Super Food: Ginger

The benefits of ginger are overlooked in Western world largely I think because we often see ginger served with Japanese food, and Americans tend to equate anything resembling an Asian herbal remedy to a mysterious kung fu wizard with a 3 foot goatee and a green tea fetish.  HAI!

Researchers have started studying ginger and through the scientific method have started to climb on board with 4,000 years of ancient Asian white rice samurai magic. It turns out; ginger is good for more than just cleansing the palate after spicy tuna rolls.

Ginger is highly recommended for nausea (I have been supplied many a candied ginger pill while racing as nausea is a common side effect of distance running), reportedly because elements of ginger aid in “gastrointestinal transport”. For this reason ginger is recommended to pregnant women and people subject to motion sickness.

Ginger has also been shown to reduce the instance of certain kinds of cancer and aid in the treatment of other devastating illnesses. Ginger is an antioxidant and contains what scientists have defined as 6-gingerol which reduces the depletion of naturally produced antioxidants in the body and inhibits production of nitrous oxide (a harmful free radical). Diabetic rats given ginger supplements have been shown to have higher levels of antioxidants and have reduced nephropathy compared to control groups. Scientists suspect that the ginger is helpful in treating this disease because it aids in blood vessel balance. Some cancer patients may have a call to be optimistic, as ginger has been shown to kill ovarian cancer cells, and slow the growth of colon cancer.

Ginger is used sometime to control inflammation and act as a pain killer for cramping, arthritis migraines, even heart burn. Ginger has been shown to relieve pain in some arthritis patients when all other forms of pain killers failed. Ginger has even been shown to thin the blood and lower cholesterol, aiding in the prevention of heart disease.

The beauty of Ginger is that it is common in most markets, cheap, keeps for a while in the fridge, is safe to take in large doses, and not many people are allergic to it. So eat up, put it in your soups and in your salads. Bake it with your chicken and soak it in your soup. For a simple fix, soak a few slices in hot water & throw in some lime, brown sugar and honey for a delicious tea. Zest up your lemonade, make your own salad dressing or sauté it with your vegetables. Ginger is just another example of why it is important to have a varied diet full of a variety of fruits, vegetables and tubers and I have made an active effort to always have some in the house.

Next Time on Popular Excuses:  Is it OK to blame Fast Food?
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Reading List
10 Benefits of Ginger (with links to other articles)
NY Times article on Ginger & Cancer
Worlds Healthiest Foods - Ginger
Wiki on Ginger
Ginger Recipe - grouprecipes.com: Ginger Honey Dressing
Ginger Tea Recipe

It's Ok - It's a Fried VEGETABLE!

Sure – frying food adds extra calories and some extra fat to your diet, but so do raw almonds and olive oil. What’s the big deal?

The short answer is this: Humans evolved to be eaters of mostly vegetables, fruits, nuts and some meat. The human body doesn’t need the amount of fat consumed when you eat fried food and moreover doesn’t know you live in the 21st century so it thinks you are desperate to eat any food you can get your hands on. The brain wants you to eat sugar fat and salt until you are sick and will make you crave as much of it as you can eat.

It is for this reason I believe fried food is the cornerstone of the obesity problem in America – second only to sugar and followed closely by a sedentary lifestyle.

But there is another possibly better answer to why fried food is so bad for you.

People describe fats as falling into two groups “good fats” and “bad fats”. Good fats are the mono and poly unsaturated fats like Omega 3 and Omega 6. Good fats have a molecule chain that is flexible and provides building blocks for your body that allow for the best cell membrane composition, allowing for optimum containment of nutrients in the cell. The American heart association suggests 25% - 35% of your daily calorie consumption come from these types of fats. A few generations ago when obesity was 2/3 of what it is today and less than 1% of the population had type II diabetes consumption of fat as a percent of calories was closer to 45%.

Bad fats are saturated and trans fats. For the most part saturated fat comes from animal products. Saturated fat is created in the body so it does not need to be consumed (which is why it’s considered bad), and the rule of thumb is that no more than 7% of the calories in your diet should come from saturated fat. So a 2,000 calorie diet should have about 15 grams of saturated fat. For reference, one tablespoon of butter has 100 calories, but 7 grams of saturated fat.

Trans Fats are in a class by themselves, and it is the trans fats that in my opinion are the REALLY bad fats. There are a few naturally occurring trans fats, but the vast majority comes from man made partially hydrogenated oils. Partially hydrogenated oils are so pervasive you probably have no idea how much of them you are eating unless you are vigilant about checking ingredient lists. The FDA suggests 1% of your diet comes from trans fats, but I would suggest that anytime you eat food where the nutrition is listed on the box it came in, make sure it has NO added trans fats. Even a small increase of trans fats in your diet can greatly increase your risk of heart disease.

Trans fats are called so because of the layout of their carbon and hydrogen molecules. Without getting too much into the chemistry, trans fats are created when you expose oils to very high heat in the presence of hydrogen; a process which causes the fat to solidify. The solidification process adds a hydrogen atom to the fat molecule which creates a stiff fat structure. It is this stiff structure which makes trans fats bad because they clog your arteries and cause heart problems. The rigid structure is also a terrible building block for cell membranes and allows vital nutrients to pass through your cells.

Trans Fats were originally marketed as a health alternative because trans fats aren’t saturated. But I think the real reason trans fats are so popular is because the food industry loves them; trans fats are cheap (they're almost always made from corn or soybean oil), it's easy to transport and it almost never goes bad. Think about it, Crisco doesn’t melt and slosh all over the place and when was the last time your shortening spoiled?

Trans Fats also affect your cholesterol in the worst way possible. Cholesterol comes in two forms LDL - bad, and HDL - good. The LDL is bad because it clogs up the arteries, and HDL is good because much like a cleaning crew it travels through the body gathering up LDL and depositing it back into the liver where it can be properly disposed of. It is easier to lower your bad cholesterol by eating more good cholesterol than it is to simply cut out bad cholesterol.  Good cholesterol is an essential part of your diet.

With that information in mind, here is a quick fat comparison:

Good fats: raise good cholesterol and lower bad cholesterol.
Saturated fats: will raise both the good and bad cholesterol.
Trans fats: lower good cholesterol and raise bad cholesterol It is this way that trans fats are a double whammy and the worst possible combination for maintaining vascular health.

Even local governments and the food industry have picked up on how bad trans fats are for you. Within the past few years both New York and California have passed bans on restaurants using artificial trans fats to cook.  Labeling on food as being trans fat free is becoming so commonplace, the FDA actually cracked down on foods advertising no trans fats as being misleading to customers who then think the so labeled products are also low in fat.  And of course, some trans fat free labeling is just absurd.

Yes, let us THINK ABOUT IT!

