.

Although I wanted cane to be healthier than corn, the difference in favor of cane is slight at best. That's disappointing.

Crouching Lion

I always had a hard time envisioning the lion (Peebles/SFGate)

My father liked to load the kids in the family car and "drive around the island" on weekends. We would head to the North Shore and return via the single-lane highway on the Windward (eastern) side.

The 2-3 hour trip seemed interminable to this Island kid, and the Crouching Lion rock formation signalled that we were 30 minutes from Kaneohe, which was 30 minutes from central Honolulu.

60 years later I no longer rush through the route, choosing to stop and savor the moment:

Because we don't know when we will die,
we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well.
Yet everything happens only
a certain number of times,
and a very small number really.
How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood,
some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive
of your life without it.
Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that.
How many more times will you watch the full moon rise?
Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.
--Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky

(Krause/SFGate photo)

Now there's another reason to go to the Windward side. The Crouching Lion Restaurant has re-opened.

Perched above the ocean, the restaurant remains one of the few dining establishments available in the windward neighborhood. It has changed hands throughout the years because of financial challenges. Eventually, it closed down. It was a daunting prospect for potential investors because of its remote location. It also required a significant amount of investment to restore.

But it was a challenge that new owner Eddie Kim was willing to take on, and he purchased the property in 2022 for $3.7 million. “I wanted to try something new,” he says. “After years of being an educator, it was time for a new adventure.” The restaurant officially reopened this past May. While Kim is new to the restaurant business, his goals are simple: “I wanted to create a restaurant where I would want to eat at and bring family and friends.”

For decades I've noticed the cars parked outside but never stopped. It's time I did.

Houses--and Justice--Built on Sand

North Shore homes with black tarp (msn photo)

Last year we wrote about Oahu homeowners who are placing sandbag "burritos" to protect their North Shore homes from beach erosion.

State officials are once again trying to crack down on the dozens of sandbag barriers, known as burritos, that have come to litter Hawaii’s beaches...State laws largely forbid private-property owners from erecting shoreline hardening structures, which have caused beach loss throughout the state.

Earlier this week Instagram user kevin_makana_emery filmed the tidal destruction of one North Shore home. SFGate reported:

(Still from Instagram)

A homeowner whose house is falling into the ocean on Oahu’s North Shore is being sued by the state of Hawaii.

Earlier this week, amid a high ocean swell, the home on Ke Nui Road by Sunset Beach could be seen breaking apart and falling into the waves in a video widely shared on social media. In the footage, a resident can be heard warning others, “Be careful where you’re standing. The whole roof is gonna come down right now.”

Glass, metal and wood can be seen strewn across the sand as the waves pull debris into the sea. “The State of Hawaii officials could’ve prevented this! But they did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING,” the resident who shot the video commented.

In a civil lawsuit filed on Tuesday, however, the state of Hawaii is seeking damages against the homeowner. The complaint claims that debris from the collapsing home is now on state land — all beaches in Hawaii are owned by the state, up to the high-tide mark — and it’s on the owner to clean it up.

In Hawaii it's illegal to protect your beachfront home, but if it is destroyed, it is on you to pay for the damages and debris not only on your property but on the beaches all over Hawaii. Aloha!

Shige's Saimin Stand

Yelp reviewers say that Shige’s Saimin Stand, a small family-owned restaurant in Wahiawa (pop. 17,400), serves the best cheeseburger in the U.S.

While Shige’s Saimin Stand is best known for its house-made saimin noodles, a popular Hawaii dish, the restaurant’s cheeseburger is among one of the eatery's most-ordered menu items, judging by social media posts highlighting it. The restaurant offers three versions of the classic, all priced under $10: a regular cheeseburger made with a juicy beef patty, ketchup, and mayonnaise; the deluxe served with added onions and tomato; or the double burger that comes with an extra beef patty.

Recently I've been going to the North Shore of Oahu quite often, playing tour guide to Mainlanders.

I bypass Wahiawa because it is off the main road to Haleiwa, the usual destination. It's time to visit Wahiawa again.

I'll check out Shige's the next time I'm in the area. Cheeseburgers and saimin are two of my favorite things in life.

Oahu No Ka Oi

Oahu is the cheapest, hands down (Merc)

The answer has long been obvious, even if the visitor doesn't have a free "hotel" and car like your humble blogger:

What’s the cheapest Hawaiian island to visit? [bold added]

Of the four main Hawaiian islands for tourism — Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island — Oahu is the cheapest Hawaiian island to visit by multiple metrics. Oahu has the lowest daily average hotel room rate of the islands and the lowest average daily spending per tourist, according to May 2024 data from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority.

Though the average room rate in May 2024 across all of Hawaii was $342, Oahu hotel rooms average about 21% less, coming in at $272. That translates to about $70 per night less than the average...

One reason for Oahu’s lowest average room rate? The island also has the biggest supply. In fact, Oahu had more than double the number of hotel room nights than Maui, the next closest contender...

So why is spending on Oahu lower than on other islands? Not only are there more hotels, but also more restaurants and other types of businesses. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, Honolulu County in Oahu had more than 21,000 businesses in 2020, while Maui County in Maui had fewer than 5,000. The increased competition lowers prices for consumers.

There’s also just a lot of free and cheap stuff to do on Oahu. Many of the top activities — including visiting the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, lounging on Waikiki Beach and hiking the Makapuʻu Point Lighthouse Trail — are free. It costs just $5 per person to enter Diamond Head State Monument (though it’s an additional $10 for parking).

And because of Honolulu’s robust bus network and walkability, it’s easy to get around Honolulu without a rental car. For places more difficult to get to, it’s possible to rent a car for just a day or rely on rideshare services like Uber or Lyft.

I use my parents' house and Nissan Altima when I go to Oahu, so I'm able to keep the trip cost to under $1,000 including plane fare. Even so, I typically only use the car to visit Mom in assisted living and like to spend my free time hoofing it around Waikiki and Ala Moana, where there are many quality, inexpensive restaurants.

Some of my friends, whom I like despite their snootiness, only go to the Neighbor Islands. I'm not ashamed to say that this middle-class kid prefers Oahu.

Working Vacation

Matsumoto's shaved ice is in this town square.

Going to Hawaii is usually a mix of business and pleasure. When I'm traveling by myself I like to take care of essential tasks (banking, taxes) first. I'm not monomaniacal; I do take regular breaks at the beach and restaurants.

When family members are with me, however, I'm obliged to show them a good time. And so it was that we drove to the North Shore last Tuesday, though everyone had been there last year.

We stopped for shaved ice in Haleiwa and a shrimp plate in Kahuku. The drive around the island is slow, because more than half the distance consists of a single-lane road. We got home that evening.

I did enjoy the break more than I had expected and was highly productive the next day. Sometimes it's best to stop and smell the hibiscus.

82 Years Later

Last May the WSJ featured Lou Conter, 102, the last survivor of the USS Arizona, which was sunk on December 7, 1941:

The USS Arizona’s bombing was the deadliest of the attacks that day, killing 1,117 people. It accounted for nearly half of the 2,403 who died during Pearl Harbor. Conter was one of the 334 people assigned to the USS Arizona who survived.

He became the last known survivor in April, after his former crewmate Ken Potts died at 102 years old.

The warship’s ammunition storage exploded during the bombings. The USS Arizona was so badly damaged that it was left to sink instead of being repaired. Its ruins are still underwater and viewable from the USS Arizona Memorial, which was built to hover over the warship.

Conter helped pull crewmates out of the burning ship.

“As we guided these men to safety, more often than not, their burned skin would come off on our hands,” Conter wrote in his 2021 book, “The Lou Conter Story.”

Gun turret: the rest of the Arizona lies beneath

He often wondered why he made it out of the USS Arizona alive.

“God didn’t want you to go that time,” he said he told himself. “There’s a lot more for you to do for the country.”

..He got his pilot wings in November 1942, he said, and was part of a team that flew Black Cat aircraft overnight doing bomb runs in the South Pacific. He said he was shot down twice, once in September 1943 and a second time three months later. Both times, he used a lifeboat to get to shore.

After World War II ended, he said he returned to California and signed up for the reserves. In the early 1950s, he served again in the Korean War...

