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Hate to be the One that Tells You, but…

By On · Add Comment · In American Beverage Association, children, obesity, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, soda, soft drinks, sugar, teens

In my recent obesity debates, I noticed a disturbing trend among many proponents of fantastical new theories on obesity, which included some doctors: They were adopting a “obesity is far too complex to blame a singular (or few) product/action” position. As I remarked in an earlier post, I think this poorly thought out opinion only perpetuates the problem.  No less erroneous than the genetic theory of obesity, denying the obvious simply gives the obese person a reason to pull themselves, and their lifestyle habits, out of the equation. As a result, it ensures that obesity will remain a lucrative disease entity in need of a cure (à la cancer).

Case in point: In response to a recent report coming out of the Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, that has showed soft drink manufacturers to be stepping-up advertising to children and teens, particularly blacks and Hispanics. The American Beverage Association, whose members include soft drink companies, disputed the study’s findings. Said the group’s Chief Executive Officer Susan Neely in a statement,

“This report is another attack by known critics in an ongoing attempt to single out one product as the cause of obesity when both common sense and widely accepted science have shown that the reality is far more complicated.”

Uh huh…listen up obesity enablers: Aspects of obesity may have some complexity to them, but how it originates physiologically in the individual isn’t complex. Any right-minded person not driven by profits or ego (doctors…) simply cannot deny that imbibing ten teaspoons of sugar (contents of one can of soda) will lead to metabolic and hormonal changes that ultimately cause obesity.  If you’re this person, forgive me but…you’re an idiot.

Meet Ultra-Bad Cholesterol

By On · Add Comment · In bad cholesterol, diabetes, fast-food, good cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL), metformin, MGmin-LDL, prediabetes, soda, sugar
You’ve heard of “good” cholesterol and “bad” cholesterol–now meet their wicked stepbrother, “ultra-bad” cholesterol…so bad, it forms stickier plaques, and makes its carrier even more susceptible to heart disease and stroke.  Who’s got this badass sticky-plaque cholesterol?  Diabetics.  But before you think that’s not you…let me add prediabetics to the mix as well.

British scientist have found the super-sticky cholesterol by essentially recreating in the lab.  By glycating low density lipoproteins (LDLs), that is, by adding sugar groups to the molecule, they turned the “bad” LDLs into “ultra-bad” MGmin-LDLs.  The added sugar groups change the cholesterol’s shape, making it stickier and more likely to attach to blood vessel walls.  Once cholesterol sticks to the arterial walls, the plaques narrow the lumen (space), reducing blood flow and thus increasing the probability of heart attack or stroke.  Diabetics and prediabetics are at risk due to the higher levels of sugar circulating through the blood.

Of course, the discovering scientists (University of Warwick in the UK) and the medical community is excited because the findings uncover how a common type 2 diabetes drug, metformin, fights heart disease by blocking the transformation of normal LDL into the super-sticky LDL.  Which of course means greater possibilities for new drugs.

But my interest is from a different angle.  It’s for me to stand on a soap box and say: Please people, listen, decrease your sugar intake or remove it from your diets altogether.  Processed sugar is one of the greatest health impediments of the modern world.  The number of illnesses and organ diseases attributable to excess sugar in the diet are astronomical.

While in doctor school, I read 1,500 pages of pathology text required for the curriculum, and it was my observation that excess sugar (along with tobacco and alcohol use) is one of the primary causes of disease in contemporary civilization.  And our foods are filled with it.  Sugar is in everything!  From cookies and cakes, to sauces, meats, breads, cereals, soups, stews, children’s food…and the list goes on and on.

Fast food is laden with sugar.  But be not afraid…here, wash it down with a soda.  Yes, the American drink of champions!  I know I’m a freakin’ bummer, but somebody has to say it.  Drop the sugary, frosted, high fructose corn syrup-laden CA-RAP before your arteries get filled with super-sticky MGmin-LDLs.  Dang!  Seventy-nine million people in the United States today have prediabetes.  Freakin’ duh!

Let me put it in perspective: You know how you think the guy or gal you see smoking a cigarette is going to have a heart attack one day?  Now you can do the same for the soda drinker.  Think about it.

Cap’n Crunch Sabathia No More: His Surefire Weight-Loss Plan

By On · Add Comment · In calories, Cap'n Crunch, CC Sabathia, diabetes, New York Yankees, nutrition, obesity epidemic, soda, sugar
New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia is reporting to spring training 25 lbs lighter.  The secret: He kicked the Cap’n Crunch.  Aw yeh, the former fat-boy is weighing in at a svelte 290, not bad for a 6’7″ frame.  And to think he did it all with one simple change.  Just think of what that might mean for you or your kids!

Sabathia, the Yankees ace, weighed in at a whopping 315 lbs last season, when he was knocking down a full box of Cap’n Crunch every day!  Each box of Cap’n Crunch has 12.59 servings, each serving has 12 grams of sugar, making a box of the sugary cereal contain a total of 151 grams of sugar.  Further, the nutritional info on the box lists the number of calories at 217 per double serving.  Therefore, a full box of Cap’n Crunch contains 1,366 calories.  Dang!

