It made me smile...

"You're awesome!!"

Wiiiii!

Yay for friends who make us veggie pizza for dinner and let us play Wii. They even let us create our own Mii's tonight!

Luckily we can trade out with Rock Band and black bean enchiladas...
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I'm a Lovely Lady!!

I'm lucky enough to have a couple great friends (who have more great friends) who are all interested in eating healthier, while maintaining a budget for food and using a reasonable amount of time. In an effort to help each other out, they've started a new blog, "Lovely Ladies Dish on the Dish," which I'm now a contributor to. Take a look if you're interested in joining us in our quest to be healthier!!

The Battle Against HFCS, Part 2

I'll start with a summary of the information presented in my previous entry. Then I'll move on to my thoughts and frustrations.

• High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a sweetener and preservative used in many processed foods, such as soda, baked goods and condiments, that is made by changing the sugar in cornstarch to to fructose.
• The process was discovered in 1957 and the use of HFCS in many foods began in the late 1970's.
• There seems to be a link between the use of HFCS and the increase in obesity of Americans. In addition, it is thought to increase the chances of diabetes and heart disease. So far, very few studies have been able to determine if there is a causal relationship between HFCS and these health problems, if it is due to an increase in sugar consumption in general or if it's mere 'coincidence.'

After initially reading about the possible link between HFCS and obesity a few months ago, I looked at a few labels and discovered that the bread we were buying had HFCS as the 3rd or 4th ingredient. I decided that finding bread without HFCS would be an easy first step for eliminating it from my diet. We found a bread that we liked and were even lucky enough to find it at the Old Home bread store in town, where it's significantly cheaper. So that's where we were for a few months.

Then I looked at a few more labels. At that point, I really felt like I understood the phrase, "Ignorance is bliss." I didn't mind the jelly we were using, until I saw that the very first ingredient was HFCS, and then I had the get rid of it immediately. Aaron decided to stop drinking soda (Great!!) but can't stand drinking water all the time like I do, so we had gotten some frozen lemonade that he could make up on a whim. Then we look at the ingredient list and #1 is HFCS. At this point, I wasn't too surprised by what I was finding it in, I was more surprised to find it as the main ingredient and a little frustrated by trying to find (more expensive) alternatives.

The absolute disgust came in when I realized it was in our ketchup, a can of kidney beans and even my Reduced Fat Wheat Thins. At this point I felt a little lost. I mean, we don't really consume that much ketcup, so did it really matter?? And yeah, there's HFCS in the Wheat Thins, but it's the 7th ingredient, so how much damage could it really do??

At this point, I'm still not entirely sure what we'll do. We'll most likely try to find a brand of ketchup, kidney beans, etc... that doesn't have HFCS, but we'll probably use the rest of what we have first. I'm cheap by nature, and it just seems wasteful to throw it all out. Wheat thins, on the other hand, have thrown me for a loop. About 3 afternoons a week, I have a wedge of Light Laughing Cow cheese and 12 Reduced Fat Wheat Thins as an afternoon snack. It's my alternative to buying a bag of chips from the vending machine, because it's low calorie, the Wheat Thins are made with whole grain, and they don't have any PHO - another ingredient we're trying to avoid. So the thing I wonder about is, "How large of an effect will a small amount have?" Is HFCS similar to PHO - it's suggested that you can have a little PHO, about 2g a day, without a negative effect.

I probably won't have an answer until more research is done. I'm glad I was a Psych major who took several reserch methodology classes, so that I can wade through the research and make an attempt at deciphering between fact-based information and propaganda!! But to be completely honest, until I get a better answer, I'll probably keep eating my Wheat Thins and Laughing Cow Cheese...

The Battle Against HFCS

I'm going to try to present fact/research based information on High Fructose Corn Syrup in this post, followed by my personal feelings and frustrations in another post - although you can probably tell from the title how I feel about it, so this will probably come off biased.