He is now on a new mission: Go back to Pearl Harbor this December.

It has been about four years since Conter has been to the annual remembrance. His doctor had forbidden him from taking the nine hours of flights from his home in Grass Valley, Calif., to Hawaii.

“I’d like to go once more,” Conter said.

According to the Honolulu Star Advertiser, Lou Conter was one of five Pearl Harbor survivors who showed up at today's ceremony. Thank you for your service, Mr. Conter, and safe travels.

Progress in Small Steps

The same price as Haleiwa and Kahuku but a lot closer.

After my kid brother (also visiting from California) and I picked up our morning coffee, we walked back home on Kalakaua Ave.

On the mauka (mountain) side of the street were parked a group of food trucks. One was open, and a couple of families were seated on the picnic tables having breakfast.

What was once an empty lot had been put to good use. Now, if I crave a garlic shrimp plate I no longer have to drive to the opposite side of the island. That's progress in small steps.

Family Time at the North Shore

Overpriced shrimp plates, horse flies, wild chickens
underfoot: gotta love the tourist experience.

.

I've done the North Shore drive several times in the past ten years, but only if family members request it. When traveling alone, I'm content to spend my time at the family digs near Waikiki. From 2018:

Is the shrimp truck experience worth the trip to Haleiwa? Maybe once, but unless I’m playing tour guide I wouldn’t go up there again, and certainly not on a weekend.

Commitments to oneself are easily broken. With many first-timers here for the 100th-birthday celebration, we agreed to meet them at Giovanni's Shrimp Truck in Kahuku around 1 p.m. on a Sunday.

Arriving from disparate morning activities, all four parties managed to find parking in the general area. After lunch and surprisingly pleasant conversations with interlocutors born after the moon landings, Vietnam, and Watergate, I was done with tourist-ing for the day.

Family time is enjoyed like a good meal: in small bites.

Collateral Benefits

At least they got rid of the termites.

When fire ravages a house, there sometimes is collateral damage to other properties. In the case of my sister-in-law, who lives across the street from a burnt-out home in Kailua, there are collateral benefits.

An episode of Magnum P.I. had a scene with a burning house, and the neighbor's misfortune had a silver lining. The husk was needed by the TV show--flames to be added later through special effects--and Magnum will help defray some of her out-of-pocket costs for the rebuild.

A lot of work for a hole in the ground.

The collateral benefits? A plot point had a character burying something nearby, so my sister-in-law was paid $2,000 to shoot the scene on her property.

The production dug the hole, filled it later, and re-sodded the surface in addition to clearing some weeds. My brother-in-law says the area looks better than before.

Although Magnum has been cancelled by NBC, their house is now frozen in time as long as Magnum P.I. reruns are shown.

Related: another relative's house was used regularly in Hawaii Five-0. 

Reaching My Price Point

Oahu home prices have dropped closer to my price point (sarcasm):

The median sale price of previously owned single-family homes on Oahu has fallen below the $1 million mark that was first eclipsed in August 2021 and consistently met or exceeded until January.

January’s median price was $970,000, down 8% from $1,050,000 in the same month in 2022, according to Honolulu Board of Realtors data released Monday.

Everything's relative. The prices in my Bay Area neighborhood are north of $1.5 million, so if we sell our house and pay the income taxes (and in our case there still will be some after the $500,000 Section 121 exclusion), we'll have enough to pay cash for a home on Oahu.

If we want to downsize, as well as add to the nest egg, we could buy a condo:

The number of condo sales in January sank 50% to 275 from 552 in the same month a year earlier. A string of falling year-over-year sale volume began in June with a 14% decline that grew in size over the second half of 2022 to around 40% in November and December.

Condos sold for a median $495,000 in January. That was down 3% from $510,000 a year earlier. The record was $534,000 in June.

Malasadas and plate lunches can be expensive.

Red Dirt

Haleiwa church next to empty field with patches of red dirt

In Hawaii most residents have adopted the Asian custom of taking off one's footwear when entering homes. However, back in the day, that custom didn't help much with keeping out the red dirt, especially if one had kids who played outside for hours.

