Healthy Bytes

Another new Coke

read time: 158 words, about a minute

Coke intends to market a “nutrient-enhanced carbonated soda”… diet coke ‘fortified with vitamins and minerals’ this coming spring.

I can imagine the commercials now.
Before you fall prey to the “here’s a great way to get your vitamins” line, keep in mind that soda contains:

-> Sugar and/or High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
Which is strongly associated with liver toxicity, specifically – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Additionally, HFCS is believed to interfere with messages to the brain that signal satiety… therefore you don’t stop eating when full. And, HFCS is believed to decrease the effectiveness of insulin… leading to overeating and diabetes.
Lastly, a high-sugar diet is linked to cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

-> Phosphoric acid
Calcium is pulled out of the bones to neutralize phosphoric acid. This leads to porous, brittle bones making you more susceptible to bone fractures and osteoporosis.

So maybe Coke will add some synthetic vitamins, but that won’t make it a good thing.

Splendid… nope, not really

read time: about 3 minutes

Spah len dah. It just rolls right off your tongue.
And those commercials with all the magic fairy dust, who can resist.
After all it tastes like sugar.

Splenda has risen to the #1 selling artificial sweetener is a very short time.
In 2000, 3% of US households were using Splenda products.
In 2004 - 20% were.

Let’s look at the advertised claim:
“It’s made from sugar”.

Semantically speaking, and looking only at step one of the manufacturing process, that’s correct…
Splenda (sucralose) starts off as a sugar molecule.
However, the transformed finished product is way beyond what you might see on Nip / Tuck.

The chemical composition of the sugar molecule is converted to a “fructo-galactose” molecule. So?
Well such a molecule does not occur in nature; therefore, your body can’t digest it.

If that’s all there were to it, it would be like a kid “eating” a plastic toy. It would “come out” (assuming it didn’t get lodged along the way). But it’s more like the kid eating lead paint chips.

Sucrolose is produced by chlorinating sucrose (sugar).
Chlorinated molecules are also used as the basis for D.D.T. and other fine pesticides. The molecules are carcinogenic and since they accumulate in fat tissue, there’s a toxic buildup.

Symptoms displayed in research animals given sucralose were:
shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage), enlarged liver and
kidneys, atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus,
reduced growth rate, decreased red blood cell count, hyperplasia
of the pelvis, extension of the pregnancy period, aborted pregnancy,
decreased fetal body weights and placental weights, and chronic
diarrhea.

As far as human trials. Well there were only two published before the FDA approved sucralose. The two studies involved ONLY 36 people of which only 23 were given sucralose. The studies only looked at tooth decay. And here’s the kicker… the LONGEST trial was FOUR DAYS. Not terribly far removed from “divine faith”, eh?

Keep in mind that it accumulates in your fat cells.

You can check out the Sucralose Toxicity Information Center for more fun to know things about the current #1 artificial sweetener Splenda.

The menu of symptoms reported by humans (who probably didn’t think they were part of an experiment) are:

Flushing or redness of the skin
Burning feeling of the skin
Rash
Itching
A panicky or shaky feeling
Swelling
Blisters on the skin
Welts
Nausea
Stomach cramps
Dry heaves
Becoming withdrawn
Loss of interest in usual activities
Feeling forgetful
Moodiness
Dulled senses
Unexplained crying
Acne or acne-like rash
Anxiety
Panic attacks
Feelings of food poisoning
Headache
Seeing spots
Mental or emotional breakdown
Altered emotional state, i.e. feeling irate, impatient, hypersensitive
Pain (body, chest)
Bloated abdomen
Diarrhea
Trouble concentrating/staying in focus
Feeling depressed
Vomiting
Seizures
Shaking
Feeling faint

Next up we’ll look at the better sugar substitutes.

Artificially sweet

read time: about 5 minutes

There are three main artificial sweeteners:

Saccharin sold as Sweet’n Low
Aspartame sold as Equal and NutraSweet
Sucralose sold as Splenda

According to the Calorie Control Council, 180 million Americans were buying “Sugar free” products by 2004 (up from 109 million in 1991)

One study which applies to all artificial sweeteners was done in 2004 by psychologists at Purdue University. When rats were given artificially sweetened liquids for 10 days, they were no longer able to guage the calorie content of foods containing sugar.

In nature, typically the sweeter the food, the greater the calories. Thus, “sweetness” is used as a signal for how caloric the food is and therefore, how much to eat.

Saccharin is the oldest of the artificial sweeteners. Monsanto began selling it in 1901.

It was originally derived from the root of a plant in China.

There have been allegations that saccharin causes cancer, but to date there hasn’t been any scientific study to prove it.

It doesn’t completely digest in the body.
It also has a distinctive taste that makes it not suitable in many products.

Aspartame (Equal and Nutrasweet) - formerly on the Pentagon list of biowarfare chemicals… hmmm.
Aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than sugar and consumed by 200 million Americans. Aspartame was originally brought to the market by G. D. Searle Company

It’s made from two amino acids (L-phenylalanine and L-aspartic acid) and methanol.