Avoid all partially hydrogenated oils – opt to go hungry instead of eating them. Go through your freezer and your pantry and throw all of them away – don’t think about it – just do it – do it today. There is no room for partially hydrogenated oils in your life because the bottom line is

THEY’RE KILLING YOU.

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Next time on Popular Excuses: Superfood: Ginger
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Reading List:
http://www.bantransfats.com/
Ban on Trans Fats MSNBC
http://www.fda.gov/
Harvard School of Public Health
The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, Fats p. 81-95

Our Juice has Antioxidants!

Being a health minded shopper, almost every packaged food that actually makes it into my cart has some sort of health claim on it. Low Fat! Rich in Omega-3! All Natural! Organic! and the topic of today’s article: High in Antioxidants!

My husband asked me the other day what Antioxidants did – and though I know that they are good for me, I had no idea why. I looked online and found lots of articles on good sources of antioxidants, but only WebMD had a comprehensive article on what purpose antioxidants actually served. The following description relies heavily on that article.

Everything organic has cells, and those cells are subject to oxidation when exposed to oxygen. This natural and healthy process breaks down cells, and the body uses the food one eats as the building blocks to rebuild those cells. This rebuilding process is the reason eating right is crucial to your health – you quite literally are what you eat.

Through the process of oxidation, 1% - 2% of the cells don’t die, but the DNA in the cell becomes mutated, thus creating a free radical. Free radicals float along in your body and can attach to other cells which can cause those other cells in your body to reproduce improperly and without restrain. This is where disease begins, including devastating diseases like heart disease and cancer.

Now the antioxidants come in. Antioxidants can be consumed and are created in the body. Antioxidants capture the free radicals and prevent them from producing damaging cells throughout the body.  Some work by stopping the replication process from continuing.

While there are many sources of antioxidants, most humans are also in daily situations which generate free radicals, including exposure to pollution, smoking, asbestos – even the sun. Because the body is exposed to all of these toxins at a much higher rate than humans had evolved to handle, antioxidant consumption is a crucial part of your diet.




Some great sources of antioxidants:
Red Beans
Blueberries
Cranberries
Artichokes
Strawberries
Walnuts
Cloves
Potatoes
Red Peppers
Broccoli

This brings me to a point I’ve made several times in past which is that variety in your diet is extremely important. Vitamin C and Vitamin E are both antioxidants, but they work differently – C prevents free radicals from being a threat and E interrupting their reproduction and protects cell membranes. Additionally, because it is so easy to work antioxidants into your diet, there is absolutely no reason to turn to fattening juices or dried fruit to consume them. In fact, you can have a meal completely devoid of fruit and still consume some of the best sources of antioxidant on the planet.  Still Curious about Flavonoids? I will write on it soon, I promise!
­­­­­­­­­Jeffrey Blumburg, PhD professor of nutrition at Tufts University explains it best:

“We can’t rely on a few blockbusters to do the job. You can’t eat nine servings of broccoli a day and expect it to do it all. We need to eat many different foods. Each type works in different tissues of the body, in different parts of cells. Some are good at quenching some free radicals, some are better at quenching others. When you have appropriate amounts of different antioxidants, you’re doing what you can to protect yourself.”

I guess when it comes to antioxidants; Variety is the spice of living!

Next Time on Popular Excuses: Yeah they’re fried, but they’re still veggies – what is so bad about that?!?
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Reading List
seniorjournal.com - best sources of Antioxidants
webmd.com article

Semper Fidelis Milkshake

Listening to NPR the other morning I was officially horrified.

Over 25% Americans in their late teens and early twenties are now so overweight, they have been deemed to fat to fight as members of the armed services. Too fat to join the army. The weight limit for girls is 241. For men 259. Additionally body fat percentage limit for women 36% men 30%. Twenty-seven percent of teens are over this threshold.

This should be shocking to you, especially since only 15 years ago the percent of teens who fell over this threshold was 12%. Moreover 1,200 persons a year are already members of the armed services are now being discharged because they can’t maintain this fitness standard (an expensive issue). So, coupled with other issues like lack of high school education and drug use or criminal records only 1 in 4 teens are eligible to enlist and stay enlisted.

The problem, not mentioned in the report, is worse still among minorities. Minority teens who want to take advantage of the educational opportunities of the military (including college and graduate programs like law school and professional military careers) are now not able. Great, now our youth is getting fatter, less disciplined and dumber.

You might be asking: Shouldn’t 18 year olds be responsible for their own weight problems. Don’t they have no one to blame but themselves if they can’t drop the weight to joined the armed forces and take advantage of the opportunities there?

No.  Not in my opinion.

I’m all for personal responsibility and I expect it from older individuals, but the fact is 80% of obese children end up being obese adults and it is no mystery to me why. Do we expect young children who are stuffed full of 700 - 1000 more calories a day than they need from the age of toddler to young teen suddenly divert from the diets ingrained in them their whole lives and embrace eating habits with fruits and veggies half the calories NONE of the trans fats, one quarter of the high fructose corn syrup and half the salt? Most adults can’t do that, how do we expect teenagers to be able to?

Get the fried meat and pizza out of the schools (and homes), ditch the chocolate and strawberry milk and teach kids that eating healthy isn’t an option - it’s a necessity. I know sugar drinks and breaded food tastes better than the healthy options, but it shouldn’t be up to kids to be able to choose junk food as a meal on a regular basis because it's not only holding them back IT’S KILLING THEM.

DAMN this topic gets me angry.

Click Here for the Army Weight Calculator

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Next Time on Popular Excuses: By request - Antioxidants
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Reading List
NPR Article: Too Fat To Fight
“Food, Inc.” by Karl Weber - Article “Childhood Obesity” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation p.259
CNN Blog: Are Fat Soldiers a National Security Threat

Super Food: Vitamin C

I grew up hearing lots of old wives tales and superstition about Vitamin C so it was difficult for me to write this entry. Difficult because everything I read in my research enforced what I had been told about Vitamin C as a child. I thought I was going to go digging and find that everything I thought I knew about Vitamin C was a joke and that dietary supplements are about as useful as a magnetic bracelet, but apparently – the old wives were right.

Vitamin C, (or Ascorbic Acid) is a kick-ass vitamin, and you need it in your diet every day.

Vitamin C aids in collagen structures and therefore is good for the skin and cellular health including wound healing and ocular health. Since it is an anti-oxidant it is said to help the body remove the free radicles that cause cancer from outside toxins including cigarette smoke.  Vitamin C is even shown to reduce the risk of stroke in some studies. During sickness and stress the levels of Vitamin C in white blood cells is depleted, which is why your mother always gave you orange juice when you got sick as a child.  I wouldn't recommend juice, but if you get sick, avoid further complications (like pneumonia) by loading up on your Ascorbic Acid intake!

I imagine our hunter gather ancestors had their fill of Vitamin C because high amounts of it can be easily incorporated into a diet high in vegetables. Check out these common fruits and veggies and how high in Vitamin C (given their low calorie content) they are.

