How Sweet it is!

High fructose corn syrup is really sweet and relatively cheap. Many scientists now believe that it is a major cause of overweight in our people. It is made from corn which is abundant in our country and ubiquitous in processed foods.

Some are calling it the ultimate fast food. It seems that the enzymes required to break it down may respond by becoming overactive which can lead to weight gain.
Fructose enzymes turn fructose into energy. The more fructose containing foods you eat each day, the more fructose enzymes you manufacture. That, according to the experts, is not good for your waist line and overall health.

Some contend that eating too much HFCS [ High Fructose Corn Syrup ] causes an accumulation of abdominal fat, which doctors describe as the most harmful kind. It also escapes the attention of the bodies appetite control mechanisms and allows us to load up on the calories. We continue eating when we would otherwise stop. The fructose has tricked us into eating more than our body needs. Highly regarded Dr. Andrew Weil says unequivocally that, " High Fructose Corn Syrup is definitely bad for you and it's also bad for the planet and I believe it is a major driver of the obesity epidemic."

Not everyone agrees that HFCS is a major cause of obesity in our country. The American Corn Growers Association sure doesn't. They claim HFCS is no worse than regular sugar, Although they want to change the name to corn sugar. The USFDA has it on the GRAS list [ Generally Recognized as Safe ] which doesn't make it less fattening. The American Medical Association [AMA] says that more independent research is needed [ the operative word here is independent]. And the Mayo Clinic says that the research is evolving.

None the less, this is incontrovertible: The extra calories provided by cheap corn and corn derivatives in the early 1970s created about 200 extra calories of energy per day per person. We didn't ignore them, we ate them. That's equivalent to 10 pounds per person per year. By 1985 all sugar consumed by Americans had risen from 128 pounds per year to 158 pounds per year. Did we just decide as a society one day to eat more sugar?

If we were to construct a graph showing the rise in obesity from 1970 through today, and we simultaneously plotted the track of the use of HFCS, it would be no surprise [ or accident ] that the two tracks coincided. According to Michael Pollan we have taken about 539 million bushels of annual corn harvest and turned it into 17.5 billion pounds of high fructose corn syrup.

In his best selling book The Sugar Fix, Dr. Richard J. Johnson says that, " What you don't know about fructose and HFCS could kill you. Cutting back on the fructose in your diet could save your life and shrink your waistline. Table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup [HFCS]-the primary sources of fructose-are staples of our food supply, and are even found in foods that aren't necessarily sweet, like breads, soups, ketchup, and salad dressing. These sweeteners are linked to health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and joint and abdominal pain. They may also increase your risk of liver and kidney disease, premature aging. and certain types of cancer."

Free Radicals-Particles With an Attitude

Free radicals are rogue molecules of oxygen that can be harmful because they have the ability to attack and damage our cells. They are oxygen molecules with an electron missing and they are highly reactive. They occur everywhere in nature. A blast of free radicals can be generated by

Toxic chemicals
Pesticides
Smoke [ cigarettes ]
Pollution
Infections
Sunburn
Burnt and fried foods

And, lets not overlook one of the more common ways to generate free radicals i.e., by the normal digestion of food. We are bombarded from the time we are born. The free radicals are all around us and we are exposed on a routine basis. The quandary is this; we need free radicals to sustain life. At the right time and place they are normal and desirable especially in the process that produces energy in the course of food oxidation. They can aid in detoxifying harmful substances and they can also play vital role in helping the immune system fight disease.

The body has a defense mechanism in the form of free radical scavengers called antioxidants, When you are in a state of wellness, the body has an ample supply of scavengers that keep the tissues from being damaged. The body can soak up and eliminate these potentially dangerous substances providing it has a supply of antioxidants.

Remember, when you eating a diet based on "live" foods, you have ACEs up your sleeve to fight the radicals i.e. Vitamins A,C,E and Selenium.

* Vitamin A Good sources: carrots, collard greens, kale, sweet potatoes, parsley, spinach, mustard greens, mangoes, Hubbard squash, cantaloupe, apricots, and broccoli.

* Vitamin C Good sources: peppers, kale, parsley, collard greens, turnip greens, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, strawberries, papayas, spinach, oranges, lemon juice, grapefruit, turnips, mangoes, asparagus, cantaloupes, and green beans.