To put this into perspective, a soda (Coke, let’s say) contains 40 grams of sugar and 150 calories per 12 oz. can.  More perspective: one teaspoon of sugar equals about six grams; therefore, a can of soda has about seven teaspoons of sugar (see video below**).  Even more perspective: Most sugar packets found in the U.S. have approximately 4 grams of sugar, thus a can of soda contains ten packets of sugar (U.S.).

Now back to Sabathia.  His one full box of Cap’n Crunch a day gave him a sugar equivalent of drinking 4 sodas, 25 teaspoons of sugar, or 38 sugar packets.  Nice, CC…nice.

*A report released in 2009 by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale gave Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries the worst nutritional score of any cereal marketed to children and families. ~ from Wikipedia

How about your kids?  Do they eat Cap’n Crunch?  Fruit Loops?  Frosted Flakes?  Do they drink soda?  These cereals and soft drinks have been staples in the American diet for the last fifty years, and it’s not because people aren’t consuming them.  It’s not just 6’7″ professional athletes eating this junk, either.  It’s little Timmy, and little Rainflower, and maybe even you.

Listen, next time you’re thinking about feeding Junior the Cap’n Crunch, why not just give him a Snickers bar?  Same amount of sugar as in a two-serving bowl of the Crunch.  And is it any wonder we are in the midst of an obesity (and diabetes) epidemic?

**Please watch the video below to get great perspective on the amount of sugar contained in a soda:

Americans to Blame for Poor Heart Health

By On · Add Comment · In Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), exercise, heart risk, high blood pressure, lifestyle behaviors, smoking, sugar

Flash, this just in: Only 10% of American adults have low heart disease risk. You heard right, nine out of every 10 people in the U.S. have at least one risk to their heart health; and the worst part is that these risks are all lifestyle dependent. Not good for a nation bent on pointing the finger at external causes for its poor health rankings.

According to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that looked at four national studies covering tens of thousands of Americans aged 25 to 74, only ten percent had low risk in the following categories:

  • high blood pressure
  • high cholesterol
  • high blood sugar
  • overweight
  • smoking
  • exercise too little

Each one of these categories is significantly impacted by lifestyle behaviors. High blood pressure, cholesterol and weight can all be controlled with regular and moderate exercise. Regular. Three times per week, minimum. Are you doing that?

High blood sugar and weight is directly related to the amount and types of food we eat. The U.S. has a morbid addiction to sugar. I’m not talking just desserts here–oh, we’ve got that too, but what I’m talking about is sugary regular foods: cereals, canned foods, ketchup, BBQ sauce, French toast, scones and muffins for breakfast, and the worst of all–sodas! Hey I’m guilty too, because I have recommended sports replacement bars to my readers. No more! That stuff is sugary shit. I don’t eat them, and I’m not going to recommend them to anyone else, anymore. Pure crap.

And the portions we eat are obscene. We all put away way too much every time we eat out. Sorry, but them’s the facts. Too much food.

And smoking? Like my good friend J.C. says, “Smoke ’em if you got ’em.” But just don’t point the finger at anyone but yourself when it’s time to pay the piper.

This is what really gets me irked about people: A full 90% of citizens are not doing all they can to care for their health, yet somehow it’s somebody else responsibility to take care of them if they fall ill. Sorry, but nobody can do your push-ups for you, no matter how much you demand it.

Bout Time

By On · Add Comment · In aspartame, calories, diet soda, health reform, lifestyle behaviors, obesity, soda, sugar
Finally, a useful suggestion for health reform–tax sodas! Well, by golly…I think they’ve got something there: Tax the nutritionally inert liquid sugar that Americans are severely addicted to, and yes, a solution. One solution. Small solution. But a great start.

Here are the facts. Sodas are the number one consumed beverage in the United States. They contain about 100 calories and ten teaspoons of sugar. Diet sodas add their own twist. While having zero calories, a large study conducted at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio showed that people who drink diet soda regularly are 41% more likely than regular soda drinkers to become obese. What??? You heard right, the zero calorie drink actually makes people more susceptible to obesity; and it’s because of aspartame, the artificial sweetener, that people pack on the pounds.

According to researchers, aspartame fools the body into thinking it will be receiving sugar–an energy source–but that sugar never comes; so the body is left wanting. What happens next is that our diet soda drinkers reach for something to satisfy that sugar urge, and they overindulge. Not convinced? Then ask yourself why the discrepancy in physicality. Why are diet soda drinkers anything but emaciated? Hmmmmm….

Since soda–diet or regular–is garbage, and it’s contributing enormously to the obesity problem (and consequently, outrageous health care costs), then why not tax it? We tax tobacco, alcohol, and mary jane (oh yeah, not yet), why not the simple syrup? Americans drink enough soda that a tax would generate an estimated “100 to 200 billion dollars over a 10-year time frame.” Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Listen, health care cost are significantly related to lifestyle behaviors. If you want to socialize health care, then don’t just punish everybody across the board; tax those most negligent. Tax the smokers (I’ll pay my share), the boozers, and the junk food junkies. My position has always been, “Don’t just single out the fast food restaurants; nail the soda manufacturers too.” That’s fair–and accurate. Bingo.

