Sugar: Toxic?

There are many news stories floating around saying that sugar is toxic and to blame for every extra pound that Americans are carrying around. Many of the authors argue that if people replaced the sugar with fat, they'd be fine. They never say if there is a point where it does come back to calories, or not. Their argument, if extended would say that even if you only consume 800 calories a day, but all in sugar, you'd gain weight, but if you consumed 3,800 calories a day without sugar, you would maintain or lose weight.

I think they're trying to oversimplify things. Many of us consume a huge portion of our daily calories from sugar,  much of that in the form of added sugar to beverages. Beverages don't fill us up the way solid food does. The exception is milk, which our body digests differently than soda or juice. It's not the sugar that is toxic by itself, it's the over consumption of sugar and all other calories. For many people, cutting out the sugary drinks may lower their total daily calorie intake to a healthy level.

One 20 ounce bottle of soda contains 65 grams of sugar, which is about 15 teaspoons. That is more than double the amount the American Heart Association recommends for women. It's also 260 calories with no nutrition to go with them. Someone who runs 12 minute miles and weighs 130 pounds needs to run more than 30 minutes to balance that out. That's thirty minutes to negate the calories in a bottle of soda. It hardly seems worth it. If you want to see a good visual representation of how much sugar is in soda, check this site.

I am not saying that everyone should shun sugar, corn syrup, honey, maple syrup or other items that are basically sugar. Just watch your total calorie intake and cut out the low-hanging fruit. If you can cut 260 calories a day without feeling hungry, why not do that? If you can get a spaghetti sauce that doesn't have added sugar and unnecessary calories, why not buy that one? Read your labels carefully and choose what you eat and drink only after having all the information.

Little Things

I think it's really common for people to look at big items and ignore or discount the small things. We think of our workout, but not the smaller bits of exercise we get throughout the day. We think of our meals, but not the calories consumed through small snacks.

I thought of this the other day when I missed my workout. I didn't get my 30-45 minutes of cross-training in that day. However, I did walk from the train to work and back. Each way was about 3/4 mile. I have also switched my desk at work from sitting to standing. That change is burning about 116 more calories per day than sitting. I've also been doing my physical therapy exercises, but not counting any of that time as "working out."

I think the same thing happens to the calories we consume. We pay attention to the meals, but not the small bites. It's really easy for those unaccounted bites to add up to enough calories that your body will show them, even if you didn't think of them while eating or drinking. When discussing obesity, people discuss how portion sizes have increased over the years, they don't talk about mindless small bites. We consider the calories in the french fries, but not the ketchup.

I think this is a huge part of the childhood obesity epidemic. Children are constantly being hydrated and fed with calorie-laden items. A constant stream of calories that never amount to enough to actually satiate. That means that they can keep eating and drinking well past the point where they're reached their caloric needs. This leads to weight gain. It's not sudden, it's very gradual and then suddenly it's a health issue. The same thing happens to us as adults.

I'm not suggesting we all skip our workouts in favor of small burst of activity and also skip all snacks and only eat large meals. What we should all do is consider the whole picture of our lives, not just the large items. Give yourself credit for walking all over Target for thirty minutes. Track the calories from that extra bite you took after you were basically done with dinner.

The Clock

If the myth of eating after 8 were true, the flip side would be that you could overeat as long as it was early enough in the day, and you'd still lose weight. That clearly makes no sense, so why would this be true?

Your body doesn't look at the clock when you eat or when you work out to determine how many calories to burn or store. It's a formula of calories in vs. calories burned. That's why Weight Watchers weighs in once a week, and not daily or even more often.

Source: prettyfitbody.tumblr.com via Taylor on Pinterest

Stop

If you follow this advice, you will be healthier. You will feel better, too. If you are overweight, you will lose weight, without feeling starved or deprived. Those old sayings are true. "You are what you eat." "Garbage in, garbage out." You can't expect to be healthy if you eat crap. The below image is a shirt. It's such a great image to illustrate this point.

Diet Soda

I think most of us understand that a can of soda is nothing but empty calories. There are about 140 calories in a 12-ounce of soda, but if you're out and about, good luck finding a 12-ounce serving of soda. In convenience stores, it's usually a 20-ounce bottle and at fast-food places, the serving sizes are huge. I've shared how it's not just the calories that are a problem, but the possible link to lung issues, too.

If you're thinking you can avoid all these issues by switching to diet soda, you may want to hold off on that conclusion. There was a study done that links consumption of diet soda to heart issues. Just like the lung issue study, there is no proof of causation, just correlation, but it's still discouraging. The study found that just one can of diet soda a day is the link to a 43% increase in vascular events like heart attack or stroke.

Again, it's only correlation, but I'm not taking any chances. I'm glad that I gave up artificial sweeteners for Lent. I am still trying to get a cup of coffee that I really enjoy, but it's worth it if I'm avoiding heart health issues. I'm also hoping that it helps avoid the before and after effect.

Portions

Regulating the serving size of our food is a key to maintaining a healthy weight. You need to know how big a portion is to understand how many calories you're actually consuming. People tend to underestimate the number of calories they consume in a day. Part of that is lack of understanding of an appropriate portion size. People underestimate their calories by 20-40%. That can add up to a large amount of gained weight over the years.

Luckily, there are products out there to help people with this problem. Some of them are designed for people trying to lose weight, but they can help anyone balance their meals for optimum health.

The Balance Plate has lines to divide your plate into appropriate portion sizes. It comes in several varieties, some more technical than the one I chose to show.

Slimwear comes in several patterns that are subtle in their portion control directions. They look like normal dinner plates, but the pattern tells you how big your portions should be.

The Portion Control Plate is actually a measuring tool that can be used with any plate. Each section had 1/2 and full cup lines. This makes it easy to count calories accurately. Also would work well with Weight Watchers.

There are plenty of other options out there for portion control plates. You can use measuring cups, too. The key is just being aware of what you're eating, so you're not surprised by changes in your weight.

Easy calorie burns

One of the most common excuses for not exercising is time. There are plenty of ways to add some movement to your life, without having to set aside hours at a time.

Park at the far end of parking lots. This will probably save you time and frustration, because you won't be driving endlessly looking for a great spot.

Carry your purchases from the store to your car, instead of taking the cart with you. This will add some muscle work to your shopping trip.

Use a hand basket instead of a cart, if it's possible. It adds muscle work while you're shopping. It also makes you more aware of what you're buying because you have limited space for the items.

Leave the car parked. Is your errand only a few blocks away? Walk or bike there. It won't take much more time, but it will make you feel better.

Avoid the escalator and take the stairs. It takes the same amount of time, possibly less time and is good for you.

If the escalator is the only option, walk up it anyway. This will give you some of the benefit of taking the stairs.

Avoid the elevator. In Chicago office buildings, this isn't possible because the stairs are locked and you have to use the elevator. If that isn't the case in your office building, try the stairs.

Take the long way around. If there are two routes to a common destination at home or work, take the longer one. It may add a few seconds, but those extra steps add up.

Do calf raises when you're stuck standing. Waiting for the bus, train or elevator? Why not do this barely noticeable exercise with that spare time? You can do calf raises on the train, too. Don't be this guy, though.

Do knee raises at your desk or while stuck in that boring meeting. It will burn a few calories, tone your legs and give you something to think about instead of your coworker's brown nosing.

Sit up straight. Remind yourself to make sure you're not slouching at your desk or while watching TV at home. It takes a little bit more energy and strength to hold your body up straight and will improve your posture. You may need to raise up your monitor to do this comfortably. I used books at my job to get sufficient height.

