How to Get Fat Without Really Trying

This video was posted on Ross Enamait's site yesterday: How to Get Fat Without Really Trying

It's 10 minutes long and a good watch. There are quite a few salient points in the video, such as:
- The typical grocery store carries 30-50,000 products, most of which are processed.
- Americans consume 3 times as much corn in the form of sweeteners (high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, etc) as in other forms, including as a side dish.
- It takes 1 hour of biking to burn off the calories in a soda. They showed a 20oz bottle, but didn't elaborate on the quantity of soda.
- A McDonald's meal (appeared to be a cheeseburger and fries) takes about 6 hours of walking to burn off.
- 25% of elementary school kids have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.

All of those tens of thousands of processed products are specially packaged to entice you to make that impulse purchase. Colorful cartoon characters and celebrities call out to us, tempting us to just try a bite of the garbage they're hawking. To counter the excellent marketing of the food companies, stick to the outer perimeter of the store where you can get your meat, eggs, dairy (if you desire), and produce. If you must walk down a center aisle, pick the one with the olive oil and/or nuts or an aisle that has products you are completely disinterested in. It's hard to be tempted if you don't see the products. Another solution is to shop at farmer's markets as much as possible, venturing into the supermarket as little as possible for essentials like spices, olive oil, and nuts. And get one of the small hand baskets as we tend to want to fill whatever apparatus is at hand...smaller apparatus = less room to fill with crud.

Three times as much corn in the form of sweeteners! That is appalling. Art De Vany had a good post on the I'll run it off mentality.

All of those elementary school kids have the makings of Syndrome X. Unless their dietary intakes are changed, most of them will end up obese, diabetic, and disease-ravaged. All of that sugar depletes the immune system and destroys arterial walls.

Peter Jennings was talking to a marketer about the products that the marketer helps shill. They didn't give a name, so John Doe is our marketer so I can quit writing "the marketer". He asked John if he cares if a product is healthy when he designs the advertising. JD's reply was "I care that the product has a positive role in a child's life." What positive role could Twinkies, Pop-Tarts, Oreos, and Cocoa Puffs possibly have in a child's life? Does he think that insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome are a positive thing? When Jennings pushed him to compare his products to asparagus and broccoli, he actually used the words "so-called less healthy products" in reference to the sugary junk. "So-called"! That's marketing speak for "you're absolutely correct that I'm making a living off of pushing crap to kids, but I won't admit it in as many words." One good way to reduce your and your children's exposure to advertising is to....turn off the television.

Of course, I can't get behind the "blame the food industry" tack. It's all about personal responsibility. Granted marketers have mastered the art of using human nature against us to get us to buy things we know are bad for us. But ultimately, companies are only providing that which people are buying. If people would quit buying the junk, the companies would quit making it. It's not Kraft's fault if you're overweight. Kraft, et al, may be enablers, but in the end you and only you put the food in your mouth.

Iron Deficiency? Have a Coke (?)

City scientists test pizza and Coke diet to determine if "the fizzy drink can help prevent young women from becoming anaemic."

And of course this research is sponsored by Coca-Cola, which has high hopes for the outcome.

The Coca-Cola Co is hoping the study will show that Coke could be a cheap, efficient way to tackle iron deficiency problems, especially in young women.

That would be a huge boost for the company, with its public image tarnished by claims its sugary fizzy drinks cause dental problems and contribute to obesity.

Let's get real...even if Coke does increase iron absorption, it is still a contributor to dental problems and obesity. The last thing we need to do to help people overcome health issues is to promote other problems. There are many food sources of iron that aren't quite as detrimental to health as is Coke, such as meat, liver, spinach, and watermelon.

I can see the headline now: "Coke - It'll destroy your metabolism, but at least you'll absorb some iron."

Statins for Kids?!?

Heart Association Recommends Statins for Kids with High Cholesterol

From the AHA comes this little gem:

When diet and exercise fail to lower cholesterol in children with high-risk lipid abnormalities, statins should be first-line drug therapy, declared the American Heart Association in a new scientific statement.

Yes, statins. For kids. I guess the pharmaceutical companies have turned enough adults into pill-popping zombies for life and are now turning their attention to kids over the age of 10. That's one way to make sure you have a customer for life. Why go for 65 year old folks with only 10-20 years to live when you can get a 12 year old with 60 years to live?