Spinach 51 mg (20 calories a cup)
Red Pepper 190 mg (50 calories a piece)
Kale 186 mg
Broccoli 113 mg
Parsley 9mg (2 tablespoons)
Green Peas 27 mg
Tomatoes 23 mg (60 calories a piece)
Strawberries 59 mg (100 calories a cup)
Carrots (raw) 9 mg (surprisingly low - but still healthy)

Delicious!

Other foods that contain Vitamin C: famously; limes but also garlic, blueberries, cabbage, apricots, shiitake mushrooms, avocado, corn, yam... the list goes on

Some words of warning: Vitamin C is destroyed when exposed to air, so if you cut up oranges for your kids, beware that about 40% of the Vitamin C is gone by the time they go for them at lunch. If you are a Whole Foods salad bar person, understand that the early morning slicing of the fruits and veggies they set out for you greatly reduces your Ascorbic Acid intake by the time you get there for your late 2:00 lunch. If you eat too much Vitamin C you are likely to get some pretty severe cramps. Vitamin C needs vary greatly from person to person, so you’ll have to use some self analysis to see how much is too much. The rule of thumb is 1500 to 2000 mg a day, but the RDA is much lower than that, closer to 60 mg a day.

So - enjoy your Vitamin C (but please without the juice).

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Next Time on Popular Excues:  Too Fat to Fight
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Reading List:
"Healing Foods" Michael Murry N.D p. 112
WHFoods: Vitamin C
VitaminCfoundation.org/
Web MD Vitamin C

Farm Fresh to You

Recently, I was introduced to a magnificent service provided by Farm Fresh to You; a California based co-op of farmers who deliver to your door your choice of seasonal, organic and locally grown produce.  Awesome.

At first I was skeptical, but what sold me most about the service was the variety (I feel obligated to eat food that I have paid for). I haven't written about this yet, but variety in your diet provides an important mix of vitamins and micronutrients which are essential in helping the body thrive. Variety is hard for me to incorporate into my daily diet and any chance I am forced to "mix it up" I go for it. Additionally there is no commitment, and I can cancel any individual order as long as I give two days notice. I can choose the size of my delivery (small, medium, large, extra large), I can choose a box of all fruits, all veggies, mixed fruits and veggies, "fast" mixed (fruits & veggies that can be eaten raw), I have a list of "no" items I wish to never receive . Finally, I can swap fruit for fruit, or veggies for veggies.

So far so good.

I signed up for the medium sized box of fruits and veggies delivered every other week. The cost is roughly $31 with delivery included the following:4 Navel Oranges, 2 Braeburn Apples, 2 Murcot Tangerines, 2 Minneola Tangelos ½ lb Strawberries, 1 Eureka Lemon, 1 lb Asparagus, 2.5 lb Cabbage 1 Red Chard, 1 Cauliflower, .5 lb Mixed Lettuce, 1 Green Leaf Lettuce, 1 Bunch Carrots, 2 Yellow Onion, 4 Small Potatoes

I received my first box of groceries a few days ago. This is what I saw when I opened my door Wednesday Morning:

Now – was it worth it?

Emotional Factor: My husband and I love eating what feels like fresh clean food. I feel good supporting California Farms, and it is nice to know that our food probably isn't touched by much more than 2 or 3 people (picker, packer, delivery man), rather than a supermarket full of grubby nose picking hands.

Food Review: Carrots are out of this world.They are sweet and crisp and clean. The apples were great also and the oranges were- according to my husband, better than the apples. I made a stew out of the potatoes and onions (it was hearty!) The rest of fruit and veggies will be sampled this coming weekend.

Cost Review: To compare the cost I went to Whole Foods market and priced out organic and locally grown produce. In order to come up with the price I weighed fruit of similar size and if food came in packages larger than what I was delivered, I divided the Whole Foods cost to come up with quantities that looked comparable (for example, the strawberry container was about 2x the size of what I was delivered, so I divided the cost of the strawberries in half). The result - at Whole Foods - for the same or similar product I would have paid: $30.84. Now - I wouldn’t usually buy organic lemons or tangelos, but if you ARE inclined to purchase those fruits and veggies locally and organically - Farm Fresh To You is almost a break even.

3rd party review aka Mom Review: "I was delighted as I unpacked my Farm Fresh box. Initially I was pleased to see that the size of the box was ample and, indeed, filled to the brim with a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits. In addition to varieties that I am familiar with, there were a few vegetables that I wouldn’t have been inclined to purchase if I were shopping at the grocery store or farmer’s market. I will try to incorporate them into our dinner this week and if I find that we don’t enjoy them or that I avoid trying them, I know that I can have any particular fruit or veggie omitted in the future. Plus – it’s worth noting that the convenience of having this great selection of food arrive on my doorstep is a bonus!!"

My Conclusion: Farm Fresh to You is the embodiment of everything I believe about living a healthy lifestyle with a hectic schedule. The food is good and there is plenty of it.  These farmers are my people and having found them my joy knows no bounds.

To Contact & Order:

http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/

Phone: 800.796.6009

If you are inclined to order mention me: "Jessica Danger Bohn" – in Encino and I get some free stuff, I think.  If not, don't worry about it.

Use this code for $5 off your order: 6164

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Next Time On Popular Excuses:  Super Food - Vitamin C

Michelle Obama’s “Lets Move” Program

On the heels of an extremely controversial and potentially $1,000,000,000,000.00 dollar health care bill, I think it is important that First Lady Michelle Obama’s pet project is taking on childhood obesity.

Solving this problem may well save our country billions of dollars in health care costs the next 40 years if it is solved. She has started a program called “Lets Move” - and the program is filled with useful information and neat tricks to help parents help kids live a healthy lifestyle.

Childhood obesity is a tragedy, and my heart bleeds for children who are stuffed with addicting unhealthy food as a way to quiet them when they are being noisy, reward them when they do well, or the most egregious of errors, sustain them long tem because their parents can’t be bothered to microwave a $2 bag of broccoli. My heart also bleeds for parents who trust in food industry self regulation and deceiving labeling which make junk food seem like an important part of a child’s diet, and a suitable replacement for healthy natural food. I wonder how much of childhood obesity really is a result of parental wilful ignorance and how much of it is adults being fed the lies of processed food so heavily for the past 30 years it is truly unfair to expect them to “know better”.

Obesity is a real and quickly growing problem.  The following images are from the CDC illustrating obesity rates in America over the past 18 years.

The statistics on childhood obesity are staggering: In minority groups the childhood obesity rate is 50%. Really think about that - one half of children in minority groups are not just heavy or chubby, but obese - roughly 30 or more pounds overweight. And this weight problem is only going to get worse given the fact that minority groups are the ones most likely to have diets heavily laden with cheap worthless food found in convenience stores and fast food “restaurants”.

