3 Ingredients to Aviod

So I'm not that into dieting. And when I say not that into I really mean I love food.  I believe everything tastes good with enough butter, salt, and garlic, and that the proper number of meals a day is around 5. Right now you're probably thinking: "This girl has the crappiest eating habits ever." Well I got you....

After spending 18 years in the care of my health nut mom (who I secretly appreciate for teaching me how to eat delicious and healthy food), it's hard to avoid eating healthy. It's pretty simple: buy fresh ingredients, cook fresh food, and eat all the different colors.


This is not a foolproof plan. So in the spirit of kicking my own ass for the next week and a half, I decided to look up what ingredients I really need to focus on avoiding. Here's what I've come up with:

High Fructose Corn Syrup:

Have you ever seen one of these awkward commercials?

There's a lot of controversy out there about high fructose corn syrup and the reality is that we simply don't have enough scientific research out there on it. It's only been in the past couple years that researchers really began to look at fructose in the body. Princeton people say high fructose corn syrup will make you gain significantly more weight than regular table sugar when consumed in the same amount, especially in the long term. So if you want something sweet-add regular sugar. Like my mom taught me: fresh ingredients are the way to go.

About to get all sciencey-not super relevant to fitness stuff, but an example of how little we know. The first research article that even begins to analyze how fructose is taken up by the body came out this year (Kyriazia GA, Soundarapandian MM, Tyberg B. Sweet taste receptor signaling in beta cells mediates fructose-induced potentiation of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion). Yes I just pulled out a research article on ya.

But here is the scary, we don't know enough part. Fructose causes the same reactions in taste buds as glucose, and if glucose is present (which is usually the case post meals), it will increase the pancreas's response. Can anyone say diabetes? More research obviously needs to be done to fully determine anything, but I'm all about playing it on the safe side.

Simple Sugars:

Simple sugars is the non-academic term for monosaccharide carbohydrates: glucose, fructose, maltose, galactose. Complex sugars are polysaccharide carbohydrates: lactose is a complex sugar formed from galactose and glucose. Simple sugars break down very rapidly in the body verse complex sugars. This has 3 important effects.

1. Pancreas works hard: It floods your body with glucose, causing your pancreas to basically exponentially excrete insulin in order for the glucose to be taken up by cells. However, the epic amount of insulin released does it's job really well, soon lowering your blood sugar levels below normal. 
2. Overeating: Your body reads this fake low blood sugar as a need to eat more food, making you eat more than necessary.
3. Stored fat isn't released: Your hormones act in balance to one another. Insulin and glucagon, another hormone related to metabolism are inversely related, as insulin goes up, glucagon goes down. Glucagon basically is what allows us to burn fat by telling fat cells to release their fat stores into the blood to be used up.

This does not mean you should remove all sugar from your diet! Carbohydrates are the #1 energy choice of your body for a reason. Instead, eat complex carbohydrates. These are broken down slowly in your body so doesn't cause your poor pancreas to overreact.

So how can you tell complex from simple?

Found this awesome little list of complex carbs [Image]

Once again, look for fresh ingredients. Food that has been processed usually contains simple sugars (even fruit juice and yogurt can). Avoid anything that says bleached, refined, processed, etc. Anything that says "Mother Nature did not actually create me." Also, this may come as a shock, but green things are a good source of complex carbs too-the darker the better.

It's a learning curve. It took me about 2 months to like brown rice and I am still learning to like this whole grain pasta my sister insists on buying. However, these little changes are worth doing, and shouldn't break the bank.

Trans fat:

 Whenever I think of trans fat I am transported back to a Biochemistry lecture on the structure of fatty acids. There are two ways the carbon atoms in fats can be connected: cis and trans (check out the picture).

[Image]

See the nice little chink in the cis fatty acid (the bottom one)? When a bunch of those molecules are in your blood together, that chink in the chain prevents them from stacking up and creating a solid glob, i.e. plaques. Trans fatty acids do not have this chink, so easily stack up and become solid masses in your body. Gross right? After this lecture I was convinced to avoid all things trans for the rest of my life.

Also fun fact: trans fat does not exist in nature. Do you know how they are made? Basically picture lining up a bunch of cis-fat molecules on a piece of metal, usually Zinc or Copper, then blasting it with Hydrogen gas. So not only does trans fat form nasty globs in your body, but they have also touched metal. I don't really know why I find that as creepy as I do.

But really, fresh ingredients people.

Other nice things about trans fat. It raises bad cholesterol, is believed to contribute to hardening your arteries, inhibits digestion, increases inflammation (why is that bad? think arthritis), and has been an accomplice in heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity. Nasty stuff.

A quick way to avoid trans fat without looking at labels. Fats that are solid (lard), fried food (though restaurants are getting better about what oil they use), and anything with partially hydrogenated oil.


References

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Simple Sugars

Trans Fat