Note that this is treatment for high cholesterol, which hasn't been proven to be the dangerous element in heart disease. What would I recommend to ensure today's kids stay happy, healthy, and heart disease-free? Exercise, something that kids used to enjoy, and a diet based on food, rather than on food products: meat; vegetables; nuts; olive, coconut, and palm oils; fruits; sweet potatoes; and squashes. Exercise doesn't have to be weight lifting at a gym; just send them outside to shoot hoops or play tag or kick a rock like kids do. Don't let them eat bags of chips and drink soft drinks all day long just so they'll like you. Parents are responsible for doing what is in their children's best interests, not for being their children's friends. And believe me, as a child of a mother that ensured her children ate plenty of good stuff and only enough bad stuff to keep us normal, they will appreciate it one day. No child is going to grow up and say "Boy, I wish mom had let me drink more Cokes and eat a few more Swiss Cake Rolls."

And let's not forget the real killer: high blood sugar. So we have overweight kids feeding on sugar all day and we're treating them for cholesterol. Hah! It's a sad day in America when our doctors focus on drugs to treat kids rather than on letting kids maintain their health in the normal ways that kids do. I'm surprised they didn't advise a "healthful" low-fat diet too.

Fructose-sweetened Beverages Increases Risk Of Diabetes In Rats

Here is an interesting, albeit not surprising, article from Science Daily. This article discusses a study on rats that showed an increase in diabetes from fructose-sweetened drinks. Fructose is the sugar found in fruit and is also concentrated in high-fructose corn syrup, which is so prevalent in our packaged foods industry. The scientists noted changes in liver function amongst the rats receiving the fructose drinks.

In this study, rats receiving fructose-containing beverages presented a pathology similar to metabolic syndrome, which in the short term causes lipid accumulation (hypertriglyceridemia) and fatty liver, and at later stages hypertension, resistance to insulin, diabetes and obesity.

A quick note about fruit:

"The fructose in fruit has nothing to do with this study," stresses Professor Laguna. "Fruit is healthy and its consumption is strongly recommended. Our study focuses on liquid fructose intake as an addition to the ordinary diet."

This is just more proof that ditching the soft drinks and other high fructose corn syrup containing products from your diet is a good move. The sugar hit from HFCS is incredible and, as this study shows, too much fructose deranges liver function. I've discussed some of the other effects of soft drinks before, such as high levels of the carcinogen benzene and an increase in pancreatic cancer risk. Don't stop eating fruit, do stop drinking soft drinks. It is the one of the top things you can do for your health.

Ghost Authorship of Studies

Ghost authorship of industry funded drug trials is common

Ghost authorship was defined as present if individuals who wrote the trial protocol, performed the statistical analyses, or wrote the manuscript, were not listed as authors of the publication, or as members of a study group or writing committee, or in an acknowledgment. Of the 44 trials included, 43 were initiated by one of 26 multinational pharmaceutical firms and one by a local company.

That doesn't surprise me. It's interesting how many studies that show support for the pharmaceutical or beverage industry are heavily influenced or sponsored by those same industries. Something seems amiss with our health reporting. If you recall, I wrote previously about the New England Journal of Medicine and pharmaceutical conflicts of interest. Furthermore, our own FDA officials, charged with protecting our health, have their hands in the till, taking money from pharma companies. It's no wonder that our nation's collective waistline is ever-expanding and more people than ever are on pharmaceuticals. We're spoon-fed marketing from these companies in the form of "studies" and the corruption runs straight to the top of the FDA.

Industry and Studies

Research funded by beverage industry is biased

This article came out a few days ago and discusses the fact that studies backed by the beverage industry are more likely to be favorable to the beverage industry. Surprise, surprise!

If anything, bias was even stronger than for research on drugs, with industry-backed papers being more than seven times as likely to produce a conclusion favouring a company’s product.

Of course, the American Beverage Association rejects this notion in a well-placed marketing attempt. But rest assured, pharmaceutical companies, beverage companies, and many other industries back research that is sure to turn out favorably for them. There is nothing good about the beverages that these people are selling to you. Drink water, tea, and coffee (black of course). And an occasional beer.

Pancreatic Cancer: Add Another Side Effect to Soda's List

Two soft drinks a day ups pancreatic cancer risk by 90%
I came across this article on Medpage last week.

The crux of the article:

Consuming two cans of fizzy drinks a day can double your risk of developing one of the most fatal types of cancer, say researchers.
People who add sugar to cups of tea or coffee are also at higher risk of pancreatic cancer, according to a new study.

