HFCS - Good or Bad?

I haven't talked much about High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) on here. I guess the reason being is because as of late, I've always thought it was bad stuff, avoid at all costs, etc.

I came across this article though that says sure, it's bad, but it's not any worse than regular added sugar (doesn't that seem like a very odd argument to make?).

We all know what sugar is, and that it's been around for awhile, and that in high doses, it's not good and it can make your kids climb the ceiling or do something else that is well,,,,not good.



But HFCS we know little about because we haven't been able to see the full effects of it over long periods of time. It's very hard to find a sugary product without HFCS. It has pretty much taken over and the "sugar" that is added to regular soda (at least in North America).

I had read a while back (and for the life of me I can't find the link) that when HFCS is ingested, there is no mechanism in the body to tell the brain that it's coming in. In other words, the brain has no idea that calories are being consumed to turn on the signal at some point that we are full and no longer need more calories. So basically, these calories just "sneak in" and your insulin and blood sugar don't even move. Which is different with regular sugar when the insulin and blood sugar levels will react accordingly. I don't believe this has ever been proven at this point though.

But, I found another interesting study here that tested the different in cholesterol levels for those ingesting a fructose-sweetened drink and a glucose sweetened drink and found that LDL cholesterol was significantly higher among the group that drank the fructose sweetened drink after a period of time. The study stated though that this was strictly a study using fructose and not HFCS so it's unclear if the results would be the same (I would hope that would be the next step for another experiment).

So it's still up in the air and a mystery as to what HFCS is really doing to us. My guess? Considering that humans don't have the best track record with man-made products such as hydrogenated products (that I discussed here), I have to believe we could be headed towards another train wreck once more studies look into it.

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Simple Healthy Eating Tips for Children

I've had three days of writing about how the child obesity issue is starting to increase at an even more alarming rate than what has previously been thought.

What can we do to 1) for kids that are not overweight or obese yet, stop them from becoming so and 2) get kids that are overweight and obese from changing course?

Today I'll talk about some things that we can do on the eating part and tomorrow some suggestions on the exercise front.

First, parents, your kids are going to follow your lead. If you are eating junk, they are going to eat junk. If you eat healthy, they are going to eat healthy. So you HAVE to lead by example.

You can take things in small steps though.

1. Go through all the cupboards in you house and throw out all the junk food.

2. Throw out all your regular soda.

3. If you and your family are eating fast food on a weekly basis, stop.

Those are the first steps. If you can eliminate those three items, you're going to see some vast improvements in your waistline as well as your children's.

If you take all of those out, then at this point I don't even care about portion sizes of the other food you are eating.

I don't care if your kids have an extra helping of pasta, or mashed potatoes, or another piece of chicken or another homemade hamburger, etc. We'll worry about portion size later. All I'm concerned about at this point is getting rid of the junk from your diet.

Will the kids complain? Sure.

I noticed something recently with my dog. I've got her on some special medication for a little bit of time and the vet told me that her appetite would increase while being on the medication.

Prior to putting her on the meds, she ate her food, but was always picky. I would have to spice it up with some cheese or something and then she'd eat it.

But since I've had her on these meds, it doesn't matter. i put that food in her bowl with nothing added and she eats it like she hasn't eaten in a week.

Moral of the story is, your kids might complain about eating food without all that "junk food flavor" in it and may even pout and say they aren't going to eat at all if it's not going to be "junk food." But at some point, they're going to get hungry, and they'll eat what you give them.

Now this doesn't mean you can't give your kids junk food ever again. You need to make sure when you do, that it truly is a treat. Maybe after a week of not consuming any of the junk, you take a family for a walk or bike ride (stressing walk or bike ride, not drive) to a local ice cream place for that treat. But that's it. It's only a treat to be used very sparingly.

Start out with those three changes and don't worry about the rest for now. If you start with those three, then you've created a nice solid foundation for other improvements later on.

www.leanbodyfitness.com
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