And I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they ever get how much the chronic pharmaceutical drug users cost us–you know, people who prophylactically or habitually take statins, antidepressants, or any other drug that doctors are pushing on the public like the sky’s the limit. Yeah, tax all those negligent people involved in making our system “broken”.

Popular Diet Shows Promise for Epilepsy

By On · Add Comment · In anti-convulsant drugs, Atkins Diet, calories, carbohydrates, diets, epileptics, John's Hopkins School of Medicine, low-carb diet, remedy, seizures, sugar, weight loss

Strange thing, diets. What’s touted as a cutting-edge weight loss remedy may actually have benefits extending beyond a slim trim. New reports show that a modified Atkins-like diet may actually decrease the amount of seizures suffered by epileptics. Very interesting, yes…

A study performed at the John’s Hopkins School of Medicine fed 30 epileptic subjects a diet restricted to 15 grams of carbohydrate a day. The rest of their calories came from fats such as eggs, meats, oils and heavy cream. In addition, the subjects were free to eat as much protein and no-carb drinks as they wanted. After one month on the diet, half of the subjects (15) experienced 50% less seizures. Remarkable!

Right now scientist are unsure of exactly what causes the reduction in seizures, but it is good news particularly for epileptics who respond poorly to anti-convulsant drugs. The subjects in the study all had unsuccessfully tried two medications in the past, and were having ten seizures per week on average. The low-carb diet has already been established as a valuable seizure control in children, but researchers wanted to see if the benefits extended to adults as well.

The one negative of the study is that only two-thirds of the participants stuck with the diet for longer than three months, finding it simply “too restrictive”. This is not surprising coming from a culture where carbohydrates make up a large portion of its calorie intake. Putting things into perspective, 15 grams of carbohydrate are:

  • one slice of bread
  • half a round pita bread
  • one small apple, pear, peach, plum, orange, or ½ banana, or ½ grapefruit
  • 2.5 ounces of peanuts (approximately a package)
  • 3 cups of popcorn

And they could only have one of the above…per day! I know, I know–to prevent seizures most everybody would say they’d do anything. But if you’ve never tried to eat that little carbohydrate, you don’t know how hard it can be. Without a doubt, it’s still way worth the effort; but I’m sympathizing anyway–I’ve changed enough habits to understand the challenge. I guess it just comes down to prioritizing one’s values.

I think the most important thing we can all pull out of this is to remind ourselves how carbohydrate-heavy (read: sugar) our western diet is. If you want to get the most from your health, start cutting down the carbs and sugar now, while you’re still healthy. And definitely don’t start the habit with your children. These eating patterns are learned behaviors; they can certainly be unlearned, but much easier to not learn them in the first place. We all need carbs, no doubt; but we definitely don’t need them to the excess that many of us consume. So be smart–chill on the carbs a bit; you’ll do wonders for your health as a result.

November Fitness Update

By On · Add Comment · In body fat, sugar, vitamins, working out, yoga

It’s been three months and I’ve stayed true to my commitment…well, pretty much. I’ve been taking vitamins–B, C, D, magnesium, some calcium, essential fatty acids, and alpha lipoic acid. I’ve been taking acidophilus every day; and I’ve done chlorophyll for a week once, and five days of apple cider vinegar. The biggest thing I’ve done recently, though, is quit eating sugar (November 8th was my last day). I didn’t stop eating carbs altogether, but when one cuts out refined sugar, the overall carb intake generally goes down. All I can say is WOW! It’s been just incredible. I started feeling different almost immediately. My appetite actually went up at first, but then normalized. My energy went up immediately, but then dropped. Then I felt crappy–withdrawal like symptoms. Now I feel better. I started craving sugar within a few days but practiced “mega-discipline”, and not only have the cravings diminished but I feel sort of empowered by the discipline part. Now I don’t want sugar, cuz it’s my thing. Snicker.

I’ve been working out regularly–gym two to three days per week, yoga every day, Runyon Canyon about once a week. Yoga has been great. It has really opened up some areas in my hips that were hurtin‘–hip flexors and quadriceps, mainly. Mostly I’ve been working on my posture by standing against the wall squeezing blocks between my legs–very powerful stuff. No handstands–none, nada, nunca–and I haven’t run Runyon, except that one time. Sigh.

But wait! Weight is down to 160. Woohoo! Haven’t had the ol‘ body fat recalculated, but I will before the year ends. I think the weight has more to do with cutting out the sugar than with anything else.

Getting sleep, but…running my ass ragged while awake, so I guess I’m balanced.

That’s it. One more month of reporting and we’ll see what I’ve accomplished with all of this. Woof.

Copyright © 2013 Dr. Nick Campos - All Rights Reserved.