Consider this: a pound is roughly 3500 calories. If you increase your calorie intake by 100 calories a day, you’ll likely gain 10 lbs (365 days x 100 calories) in a year. A fast food burger has about 900 calories in it, and that is without the soda, fries or milkshake. Given the average American child needs about 1,200 - 1,800 calories a day (depending on gender, lifestyle and age), it is pretty easy to see how someone who has fast food as a cornerstone of their diet will often be way over their daily allotment, and will quickly pile on the weight. Not to mention the total lack of proper nutrition and high intake of saturated fat that comes with a fast food diet.

Obesity can lead to many dangerous conditions like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease but it wasn’t until I watched Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” (ABC 9 pm Friday) that I realized how dangerous obesity can be. The show profiled a family, all of whom were heavy, and focused on the 12 year old boy - easily 70 pounds overweight. The show accompanied him on a visit to a doctor who immediately saw physical signs of diabetes in the child. Diabetes, the doctor explained is dangerous not only because reduced quality of life but complications can cause loss of limbs and blindness and life expectancy is reduced by 30 to 40 years. Had this kid had diabetes (he did not, thankfully) he would have an expected life span of 40 years.

Hearing this story infuriated me. I’m not sure when the responsibility of one’s weight is shifted from the parent to the child, but certainly 12 is on the young side of that line. Furthermore, I’m not sure where the responsibility of healthy eating shifts from the food industry to the individual, but when I read Lucky Charm’s Boxes and Tostidos Chips boasting how much FDA recommended grain is in each serving, I think the line becomes increasingly difficult to draw.

Michelle Obama’s position is that this condition is killing our children, and it is so easily overcome, it is absurd we are struggling with it. I totally agree with our First Lady (and I have hired a landscaper to help me plant a vegetable garden in her honor). Obesity is a major contributor to diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and a whole host of other health problems that are expensive to the system and reduce the quality of life. The idea that half of the children in our minority population and 30% of the kids in our middle to upper class population will have these expensive problems should scare anybody paying attention much more than the added cost of our new health care system.

Here are some of the highlights of the Lets Move Program:

Healthy Choices - a support system for parents including extensive education and access to information about good quality foods. This includes a new food pyramid.

Healthy Schools - Better Food in schools, where children get most of their calories during the day

Physical Activity - Getting kids to get rigorous physical at least an hour a day, coupled with the NFL so kids can see some of their role models encouraging physical activity.

Healthy Food that is Affordable and Accessible - a government program helping to bring healthy affordable food to areas in the country without this access. Also, information on bringing Farmers Markets into neighborhoods. I am going to write more on this topic very soon!

Telling people the truth about their diets (hint: you aren’t eating nearly enough vegetables, and you don’t need to eat that bread) is a total uphill battle further complicated by the food industry’s advantage of billions of dollars in advertising, years of food industry propaganda, and tasty tasty sugar, fat and salt to combat you.

I wish First Lady Obama luck in her endeavors.
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Next Time on Popular Excuses: Farm Fresh To You - Fresh Veggies & Friut to delivered to my door!
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Reading List:
The CDC Site
Lets Move Program
Jamie Oliver's Site
Burger King Nutrition Facts

LA Marathon

My Time 4:36:08

I realize this is a slight depart from my normal Popular Excuses post, and my Next Time On post will be up soon, but I am all a buzz about the LA Marathon which I ran March 21, 2010, and I just gotta talk about it.

History:  I ran LA in 2008, and swore I would never run a street marathon again. It was hard on the body, ugly, and circling downtown for 10 miles was, to be blunt, a total dry hump. I decided to only run ultras from that point on, and spend the next two years enjoying California trails 50K at a time.

Being on the LA Marathon mailing list, I was alerted in late 2009 about a shiny new course for the 2010 LA Marathon, from Dodger Stadium through Hollywood to the Sea. As a home grown Californian, a Santa Monica native, and an employee at offices located in Century City and Brentwood, I couldn’t believe how wonderfully familiar to me the course was. I was giddy with excitement at the idea of finishing a race in the middle of Ocean Blvd, basically my backyard. I signed up the day I received the email (if my bib number is any clue to how quickly I signed up, I was #4750 out of 25,000 entrants).

I started training January of 2010, and out of fear of injuring myself trying to run my Boston Pace, my training consisted only of running very slow for long periods of time. I started with an hour and worked up to 2 hours 40 minutes, with plenty of cross training every week including yoga and cycling. In fact I ran a relatively small amount considering I was marathon training, only once or twice a week max. I avoided injury on the course, though my knee did start to hurt towards the end of the day, despite my slow speed and attempt to baby it.

Marathon day came March 21st at 5:00 in the morning, and after some internal debate about where to line up in the chute (I finally decided to try for a 10 min mile pace) and a delay due to cars parked on the freeway, (ostensibly to sneak a peak of the super runner purple & grey, yours truly), the gun sounded and we were off.

Instantly, I was smiling, and my smile only got bigger as the course went on (especially passing a 101 onramp and then a Cheshire cat grin came across my face entering Hollywood). The weather was perfect; the stadium and “THINK BLUE” signs were a nostalgic send off, and the spectators were so encouraging they were an endorphin drug pulling me along the course. I wasn’t bothered at all by the uphill start, mostly because I slowed my pace way down (though I was listening to some pretty heavy breathing around me and knew that for some people it was going to be a long day). The green Nike Store helpers and Cheer Alley just plain fun. I chatted with people along the way, and found a guy wearing a Mt. Disappointment 50K shirt from 2008, and race I had run that day also. Later I asked a guy with a Camelbak why he had brought water (“Because I don’t want to stop” – makes sense), I ran around an downed runner or two and after seeing pictures of Transformers actor Shia LeBeouf (that guy beat me by less than a minute), I remember seeing him through the Veteran’s center and thinking about the strikingly relevant Veterans shirt he was running in.

(See the guy in the green shirt - that is a Mt. Disappointment shirt and I have the ladies version)

I think my experience with a few races under my belt made me a better at pacing than most people, because in the last 4.5 miles of the race I passed 676 people and was only passed by 76, which is an ego boost to be sure. When I rounded San Vicente onto Ocean, I almost cried I was so happy to be so close to the end. The crowds were dense, the energy was palpable and I almost believed every one of them was in some way cheering for me, I cranked up The Temper Trap’s "Sweet Disposition" (yeah, I admit, I needed music after mile 13). When I passed the 26 mile marker I tapped the guy next to me on the shoulder and told him we were going to sprint to the finish. I bested him by less than a second, but I think he had fun leaving it all out on the course with me.