For those who may not know what it is, "High-fructose corn syrup is a sweetener and preservative used in many processed foods. It is made by changing the sugar in cornstarch to fructose — another form of sugar." (1) "HFCS is a sweetener found in many foods and beverages, including non-diet soda pop, baked goods, and condiments. It is has become the sweetener of choice for many food manufacturers because it is considered more economical, sweeter and more easy to blend into beverages than table sugar." (2)

"High-fructose corn syrup is any of a group of corn syrups which have undergone enzymatic processing in order to increase their fructose content and are then mixed with pure corn syrup (100% glucose) to reach their final form. The typical types of HFCS are: HFCS 90 (used almost exclusively in the production of HFCS 55) which is approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose; HFCS 55 (most commonly used in soft drinks) which is approximately 55% fructose and 45% glucose; and HFCS 42 (used in a variety of other foods, including baked goods) which is approximately 42% fructose and 58% glucose. Further, the fructose and glucose in HFCS are in the form of separate molecules; by contrast, the fructose and glucose that are contained in sucrose are joined together to form a single molecule (called a disaccharide). " (3)

Based on definition, it sounds harmless enough. However, "Some nutrition experts blame increased consumption of high-fructose corn syrup for the growing obesity problem. One theory is that fructose is more readily converted to fat by your liver than is sucrose, increasing the levels of fat in your bloodstream. But this hasn't been proven." (1) In addition, "There is a correlation between the rise of obesity in the U.S. and the use of HFCS for sweetening beverages and foods. The controversy largely comes down to whether this is coincidence or a causal relationship. Some critics of HFCS do not claim that it is any worse than similar quantities of sucrose would be, but rather focus on its prominent role in the overconsumption of sugar; for example, encouraging overconsumption through its low cost." (3)

This graph shows US sweetener consumption, 1966-2004. It disputes the claim that overall sugar consumption alone is responsible for the rise in obesity and other health effects, suggesting that HFCS itself may be one of the biggest factors. "It is apparent from this graph that overall sweetener consumption, and in particular glucose-fructose mixtures, has increased since the introduction of HFCS. Thus, the amount of fructose consumed in the United States & Canada has increased since the early 1980s. This would be true whether the added sweetener was HFCS, table sugar, or any other glucose-fructose mixture. However, because HFCS has slightly more fructose than does table sugar, the proportion of fructose as a component of overall sweetener intake in the United States has also increased, which would not be true if the increase in overall intake was table sugar." (3)

Besides obesity, there are other health problems that are theorized to be linked to HFCS. "Some researchers have suggested that high-fructose corn syrup may contribute to an increased risk of diabetes... Chi-Tang Ho, Ph.D., conducted chemical tests among 11 different carbonated soft drinks containing HFCS. He found 'astonishingly high' levels of reactive carbonyls in those beverages. These undesirable and highly-reactive compounds associated with "unbound" fructose and glucose molecules are believed to cause tissue damage, says Ho, a professor of food science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. By contrast, reactive carbonyls are not present in table sugar, whose fructose and glucose components are "bound" and chemically stable, the researcher notes.

Reactive carbonyls also are elevated in the blood of individuals with diabetes and linked to the complications of that disease. Based on the study data, Ho estimates that a single can of soda contains about five times the concentration of reactive carbonyls than the concentration found in the blood of an adult person with diabetes. "(2)

"Peter Havel of UC Davis presented a study at an Endocrine Society meeting last month in which he followed 33 overweight and obese adults as they dieted for 12 weeks. During the last 10 weeks, half of them got 25% of their calories from fructose, and half got 25% from glucose. Though both groups gained the same amount of weight -- 3.3 pounds -- those who had the fructose had an increase in the least-desirable fat (the kind that wraps around internal organs, causes a pot belly and is linked to higher risk of diabetes and heart disease) while the others did not." (4)

By contrast, "An expert panel, led by Richard Forshee, Ph.D. of the University of Maryland Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy, concluded that 'the currently available evidence is insufficient to implicate HFCS per se as a causal factor in the overweight and obesity problem in the United States.' The panel’s report was published in the August 2007 issue of Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition" (5)

(1) Mayo Clinic
(2) Science Daily
(3) Wikipedia
(4) LA Times
(5) HFCSFacts.com

U Gotta Love It!

