Sugar is Sugar...Really?

Have you seen those commercials sponsored by the corn companies that try and convince you that high fructose corn syrup is nothing worse than sugar? Well, if you haven't check out one right now. At the end of the video is a little rant by the guy who owns the video on youtube and makes a good point.

First I have to say this, we eat too much sugar as a nation period! Whether it's corn sugar or regular table sugar everyone is used to, we consume too much sugar and need to cut down on all different types. However, watch the commercial again and think this the whole time, "It's healthy to eat corn sugar because it's just like regular sugar." Although you might be able to say, "That's retarded, no sugar is healthy." it is pretty simple for many Americans to justify to themselves they are ok to eat corn sugar and other processed foods because these sugars aren't anymore unhealthy than the sugar we've been consuming for years.

According to many sources you can find online, high fructose corn syrup (also called corn sugar now by the corn industry) doesn't do anything different than cane sugar. But what are they saying exactly? From all the sources I've read there are two things consistent between refined white sugar and corn sugar:

1 - Same amount of calories

2 - Both sugars cause the same reaction in the blood stream, meaning you will produce the same amount of insulin no matter what type you eat

Well a study at Princeton University says different when it comes to over-all health of corn sugar VS regular sugar. According to a research study in March of 2010, corn sugar is a high factor of obesity in our nation today. There were two main control groups of rats in one study. One group was fed regular rat chow (whatever that is) and water sweetened with corn sugar. The other group was fed regular rat chow and water sweetened with regular table sugar (I'm assuming that's refined white sugar that you used to pour on your cereal every morning). The control group being fed the corn sugar gained a significant amount of weight compared to the other group.

In another study with animals, all animals that were fed corn sugar gained more weight and had obesity related diseases that many people are dealing with today. For more information you can see this study at http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/ and see for yourself.

Now that doesn't mean go eat all other sugars instead of corn sugar and you'll be fine. Cut back on the sugar! According to researcher Nancy Appleton, PhD there are approximately 146 reasons to avoid all sugars. Some reasons are (this is a copy and paste from http://www.naturalnews.com/022692.html and is not my own material):

* Sugar feeds cancer

* Sugar increases cholesterol

* Sugar can weaken eyesight

* Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children

* Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein

* Sugar causes food allergies

* Sugar contributes to diabetes

* Sugar can contribute to eczema in children

* Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease

* Sugar can impair the structure of DNA

* Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children

* Sugar contributes to the reduction in defense against bacterial infection (infectious diseases)

* Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)

* Sugar contributes to osteoporosis

According to this same website (again it's http://www.naturalnews.com/022692.html and not my own information) Stevia is the best alternative to sugar when it comes to health. Don't overload of course, but look at the facts. When finding a sugar alternative be careful.

In my opinion avoid as much sugar as possible, mainly soda pop and processed foods. However, today it's very hard to avoid these foods and prepare a healthy meal everyday. Use your best judgement and try to stay healthy and avoid the sweets as much as possible. 

Counting Calories...Just a Start Not a Trend

Diet professionals constantly tell me to "Eat less calories than you expel in energy and you'll lose weight! It's really that easy." Well great but what kind of foods am I supposed to eat? "Anything low in calories." was always the answer. However the calorie count on packages is an estimated count, and technology that I use to track my calorie usage during excercise are also estimated. What about all the other ingredients in food (salt, potassium, fat, cholesterol, vitamins, minerals, etc.). How do those not help in losing weight?

Counting calories can be an effective start to losing weight, but it's not going to get you farther than most other diets that are easy to follow. Take into consideration that other things, such as salt, can cause a fluctuation in weight daily (fun fact: weight can actually fluctuate anywhere from 3 to 12 pounds per day on average...so if you weigh yourself at 190 lbs you could be as high as 202 or as low as 178!). When you consume excess amounts of salt your body retains more water than normal, adding water weight to your daily scale checks. 

How about vitamins and minerals? Well, you could eat whatever you wanted that was low in calories and lose some weight, but will you be healthy? According to http://www.livestrong.com you can develop the following problems due to a low amount of daily vitamins:

- Low Immunity

- Brittle Bones

- Bad Oral Health

- Joint Pain

The last thing I want to consider is the amount of fat in food. Calories and fat are not the same thing and your body does not absorb/digest/store fat and calories the same. This is why food labels have the tiny little section saying "Fat from Calories" to show the difference. Something low in calories can be high in fat. Fat is the hardest energy source to break down by the body, so the body stores it for future use and uses other components that can be broken down easily (carbohydrates as an example). 

Don't believe the hype that you're healthy just by focusing on calories; focus on a multitude of factors such as fat, cholesterol, simple and complex carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, etc. All in all, eat a healthy diet consisting of a variety of foods without the refined sugars and processed procedures and exercise consistently. Losing weight and feeling great has an easy answer but a difficult process to constantly follow on a day to day basis.

Full Bar

Full Bar Diet - 1/5 Stars   Medium $$$$

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If you haven't seen the full bar commercial, check it out above. This commercial actually isn't too bad and makes you believe it could replace surgery some day

Here's my problem with Full Bar. You drink a large glass of water, eat the bar that looks like an oversized Rice Krispy Treat (I love those treats, so I'd be happy to make that my diet), then wait a little while before eating your meal. The full bar will fill up your stomach so you feel full after eating less food. No offense to the creator of Full Bar, but if you drink a large glass of water and eat a large rice krispie like substance before any meal you'll obviously feel more full before a meal! You don't have to necessarily by the full bar.

This contradicts what many diet experts claim about eating a certain number of calories a day to keep your metabolism up without your body storing excess fat due to the theory of starvation (explanation: starvation mode happens when your body doesn't consume enough calories/fat/food overall a day, meaning your body stores fat thinking it's not getting enough food each day or you're under high stress). You still have to consume enough nutrients and minerals each day to stay healthy.

Here's an experiment for you that I've already posted earlier: drink a large glass of water before a meal, wait 20 minutes then eat. Halfway through your meal drink another glass of water and finish eating. You'll feel more full plus increase your water intake which will help you in losing weight anyway.

Positives: Full Bar could be used as a diet starter plan to mentally trick yourself into thinking you have to eat less by visually seeing less food on your plate after consuming the Full Bar. Afterwards you could cut the Full Bar and eat the same amount of food. If your body feels full you've successfully tricked your brain into eating less and feeling more full without the Full Bar. Otherwise, no other positives.

Negatives: Expensive, uses common sense to lose weight, doesn't necessarily provide you with the nutrition you might be missing with eating less food. Remember, it's not necessarily eating less it's eating more healthy food and eating less junk/crap food. Eating a large amount of vegetables won't kill you, and the full bar doesn't have the nutritional value of vegetables. 


In my opinion the Full Bar is just a guy saying you should eat his food to expand in your stomach and eat less. It makes sense, but doesn't do much for you. The diet has you incorporate healthy food and extra water which will help you lose weight without the Full Bar.

Juicing VS Puree

If you haven't seen the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" you should; the documentary follows Joe, an overweight and sick Australian man determined to lose weight. In order to do so he follows a strict diet consisting of only juice from fruit and vegetables he juices himself for two straight months. Joe's courage and strength show us that we can lose weight with a healthy diet, and keep the weight off with a consistent healthy diet and exercise.

I have shared this documentary with hundreds of people who buy juicers or decide they want to juice and have incredible results. However, is juicing the best thing to do? Well, I went to http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com to see what they would recommend for me. My goal was to lose 20 pounds, and my recommendations were one juice a day for only a week, then go from there. Well, juicing isn't for everybody to follow like Joe.

After doing a little research on juicing, I realized it wasn't the best way to get vitamins and nutrients from multiple fruits and vegetables a day. Although juicing is very healthy, one thing is better...puree. The difference? Juicing extracts juice from the fruit leaving behind pulp full of vital nutrients and fiber. Puree...place all the fruits and vegetables in a blender and go at it; nothing wasted and nothing lost. Less fruit and vegetables are needed to puree than to juice, saving money and still filling you up with the nutrients you need each day. Puree is an easier cleanup while juicing consists of many parts to clean and wipe down.

Juicing, however, is easier to drink down. Puree his much thicker and harder to down quickly if you're in a hurry. Puree is also harder to make great tasting combinations between fruits and vegetables that are great tasting like juice.

In my opinion, juicing is great but puree is much healthier and easier to maintain and clean. In addition, save money by using up to half the fruit needed to juice in a large puree.

Start Losing Weight

I am sick of constantly seeing all these weight loss products on the market trying to sell their “easy” systems to unsuspecting people. “Miracle” weight loss products only go so far (if you have a question about a product and its effectiveness, check out my reviews sections for the ones I’ve used and see how it worked for me). Too many pills, powders and surgeries that promise results without minimal work on your part. Don’t get me wrong, many of them do help you get to a certain point with hard work and a diet change (yeah, the same thing you can do without the pill!), but after you stop consuming “miracle” drugs the effects are worse. Read my other posts to read what can happen.