These are just a few suggestions to build fitness into your life without having to reschedule everything. You can take these ideas and expand them to fit your life. If you can burn an extra 100 calories a day, you can lose 10 pounds in a year without thinking about it.

Negative Calorie Foods

When I was growing up, it was common belief that celery was so low in calories and so difficult to chew & digest that it was actually negative calories. The theory was that you could eat a ton of celery and it would counteract other things you had digested. It is true that one cup of celery contains a mere 18 calories, and all food that you consume takes some energy to digest. That does not mean that eating celery will reduce the 400 calories of ice cream down to 350. Celery is a great choice for something to munch on though.

This belief of negative calorie foods is still being propagated today, and the lists has grown to include many other vegetables and some fruits. The thing many of the foods on the lists share is that a cup is only about 30 calories. Some of them go up as high as 100 calories per cup. Luckily, there are reputable health and diet sites that refute this diet myth.

These foods are great items to eat when you're trying to lose weight. They will fill you up for less of a caloric hit than pasta or most other foods. If you're trying to decide what food to stock for munching or to use for dinner or dessert, please check out the lists that are linked above. They are a great way to help you make sure you are keeping healthy food in your house. Remember, they will not subtract from your total calorie consumption, though.

Calories

To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. This is the simple fact. No matter how you get to the point of burning more calories than you consume, it still boils down to "Eat Less and Exercise" Even the people who have surgery to lose weight are still following the "eat less and exercise" plan. Yes, the surgery makes it impossible for them to do anything other than eat less, but that's still what's causing their weight loss.

The basic math for weight loss is a deficit of 3,500 calories equals a loss of one pound of fat. It's not exactly that amount, and there are hints that a thin person may be able to lose more weight with a smaller deficit because they're losing lean with the fat. In general, most people are trying to lose the fat, not the lean, so the 3,500 calorie figure is a good one to use. This deficit can be reached via eating fewer calories, exercising more or a combination of both. If you can find 500 calories to easily cut from your daily diet, you can lose a pound a week without much effort. That's two 20 ounce bottles of Cherry Coke.

I don't consume many empty calories. I rarely drink soda or alcohol. In fact, I don't drink many calories at all. It's something I stopped doing years ago when I was trying to lose some weight. It really worked. Drinking doesn't fill you up like solid food, so drinking calories adds to your daily caloric intake, but doesn't keep you satisfied until the next meal. Milk is the exception to this rule, and that's because of the protein. Yes, milk has sugar, but only natural sugar, not added like in soda. If you drink fat-free milk, it is not empty calories. (That link will take you to the dieting comic "Empty Calories." It's like "Cathy," only less screeching and funny.)

There are many other empty calories that we all consume. The key is to limit them to rare occasions so they're not adding up to weight gain.

Healthful food

So Full Bars were on sale at Target recently, so I bought a box. I like the convenience of breakfast/snack bars, but find that many of them don't have enough protein or fiber to fill me up enough to make the calories worth it. I do think that one bar will fill me up for hours, but only because they were so dry, that I had to drink about two glasses of water with it to wash it down. I'm not sure if the food or the water will keep me full until lunch. Not a product I would recommend to others.

I have also been eating more healthful foods at other meals, too. I have rediscovered the rutabaga. I enjoyed them as a kid, but have found that they make a great replacement for potato. It has just a little less fiber & protein than a potato, but about half the calories. That means you can eat twice as much rutabaga as potato and feel fuller without fear of gaining weight.

Last night, I made rutabaga oven fries. With the nutty sweetness that the rutabaga has, they reminded me a bit of sweet potato fries, if they were steak cut. I found a simple recipe online. I tossed them with olive oil before baking and cooked them a bit longer than they suggested. I do think that I will be trying them again in the future.

I don't mean to malign the common potato, but the average American consumes about 129 pounds per year of them. I think it would benefit many of us to replace a few of those pounds with another vegetable that has fewer calories. It would also widen up the flavors experienced during eating, without any negatives.