We've seen the biggest ram, boar, bull and piggy bank. We've eaten lots of food on a stick, some fried food and some that are both! We've listened to several bands and gotten some free stuff. It's been a good day. And we get to come back on Sunday!
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"Organic Veggies Not Healthier"

I saw this headline today and just had to read the article. It says,

"Buying organic vegetables might make you feel safer about avoiding chemicals and better for possibly helping the planet, but the food won't be any more healthful."

Avoiding the ingestion of chemicals (or hormones or antibiotics with meat and dairy) is my main motivation for getting anything organic. And 'helping the planet' would have to be my second objective. I have never once thought that organic veggies would have more nutrients than non-organic.

Is this a common theory that I wasn't aware of?

It's Fair Time!!

We're going to the fair all day on Thursday the 14th, as well as on Sunday the 17th, when my grandparents will be inducted into the 4H Hall of Fame. I'm pretty excited about it and have been reading about all the "going-ons" of the fair this year.

Today, I read an article that said the Iowa Heart Center had 8 suggestions for eating healthy at the fair. They were as follows:

1. Forego the huge turkey leg and instead grab a turkey tenderloin to save about 1,000 calories.
2. Try the pork chop on a stick instead of sausages or brats.
3. Have cotton candy rather than a funnel cake.
4. Choose kettle corn over nachos with cheese.
5. How about a banana on a stick rather than deep fried candy bar.
6. There's a pork loin sandwich to eat over a fried pork tenderloin.
7. Eat a crunchy caramel apple rather than a fried cheese curds.
8. Have roasted corn on the cob rather than a corn dog.

I've been trying to eat more fruits and veggies, less meat and less processed foods lately - specifically High Fructose Corn Syrup (but that's a whole 'nother entry.) However, I can't say that many of these suggestions sounded like good ideas to me. I could maybe handle #1, because I can go either way on the huge turkey legs. And #2 is fine with me, because we always hit up the Pork Chop on Stick stand anyways. But there's no way I'm skipping funnel cakes or the deep fried candy bars. Many other suggestions include substituting something grilled or roasted for something fried. The problem is, fried=tasty.

I'll just hope that eating poorly for a day won't be the end of the world for my lifelong health...

Finally, a room done!!

After only 6 weeks of living in our new house*, we have the kitchen completely unpacked!! Not only are the boxes unpacked, but we have "stuff" hanging on the walls in the dining room too. It's a good feeling, and hopefully the other rooms follow soon. We're "close, but not quite there" on most of the rest of the house.

Now that the boxes are all out of the dining room, it's just a big empty space, tempting you to hit your head on the lights. We have a plan for a table though. We're refinishing my mom's old table. We finished stripping it last weekend and we're staining it this weekend, so we should have a table before too long.
I'd like to thank Steve the dog for standing in for the dining room table for the sake of the pictures.

*Hopefully you can sense the sarcasm!! I think I would've gone crazy at week 7...

Hot and Crispy

Aaron and I had the pleasure of going boating with some friends yesterday. We spent about 7 hours on the water - from 11am-6pm - and had a great time. I applied sunscreen several times, but a) should have applied it again to my thighs- which were almost constantly exposed to the sun and b) should have applied it better!! I totally missed spots and you can see the wavy line between white, where I applied, and red, where I apparently missed.


The worst area is the tops of my thighs, where I'm guessing both 'a' and 'b' are at fault for the burn. It happens to be right where my hips bend and my pants scrunch up when I sit, so that's only making it worse. Today I've been left with trying to figure out how to deal with the sunburn.


The Skin Cancer Foundation, after berating you for getting a sunburn in the first place, offers these suggestions:
- Soak a washcloth in cold skim milk and apply to the affected area. "The coolness helps take out the initial fire, and the milk creates a protein film that helps ease the ensuing discomfort."
- Drink water, juice or sports drinks to rehydrate the body.
- Take a cool bath.
- Gently moisturize with a light moisturizer.
- Stay out of the sun until the burn fades.


Other sites also suggest:
- Soak a washcloth in vinegar and apply to the affected area.
- Wet tea bag and apply to the affected area. The tannins help soothe the burn.
- Take a bath in lukewarm water, adding 1 cup of baking soda to the water. It helps reduce the sting and swelling.


Most of these methods sound pretty messy though, so I might just stick with aloe.