Red dirt--iron oxide from eroded lava rock--is found all over Oahu. Dry, it gets in the pores. Damp, it cakes between the toes. Either way, it requires lots of scrubbing to remove from feet, furniture, and floors.

"...and the Red Dirt held illimitable dominion over all" (with apologies to Edgar Allan Poe)

North Shore Excursion

Ukulele Site

As a child I heavily disliked the one-hour-plus trip to Oahu’s North Shore (it would be about 30 years before electronic distractions for children would become commonplace). I tried reading, which gave me a headache, and I could never fall asleep in the car like my Mainland cousins.

60 years later the drive was unpleasant, albeit for different reasons.

North Shore Goodies

The road from Haleiwa to Kahuku was still a nerve-wracking single-lane in each direction.

Surfers and swimmers didn’t bother looking for crosswalks as they ambled across the street; cars making a left turn waited interminably for an opening, and the numerous potholes and the crews called out to repair them certainly didn’t help.

Giovanni's

We stopped to browse the unique boutiques—the Ukulele Site had a fine collection of instruments, and North Shore Goodies made their own Island-themed peanut butter and jellies. Luckily my Hawaii ID card was still good, so I got the kamaaina discount for some of the purchases.

We sampled shrimp plates from two food trucks, Big Wave Shrimp and Giovanni’s.

Big Wave

Numerous locals had told us that Giovanni’s had the best shrimp, but none had actually tasted the dish (much as San Franciscans don’t dine on crab cocktails at Fisherman’s Wharf). One of the Haleiwa store owners had vouched for Big Wave Shrimp, so that afternoon we conducted a taste test. Well, sometimes conventional wisdom is correct; Giovanni’s shrimp was plumper and juicier, though the Big Wave Shrimp was certainly a fine dish with its more intense garlic flavor.

From left: Big Wave garlic shrimp, Giovanni's lemon-butter shrimp, Giovanni's shrimp scampi.

Is the shrimp truck experience worth the trip to Haleiwa? Maybe once, but unless I’m playing tour guide I wouldn’t go up there again, and certainly not on a weekend.

Matsumoto’s Shave Ice

To cleanse one’s palate from the taste of garlicky North-Shore shrimp, Matsumoto’s shave ice is a popular choice, especially on a hot, humid day. One of our party insisted on spending $5 for a bowl of frozen sugar water, so I walked around Haleiwa while he waited in line. Matsumoto’s is an example of how the Internet can turn a small business’ product into a must-have; there are many other shaved-ice places where the wait is much shorter or non-existent.

Heck, one is a few blocks from my parent’s house, not a one-hour drive to Haleiwa.

Another example of cashing in on exaggerated popularity: Matsumoto’s Hello Kitty T-shirt for toddlers is priced at $20. Of course, as instructed, I bought one for my grand-niece. She’s four and loves “Hello Kitty”, which overrides any objection. You don’t get to be my age without learning when to pick your battles.

I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing

At the Pali lookout in 2016---no pork, not even bacon
in our bellies, that morning.

Oahu kids are taught from an early age: don't carry pork over the Pali. If you do, the volcano goddess, Madame Pele, will cause bad things to happen. Although she doesn't appear to have visited Oahu recently, why take chances?

Pele's powers are more ascendant on the Island of Hawaii, where she is spending most of her time these days. Though they are warned, tourists have paid dearly for violating another rule--don't take lava rock off the Big Island!

Each year, hundreds of people mail, fly or hike pieces of lava back to the Big Island, hoping that by returning rocks they snatched, they will break the curse, appease the goddess and end their bad luck.

Lava is shipped back from Germany, Japan and Australia. Some lava thieves return to Hawaii so they can place the lava as close as possible to where they found it.

Skeptics may scoff, but stories abound of people whose fortunes turned around when they returned the lava. One example:

Steve Pariseau believes he can pinpoint the moment his life began falling apart: It was when he picked up a shimmering black lava rock while on vacation with his family in Hawaii.

Once he got home to California, one of his sons began having behavioral problems. His marriage fell apart. His mother died...

Mr. Pariseau said his family’s fortunes improved after they took another vacation to Hawaii and brought the lava rock back, nearly 10 years after they took it.

He got married again. His ex-wife reunited with her high-school sweetheart. His children are now both thriving.

