Sugar Swap
Are Artificial Sweeteners Safe?
By Edward C. Geehr, M.D., & Dorothy Foltz-Gray, Special to LifeScript
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Most Americans don’t think twice about tossing back a diet soda, an easy sacrifice compared, say, to
giving up a bag of chips. But the controversy swirling around the artificial sweetener Splenda, used
in many diet drinks and other foods, may quell our sugar-free indulgence – and help us rethink how
to handle sweet-tooth issues. We all know that sugar calories are empty ones. But are we risking
our health – and even our waistlines – by leaning on sugar substitutes? A recent study at Duke
University offers alarming new answers…
Keep up with what I learn...
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Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
HFCS - Why is it bad for us?
I got this article from www.mylifetime.com - I also read in a book by Dr. Oz the part about how HFCS keeps you from filling full. I'm convinced that the food industry is trying to keep us eating and eating and eating. I have found HFCS in pretzels. Why do you need a sweetner in Pretzels?
Sly Sweetener: High-Fructose Corn SyrupContent provided by Revolution Health Group Posted: Mon., Nov. 26, 2007 , 4:27 pm EST
Topics: health, diet, nutrition, sugar, sweetener More
Print | Email
High-fructose corn syrup. If you've looked at a nutrition label at some point in the past 20 years, you've surely seen those words. And the sugar-sweet, processed mix of glucose and fructose is in more places than you think. Because of that, our consumption of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is alarming: Thirty years ago, it barely registered in our diet; today, the average American consumes 42 pounds of it annually.
Why should that matter? Check out the average American waistline. While HFCS may not be the root cause of obesity, it certainly isn't helping — everything from gigantic soft-drink sizes to the proliferation of sugary snack foods can be traced to the growing use of HFCS.
Below, you'll find everything you need to know about HFCS: where it is, why it's so popular, and why you need to be aware of it.
Where It's Used
HFCS is highly concentrated in fast food, soda and sugary processed snacks. But check the labels in your pantry, because you may be surprised to learn it's also in ...
• Breads, including Wonder and some Pepperidge Farm brands
MORE ON FOOD & NUTRITION
Get the latest on smart food
choices, supplements and more.
Yes, you can cook for picky eaters.
Healing foods can help you
manage and prevent illness.
• Yogurt and ice cream, including Dannon and Ben & Jerry's
• Cereals, including Kellogg's Raisin Bran
• Crackers, including Wheat Thins and Cheese Nips
• Ketchup and Miracle Whip, as well as many salad dressings
Why It's Used
That's simple: cost and convenience. HFCS is cheaper than sugar, by 20 percent or more. It's easier for food makers to transport and blend. It also stays fresh longer, helps cooked foods brown better and retains moisture longer. Today, HFCS makes up 55 percent, or about $4.5 billion, of the U.S. sweetener market.
Reasons to Beware
Some experts say that HFCS doesn't trigger "fullness" signals as much as other sugars and foods. Yet it could be that HFCS won't hurt you any more than refined sugar or any other non-nutritive source of calories.
Regardless, the sweetener is at least partly responsible for manufacturers' ability to produce inexpensive, larger sizes of sweetened drinks and processed foods, a trend that coincides with the ballooning of America. "The size of those drinks and those kinds of food seem to preclude the consumption of better foods," says Cathy Nonas, RD, a registered dietitian in New York. "Our portions are off in general, and we've come to like sweet, convenient food and drink. But too much of those foods makes for a bad diet."
Making Better Choices
The USDA recommends no more than 40 grams, or about 10 teaspoons, of added sugars for a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. That can be tough to stick with unless you're careful, because the average American consumes 20.5 teaspoons of added sugars each day. Some advice:
• Seek out fresh fruits, 100-percent juices and natural snacks.
• Read labels, and be aware of how many foods include HFCS — and how much. Example: A tablespoon of ketchup has a teaspoon of HFCS.
• Watch your portion sizes. A 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi contains about 17 teaspoons of added sugar. Limit yourself to 8 ounces of soda, sports drink or juice drinks per day.
• Limit your children's intake. "Kids get used to that really sweet taste, and that's what they want," Nonas says. "And they're less likely to like fresh fruits and other things they should eat."