Even now three days later, writing about my experience, my joy knows no bounds, and for the first time in over a year, I feel like a real runner (I ran the whole time, albeit slowly). I am already furiously checking the LA Marathon website waiting for news on the 2011 race. I am even considering purchasing this stupid picture of myself throwing up some horns:

I received an email telling me I was a legacy member of the new course, so I hope to keep the tradition of completing the LA Marathon from the Stadium to the Sea as long as my legs (or heaven forbid, my arms) will let me. The energy I have for this race is contagious, and I think I’ve already convinced three people to join me next year. Very well done, and hats off to the R.D & the City of LA and Santa Monica. I’m not sure what it took to get that course, but I believe it's beauty and history contributed to what may have been a life changing run for a lot of us athletes.

I LOVE LA!

Emotional Eating

I’m in a bad place right now.

I ate horribly all weekend, I ate a lot right before bed on Saturday and Sunday, I ate junk food which I NEVER do, and I had almost no salad. This morning I was too afraid of the scale to weigh myself, I was looking at pictures of me in which look terrible, I have a ton of work staring me in the face, and I finished it off with spilt coffee all over some tax returns. I’m stressed about cleaning my house tonight for the maid tomorrow and I have a marathon on Sunday I feel under prepared for. My house needs work, my laundry and dry cleaning need done, and all I want to do…

..is eat. I just ate breakfast, but I want more. Maybe a cookie – even some carrots or yogurt or a (new) cup of coffee.  Pretzles maybe.  Just a few?

This is emotional eating, and I’m feeling it right now. It is so intense even as I write this entry, knowing better, I’m evaluating.  Maybe I am hungry…

I think emotional eating is a huge and complex machine, fueled in large part by the unrestrained Western diet and the ubiquitous attitude towards food as prescription free Prozac. Think you are immune from emotional eating? How common is it to see women in the media, crying in their pajamas over a container of ice cream, or to see food as a reward for a good day at work, or even now to see Lance Armstrong promoting light beer, ostensibly because he worked his ass off earlier in the day on the bike. Emotional eating is bad for your body and your psyche and if you suffer from emotional eating, it is so powerful you may feel you can never escape it. If you feel this way I suggest a book that was recommenced to me called “Shrink Yourself’ by Roger Gould.

Dr. Gould discusses the causes, effects and beginning cures of emotional eating. I used to think I didn’t eat emotionally, but I found through my reading that I do it all the time. I will eat I’m bored, when I get home from work I’ll binge because I’ve starved myself all day and the last thing I want to do is the laundry or the dishes. More often than not though, when I eat emotionally it comes in this form:

“I was ‘good’ all day, I ran 7 miles, and nothing I’m eating is ‘bad’, so I’m going to go ahead and have as much of it as I want, even though I’m not hungry.”


“I did a hard Pilates class today so I can have Chinese food.”

“I went for a 5 hour bike ride today so I can eat more than two servings of peanut butter with my carrots; hey it even has protein in it!”

When I read this in Dr Gould’s book, I felt like he was talking to me: “in order to compensate for eating excess, you have to exercise to much...Any time you need to stop exercising ... your weight balloons up quickly. I’ve seen patients ...who put on substantial weight after injuries and then couldn’t lose it, though they had been trim athletes at one time - albeit athletes with food addiction.” “To lose weight for life you need to conquer food addiction, not merely run around it” p162.

What Gould doesn’t talk about, which I believe is entirely relevant, is how weight can balloon much faster if the food you turn to is loaded with the addicting quality (literally addicting - rats will work as hard for junk food as they will for heroine) of sugar, fat, and salt that Kessler talks about in “The End of Overeating”. Kessler also talks about using food to self medicate as reinforcing in a physical way the reaction to emotional eating. “Because a cookie makes me feel better, its easy to develop the habit of seeking it out when I’m sad or angry. Over time, as neural pathways link the change in my mood with the experience of eating the cookie, the association grows stronger.”p150. He continues “when emotions amplify reward, the drive for reward becomes even harder to control.”

I’m not saying junk food has no place (ok, maybe I am) but I am saying using food as a reward for working out or to help you ease your tears after a break up probably isn’t helping you lose weight and definitely isn’t helping you face the emotions that are driving this eating in the first place. The problem is further compounded because using food during emotional times has a very real effect on your physical reaction to dealing with unpleasant situations.

Emotional eating in a culture where avoiding problems with sugar and fat is encouraged and cheap addicting food is almost totally unrestricted. What a mess!

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Next time on Popular Excuses; Michelle Obama’s Fight against Childhood Obesity - Yes its Necessary (especially at 50% amongst minority children)
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Reading List:
Roger Gould “Shrink Yourself”
David Kessler “The End of Overeating”

Super Food: Spinach

I eat a lot of Spinach.  Maybe even more than this guy --->.

I must go through 3 bags of it a week. I have spoken with my mother extensively about creating a sustainable spinach garden, I eat it raw or cooked, I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is extremely convenient that spinach is so good for you because I’m not sure I would eat less of it if it one day came out that spinach could ruin your life.

Actually, Spinach can ruin your life. Because of the shape of the leaves they tend to hold onto dirt more than other leafy greens. If the dirt they are grown in uses manure infected with Salmonella and you consume even a small amount of that bacteria you can contract said disease you run a serious risk of dying or permanent organ damage. Salmonella is the real deal, and I always clean all my raw food before I eat it, regardless of the pre-wash regiment it has gone through before it gets to my kitchen. So keep that in mind because hopefully after reading the following, you too will be a Spinach Enthusiast.

Spinach is super food for several reasons. For all us dieters out there, spinach is a leafy green, and leafy greens are vital in helping you feel before you overeat. Spinach is loaded with green fiber, and helps you feel full- not only because your stomach is physically full, but, as explained in Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution “the faster food moves through your lower bowel [as aided by green fiber], the more anti-hunger hormones in your intestinal cells beam up to your brain, telling you not to eat.” It is for this reason I almost everything I eat on a bed of mixed greens or spinach. It has been noticeably helpful in satiating my hunger in the evenings (when I am prone to eat the most).

For all you athletes out there, Spinach is loaded with protein, and calorie for calorie the protein content of spinach matches steak. I don’t know anyone who can eat 200 calories of spinach, but eating your greens (including broccoli; our next Super Food) is an amazing way to have a low calorie high protein diet. Spinach is also loaded with potassium which aids in performance and is an important electrolyte (more on potassium later).

From The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods “[Spinach] is an excellent source of vitamin K, carotenes, vitamin C and folic acid... [also] magnesium 79, iron, vitamin B2..B6, E, and B1.. [and] has twice as much iron as other greens".

I’m not going to go through the benefits of all of those vitamins now, but vitamin C is helpful for your immune system and the repairing of your cells (vitamin C can even reduce your risk of sunburn). The recommended daily dose is between 500 - 1,000 mg a day. 1 cup of spinach has about 28mg. Folic acid can reduce elements in the body which lead to cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer’s disease and can reduce the occurrence of certain birth defects if present in large enough numbers in pregnant women.