Below is time-lapse photography that captures the power of Pele. What's also impressive is that photographer William Fintz knew where to set up his tripod hours in advance of the lava flow.

Pearl Harbor's Tree of Life

Architect Alfred Preis (1911-1993) designed the USS Arizona Memorial. The "tree of life" sculpture at the main Visitors' Center is repeated at the Memorial's wall of names.

Waimea Falls

I remember it being bigger.

Continuing the retracement of my childhood, we made the turn from Hwy 83 along the North Shore into the Waimea Valley. The destination was Waimea Falls and the lagoon into which my classmates used to cannonball-dive. What was once a muddy trail has been transformed into a tourist attraction, complete with a restaurant, visitors' center, guided tours, and botanical garden. I blanched at the $16 admission fee, but my kama'aina card allowed me to take $6 off.

Well, the paved pathway to the Falls kept our shoes clean.

Mokule'ia

The beach is a few feet from the cabins

I went (was actually dragged along by my parents) to the Episcopal Church's Camp Mokuleia throughout childhood. As an Island kid I got bored after 15 minutes (reading wasn't an option due to car sickness), so the one-hour trip to the North Shore was interminable. Also, I didn't see the purpose: the beaches were better at Waikiki and Ala Moana, the camp's cabins were what would later be termed "rustic", and the large lawn was nothing compared to Kapiolani Park.

Codger talk: these apartments weren't there before.

Today Camp Mokuleia has a pool, modern apartments, and a dining hall. I did recognize the old now-renovated cabins and the original office.

The Camp is advertised as "a secluded location [to] enjoy the rest, recreation and renewal we offer in the spirit of aloha."

Like a lesson that I did not comprehend as a child, Camp Mokuleia has been waiting for me to appreciate it, 40 years later.

The Pilots Who Changed Yamamoto's Mind

Florence and James Ho

With a few hours to kill before our flight we stopped at Hilo Hattie's and encountered local historian James Ho. He was promoting his book-with-the-longish-title Seven Unsung Hero Fighter Pilots Who Saved This Day - December 7th, 1941. We listened politely, not only because we respect our elders but because we wouldn't want any rude behavior reported back to people we know in common.

Everyone who has a basic familiarity with World War II knows how on December 7, 1941 the Japanese destroyed the ships at Pearl Harbor and the combat planes at Hickam and Wheeler Fields in Central Oahu. Less well known are the 12 P-40 fighter planes in North Oahu and the pilots who counter-attacked. From the book by James Ho:

The twelve P-40 fighter planes stationed at Kawailoa Airfield [near Haleiwa on the North Shore] were untouched by the Japanese war planes. Evidently the Japanese espionage agents failed to inform its military about this airfield....[T]his airbase runway was built with the help of my classmates and me, many of whom were Japanese-Americans--whose parents were Japan citizens.

Flying high above the Japanese formation with the sun in back of them, the P-40's dove right through the first squadron of enemy Japanese planes and shot down six planes. As they dived through the Japanese formation and climbed up and under the next Japanese formation with their machine guns blazing, another six enemy Japanese planes were destroyed.

The actions by these pilots averted a second attack that could have crippled America's ability to prosecute the Pacific war [bold added]:

Supreme Commander Yamamoto, upon hearing about the air attack upon his returning aircrafts and the loss of so many [20 in total] planes in such a short time was convinced that the American carriers had returned to Pearl Harbor. Therefore, he gave the command to abort his original orders to rearm and refuel the returning aircrafts and issued a new order to withdraw.

These actions by seven pilots, one of whom lost his life that day, likely changed the course of history.

Getting My Vitamin D

I've been in Hawaii this past week to reunite with high school classmates and to visit relatives.

A few days ago we drove around Oahu and marveled at all the changes. I got lost frequently. iPhone GPS and Google Maps were not wholly reliable, or maybe I just don't know how to use them properly. One area that hasn't changed much is the beach along the far North Shore where the road ends, away from crowded Haleiwa. White sand, fierce sun, and lapping waves. Maui's over-rated. Oahu no ka oi!

Gotta get me one of those new iPhones. 2MP resolution doesn't cut it.