Important documentary coming soon

I was just made aware, last evening, of this new, as I said, important documentary that's coming out soon on the American diet and how sugar, especially, is so prevalent and dangerous in our nation and society:



I look forward to it.

Upcoming documentary

Remember, 3/4 of the grocery store is utterly unnecessary. Vegetables, some meat and/or fish--if you eat it--some pasta(s) and the freshest breads you can get, either at home or the store. After that, a few condiments--maybe--some seasoning(s) and everything with as little sugar, if any at all, and as few ingredients as possible. Nothing processed. It's easy. Easier than it sounds, too. It's great for your health, great for your wasteline, far less expensive, potentially, simple and you'll feel terrific. Take back your food. Take back your body. Take back your life.

"Wanna' grab a Coke?"

Thanks and a hat tip to Matt Payton's Tumble-O-Rama.

According to the Nutrition Research Center, this is what happens to your body within one hour of drinking a can of soda:

-10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system, which is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake. You'd normally vomit from such an intake, but the phosphoric acid cuts the flavor.

-20 minutes: Your blood sugar skyrockets. Your pancreas attempts to maximize insulin production in order to turn high levels of sugar into fat.

-40 minutes: As your body finishes absorbing the caffeine, your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your liver pumps more sugar into the bloodstream. Adenosine receptors in your brain are blocked preventing you from feeling how tired you may actually be.

-45 minutes: Your body increases dopamine production, causing you to feel pleasure and adding to the addictiveness of the beverage. This physical neuro response works the same way as it would if we were consuming heroin.

-60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, which boosts your metabolism a bit further. High doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners compound this effect, increasing the urinary excretion of calcium. The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (You have to GO!) Your body will eliminate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was otherwise heading to your bones. And you will also flush out the sodium, electrolytes and water. Your body has eliminated the water that was in the soda. And in the process it was infused with nutrients and minerals your body would have otherwise used to hydrate your system or build body cells, bones, teeth.

-60 minutes: The sugar crash begins. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You start feeling like crap. Time to grab another? 

And we drink this why?

And we let our children drink this crap why?


In answer to the question, above, "How soon is too soon?"


How does not at all sound?

Links: http://mattpayton.tumblr.com/post/5013993559

 http://www.drmomma.org/2008/01/your-body-within-1-hour-of-drinking.html   

Nice change of pace

I'm always pleasantly surprised when I read or am exposed to a column by Geoge Will and find that he and I agree on a subject.

Such was the case a week ago this past Saturday when he wrote of Americans, our diets and our exposure to corn, corn subsidies, corn syrup, meat in our diets and obesity in the United States. Even the title screamed agreement to me: "BAD HEALTH BUILT INTO OUR CORN-FED FOOD SYSTEM". (The capitalization was theirs).

He gave some terrific history about us, I think. For instance, he quotes Michael Pollan (no pun intended), author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and in Defense of Food. Mr. Pollan, he writes, "says that after World War II, the government had a surplus of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient of explosives--and fertilizer. Furthermore, pesticides could be made from ingredients of poison gases. Since 1945, the food supply has increased fster than America's population--faster even than Americans can increase their feasting."

Seriously, fascinating stuff.

People either don't know why we're so dang fat or they wonder why we are. The fact is, it has a great deal to do with farms, farming and corporations.

President Eisenhower warned us, for sure.

More:

--Did you know three in five Americans are overweight?

--one in five os us are out and out obese?

"Dureing World War II, when meat, dairy products and sugar were scarce, heart disease plummeted. It rebounded when ratioinng ended."

That's pretty incdredible right there.

"When you adjust for age...rates of chronic diseases like cancer and type 2 diabetes are considerably higher today than they were in 1900."

Yow. That's pretty indicting stuff.

My sister has been claiming for years, along with others, that if we ate better and smarter, we wouldn't have to pay millions and billions of dollars to treat and try to cure cancer. She's not alone, by a long shot. There are medical people who have been claiming this for years, too. It seems the data makes this clear and not really debatable, doesn't it?

Still more from Mr. Will's column: "Four of the top causes of American deaths--coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer--'have well-established links' to diet, particularly through the superabundance of cheap calories of sugar and fat,' Pollan says."

So why put this down now?

First, because Mr. Will wrote of it just this past week.

Second, to spread the information.

And third and finally, because I am, just now going to board a cruise ship out of Miami and if I've heard anything about cruising, it's that there is mass quantities of food, all over the ship, virtually non-stop.

This gives me more desire to tone it all down, in the first place, and maybe evaluate the consumption, casually, while I'm enjoying myself.

Bon appetit'.