Sharing w/others – lessons learned

So-called “bad cholesterol” — low-density lipoprotein, also known as LDL — may not be so bad after all. Researchers examined 52 adults from ages to 60 to 69 who were in generally good health but not physically active. The study showed that after fair…

People without heart disease get little or no benefit from cholesterol-lowering statins, researchers have warned.
A review of the medical literature showed that many of the reports they looked at — including all but one of the reports funded by drugma…

Locals call the Salinas Valley region of California the world’s salad bowl. Dole, Naturipe and Fresh Express all have farms there.
Researchers recruited 600 women, who underwent a series of tests to measure pesticide levels in their bodies. The women…

The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has petitioned the U.S. FDA to allow manufacturers the option of using the term “corn sugar” instead of “high fructose corn syrup”.
In their press release on the subject, they claim that “independent resear…

by Darin L. Steen

Will jogging long distance or doing several short sprints get you to your fitness and fat loss goals faster and more safely?
First, let’s define cardio.
Anaerobic cardio is also called:

Sprinting
High Intensity / Short du…

People who sleep either more or fewer than seven hours a day, including naps, have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a new study.

Sleeping fewer than five hours a day more than doubles your risk of being diagnosed with angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke.  And sleeping more than seven hours also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease; more than nine hours of sleep results in a 50 percent increase in the risk.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

“The most at-risk group was adults under 60 years of age who slept five hours or fewer a night. They increased their risk of developing cardiovascular disease more than threefold … Women who skimped on sleep … were more than two-and-a-half times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease.” PostID=279931″

The consumption of large amounts of sugar could increase your risk for heart disease, according to a recent study. People who eat more added sugar are also more likely to have higher triglycerides and lower levels of protective HDL cholesterol, both of which are risk factors for heart disease.

U.S. food companies are being encouraged to make their products healthier as newly passed U.S. health reform legislation focuses on ways to prevent disease.

Reuters states that:

“The addition of sweeteners to prepared foods and beverages in recent decades has sharply increased Americans’ daily intake of sugar and overall calories …”

The American Beverage Association, however, still claims that sugar-sweetened drinks do not pose a health risk. PostID=262386″

Women who eat a lot of foods high in blood-sugar spiking carbohydrates, such as white bread and rice, are twice as likely to develop heart diseases.

Complex carbohydrates, such as fruit and pasta, were not associated with the increased risk of heart disease. This suggests that the problem is not carbohydrates per se, but rapidly absorbed carbohydrates.

The information comes from a study of about 48,000 people who were asked about their diets in detail.  Previous studies have also shown a similar link between simple carbohydrates and heart disease risk. PostID=261051″

Refined sugars and high-fructose corn syrup are considered by many experts to be the biggest contributors to obesity and poor health in Western civilization.  In her book What To Eat, Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at NYU, suggests that any food that contains more than 15 grams of sugar per serving is closer to dessert than anything else.

Here’s the sugar content of a few common foods and menu items:

1.      Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut — 10 grams

2.      Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream — 16 grams

3.      Starbucks caffè latte grande (16 oz) — 17 grams

4.      Subway 6″ sweet onion teriyaki chicken sandwich — 17 grams

5.      Tropicana 100 percent orange juice (8 oz) — 25 grams

6.      Yoplait original yogurt — 27 grams

7.      Craisins dried cranberries 1/3 cup — 29 grams

8.      Vitamin Water (20 oz bottle) — 33 g

9.      Oscar Mayer Lunchables crackers, turkey & American cheese — 36 grams

10.  Coca-Cola Classic 12 oz can — 39 grams

11.  California Pizza Kitchen Thai chicken salad — 45 g

12.  Jamba Juice blackberry bliss 16 oz — 49 g

13.  Odwalla SuperFood 450 ml bottle — 50 g

14.  Starbucks caffe vanilla frappuccino grande (16 oz) — 58 g

Foods we recognize as dessert (e.g. doughnuts, ice cream, cookies) often have far less sugar than things we consider “healthy” (e.g. juice, yogurt, dried fruit).  Dessert is sometimes hidden in things like sandwiches.  Some foods marketed to children aren’t much better than soda.  “Natural” foods can have lots of sugar.  And the worst offenders are drinkable. PostID=251638″

MSG – Slowly Poisoning America Author Unknown I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic, so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo, and spent years working for the government. He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific […]