Sugar and other sweeteners are, in fact, so toxic to the human body that they should be regulated as strictly as alcohol by governments worldwide, according to a commentary in the current issue of the journal Nature by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). – Sugar Should Be Regulated As Toxin, Researchers Say, Yahoo! News
Super Bowl Sunday is big fun at our house.
This past week, CBS did a program on the best Super Bowl commercials that was hilarious. They really are fun to watch during the game. Adriana Lima is an eye-popping beauty, and every time I see that E-Trade baby I laugh out loud.
I haven’t had a favorite football team in years. Since I moved to D.C. I’ve tried to root for the Redskins, but I grew up in St. Louis, where the rivalry of the Cardinals – Redskins made them my mortal sports enemy, as were the Dallas Cowboys. But having once lived in New York for several years and loved it, I can’t help hope the New York Giants pull off a win today.
One month into the New Year, this big food eating extravaganza Sunday is tough for people who are trying to start a new diet regimen. Of course, the words “diet regimen” reveal the problem. If you want to get trim and fit, it’s not about diet as much as it is changing your entire lifestyle. That’s what so many people get wrong; it’s also why it’s so hard.
So, to all you attempting to start a new food habit and find yourself staring at Super Bowl temptations, don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t resist. Just remember that come Monday morning, it’s back to the business of getting leaner. (You could always go to the gym, take a walk or something physical to keep from over-indulging.)
It got me to thinking about an extraordinary moment last weekend.
Rep. Paul Ryan was a guest on “Fox News Sunday” last Sunday and Chris Wallace. Knowing it was his birthday, Wallace surprised him with a rectangular cake drenched in thick white frosting, with a large green dollar sign in the middle. Surprisingly, Mr. Ryan recoiled from the cake, chuckling, refusing to eat any. I don’t eat sugar, gave it up a long time ago. Wallace, clearly feeling awkward, asked Ryan to at least cut the cake. He did so, but only reluctantly, because after he cut it he didn’t know what to do with the piece he cut. Chris Wallace laughed nervously.
Good for him. I’m with Paul Ryan where sugar is concerned.
Now, if a liberal had been brought a cake by a host of FNC, can you just imagine the wingnut blog hysteria if he or she had refused to down the sugared goo?
Fill in the blank Democrat too good to share birthday cake with Wallace!
Sugar snob on this Sunday!
Elitist spruns sugar treat!
If more people paid closer attention to their own diet and exercise regimen, our health care costs wouldn’t be so astronomical. The majority of people can control their health and weight through diet, exercise and stress management, which begins with how you choose to live your life, with whom and taking responsibility for all these choices, which is a lot more difficult and involved than writing these sentences.
But whenever a study comes out on a major product, like the one I quote from at the top, that has a huge lobbying arm, I start the countdown for a requisite article to appear trying to disprove the facts or finding fault with the research, even dropping a bomb on the institution that released it. None of these things, however, can disprove what I’ve come to know is true through my own life, usage and experience, as well as those I’ve coached on diet and shaping up their lives.
Think of sugar as a drug or pharmaceutical and you’ve got it about right.
That’s how destructive it can be to your body, your mental functions, but especially your moods, though it’s your weight, blood pressure and cholesterol that’s right up there too. It’s the fuel behind our country’s obesity.
Ever heard of the book Sugar Blues? It’s the most important book you haven’t read.
From the study linked at the top:
Today, added sugar, as opposed to natural sugars found in fruits, is often added in foods ranging from soup to soda. Americans consume on average more than 600 calories per day from added sugar, equivalent to a whopping 40 teaspoons. “Nature made sugar hard to get; man made it easy,” the researchers write.
Many researchers are seeing sugar as not just “empty calories,” but rather a chemical that becomes toxic in excess. At issue is the fact that glucose from complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, is safely metabolized by cells throughout the body, but the fructose element of sugar is metabolized primarily by the liver. This is where the trouble can begin — taxing the liver, causing fatty liver disease, and ultimately leading to insulin resistance, the underlying causes of obesity and diabetes.
If you want to do one thing for yourself that you’ll never regret and can be a foundation for building a healthier life, the first thing to do is ban all sugar. There will be exceptions, like on Valentine’s Day or maybe on this Super Bowl Sunday, because it’s a big party day and because you’ll never stick with it if you feel deprived.
But if you absolutely have to have a sugar treat, making it a treat, not something you indulge in every day.
If you’re craving something eat protein instead.
Go Giants!
If you are an active person and or athlete sugar will do you no harm. It is an unmatched source of energy that is hard to replace. Fructose is the real culprit and of course it is used in practically all processed foods. But you will also find it in unlikely places like otherwise healthy breads and cereals , frozen vegetables with sauce , energy bars and natural soda . People should beware of anything that calls itself all natural ; there are plenty of natural things that can kill you. In reference to the Ryan incident with Chris Wallace, I am reminded of Mr. Obama at the Hershey’s plant in Pennsylvania. The employee’s kept trying to get him to eat something but he refused. Many of the women working there looked at him askance. I see no point in refusing one piece of chocolate or one piece of cake to appease someone who is trying to be nice to you; it’s not going to kill you. I myself lead a relatively healthy lifestyle , but when I am at a social gathering of some sort and the host offers me something sweet or fattening I make an exception as to not offend. Mr.Ryan and Mr. Obama’s refusal to partake in certain social norms says more about them than the foods they are refusing to eat. It shows a lack of social grace. In my experience people with a lack of social grace are usually lacking in other qualities of human experience. Mr. Ryan and Mr, Obama both exude a certain coldness and lack of feeling for people in distress , they are both technocrats ; they are self centered and narcissistic. It is no surprise that they would not take other peoples feelings into consideration , whether it be the offering of food , the giving of heating oil assistance , or the taking away of health benefits for the poor and elderly.
