Think About It, Will You?

Your brain is a powerful, powerful thing.  It thinks, reacts, considers, remembers, judges, determines, solves, computes, as well as a host of other things.  It's the reason you're breathing, walking, lifting that heavy weight, and of course eating that healthy meal.  But did you know that as you age, your brain tends to shrink?  It actually decreases in volume and cognitive ability!  Yikes!  It's an inevitability, but the good news is that you can easily give yourself a fighting chance in your golden years if you just consider your health a little more thoroughly.  

Did you know that being obese is actually dangerous to your brain?  That's right!  Not only are you straining your heart, muscles, liver, kidneys, bones, and ligaments, but also that organ which keeps you thinking clearly.  Research has proven that obese people have smaller brains than people of "normal" weight.  YEAH!  THEY'RE ACTUALLY SMALLER!  Crazy, eh?  Believe me, a smaller volume of brain cells in critical areas is not something you want.  It will affect your ability to problem solve, remember, and in general think clearly.  This problem only gets worse as you get older, and in your golden years, size does matter.  You want as BIG a brain as possible, with the most possible ability to think and remember clearly.  The bigger the effective volume of your brain, the lesser chance of getting cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer's.  Lose that spare tire, and gain some of that witty spark back!

And this preservation of your brain comes with another little fun twist.  It's been shown that people with greater muscle mass, in general, retain greater cognitive function as they age!  WOW!  Those gym trips aren't just giving you the guns after all!  It turns out that a healthy amount of muscle mass will preserve a greater flow of blood through your cerebral passages, leading to...you guessed it...more thinking power!  Less muscle= poor cerebral blood flow = brain damage/deterioration throughout your life. 

Lifting those weights also helps to build NEW blood passages throughout your brain, which will allow nutrients to penetrate deeper into critical brain tissue, actually encouraging "neurogenesis" or the creation of new brain cells!  Remember way back when, when you heard all those people tell you that brain cells can't regenerate, and what you have is what you've got, no matter what?  Well that's a bunch of hooey!  Your brain is constantly remodeling and adapting to your current life situation.  Once it stops, you're in trouble.  Support neurogenesis through exercise and healthy diet, and you'll keep better brain function as you age.  

So what's the final word?  Lose that spare tire, and hit the gym a few more times each week.  You'll not only get that beach body, but you'll be quite the sharp thinker for a long time to come.  

Good Luck!

References:  Braverman, Eric R., and Dale Kiefer. "Combating Age-Related Brain Deterioration."Life Extension Oct. 2011. Print.

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Killer Sweetness

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Processed food ISN'T GOOD FOR YOU.  Even some who eat it realize this.  Lean Cuisine, Ramen, TV dinners, powdered donuts, whatever name it goes by, it's packed with chemicals, sugar, salt, and other nasty things that'll get you heavy quite quickly.  The devil is in the ingredients, and there are a few that can cause some real damage to your body.  The one I am particularly wary of these days is High Fructose Corn Syrup, or HFCS for short.  It's a sweetening agent used in more foods than you or I could think of off the tops of our heads.  It's EVERYWHERE!  And the more processed a food is, the more likely that it contains this devilish little chemical.  But what exactly is this stuff, and why is it so bad?

HFCS, as stated above, is a sweetening agent.  More specifically, it's a replacement for sucrose, or natural sugar.  It achieves the same sort of taste as sucrose, making foods sweet and yummy without needing overly huge amounts of the stuff.  But why do companies use it, when they could just use sucrose instead?  Well, what do most large scale corporations want to cut down on drastically at every little twist and turn in their manufacturing, shipping, and marketing processes?  Hmmmm...COST perhaps?  Guess what!  Sucrose gets really expensive here in the US because of all the import costs associated with it.  HFCS is by far the cheaper option, and therefore is used in thousands of places instead of sucrose.  And in all honesty, although I'm not big on sugar, pure sucrose is far healthier than this stuff is.

It's interesting too, because in general sucrose and HFCS aren't that far off from each other chemically.  They are both composed of two different sugars, glucose and fructose.  Sucrose is 50-50 glucose and fructose, where as HFCS is 58% fructose and 42% glucose.  Surprisingly though this seemingly insignificant percentage of difference adds up big time.  Here's a quote from Livestrong.com about an animal test confirming what we've all been considering:  

"For a long time, researchers debated whether high fructose corn syrup was different from other sweeteners in its effects on human health. To test this assertion, a group of researchers from Princeton University fed rats a diet high in HFCS. They published their results in a 2010 issue of the journal "Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior." In the study, the HFCS caused abnormal increases of body fat, especially in the abdomen, and circulating levels of triglycerides in the blood. 