Enough with the science, Popeye and your mother were right, EAT YOUR GREENS!

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Next time on Popular Excuses, Emotional Eating

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Reading List
Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution
Michael Murry The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods

But my muffin is healthy - it’s Fat Free

There is a psychological connection between food being labeled fat free and considered healthy. In my personal (and totally unprofessional) opinion this connection is a major contributor to the American weight problem. You may have noticed in prior entries I mentioned that fat isn't fat, sugar is fat. I think its time to discuss what this really means.

The role of insulin, glucose and fat:
Insulin, glucose (a form of sugar) and fat are closely tied together in a somewhat complicated way. When glucose is consumed Insulin is released. Insulin is the delivery system your body uses to get glucose to your cells and when you eat more sugar you produce more insulin which tells your liver to store excess glucose as fat. From Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution p.33 - “the higher your resting insulin level the more your body “thinks” winter is coming and it better churn out more fat”.

The food industry loves sugar. Its cheap, it can be made from corn (High Fructose Corn Syrup), it tastes delicious and most importantly, humans are hard wired to consume a ton of it. In The End of Overeating, Dr. Kessler describes studies whereby our common sense knowledge of our love of junk food is confirmed; humans with unrestricted access to food high in sugar fat and salt will consume these items to a dangerous degree (up to 7,000 calories a day with totally unrestricted access). As further evidence of our hard wiring of our uncontrollable appetite for sugar, Dr. Gundry reminds us that “given the opportunity, all apes will gorge and fatten up on fruit and ignore other foods during certain seasons” p.24. Animals use the sugar in fruit to fatten themselves up for winter.

Fruit, however healthy, is loaded with sugar. Especially fruit juice - some bottles of which boast up to 6 pieces of fruit per bottle. The delivery system of sugar to the body through fruit juice is so fast, when you give blood and you get light headed, they feed you orange juice - nothing else compares in terms of speed to raise your blood sugar levels. Without the use of fiber to slow the delivery of sugar to the blood stream, fruit juice is a recipe for weight gain.

Additionally, I am convinced the food industry loves sugar because it is easy to sell to people on a diet - sugar has less than half the calories per volume as fat. Worse still, once you eat sugar it doesn’t take very long before you want more of it. From Dr. Kessler’s The End of Overeating p213. “Simple sugars offer the least satiation because they release from the stomach at a rate of about 10 calories per minute. That provides only a transient effect; sugary foods will typically satisfy hunger only for about an hour.”

It is in these ways that sugar is fat, and whenever you see a food that boasts it's lowered fat or fat free content, look on the back and see what flavor was added to make their product palatable, I can almost guarantee that flavor is some form of sugar.

So it seems the situation seems to be as follows: The food industry has food to sell and pressure to sell more of it to meet an ever expanding bottom line. Lucky for them they’ve got a culture obsessed with weight loss to sell it to, and you have a nifty trick to sell it to them with;  Make food fat free, but load it with sugar. Sugar is cheap, low calorie, and with no satiety factor so your customers keep coming back for more, which in turn makes the consumer more fat, and seeks out fat free food more intensely than before.

Nice.

From what I’ve learned good fat is an essential part of your diet, and if you aren't an emotional eater, it can help you lose weight to incorporate more of it into your diet if you don’t eat it. Good fat will help you feel full for longer, and coupled with leafy greens will fill you up very quickly. Fat is a vast topic, and I'll cover more on it later, but for now, keep in mind that if you eat a lot of fat free foods and fruit and you still aren't happy with your weight (oh my gosh how many times have I been there), consider the idea that you may be feeding your weight problem the very thing it wants to keep you fat - SUGAR!

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Next time on Popular Excuses, Super Food - Spinach
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Reading List
Marion Nestle “What to Eat” p314
Dr Gundry’s Diet Evolution
Dr.Kessler The End of Overeating

Super Food: Omega-3 Fats

Omega-3 Fats are awesome, and if you are reading this in America, I can almost guarantee you don't eat enough of them.

Unless you've been living in total isolation, I'm sure you've heard a bit about Omega-3, and if you are anything like me, you filed all that information into the portion of the brain that knows it should care, doesn't want to change their diet to get on the latest band wagon, and additionally can't be bothered do the research to see if its worth a change in their diet.

So let me tell you, from one non-band-wagoner to another, go forth and ride.

Fats are used in your body for cellular construction, and building your cells out of bad fats like saturated fat and trans fats makes your cells unable perform at their optimum level. So when we eat fat we need to eat “good fats” like mono and polyunsatuarted fats. Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids are essential monounsaturated fats, essential because they must be consumed through your diet, both are needed in your diet, and they can't be produced by your own body (unlike saturated fat, of which you need to consume none). Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids are found in plants and stored in the bodies of the animals which eat them, which is how they travel up the food chain. In this sense, you are what you eat and in America, we eat Omega-6 fatty acids a lot.

Omega-6 fatty acids are extremely prevalent in the Western diet because it is found in corn, and most of the products we consume, in some way shape or form contain corn. Corn is in our meat, because we feed cattle corn to cheaply fatten them up, it's in our dairy for the same reason. It's in almost all processed sweet foods in the form of High Fructose Cory Syrup; it's in our fake fat in the form of Partially Hydrogenated Oil, which is also in everything. Corn is a huge industry, and I'll talk about it at length later, but trust me when I quote Michael Pollan in saying we are "People of the Corn".

What do Omega-6 fatty acids do? When they are consumed on their own and out of balance they promote chronic diseases like inflammation, heart disease, cancer, asthma, arthritis, osteoporosis and depression. What is the best way to get these afflictions in balance? Is it aspirin, heart medication, inhalers, Aleive, bone density pills and Prozac? There is a school of thought out there who thinks there is a better answer.

OMEGA-3! From Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution "In general Omega-3 fats reduce inflammation, blood pressure, water and sodium retention and pain and also relax blood vessels. Omega-6s do just the opposite" p108. Omega-3 fats have another added benefit, they help curb your cravings for sweet foods because (aside from balancing your diet out), as Dr. Gundry goes on to suggest, when your Omega-6 is too high, depression is promoted. When Omega-3 is introduced, you don't feel the need to mitigate your depression with junk food that isn't actually going to fill you up anyway (sugar begets sugar).

So - how out of balance are you. The ideal balance for Omega-3 to Omega-6 is anything from 4:1 to 1:1 Omega-3 to Omega-6. Any guess what the typical Western diet is?

1:40

Most westerners get 40x too much Omega-6 in relation to their intake of Omega-3. I'm NOT a doctor, but it seems to me that if what I have read on the Omegas is true, it is no wonder this nation is so medicated.

So - wondering if your diet is in balance? Take a look at what you eat the most of, the animal products that you eat and specifically the food those animals eat. Is it grain? Is it corn? Is it partially hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup? Is it the classic Western diet? Then its probably Omega-6.