I spent 25 years as a dancer, the artistic equivalent to a pofessional athlete. Sugar is paramount before a performanc, though caffeine is a necessary partner.
The reality is that in the majority population sugar isn’t under control, including food products that make it to the poor or in neoghborhoods where nutritious foods don’t make.
The study is exactly correct. More food regulations not less. More & more recalls lately.
No. Regulations are not the answer. Telling people what to eat and legislating what people eat is not the answer; living causes dying and if people want to live longer then it is their responsibility to prolong their own lives. No food will harm you if eaten in moderation. We have had thirty years of government telling adults how to live their lives and all it has done is create a population of adults who are as dependent as children. As for corn syrup, fructose and sugar, once again we have congress to thank. Their subsidies to corn farmers created a glut of corn and companies like ADM needed to find something to do with it; and to this day we still subsidize sugar growers who practice the closest thing we have to slave labor in this country.
No, natural and organic foods aren’t getting to the poor. Cheap starch-based and high carbohydrate products laced with chemicals and fast foods chains and their super-sized portions are being fed to the poor to maximize profits by national companies. Before national, exchange-traded super grocers, charged with unsustainable top and bottom margins and revenue growth corporate targets, mom and pop grocery stores sold to poor people real food. They made enough to live comfortably, send their kids to college, and to retire. Remove sugar and other high calorie products from the balance sheets of fortune 500 companies and the stock market would collapse. Writing additional regulations and laws which ultimately punishes the poor is not the answer.
As for the politics, good for Ryan. Social norms shouldn’t include eating something you don’t want to.
My warm garlic, onion, spinach & parm-reggiano au gratin dip (lite sour cream) looks awesome!!!
What are you eating today? Politics on your mind? Serve it up…
I disagree. Social norms do require that you sometimes do things which are disagreeable, being in the public sphere only makes this more so. To refuse a piece of birthday cake offered to you on a nationally broadcast news program shows a lack of empathy, lack of decency and lack of appreciation. It is also incredibly self indulgent. I would expect this kind of behavior from someone like Ryan and Obama, they see themselves as part of the ruling class and therefore do not have to bother themselves with other peoples feelings.
“I would expect this kind of behavior from someone like Ryan and Obama, ”
I think you are COMPLETELY wrong as far as President Obama is concerned. He might not actually EAT it…but he would CERTAINLY accept a piece of it.
Fructose should be banned from all soft drink products. I don’t fear natural ingredients. Fructose compared to sugar is equal to margarine compared to butter.
Here are 5 things that would reduce obesity by 1/3 in five years:
1. Banned fructose or other non-sugar sweeteners from all soft drinks.
2. Ice must be requested by customers for fountain drinks in cups of 16oz. or less.
3. Eliminate cup holders from all passenger vehicles (we did it with car ashtrays).
4. Reinstate mandatory Physical Education from grades 6 thru 12.
5. Relax smoking and drinking rules and laws. When people could no longer copewith stress with a smoke and a cocktail they turned to food. Diabetes or emphysema, let individuals choose.
“Here are 5 things that would reduce obesity by 1/3 in five years:”
1.” Banned fructose or other non-sugar sweeteners from all soft drinks.”
But allow sugar?
2.” Ice must be requested by customers for fountain drinks in cups of 16oz. or less.”
WTF does asking for ICE have to do with anything?!!!!!!
3.” Eliminate cup holders from all passenger vehicles (we did it with car ashtrays).”
Again…WTF?!!!!!
4.” Reinstate mandatory Physical Education from grades 6 thru 12.”
WHAT?! Where do you live that they don’t have mandatory phys ed?!!!
5.” Relax smoking and drinking rules and laws. When people could no longer copewith stress with a smoke and a cocktail they turned to food. Diabetes or emphysema, let individuals choose.”
Dude, it would appear that you don’t NEED any more relaxing of drinking or smoking laws…you be TRIPPIN!!!!
I’m not trippin, you have completely bought into the corporate consumption marketing and media machine. You no longer think for yourself. Tell me why you cannot live without any of the items from 2 and 3?
Maybe I don’t WANT ice? I can live without it in my drink…I guess you never heard of Diet Iced tea or seltzer? But anyway your number 2 , if one assumes ALL fountain drinks have sugar would give folks MORE of it?!
As for cup holders…and ashtrays for that matter….You never drink water or coffee or tea without sugar? So NO CUP HOLDERS?!!
And I don’t know what kind of car YOU drive but our 2010 minicooper has a lighter and ashtray.
I HAVE to assume you are snarkin OR tyrippin…which is it?
http://www.chrisvalentines.com/memoir/apestory.html
Rep. Paul Ryan is psychopath. Now tell what eats (perhaps liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti).
I’ll never get over the fascination with Super Bowl commercials- 99 percent of them will be crass, rude, sexist, loud, and totally devoid of anything approaching real humor or intelligence. Tomorrow I’ll have class after class of students asking me which commercial I liked best, and their jaws will drop when I tell them I hit the mute button whenever the action leaves the football field. I’ll see every commercial that will be shoved into our faces over the next several months, I don’t need four hours of the garbage heaped up at me all at once, thanks anyway.
You’ve just described America. You’ve just described most of America. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Well certainly the repugnantklaner/teabaggin crowd…and quite a few of the dems to!