HFCS The Good the Bad the Ugly

If you are a fan of western movies you know that phrase. If not you may be under the impression that anything labeled good is actually good without any reservations.

I was just sort of watching TV yesterday, you know when you are doing housework and stuff and the TV is on. A commercial caught my eye. Two teenage brothers are sitting at the breakfast table and the younger (nerd) is eating cereal. The older (football jock) is telling him that he is eating junk cereal loaded with HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) and everybody knows that is bad. The football jock cannot tell him "who said" it was bad and ends with everybody knows.

The slim younger boy proceeds to tell his brother that HFCS is good for you. That it is the same as sugar. That the body processes it as sugar and that eating it is not bad for you. The older brother immediately steals the bowl and eats the cereal.

The older boy was presented as a dim witted unthinking football player. Sorry but my grandson is a high school football player, and an A student. He knows more about nutrition than most kids and yet his information is still lacking. His coach has him on a regimen to bulk up and is pushing protein.

The younger slim boy was presented as being knowledgeable without giving any backup to his statements. He quoted no sources or statistics. It was the same sort of visual imagery that women face everyday - Buy this or that product and you will be young beautiful and desirable.

Facts that you can verify --

"Natural Sugar" processed first to syrup and then dried, has a higher glucose percentage which our body burns as a source of immediate energy. The glucose is stored in muscles and liver for later use, and also signals for the release of insulin.

HFCS is higher in fructose rather than glucose and fructose does not signal for the release of insulin.

Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone that helps to metabolize our foods by pushing carbohydrates into our muscle cells to be used as energy, and allows carbohydrates to be stored in our liver for later use.

Glucose also stimulates production of another hormone, leptin, which helps to regulate our storage of body fat and increases our metabolism when needed.

These two hormones regulate our body fat and tell us when we are satisfied when eating and sends the message to our brain to stop eating.

These two hormones are influenced by glucose but not fructose.

Therefore --


HFCS - good - a cheap sweetener in manufactured products. Originally kept the cost of the product low. Since the US government sets the price of sugar to protect USA growers, sugar costs more here than anywhere else in the world. Cheap sugar is one reason the rest of the world still consumes more "natural" sugar than HFCS.

HFCS - bad - distorts the body's ability to process sugar, causes the appetite controlling hormones to ignore the intake of this sweetener thereby leading to eating more. This form of sweetener has more fructose which is basically ignored by your body.

HFCS - ugly - some claim fructose is addictive like MSG- the more you eat, the more you want. This can lead to excessive eating and insulin problems,which certainly contributes to disease and early death. Again, the fructose in comparison to the glucose.

I am sure when the manufacturers first came up with HFCS as an alternative sweetener it was a boon. It was created using "natural" ingredients. More and more manufacturers found HFCS a cheap way to add flavor to prepackaged foods.

Why is it necessary to put HFCS in canned vegetables? Then again why is it necessary to put regular sugar in canned vegetable. Same reason you add salt - take away the salt and the sugar and canned vegetables would taste like - nothing.

Can you become obese with regular sugar? Sure - diabetes and gout have always been part of society. Don't most people prefer something sweet to anything else? The sweet stuff usually has no redeeming value just empty calories - but it tastes good. Parents know that babies must be given the less appealing vegetables before they are introduced to the tasty desserts. And what busy parent can resist the temptation of giving the children a box of cereal and milk rather than cooking a high protein breakfast.

The big controversy here is fructose (yes found in fruits but balanced by the entire benefits of the fruit) and glucose. Fructose, more than sugar, contributes to your overweight problem. Natural sugar is just as processed as HFCS, but the difference is the balance of fructose and glucose. One the body can't cope with and the other is used.

Researchers at the University of Michigan found that men who consume very high levels of fructose elevated their triglyceride level by 32 percent. As triglyceride enters our blood stream, it makes our cells resistant to insulin, making our body’s fat burning and storage system even more sluggish.

In 1966 per capita consumption of high fructose corn syrup was zero – in 2001 that rose to 62.6 pounds per person per year. Yes, we consumed more sweet stuff knowing it was fattening, but we also consumed the HFCS because we didn't know it was in the prepackaged products. Then again we probably didn't know about the sugar and salt either. MSG is another one of those lovely taste enhancers that leads to obesity.

That small but significant difference in sweeteners can help to explain why we are, as a nation, becoming obese. The same amount of exercise cannot accomplish the same fat burn because of the nature of what we eat and drink. Add to that the fact that we are all becoming more sedentary and using less energy -- the result is overweight and diseased bodies.

Wait you say, I know people who consume vast amounts of sugar and HFCS and fats and they never gain any weight. They have no health problems. They don't do lots of exercise.