Do you use olive oil to saute your food, eat your greens and eat wild caught Salmon? Then its probably Omega-3. If you can, purchase Omega-3 eggs, purchase grass fed beef, eat WILD caught fish & buy yogurt from grass cows then you are really in the zone to help promote your Omega-3 intake. Yes, buying all those products in expensive, but if you like you can buy vitamin supplements which are fairly inexpensive (Trader Joe's) or eat a wide variety of your green fats.

At home I have incorporated Omega-3 into our daily lives by cutting down on corn based products, and promoting Omega-3 food, like the proper eggs, yogurt from grass fed cows, and using Olive Oil instead of butter, pam spray and salad dressing and taking 2 vitamin supplements a day.

What have you heard about Omega-3 Fats, leave a comment below and let me know!

Update:  My Mom asked me to post a list of more foods with Omega-3 Fats in them.  In general, think of Omega-3 Fats as green fats, and animals that eat green foods like grass and alge have green fats in them too.

Here is a link to the WebMd's Omega-3 Shopping list: http://www.webmd.com/diet/your-omega-3-family-shopping-list.
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Next time on Popular Excuses, Don’t Worry, my Muffin was Fat Free!
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Reading List
Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution
Michael Pollan “The Omnivores Dilemma”
Michael Murry “The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods”

I only drink Skim

The other day, I received a text from my friend, Olly.  “Hey Jes, how bad is milk for you? My mother said it was unhealthy but then totally discreditited herself by citing an Alicia Silverstone book. Wait, milk isn’t made out of corn, is it?”

The magnitude of this question is staggering and through my readings, I have also found it to be extremely boring, so I’ll try and make this speedy. The answers are “sort-a” and “yes”.


First and foremost, most diary cows are fed corn to cheaply fatten them up. So yes, there is corn in milk, and because of this the fat you drink in that milk is omega -6 fat, unless you get milk from grass fed cows. Stay tuned for a discussion on Omega-3 vs .Omega-6 fatty acids.

A lot of people don’t know this, but there is sugar in milk. Its call lactose, and you need a special enzyme to digest it, lactase. If you can drink milk now, it is because the genes which produce lactase are still turned on in your body. But for many people, especially Asians and our hunter gatherer ancestors, those genes turn off after childhood, and you quickly learned that no, milk is not healthy for you, unless you really really loved pooping and puking. It is only through a phenomenon Richard Dawkins refers to as “domestication”, that most of us can happily drink milk.

If you are wondering where our hunter gatherer ancestors managed to get all their calcium while being lactose intolerant, consider that at that same time, over 50% of the volume of their diets came from fruits and vegetables, many of which are rich in calcium including: kelp, collard greens, kale, turnip greens, almonds, parsley, dandelion greens, sunflower seeds, olives, carrots, celery, cashews, romain lettuce, artichokes and the list continues.

Anyway, back on point: Is milk healthy? I have a hard time saying “no”, I think because I’ve been inundated with body by milk adds my whole life. But I can’t find a good reason to say “yes”.

From a weight loss perspective, no. Milk isn’t going to do you much good. Milk is for babies to help them grow, and milk has a hormone in it IGF which promotes cell growth. This is a hormone IN the milk which isn’t removed, so when you get hormone free milk, realize the hormones they are referring to hormones given to most dairy cows bST. Also - when the dairy industry hires people like Brooke Shields to wear a milk mustache and talk about how they owe their bodies to a milk based diet, they are referring to the studies shown where increased calcium in diets is linked to weight loss (hint: if you want to lose weight by increasing the calcium in your diet, make your diet consist of 10x more veggies - there is an added bonus of veggies being good for you in about 10,000 other ways also).

Remember also, lactose is a simple sugar, easily converted into body fat. If you try and make milk lower in calories by taking the fat out of it, you end up with just sugar. I will talk about this in a later article in depth, but removing fat from milk removes the element which lets your body know you are full and satiated - the FAT (fat releases into the body at a slower rate than simple sugars)!

So now you might be thinking, its ok to drink milk, as long as I’m not trying to lose weight. The problem is that most the fat in milk is animal fat, most of which is saturated. Saturated fat (of which you NEED none) has a bad reputation, and has a history of being linked to heart disease (however, that point is contested in the Reuters article linked below). For the most part, a person’s diet should be limited to about 16 grams of saturated fat a day. If you have a 2 serving glass of whole milk (we already went through why it shouldn’t be fat free milk) you are already at 2/3 your daily allotment.

Is milk healthy? If you aren’t trying to lose weight AND you don’t any other animal fat, I guess milk isn’t bad for you. If the articles suggesting a small amount of saturated fat is good for you, and the only animal fat you eat is from milk, then maybe it is healthy. If you only ingest calcium from milk, and have a diet high in protein, then yes, milk is essential because you need the calcium to replenish what the protein leeched from your bones.

On a personal level, I don’t drink milk, I drink unsweetened soy and almond milk. Once in a while I’ll have a Green Tea Latte from Starbucks and because their soy is sweetened, I’ll ask them to add whole milk. I’m still alive and my weigh loss is still continuing (albeit at a snail’s pace).

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I am going to end here - there are quite a few books written on milk, and you could probably make a college major out of studying the stuff. This entry touched on a ton of other topics I will discuss in much depth in the coming months, but I think because I am so obsessed with Omega-3 right now, next week on Popular Excuses, we’ll cover Omega-3 vs. Omega-6 fatty acids.

Feel free to leave comments challenging my position or ask questions about what I’ve written. If I can’t answer your questions, I’m happy to look up any answers I can.

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Reading List
The Ancestor’s Tale, Richard Dawkins p31-33
The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods p117-118
Cliff Sheets, Lean bodies p44
Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution - p87-88
Food, Inc. P 232
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61341020100204

Additional Information on the Industry from NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=1972363&m=1972364

It's cool; I ate Oatmeal for Breakfast.

I’m not sure why, but whenever I think of breakfast foods with oats in them, I have a very real image of myself being warm looking out a window at a beautiful morning landscape, and feeling proud that I am taking such good care of myself and eating so healthy.

I imagine this experience comes straight from Quaker Oats, who has shown me through countless commercials that this is indeed how oatmeal is meant to be enjoyed, and we all ought to give our microwaveable instant oats this kind of reverent ritual to truly enjoy them. And to be honest, I often indulged in this wholesome fantasy, and in fact felt great joy and pride from the first few steaming bites, often drizzled in milk & covered oh-so-gently with slivered almonds and blueberries (ok, I still act out this fantasy, only with a few modifications explained below).

I wonder, as I wander down the isles of my local supermarket, and pass by the Quaker Oats Instant Strawberry & Cream oatmeal, how many other people pick up those boxes of oatmeal and also have the vision of themselves (in 1 minute or less) I described above; being actively healthful & conscientious about their well being by eating wholesome rolled oats.