* Vitamin E Good sources: expeller pressed polyunsaturated vegetable oil, seeds, nuts, whole grains, asparagus, avocados, berries, green leafy vegetables and tomatoes..

* Selenium Works with vitamin E. Good sources: wheat germ, Brazil nuts, barley, whole grain wheat bread, bran, oats, brown rice, turnips, and orange juice.

These are not the only foods in which these nutrients are found. this is not intended to be medical advice. If you have any questions, check with your doctor or nurse practitioner

Bewildering

There is a central contradiction between nutrition theory and practice today. One one hand, our advice concerning the health benefits of a diet based largely on whole, live natural foods has not changed in more then fifty years and it is constantly supported by ongoing science. On the other hand, many people seem to be confused about what they are supposed to eat to stay healthy. When considering this contradiction, we should be aware of the role the food industry plays in creating an environment conducive to overeating animal based and highly processed foods.

For thousands of years, human body weight stayed stable. Throughout adulthood, those who came before us generally consumed no more than the food needed to stay alive. With rare exceptions, their body weight neither rose or fell by any significant amount. We were given a perfect biological system which reflected the wisdom of the body at work. Then, around 1980, things began to change.

We live in an age of industrial food with its numberless fast food outlets and supermarkets. Industrial food companies, not unlike cigarette , pharmaceutical and car companies, routinely place the needs of stockholders and the need for making profits above those of the consumer. They lobby congress to eliminate regulations and press regulatory agencies to not enforce those regulations that are on the books. Annually they spend billions of dollars on direct media advertising and its a sad commentary that much of it is aimed at children.

In his book The End of Overeating, Dr. David a Kessler points out that the business of food is to create highly rewarding stimuli and he quoted a high-level industry executive, who asked to remain anonymous, who said that," Higher sugar, fat, and salt make you want to eat more. They make a food compelling and indulgent. They make it high in hedonic value which gives us pleasure." Dr. Kessler also asked." Do you design food specifically to be high hedonic?" to which the executive replied,"Oh, absolutely. We try to bring as much of that into the equation as possible." "As we do this", says Dr. Kessler, " The food industry becomes the manipulator of the consumer's minds and desires."

Food companies, when they are not filing lawsuits about regulations they don't like, co-opt food and nutrition experts by supporting organizations and research while expanding sales by marketing directly to children and other groups whether or not the products are likely to improve people's diet. These practices are legal. Whether they are ethical is another matter. Much of what they do lobbying, marketing, engaging the services of "nutrition experts", is conducted out of the public view. Lobbying records are too often subject to confidentiality agreements.

The subliminal nature of food and beverage advertising is a tribute to its ubiquity as well as to the sophistication of the agencies that produce it. They spend billions of dollars annually on direct media advertising in magazines, radio, newspapers, television and billboards. Most of the billions are used to promote highly processed, elaborately packaged and "dead foods." Little, if any, is spent advertising "live" food like fruits,,vegetables, and grains. No wonder that so many people are bewildered

The Big Elephant in the Room-Insulin

The hormone insulin determines whether we burn fat or carbohydrates and it ultimately determines whether or not we store fat in the body. Insulin production is affected by the amount of glucose created by carbohydrate ingestion.

Glucose is nature's fuel. It is the "Golden energy" molecule and it is preferred by the brain. It is also the main source of energy for the body, When you eat carbohydrates, your body is looking for energy to run its trillions of cells. It exists as glucose in the blood, glycogen in the muscles, and as glucagon in the liver.

Keep in mind that all carbohydrates are not equal. Some have more impact on insulin production than do others. Some carbohydrates cause insulin levels to "spike" higher than others. Understanding the difference is one key to controlling your body fat and possibly avoiding diabetes and other health related problems.


Some often refer to carbohydrates as "bad" or "good". More accurately they should be referred to as "fast" [sugars] or "slow" [starches] reflecting their effect on the insulin response. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The hare started the race like he was shot out of a cannon and then he petered out as the tortoise clomped along at a steady pace. High gylcemic carbohydrates are like the hare i.e. fast. Low glycemic carbohydrates are like the tortoise i.e. slow. If you want to win the race against fat, you should be like the tortoise and emphasize eating "slow" carbs and minimizing "fast" carbs in the diet.