Reviewed by: Val Jones, MD
©2007 Revolution Health Group, LLC. All rights reserved
Sly Sweetener: High-Fructose Corn SyrupContent provided by Revolution Health Group Posted: Mon., Nov. 26, 2007 , 4:27 pm EST
Topics: health, diet, nutrition, sugar, sweetener More
Print | Email
High-fructose corn syrup. If you've looked at a nutrition label at some point in the past 20 years, you've surely seen those words. And the sugar-sweet, processed mix of glucose and fructose is in more places than you think. Because of that, our consumption of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is alarming: Thirty years ago, it barely registered in our diet; today, the average American consumes 42 pounds of it annually.
Why should that matter? Check out the average American waistline. While HFCS may not be the root cause of obesity, it certainly isn't helping — everything from gigantic soft-drink sizes to the proliferation of sugary snack foods can be traced to the growing use of HFCS.
Below, you'll find everything you need to know about HFCS: where it is, why it's so popular, and why you need to be aware of it.
Where It's Used
HFCS is highly concentrated in fast food, soda and sugary processed snacks. But check the labels in your pantry, because you may be surprised to learn it's also in ...
• Breads, including Wonder and some Pepperidge Farm brands
MORE ON FOOD & NUTRITION
Get the latest on smart food
choices, supplements and more.
Yes, you can cook for picky eaters.
Healing foods can help you
manage and prevent illness.
• Yogurt and ice cream, including Dannon and Ben & Jerry's
• Cereals, including Kellogg's Raisin Bran
• Crackers, including Wheat Thins and Cheese Nips
• Ketchup and Miracle Whip, as well as many salad dressings
Why It's Used
That's simple: cost and convenience. HFCS is cheaper than sugar, by 20 percent or more. It's easier for food makers to transport and blend. It also stays fresh longer, helps cooked foods brown better and retains moisture longer. Today, HFCS makes up 55 percent, or about $4.5 billion, of the U.S. sweetener market.
Reasons to Beware
Some experts say that HFCS doesn't trigger "fullness" signals as much as other sugars and foods. Yet it could be that HFCS won't hurt you any more than refined sugar or any other non-nutritive source of calories.
Regardless, the sweetener is at least partly responsible for manufacturers' ability to produce inexpensive, larger sizes of sweetened drinks and processed foods, a trend that coincides with the ballooning of America. "The size of those drinks and those kinds of food seem to preclude the consumption of better foods," says Cathy Nonas, RD, a registered dietitian in New York. "Our portions are off in general, and we've come to like sweet, convenient food and drink. But too much of those foods makes for a bad diet."
Making Better Choices
The USDA recommends no more than 40 grams, or about 10 teaspoons, of added sugars for a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. That can be tough to stick with unless you're careful, because the average American consumes 20.5 teaspoons of added sugars each day. Some advice:
• Seek out fresh fruits, 100-percent juices and natural snacks.
• Read labels, and be aware of how many foods include HFCS — and how much. Example: A tablespoon of ketchup has a teaspoon of HFCS.
• Watch your portion sizes. A 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi contains about 17 teaspoons of added sugar. Limit yourself to 8 ounces of soda, sports drink or juice drinks per day.
• Limit your children's intake. "Kids get used to that really sweet taste, and that's what they want," Nonas says. "And they're less likely to like fresh fruits and other things they should eat."
Reviewed by: Val Jones, MD
©2007 Revolution Health Group, LLC. All rights reserved
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Body Toxic
I'm in the process of reading The Body Toxic:
A little bit about the book:
"We are running a collective chemical fever that we cannot break. Everyone everywhere now carries a dizzying array of chemical contaminants, the by-products of modern industry and innovation that contribute to a host of developmental deficits and health problems in ways just now being understood. These toxic substances, unknown to our grandparents, accumulate in our fat, bones, blood, and organs as a consequence of womb-to-tomb exposure to industrial substances as common as the products that contain them. Almost everything we encounter—from soap to soup cans and computers to clothing—contributes to a chemical load unique to each of us.
Scientists studying the phenomenon refer to it as “chemical body burden,” and in The Body Toxic, the investigative journalist Nena Baker explores the many factors that have given rise to this condition—from manufacturing breakthroughs to policy decisions to political pressure to the demands of popular culture. While chemical advances have helped raise our standard of living, making our lives easier and safer in many ways, there are costs to these conveniences that chemical companies would rather consumers never knew about. Baker draws back the curtain on this untold impact and assesses where we go from here."
I'll let you know what I discover in my readings.
A little bit about the book:
"We are running a collective chemical fever that we cannot break. Everyone everywhere now carries a dizzying array of chemical contaminants, the by-products of modern industry and innovation that contribute to a host of developmental deficits and health problems in ways just now being understood. These toxic substances, unknown to our grandparents, accumulate in our fat, bones, blood, and organs as a consequence of womb-to-tomb exposure to industrial substances as common as the products that contain them. Almost everything we encounter—from soap to soup cans and computers to clothing—contributes to a chemical load unique to each of us.
Scientists studying the phenomenon refer to it as “chemical body burden,” and in The Body Toxic, the investigative journalist Nena Baker explores the many factors that have given rise to this condition—from manufacturing breakthroughs to policy decisions to political pressure to the demands of popular culture. While chemical advances have helped raise our standard of living, making our lives easier and safer in many ways, there are costs to these conveniences that chemical companies would rather consumers never knew about. Baker draws back the curtain on this untold impact and assesses where we go from here."
I'll let you know what I discover in my readings.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
What Makes Us Sick
I've decided to start blogging about all that things that makes us sick. I'm going to blog about everything I find that leads to cancer, birth defects, headaches, joint pain and anything else that affects our health. I'll provide as many links as I can and I welcome your input.
The reason is because in my lifetime I've seen such a rise in the incidents of cancer, asthma, conception problems, birth defects, behavior issues in children, joint issues and a number of other health issues. I've wondered why and couldn't help but feel it has to have something to do with our environment since it affects so many. So I've been reading, listening and researching everything I can find that might help us know the reasons why we're getting sick and what if anything we can do about it.
I've emailed a couple of companies. Mrs Baird's about HFCS and Wrigley about Aspartame. I only got one of the autoresponder's from Mrs. Bairds. Wrigley responded with a very short list of products that didn't contain aspartame. The thing I found most ironic on the Wrigley site is the toxicity warming of xylitol to dogs. Interesting that they warn you of an ingredient that is toxic to your animal but nothing about how bad aspartame is for you. Then again why would they it is in nearly EVERY GUM they make.
My husband in his endeavor to fight the urge to smoke took to chewing gum and mints. He swore after aspartame years ago when he discovered that while trading water for diet soda his knee pain went away. He went back to drinking some diet soda just to see if he just needed to add some water to his diet and despite the fact that he was still drinking the same amount of water the knee pain returned. Gave up the sodas and knee pain was gone. So when he started suffering from knee pain again he realized the mints and gum he was ingesting had aspartame. He asked me to get him some that didn't and you know what the only kind I found looking at a WALL of gum was Dentyne Fire. Some of the sugarless gum had sucralose but still had aspartame, some had xylitol but still had aspartame. LETS GET ASPARTAME OUT OF OUR FOODS. Want to know more just type in Aspartame in http://www.youtube.com/.
The reason is because in my lifetime I've seen such a rise in the incidents of cancer, asthma, conception problems, birth defects, behavior issues in children, joint issues and a number of other health issues. I've wondered why and couldn't help but feel it has to have something to do with our environment since it affects so many. So I've been reading, listening and researching everything I can find that might help us know the reasons why we're getting sick and what if anything we can do about it.
I've emailed a couple of companies. Mrs Baird's about HFCS and Wrigley about Aspartame. I only got one of the autoresponder's from Mrs. Bairds. Wrigley responded with a very short list of products that didn't contain aspartame. The thing I found most ironic on the Wrigley site is the toxicity warming of xylitol to dogs. Interesting that they warn you of an ingredient that is toxic to your animal but nothing about how bad aspartame is for you. Then again why would they it is in nearly EVERY GUM they make.
My husband in his endeavor to fight the urge to smoke took to chewing gum and mints. He swore after aspartame years ago when he discovered that while trading water for diet soda his knee pain went away. He went back to drinking some diet soda just to see if he just needed to add some water to his diet and despite the fact that he was still drinking the same amount of water the knee pain returned. Gave up the sodas and knee pain was gone. So when he started suffering from knee pain again he realized the mints and gum he was ingesting had aspartame. He asked me to get him some that didn't and you know what the only kind I found looking at a WALL of gum was Dentyne Fire. Some of the sugarless gum had sucralose but still had aspartame, some had xylitol but still had aspartame. LETS GET ASPARTAME OUT OF OUR FOODS. Want to know more just type in Aspartame in http://www.youtube.com/.
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