It has come to my attention that we are very wrong. Sort-a.

There are two kinds of Oatmeal. There are steel-cut oats (of which I am an advocate), and the kinds which contain rolled oats.

Before I get into the difference, from a weight loss perspective I will say that based on calories alone, oatmeal packs a whallop. In the days of our ancestors who were constantly searching for food, that was the point. You eat a three quarter cup serving of the stuff and you get between 150 and 200 calories in (the equivalent of a bagel). The whole point of oats, and the reason they are such an important discovery in our evolution over the last 10,000 years is because oats are easy calories (oats don’t run away) in very small doses.

Think about it this way if you go to IHOP and decided to pass on your usual stack of pancakes (500Kc) for a steaming hot bowl of oatmeal, its entirely possible you are shoveling the exact amount of calories into your body (depending of course, on the fixin’s).

But even if you don’t really care about the calorie/gram of food content, there is another issue as stake, According to Dr. Gundry, when oats are rolled, or made instant, “you have a paper-thin membrane that can be instantly digested into - guess what? Sugar.”. Remember fat isn’t fat, sugar is fat, and a big one and a half to two cup bowl of steaming paper thin membrane is now just a bowl of insulin raising sugar. Great.

If those points aren’t enough to convince you, for your consideration

Steel-Cut Oats: Ingredients: Steel-Cut Oats.

Quaker Brown Sugar Dinosaur Egg Instant Oatmeal (this is the shit we feed our kids, folks): Ingredients: whole grain rolled oats (with oat bran), sugar, dextrose, partially hydrogenated soybean and or cottonseed oil, maltodextrin, confectioner’s glaze, magnesium stearate, soylechtin, artificial colors, blabh blah, salt, calcium carbonate, guar gum, caramel, niacinamide, Vitamin A, Palmitate, Reduced Iron, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride... And the list goes on.

I know that spending 30 minutes to make oatmeal is a pain in the butt, but steel-cut oats have another added benefit. They keep - you can keep them for 5 days in the refrigerator. You can make them Sunday night in a big batch, and take a half a cup to microwave to work every day until Friday. If you haven’t tried the real deal yet, I encourage you to hop over to whole foods and pick some up. Not only are steel-cut oats not going to break down into sugar into your stomach instantly like the rolled kind, and not only do steel-cut oats have the benefit of not having a list of ingredients that is too boring to read, they taste amazing too! If you know me personally, I will happily make some for you to enjoy during the week. Just ask. Anything to spread the steel-cut word.

Happy breakfast, readers!

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Next time on Popular Excuses: Milk.

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Reading List

Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution p.104-105

http://www.blogger.com/www.zeer.com/Food-Products/Quaker-Brown-Sugar--Dinosaur-Eggs-Instant-Oatmeal/000022855

But I don’t LIKE water

Hello, my name is Jes, and I’m an addict. As of today I am 55 days sober. On December 28th, 2009 I decided I had had enough of diet soda and (for the reasons listed below) I had the will to quit - for good this time (I swear!).

I encourage those of you who think diet soda is helping you drop the pounds to read on and consider doing the same.

For my entire life, I’ve been a diet soda fiend. When I was a teenager and had no money, I would penny pinch by buying Diet Rite, after a run, I’d grab a diet coke instead of water, in the midst of a serious diet instead of eating I’d grab a diet soda or two or three. Diet soda for dessert, breakfast, with every meal, and whenever I was anxious, sad, happy or indifferent. On occasion, if I was feeling healthy I’d stir up some crystal light. In fact, if I had to guess I’d say that from the age of 18 - 26 I’ve consumed an average of a six pack of diet soda a day.

I never went for water because I hated the taste, and I knew enough about dieting to stay away from juice. I could go without wine, coffee and most liquor. Just diet coke was good enough for me.

I basically had a super sweet tooth with the will power to stay away from calories, thanks in large part to food science. Though I’ve been told for years that soda was bad because and it was going to give me cancer and make my hair fall out and ruin my skin, and fuel the fires of hell, I had always ignored the advice. Hell, I’d even gone a few spells without drinking soda, but always told myself that the aspartame, splenda & sodium was fine, and I’d start drinking that stuff again. Even Cliff Sheets, author of Lean Bodies couldn’t convince me not to drink soda by asking me “would you wash your clothes in Soda Pop? Then why clean your body that way?”

As far as I was concerned, if the Kc read 0 - there was no reason not to put as much of it as I wanted down my gullet.

But here is the thing, drink diet soda has never made me thin, and I know plenty of chubby, heavy, obese (and even skinny) people who drink their fill of the stuff. I have never in my life been the weight I wanted to be, and yet I had free reign to drink as much calorie free filler as I pleased. Why is it that my sweet tooth was never satiated (and often encouraged - diet soda didn’t even taste sweet to me anymore) by the soda, and that soda was never a long term solution for not eating?

Upon reading the following paragraph from Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution (of whom I will pull from often in this blog) - I was a convert:

“Any sweet substance, even an artificial sweetener, tells [your body] that sugar is on the way, so please produce insulin.” Followed by “...even just the taste of sweetness raises insulin levels”.
Which might not mean much unless you know that the following: one of the jobs of insulin is to stimulate cell growth, and tell the liver to convert excess sugar into fat for long term energy storage.

It turns out - fat is not fat. Sugar, even fake sugar - is fat. And I had been pumping 72 ounces a day of it into my system. My heart sank. How many years had I lied to myself. How many wasted attempts to loose weight were undermined by my insatiable appetite for fake sugar. How many people had I told diet soda was fine and to drink up. How many years had I been telling myself I was being good by avoiding cake and candy and regular soda? I feel like I should have just eaten all that stuff so that I could have at least had the benefit of feeling full. I guess I should have known better - if diet soda was any good at helping people loose weight, Coke & Pepsi be running add campaigns every 2 minutes to convince its patrons that they too can be skinny with the will to drink diet!

So - I’m over my monumental 10+ year failure now. I’ve been off the junk for about 2 months, and I don’t see myself falling off the wagon any time soon. I can drink water now, my sweet cravings are gone (thank you Omega -3 fatty acids, which I will talk about soon), and I enjoy black coffee, red wine, and occasionally a bite of dark chocolate. I’ve also started to break the habit of emotionally eating soda (another future topic).

My advice, be brave and drop the soda. Trust me, after a few days you’ll be able to enjoy water, and after a weeks, you won’t miss it. I know I know - its nothing you haven’t heard before.

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Reading & Source Material:

Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution
http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Gundrys-Diet-Evolution-Waistline/dp/0307352129/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267169162&sr=1-1 page 33

Cliff Sheats Lean Bodies
http://www.amazon.com/Cliff-Sheats-Lean-Bodies-Revolutionary/dp/0446670308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267167889&sr=8-1 page 217