* Highly processed foods are fast. The smaller particle sizes make it easier for liquids and enzymes to penetrate and speed up the fast glycemic response. They also lack fiber that acts as a physical barrier that slows down the enzymes and the rate of digestion.

*Fiber can help stop the flood of glucose. Research has shown that eating as little 1/2 cup of legumes or beans a day will help you manage your glucose levels.

*The digestion of sugar is very fast and produces only half as many molecules for processing as the same amount of starch, The same applies to milled flours that are faster than whole grain stone ground flours.

* Fast carbohydrates [high glycemic] go through the small intestine much faster than slow carbohydrates [low glycemic]. The fast carbs also fail to trigger the brain receptors that tell the brain that you are "full' and they stimulate counter-regulatory responses that reverse the decline in hunger.

*Fast carbs are usually energy dense i.e. they contain a lot of calories for less satiety.

A good guide to help you in this regard is learning to use the glycemic index of foods. The index has been studied for years and now has the weight of scientific evidence on its side. The index measures the speed at which carbohydrates affect the insulin response to the level of glucose in the blood. You can do two things; Goggle the glycemic index and/or study the book The New Glucose Revolution by Miller-Brand, Wolever, Colagiuri, and Foster-Powell.

In this way, you can learn how to control your insulin responses more effectively. You should also consult your doctor or nurse practitioner.

The Paradox of Plenty

We Americans spend less on food and more on health care than any other industrialized country in the world. Most experts agree that our love affair with refined, processed foods may be why Americans rank the highest in diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, heart disease and obesity despite having the most advanced health care system in the world. Our diets have left us overfed and undernourished. We have created the Paradox of Plenty.



We live in an age where the natural, organic world, in which our ancestors evolved for thousands of years, is in competition with the world were over 6ooo chemicals are used to process food. We live in age that has undertaken a giant experiment of toxic ingestion. 90% of the typical American food budget is spent on easy to cook and easy to eat processed convenience foods.



The food industry aims at making products that look and taste appealing without any thought given to the products nutritional value. Much commercial food is so processed that it resembles building materials more than it resembles natural food. The ingredients list on a Twinkie reads more like rocket fuel than food for human consumption. Many gas stations make more money selling food than gasoline. They have become, as Michael Pollen says, "Processed corn stations; ethanol outside for your car and high fructose corn syrup inside of you."



Scientific evidence has proven that a diet based on refined, chemically laced food won't offer what our trillions of cells need on a daily basis. Scientists have discovered most of the food elements that are essential to health. The evidence, epidemiological, experimental and clinical supports a whole food, plant based diet which uses meat sparingly as condiment, for longevity and optimal fitness.



Whole, live foods are not processed and they have only one ingredient, themselves. Whole foods are easy to visualize. Its easy to picture a wheat field , a cherry orchard or an apple tree. It's much harder to visualize a field of marsh mellows. Whole foods are not refined, stripped, bleached, injected, hydrogenated, chemically treated, irradiated and gassed! Whole foods have the highest satiety factor and are lowest in calories than highly processed foods which literally have the life taken out of them.

To insure that you get plenty of "live" foods try having cut up vegetables handy on a plate with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salsa, or hummus. Munch on them while making dinner instead of reaching for the cheese and dip. Add vegetables to pasta and pizza. Add tomatoes and onions, cucumber, bell pepper, grated carrots, and dark green lettuce to sandwiches. Recent studies at the Center for Science in the Public Interest have found sweet potatoes to be the healthiest of all vegetables followed by carrots, collard greens, red peppers, kale, dandelion greens, spinach and broccoli. Eat more of these live foods and your cells will love you even more.

Don't Waste Your Money

GHC is a hormone found in the urine of pregnant women. More than 50 years ago Dr. Albert Simeons, a British physician, claimed that GHC injections would allow overweight people to tolerate a 500 calories a day diets without any of the discomfort and overwhelming hunger usually associated with a severe calorie-restricted diet. Dr. Simeons claim was that small daily doses "rendered" fat deposits readily available for making up the deficit of a calorically inadequate diet and the process is accomplished by a rapid breakdown of adipose tissue.