If you really want to know the gory details of how that blue packet took it’s place on the tables of America (and around the world), there’s a lot of info out there including partial and full books.
It’s rife with scandal and political drama staring numerous FDA heads and scientists, G. D. Searle Company, Donald Rumsfeld, the soft drink industry lobbyist and more.

The Department of Defense knew aspartame to be a neurotoxic… ya know, a chemical weapon.
In 1984, the Arizona Department of Health showed that soft drinks containing aspartame stored at elevated temperatures produced poisonous methyl alcohol (methanol).
The methanol further breaks down into formaldehyde (a known carcinogen) and a brain tumor agent - diketopiperazine (DKP).
Medical World News had reported six years earlier that the methanol content of aspartame is 1,000 times greater than most foods under the FDA purview.
Also in 1984, CBS Nightly News featured the FDA chief scientist for the task force investigating rather serious allegations of fraud and by Searle. The FDA scientist stated that Searle company officials made “deliberate decisions” to cloak aspartame’s toxic effects.

The FDA approved aspartame as a “food additive”. This removes the legal requirement to report adverse effects or to monitor the safety. Nonetheless, the FDA has received over 6,000 complaints - 80% of all food related complaints registered with the FDA. Nope, nothing to worry yourself over.

Here are most of the known symptoms of aspartame intoxication:
severe headaches, nausea, vertigo, dizziness, insomina, loss of control of limbs, blurred vision, blindness, memory loss, slurred speech, mild to severe depression often reaching suicidal levels, hyperactivity, gastrointestinal disorders, seizures, convulsions, skin lesions, rashes, anxiety attacks, muscle and joint pain, numbness, mood changes, loss of energy, menstrual cramps out of cycle, hearing loss or ringing in the ears, loss or change of taste, and symptoms similar to those in a heart attack. Additionally, aspartic acid chelates (combines) with chromium - used proper functioning of the thyroid gland.

What’s the best use of aspartame?
According to a June 2006 article in the Idaho Observer -
it’s great for killing ants.
I tried it - it works.

Tomorrow will discuss the most popular artificial sweetener - Splenda… more scandal and deceit, more scary side effects.

More on sugar - sucrose versus fructose

read time: about three minutes

Sucrose (table sugar) is made from cane or beet sugar. Fructose is made from corn. Well fructose is found naturally in fruits, but the fructose used in food products is generally from corn.
Corn is a lot cheaper than cane. Additionally, fructose is about twice as “sweet” as sucrose, absorbs only 40% as quickly and causes a lower increase in blood sugar.

Cheaper and more efficient. Sounds good so far.

Since fructose absorbs more slowly and causes less rise in blood sugar, Doctors reasoned that it would be good for diabetics.
The food industry was delighted to come out with a plethora of fructose products (after all, it’s a lower cost ingredient).

Do you see where this is going?
Yep, sometime AFTER we fell madly in love with fructose, “we” decided to look a little more closely at it. And low and behold, there are some warts under that mask…

- Fructose has no enzymes, vitamins, and minerals… so it takes micronutrients from your body to assimilate itself.
- Fructose is not converted to useable glucose, but instead is removed by the liver.
- Fructose converts to fat more than other sugars leading to greater weight gain.
- Fructose raises serum triglycerides.
- Fructose increases total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.
- Fructose reduces insulin sensitivity.
- Fructose interferes with the metabolism of minerals and chelates minerals out of the body including iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc and copper.
- Fructose browns food more easily which decreases protein quality.
- Fructose increase lactic acid in the blood.
- Fructose can cause bloating, gas and diarrhea.

In 1980 sugar consumption per year for the average person was 84 lbs. of sucrose and 39 lbs. of fructose.
1994 it was 66 lbs. of sucrose and 83 lbs. of fructose. That’s a 113% increase in fructose.

Try this…
next time you go to the grocery store, randomly pick out any five food products and flip them over. Do the ingredients include “corn syrup”, “high fructose corn syrup”… how close to the top are those ingredients?

check this out:

Looking at that bowl of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes from a different perspective.

What’s on sale this week

read time: about one minutes

With halloween coming up what’s on sale everywhere is candy.
And when you think of candy, you think of…
sugar.

Americans are currently consuming sugar at a rate of 2-3 lbs a week.
In the last 20 years, the per person yearly consumption has gone from 26 lbs. to 135 lbs. (compared to 5 lbs. in 1890).

When I was a kid the only two results of consuming sugar I was told about were weight gain and tooth decay.
True and true, but sugar is associated with a whole lot more…
depressing the immune system
heart disease
cancer
stroke
diabetes
obesity
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
arthritis
food allergies
decresed insulin sensitivity
digestive problems
cholesterol - lower HDL and raise LDL
elevated systolic blood pressure
kidney damage
fatty liver
overstressed pancreas
cholitis
increased free radicals
headaches and migraines
hormonal imbalance
fluid retention
speeding up aging

in the next few posts will talk about sugar alternatives - the good and the bad, as well as some food label decoding.