Obesity additives... the bane of processed foods

Many of the chemicals all too commonly found in today's foods can be just as addictive as alcohol, cigarettes, and even various street drugs.

The stuff they are putting in our food to keep it artificially "fresh" for years and even decades, can actually make changes in our brain chemistry...causing us to become addicted to gaining body fat. 

Furthermore, in order to make you crave what they have, the industry spikes your food with: Trans fats, caffeine, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, flavoring, extra salt, and sugar. What you get is a food time bomb disguised as a healthy treat. 

No wonder we all struggle so much... 

With all of this in mind, here are three ways obesity additives work to make our bellies bulge: 

1. Two of these obesity additives interfere with a hormone called leptin that tells the brain we are full while eating. 

2. Other obesity additives add fat by changing how our bodies use the calories we eat. They do this by increasing a fat-storing hormone called insulin. When this happens, calories are converted to fat instead of being stored as "muscle energy." This leads to fat deposits in all of our trouble areas—like under the chin, the backs of the arms, the belly, and the lower body. 

3. Still other obesity additives actually make us addicted to them and cause us to eat uncontrollably. They do this by altering brain chemicals called neurotransmitters—just like a highly addictive drug does. 

A Short List of Obesity Additives to Stay Away From... 

Stripped Carbohydrates (listed as sugar, flour, enriched white flour, white flour, enriched bleached flour, enriched wheat flour, wheat flour, semolina flour, white rice, maltodextrin, glucose, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), fructose, sucrose, dextrose, and levulose)

Artificial Sweeteners (listed as Splenda (sucralose), NutraSweet (aspartame), Sunette (acesulfame K), and Sweet ‘N Low (saccharin). The scientists believe that artificial sweeteners may “short-circuit” the body’s natural ability to sense how much it has eaten.)

Added Caffeine in soft drinks and energy drinks (a few cups of green tea or coffee each day are fine)

High Saturated Fats (also listed as partially hydrogenated oils and trans fats)

MSG (also labeled as monosodium glutamate)

Excess Alcohol (if you must, one to two drinks per week)

Excess Salt/Sodium (in chips, crackers, canned food items, pickles, various cheeses, pretzels, condiments, and salted nuts.)


This note came from Michael Lovitch, Co-founder of The Hypnosis Network, describing information povided by Josh Bezoni in a new class he is offering. 09-30-10

More studies on high fructose corn syrup

Just this month, researchers from Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago took a look at the link between kidney disease and high-fructose corn syrup. Using data from nearly 9,400 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2004, they tracked consumption of sugary soft drinks, a major source of high-fructose corn syrup in the United States, and protein in the urine, a sensitive marker for kidney disease. They found that overall, people who drank two or more sugary sodas a day were at 40 percent higher risk for kidney damage, while the risk for women soda drinkers nearly doubled.

In June, the Journal of Hepatology suggested a link between consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in sodas and fatty liver disease.

And this summer, a small study published in The Journal of Nutrition suggested that fructose may make people fatter by bypassing the body’s regulation of sugars, which means it gets more quickly converted to fat than do other sugars.

As writer Michael Pollan told The Washington Post earlier this year, high-fructose corn syrup “may be cheap in the supermarket, but in the environment it could not be more expensive.”

Most corn is grown as a monoculture, meaning that the land is used solely for corn, not rotated among crops. This maximizes yields, but at a price: It depletes soil nutrients, requiring more pesticides and fertilizer while weakening topsoil.

“The environmental footprint of high-fructose corn syrup is deep and wide,” writes Pollan, a prominent critic of industrial agriculture. “Look no farther than the dead zone in the Gulf [of Mexico], an area the size of New Jersey where virtually nothing will live because it has been starved of oxygen by the fertilizer runoff coming down the Mississippi from the Corn Belt. Then there is the atrazine in the water in farm country — a nasty herbicide that, at concentrations as little as 0.1 part per billion, has been shown to turn male frogs into hermaphrodites.”

Excerpts from: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/still-spooked-by-high-fructose-corn-syrup/

Nutrition: High-fructose corn syrup: Why is it so bad for me?

High-fructose corn syrup: Why is it so bad for me?
Q.
I've been hearing lots of bad things about high-fructose corn syrup in foods. What is it?

A.
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.

High-fructose corn syrup extends the shelf life of foods and is sweeter and cheaper than sugar. For these reasons, it has become a popular ingredient in many sodas, fruit-flavored drinks and other processed foods. Check your food labels. You may be surprised by how many foods contain high-fructose corn syrup.

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 proved.

In addition, animal studies have shown a link between increased consumption of high-fructose corn syrup and adverse health effects, such as diabetes and high cholesterol. However, the evidence is not as clear in human studies.

Despite the lack of clarity in research, the fact remains that Americans consume large quantities of high-fructose corn syrup in the form of soft drinks, fruit-flavored beverages and other processed foods. These types of foods are often high in calories and low in nutritional value. This fact alone is reason to be cautious about foods containing high-fructose corn syrup.

To reduce high-fructose corn syrup in your diet, read food labels. Avoid or limit foods that contain high-fructose corn syrup. Some other easy tips for cutting back on high-fructose corn syrup include:

* Buy 100 percent fruit juice instead of fruit-flavored drinks.
* Choose fresh fruit instead of fruit juices. Even 100 percent fruit juice has a high concentration of sugar.
* Choose fruit canned in its own juices instead of heavy syrup.
* Cut back on soda.


By Mayo Clinic Staff
Apr 5, 2007
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