Our genetic nature is so diverse that there will always be people who do not fall into the general statistics of any society. My mother ate sweets like there was no tomorrow and never gained a pound. Why oh why didn't I inherit that gene?

until next time -- smile

Sharon
AnswersforYourHealth.com

Managing Your Health Supplements

We have talked about sorting your supplements and prescriptions into groups with and without food, once a day and multiple times a day. You now have all those bottles sitting in their own little box marked with or without food. Or maybe you have several boxes - with or without food, morning or multiple times a day.

May I suggest a simple system to easily identify what is which. It is a color system. You can buy the colored dots - often used in yard sales or fingernail polish or even paint. I personally like the colored dots. You can easily stick a dot on the lid or label of the bottle.

This is an especially effective method for older people who have memory lapses or are just too busy to keep track of what and when. A piece of paper with the colored dots and the description of each color can be posted on the inside of a cupboard door or a medicine cabinet door in the bathroom. The time to take the pill can also be added to the description.

It is a good idea to set a specific time to take your pills. In a busy constantly interrupted life it is easy to question if you took your pill or not. This is especially deadly with prescriptions. Something as simple as blood pressure pills can produce very bad results if not taken properly. Skipping days or worst taking more than desired can place great hardship on your body.

Other than with or without food, most supplements can be taken anytime of the day. The exception of course would be anything that increases energy -- you would not want to take this at night before bed.

Most people take a handful of pills with breakfast. If your stomach rebels at the thought of breakfast or swallowing anything but coffee before 10 am, then adjust your supplements accordingly.

Just a side note here. Breakfast is truly the most important meal of the day. Breakfast does not have to be a cereal and milk. The incredible egg is a great choice. Studies show that protein in the morning increases weight loss when you are trying to slim down.

Oh yes, I did say something about traveling with multiple supplements. Simple, and a system some use everyday even at home. Sit down one evening or morning and sort all the pills into little zip lock snack bags. Make a morning and afternoon bag, food and no food - that is 4 bags a day unless you just have one pill that must be taken without food. Since most supplements are taken with food, most of you will only need 2 bags a day. You can store all your small bags in one large bag that takes up little room in a suitcase or cupboard.

You can toss that one bottle of without food pills in the larger bag. Again you can use the colored dots to identify the morning bag from the afternoon bag.

For my mother, we made up the bags twice a month and stored them in a shoe box. We included her prescriptions that were once or twice a day. Her morning bag had a pink dot and the afternoon had a blue dot. The time to take it was written on the dot. The dots were also numbered 1-15. I had her save all the bags and we reused them. That appealed to her frugal side and kept her in touch with the date. Once we went to this system there were no more problems with her taking her prescriptions too often. If you have a care giver coming in once or twice a week, this system can be helpful to them as well.

With more and more older people living alone, this method can be a life saver. Living alone can be very lonely and the desire for conversation can be an incentive to sit twice a month and make up the bags.

You can also buy plastic boxes with little divided sections. The lids of each section are numbered. I have seen them large enough to hold a weeks worth of prescriptions. However, they are not usually large enough to hold the capsules of herbal supplements as well.

At the end of the day,whatever method you use, as long as it works for you it is a good method.

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.
Lance Armstrong
Cancer Survivor and Athlete

until next time - smile
Sharon
AnswersforYourhealth.com

Natural - Safe or Deadly

Just because "it" is natural doesn't mean "it" can't kill or cripple you.

Homeopathic remedies work because they are strong medicines that impact the body. Problems can occur when natural remedies are combined without consideration for the interaction of all those individual herbs. Most everyone already knows that you must be careful when combining a prescription drug and an over-the-counter artificial or herbal remedy.

The big problem as I see it is that what is used all the time becomes so common that we don't even think of it as an herb or drug. Is taking a Tylenol every evening just part of your day? Do you take a Ginkgo capsule everyday when you pop your vitamin complex pill or pills? Do you even remember why you are taking the Policosanol?

Do you take your herbal supplements as directed? Do you know which ones should be consumed with food and which ones work best on an empty stomach? Do you just take one of each bottle and swallow a handful of pills with a glass of water or orange juice?

Now, throw into this mix your prescriptions. Maybe you take a high blood pressure medication or a blood thinner. Did you tell your doctor about your herbal supplements? Do you know which of your herbal supplements can have a dramatic impact on your prescriptions?

Don't get discouraged. It really is not that hard to make sure you are protecting your health while you are improving your health........ read the rest at Herbal Remedies

******

Yes it has been an unexpected and prolonged ?vacation? One of those first one thing and then another. Exciting, disappointing, devastating, and just accept and move on.

so until next time -- smile

Sharon

Answers For Your Health