Looks like it's the sugar causing the problems again. The soft drinks may introduce an even greater threat due to their carbonation and acidity, but the article doesn't really lay out the difference in the increased risk. And pancreatic cancer is a BIG deal:

Almost all the 7,000 people who get pancreatic cancer annually in the UK die shortly after diagnosis, partly because the symptoms are spotted too late.
....
Only two per cent of patients are alive five years after first being treated, although surgery followed by chemotherapy can increase survival rates.

Of course, there's always the chance that the soft drinks only point to a general lifestyle more at risk of cancer and since the study was a retrospective diet survey (notoriously inaccurate), it could be a case of correlation not equaling causation. Perhaps people that drink 2 or more soft drinks per day are also more likely to smoke and less likely to exercise. Smoking, along with the high sugar content of the diet, is a known risk factor for pancreatic cancer. Regardless, why test it? You really won't miss the soft drinks from your diet, your skin will be healthier and you will just generally feel better. They didn't really classify what is a "soft drink" in terms of size, but I'm willing to bet that 12oz or less counts as one. Think about that the next time you pick up a 44oz or 64oz Coke from BP. And a large at McDonald's, et al is like 32oz. Those are all more than one soft drink.

Diet Coke to Be Fortified with Vitamins

Coke will try anything

Here's a laugher. Coke is putting out a Diet Coke drink fortified with vitamins and minerals. Rest assured that this is a marketing ploy; no soft drink, diet or otherwise, is ever going to be healthy. Water, tea, or black coffee are the only good choices of beverages for health.

And here's your bonus link of the day: The Biochemical Effects of a Coke

Enjoy reading about what's happening in your body after you ingest this crap.

Soft Drinks

Originally posted 4-30-2006

I was recently turned onto an article via Dr. Joseph Mercola’s website. Basically, a twelve year-old did a science project comparing the bacteria levels in ice from fast food ice machines and drive-thrus to bacteria levels of the water from the toilets at those same fast food establishments. The delicious findings were that 70% of the time the water from the toilets had less bacteria than the fast food ice.

Another recent scary finding is the presence of higher-than-allowed levels of benzene, a known carcinogen. In fact, benzene has been found in levels up to 8 times the acceptable level of benzene in drinking water. It seems that the combination of sodium benzoate (a preservative) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) can produce benzene. Vitamin C is added to soft drinks to make them seem healthier than they really are. Benzene has been linked to leukemia and other cancers of the blood.

So combine the above with the high levels of sugar in soft drinks and it’s amazing that people continue to drink them in such quantities, contributing over $60 billion per year to junk food manufacturers. Sugar-laden soft drinks are the number one source of calories in America. There is no denying the links between soda consumption and obesity. The sad news is that 65% of teenage girls and 74% of teenage boys drink soda daily, contributing 36.2 and 57.7 grams of daily sugar, respectively.

My family never really kept soft drinks around, so eliminating them from my diet was no problem. Several of my friends had soft drinks at hand constantly, and I used to be a bit jealous. I wanted to have that sugary sweetness around any time I wanted it, but soft drinks were pretty much reserved for family gatherings and dinners away from home. Of course, now I am so happy that soft drinks weren’t a mainstay of my diet as a kid. In fact, other than the rare occasions that I drink whiskey, I haven’t
had a soft drink in years.

Unfortunately, for those trying to cut sugar from their diets, the only true safe method appears to be eliminating them entirely rather than switching to diet drinks. Artificial sweeteners are nearly as likely to contribute to obesity as is regular sugar (or rather high-fructose corn syrup). It appears that artificial sweeteners may actually degrade the ability of the body to determine it’s calorie intake. Further, aspartame is a known neurotoxin and Splenda is made with chlorine (which may be a toxic compound).

The bottom line: Cut soft drinks except for special occasions and spend your day drinking water, green, white, and herbal teas, and coffee. Do not drink your calories, even in the form of fruit juice. Fruit juice is far inferior to fruit in that it has the fiber removed and, because of its liquid form, is absorbed by the body very quickly, causing an insulin spike. Calories should come from whole food sources. Tea, coffee, and water are all calorie-free, assuming you don’t add sugar, cream, and milk. Furthermore, tea and coffee contain plenty of antioxidants which your body will appreciate. And while you’re at it, avoid the fast food establishments too.

Other links:
Fast food beverages might be worse than toilet water
Yes, Aspartame is a Carcinogen