Here’s a list of things you can do right away to start losing weight and fat without buying potentially harmful drugs and supplements (read “Weight VS Fat” to understand the difference):

1. Cut down on the soda. Substitute soda pop with water slowly until you are no longer drinking the soda

2. If you crave a snack, grab a handful of your favorite fruit, vegetable or nut products. With the snack drink a glass or two of water, the water will help suppress your hunger making you feel full while cutting down on calories and fat intake.

3. Drink water before meals. Water is the only 100% safe and natural appetite suppressant and it’s completely free. Before each meal or snack drink a few glasses of water and your cravings will drop quite a bit. You will still have that craving to snack, which is ok because it’s ok to eat food throughout the day. Choose a healthy snack as stated above.

4. Volumize your meals. What is volumizing? Do this, take a lettuce that you like (iceberg, green leaf, red leaf, kale, romaine, etc.), eat your lunch or dinner with only half (that’s right, I said half) of what you typically eat each day. Wash and prepare the head of lettuce and mix half to a full head in that meal. You still get the same volume of food, making your stomach full and your brain telling you to stop eating, however you’re adding a whole bunch of nutrients and decreasing a whole bunch of fat while feeling satisfied at the end of the meal. This can be done with any vegetable at the same time, but in my experience lettuce tastes better and is more versatile in the meals I eat.

5. If you already drink water, drink more water! Any dietician will tell you to increase your water levels to be more healthy, but have they ever told you why? Whenever I ask someone how much water they should drink they give me the same canned answer, “Eight 8 oz glasses of water a day.” Who came up with that? If I drink only eight glasses a day I’m still dehydrated. From what I understand through countless articles I’ve read regarding this theory, this is for people that are not active, eating under 1500 calories a day and consume less than 50% of the daily value of salt in their diet. If you exercise you need much more water each day.

Don’t fill up a gallon of water and chug it down, no! Start out drinking one glass of water every hour. If you exercise drink a few more glasses of water afterwards. Water is used for so many different things your body just craves it! Physiologically your body will store water when it feels low or depleted, and this is where water weight comes from. If you drink a high volume of water each day your body then tells itself, “I’m getting a sufficient amount of water, I don’t need to store it anymore.” Your body then releases the stored water and incoming water at a level pace while staying hydrated at a healthy level.

I have seen people lose up to 25 pounds in two weeks just by drinking a high volume of one to one and a half gallons of water per day. However, beware that if you stop drinking water consistently you will gain the weight back because your body will be starving for it once again, causing it to store water instead of continually process and use it.

Do any or all of these with your daily diet plans and exercise plans (if you’re not exercising start!) and you will see more weight and fat shed from your body.

Drop the Pop, Drink Water

Water does many things: provide oxygen to the body, clean cells, transport nutrients, transport waste away, provides a pH balance in the body, regulates the salt/potassium levels, etc. Water is free from calories and fat, is used all throughout the body, and is FREE! Best of all, many people go out there and try to purchase different pills and powders that suppress their appetites, only to eat more after they are done with the pills and powders. Water is the only 100% safe and natural appetite suppressant you can find! Yay!

Water is a resource that we have that we do not take advantage of enough. Too many people consume soda pop as their main intake of fluids. A 16 oz soda has approximately 12 tablespoons of sugar! Imagine taking 12 tablespoons of sugar and eating it plain…that’s what you just drank. To put it in perspective, many people drink one to three 64 oz drinks a day. One 64 oz drink is approximately one half of a gallon of liquid, consisting of approximately 48 tabelspoons (or in another measurement, three cups of sugar). That means someone is consuming nine full cups of sugar each day they drink three 64 oz soda pops! Insane!

As I mentioned in the “Start Losing Weight” post, drop the pop and start drinking water. You don’t have to stop drinking pop completely right away, take it slow. Here are some steps on decreasing the amount of pop you drink each day:

1. Reduce the size of the drink (64 oz to 44 oz) and decrease that size every two weeks.

2. Reduce the number of refills you drink, and reduce this every three days. Substitute the amount of soda you decreased with water.

3. When you wake up drink two glasses of water before breakfast, before you go to buy a soda pop, and before you go to bed. Drinking the water decreases your desire to continually pump food/beverages into your body.

Take these ideas one at a time and slowly drop the soda pop addiction and fill your body with a liquid that it desires: water. Doing this will help you in so many ways including a lower blood pressure, fat burning, energy increase, a spike in hydration levels, and a clear mind. Read my other articles about sugar to know the effects on your body and how it is stored as fat quickly.