Current knowledge of the regulation of appetite and hunger [ notice that they are not the same. Hunger is physical while appetite is emotional. ] is extremely complex and involves the emotions, hypothalamus, gastrointestinal physiology, energy requirements and possibly genetically determined metabolic pathways. Sorry! Still no magic bullets.

Noted physician Dr. Andrew Weil says about GHC injections or sub-lingual applications," They don't work. Don't waste your money." The Mayo Clinic stance is that, " Taking GHC doesn't appear to be particularly unsafe, but there is no scientific proof that it does any good." This is the view also upheld in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

In 2007, the infamous snake oil salesman Kevin Trudeau wrote a book entitled, The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About. The following year FTC cited Trudeau for misrepresenting the contents of his book in infomercials and he was fined $37 million dollars. He was extolling the virtue of the GHC method and accused the pharmaceutical companies and government of trying to eliminate the competition for weight loss therapies.

The FTC stance was that," There is no substantial evidence that GHC increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction [ italics are mine ] or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie restricted diets." Think about it for a minute. If you are consuming 1500 calories each day and you cut down to 500 each day, you are consuming 1000 calories less each day, which I feel is dangerous [ unless you are morbidly obese and under the supervision of a doctor ]. That's 1000 X 7 = 7000 calories less in a week. That's 7000 divided by 3500 [calories in a pound of energy ] = 2 pounds per week lost.



Here is how we are engineered. If you are consuming 1500 calories each day and your weight doesn't fluctuate much, your cost of living [metabolism] and exercise energy requirements are about right. If you maintain your level of physical activity, the only adjustment will be the speed of your metabolism which drops as you age. If you have and are gaining weight, some form of calorie restriction should work depending on the quality of food you consume. Dr. Barbara Rolls in her best selling book The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan, teaches how to feel full on fewer calories. But, theoretically, if you consume 250 calories less each day [ equivalent to a pound lost every two weeks], the calories needed to keep your 1500 a day level will come from your energy storage depot i.e. your fat deposits.

Where's the Beef?

According the Nutrition Action Healthletter, ground beef would be a strong contender as the single food most likely to inflict damage on the American diet. They say that Americans stuff themselves with tacos, meatloaf, lasagna and the ubiquitous hamburger without a second thought as to the consequences.

The average American consumes about 30 pounds of ground beef each year. That's equivalent to a Quarter Pounder every three days. Hamburgers and cheese-burgers account for more than 76 percent of the beef sold in restaurants compared to just 5 percent for steak. Untrimmable ground beef products account for roughly 45 percent of the beef we eat and, unlike steak, the fat in ground beef can't be trimmed away. In fact, the health letter contends that many supermarkets "adjust" the fat content of their ground beef by adding ground-up beef fat. By law, no nutrition labels are required on ground beef packages. The medical community is very specific about limiting the amount of saturated fat in your diet. Ground beef is the third largest source of saturated fat in the average American diet after cheese and milk.

Much has been written about the disadvantages of commercial beef versus natural grass fed varieties. Commercial farmers have been using powerful synthetic fattening chemicals for a long time to enhance animal weight gain. It makes economic sense. More animal weight for less food [cost ]. the farmer makes more income. But, when the animals are sold, we eat them, chemicals and all. The end result is that our metabolism appears to be affected by a massive range of synthetic chemicals including those intended to fatten animals.

Because of policies started by the Nixon administrations USDA, we have amassed a hugh mountain of cheap corn to be used as cattle feed. The advantage to farmers is that corn fed cows get fat quickly and their flesh also marbles [fat layers ] well. But a growing body of research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with corn feed beef as well as the synthetic chemicals used. Ruminants are ill adapted to eating corn. In the same way, humans may be poorly adapted to eating ruminants that eat corn.

Michael Pollan, in his best selling book The Omnivore's Dilemma, tasting a hamburger from a steer raised in a CAFO, " I could not taste the feed corn, or the petroleum, or the antibiotics, or the hormones, or the feed lot manure. Nutrition facts don't enumerate the fact of what has gone into the making of the hamburger. You are what you eat is a truism hard to argue with, and yet it is, as a visit to a feed lot suggests, incomplete, for you are what what you eat eats too. And what we are, or have become, is not just meat but number 2 corn and oil.

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