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/546302-high-fructose-corn-syrup-hardening-of-the-arteries/#ixzz1dmS7BHRR"

This extra body fat is caused by the larger percentage of fructose in the chemical, which can only be processed by the liver.  In fact, the fructose in HFCS can bypass the digestive process that normally breaks down other, similar sugars, and goes straight to the liver.  This is because unlike in sucrose, where fructose and glucose are bonded together, in HFCS they are free from each other and therefore can be readily absorbed into the bloodstream with no digestion needed.  The fructose gets processed into triglycerides, which in layman's terms means they accumulate as fat.  The more fructose, in this case, the more fat.  If you weren't convinced by an animal study (which I rarely am, considering rats and humans are very different creatures), here's another study that was done on humans, from alternet.org:  

"In a study conducted by University of California researchers, 16 volunteers were given a strictly controlled diet including very high levels of fructose. Another group was given the same diet but with high levels of glucose (regular sugar) replacing the fructose. Over 10 weeks, the volunteers that were given fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. The control group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems."

Such fast changes in ten weeks?  WOW!

  Here are a few more reasons why you should try to avoid HFCS whenever possible:

Hardening of the arteries:  Because of the excess triglycerides HFCS helps to produce, your artery walls can begin to harden from excess fat.  This can lead to heart disease, something you DO NOT WANT in older (or younger) age.  

Obesity:  As is evidenced by what has already been said so far, HFCS is one of the largest links to obesity out there in modern society.  The evidence keeps pouring in that those who consume more food and drink containing HFCS have much larger risks of becoming obese.  In fact as HFCS was introduced into mainstream processed foods back in the 70's, its increased usage has almost exactly mirrored the increase in obese individuals.  Because the unbonded fructose in HFCS is almost immediately absorbed into the bloodstream (with no other digestive processes), it's easy to see why it can cause so much fat gain so quickly.  

Keeps You Hungry:  HFCS plays another role in weight gain, this one much more devious, as you might not even know it's happening.  Our body has a few well designed "full" triggers in it that help us to realize when we've eaten enough for our metabolic needs.  One such trigger is called ghrelin, an enzyme secreted by the stomach to cause hunger.  In normal food consumption, ghrelin is eventually neutralized or "shut off" in order to let us know that we're full.  However HFCS does not deactivate ghrelin, and therefore can prevent us from knowing when we've eaten enough.  That's not good, especially on a diet.  

Other health effects related to HFCS include: Pancreatic cancer, kidney stones, and hair loss.  It's not something you want to consume much of, that's for sure.

Here's a final word of warning.  HFCS can hide in foods you might not expect, and may be doing more damage than you think.  Here's a few foods that contain HFCS that may have slipped under your radar:

Bread:  Many breads, even the 100% whole wheat variations, contain HFCS.  These slices can sabotage your otherwise healthy sandwhich.  The solution?  Spend a little extra time in the grocery store and read the ingredients on a few different brands.  Some are made with NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS, and these are the brands you should buy.  Trust me, that little extra time will help bigtime.

Canned/Bottled Drinks:  Yup, you guessed it.  Soda, and other main stream energy drinks usually have HFCS in their ingredients.  They'll pull you in with flashy colors and claims of electrolyte replenishment, but believe me they won't do you much good.  Again, read the ingredients, and choose wisely.  Usually nothing beats good ol' water.  

Cereal:  Even your breakfast may be sabotaged!  Many Kelloggs products contain HFCS, including Raisin Bran and Rice Krispies, two very famous breakfast cereals.  However many bran-flake variations include HFCS as well, so don't think you're off the hook just because you're getting high fiber.  READ THE INGREDIENTS!!!

Crackers:  Nabisco Wheat Thins contain a good amount of HFCS, which is unforunate because I love the things.  Watch your consumption of little appetizer type foods, as they can usually add up quickly, and if they contain the bad stuff then you're in for some trouble with your diet.  I'll just keep saying it I guess, to hammer it through your head.  Read....the...ingredients......PLEASE.  

Sauces/Salad Dresssings:  Last but not least, many popular sauces contain HFCS, including A1 steak sauce.    Also, salad dressings are quite famous for large amounts of HFCS, another reason to keep your salad dry (read my healthy salad article here:  ).  And you know what I'm going to say next.  In fact, I'm not even going to say it.  Just do it.  Please.  

Here's a list of many, many, MANY foods that contain HFCS.  The list is by no means complete, but gives a good idea of how this artificial sweetener has infiltrated our diets:  http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2005/06/09/foods_and_products_containing_high_fruct

Bottom Line:  HFCS might be hard to remove from your diet completely.  That's ok, because accepting it's there and making an effort to avoid it will make a HUGE difference.  Just try to get a good majority of it out of your mouth, and I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised by the difference.  You'll have done your body a world of good.  

READ THE INGREDIENTS....and good luck!!!!

A few references:  

http://www.alternet.org/story/144816/high_fructose_corn_syrup_proven_to_cause_human_obesity

http://www.livestrong.com/high-fructose-corn-syrup/

http://www.ajcn.org/content/79/4/537.full

http://www.healthybrainforlife.com/articles/healthy-food/high-fructose-corn-syrup-a-sweetner-to-avoid

Diet Soda, Savior or Saboteur?

At some point or another, we've probably all hear how unhealthy soda can be.  Perhaps you've heard the story that coca-cola can dissolve a tooth in a night, or that it's the same stuff used to pick up chemical spills.  Maybe you've heard that it eats away at your stomach lining, causing ulcers and other very painful, damaging conditions.  Whether these claims are true or not, you'd be right to think that soda definitely is not a health drink.  The sugar content alone should make most people steer clear.

But what about diet soda?  All those nasty sugars have been replaced by artificial sweeteners, such as Aspartame and Sucralose.  And the nice little nutrition label reads a satisfying "0 calories."  That must mean it's not like it's big brother, caustic and destructive.....right?  I'm sure my mom is on her knees begging right now for me to just end the article with a big, fat "RIGHT!!!" And shut down my computer.  Diet Pepsi is her life.

Well mom, I hate to say it, but that's not the whole story.  Diet soda has quite a few little quirks about it that would inevitably make it a snack you might want to skip...unfortunately.  The thing is, these little devious side effects aren't easily noticeable, and therefore might sabotage your clean eating diet without you even realizing it.  Here's what to watch out for when it comes to diet soda:

Increased Appetite:  Because you're not putting any real calories in your system, diet soda isn't going to save you from the hunger pains.  It's not a legitimate "snack", and if your hunger continues to be ignored you're more likely to binge on that fat bag of pretzels in that long car ride.  If you're hungry, don't expect much out of a diet pepsi.  Grab an apple, a banana, or maybe an orange (after all it is cold season.)

Linked to Obesity:  Hold on there, I didn't say diet soda CAUSED obesity, but it certainly has some frightening statistics associated with it.  Here's a good display of obesity percentages that I found multiple places on the web.

For regular soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:

• 26% for up to 1/2 can each day
• 30.4% for 1/2 to one can each day
• 32.8% for 1 to 2 cans each day
• 47.2% for more than 2 cans each day.

For diet soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:

• 36.5% for up to 1/2 can each day
• 37.5% for 1/2 to one can each day
• 54.5% for 1 to 2 cans each day
• 57.1% for more than 2 cans each day.

For each can of diet soft drink consumed each day, a person's risk of obesity went up 41%.

That's pretty ridiculous, though in my opinion it's not diet soda which is causing obesity.  I believe these people who are obese diet soda addicts have switched to diet soda in an attempt to feel a little better, but instead have replaced the lost calories with an extra large fries at McDonald's (one of the most popular places diet soda is sold.)  Diet soda isn't a miracle cure, and usually the food it is accompanied by is extremely detrimental to any sort of benefits that might be obtained by drinking it.

Metabolic Syndrome:  For a long time, there has been evidence that diet soda is linked to this condition.  "MetSyn" is a combination of many smaller symptoms that end up drastically increasing your risk for type 2 diabetes, stroke, and coronary artery disease.  Personally I find it hard to lump diet soda in equally with: low amounts of exercise, a horrible diet, and excessive body fat, but nonetheless the evidence seems to exist that it can be a contributor.  Again, this may be because the majority of people who drink diet soda are obese already, but it's a little nugget of knowledge you should definitely keep in the back of your mind.  

Destructive Chemicals:  Some people will complain about the large amount of aspartame sweetener in diet soda.  I don't jump on the "aspartame =bad" train so easily.  Studies have proven that artificial sweeteners are not NEARLY as dangerous as claimed, and by all means will NOT cause cancer.  I believe that diet soda's more destructive chemical happens to be phosphoric acid.  This chemical is infused with soda to add a "tangy" flavor, and will end up destroying both teeth and esophagus alike.  It's powerful stuff, and I should know.  I don't drink soda, I use it as a rust removal tool when sanding and repainting sheet metal.  The stuff works, and every time I see that shiny steel, once orange with rust, I think "how can people drink this stuff?"  Watch out for that phosphoric acid, it can do more damage than you think.


But wait.  I'm not here to completely destroy diet soda.  No, I believe it does have it's place.  Some people just "need" soda for whatever reason, and I know that I could argue with them all day and they'd never even consider chucking the stuff (and believe me I've tried.)  So here's my little note of encouragement.

Diet soda, if it's going to be enjoyed, should be enjoyed in moderation.  Don't take it for anything else than it is.  It's not a weight loss tool, it's not a justification for sweet snacks, it's not an accompaniment to a dirty, fat filled meal, and above all, it's NOT VERY GOOD FOR YOU.  Diet soda is diet soda, and should be enjoyed merely as that and nothing more.  While this may seem obvious, it's clear to me that to a lot of people it's not obvious at all, especially judging by those obesity statistics.  Sure, if you're going to drink a soda, make it diet.  You could definitely do without all that sugar. But please, whenever possible, have a glass of water, milk, or juice instead of that coke zero.  You'll feel better, believe me.

Drink up, stay clean, and as always, good luck!