Thursday, February 28, 2013

Marion Nestle's take on sugar, from her blog Food Politics

Here’s another one of those occasional queries from Kerry Trueman.  This one, posted at Huffington, is about FDA regulations for labeling sugars.
Trueman: I’ve just begun to sink my teeth into Michael Moss’s extraordinary food industry exposé, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, a book you’ve rightly lauded as a “breathtaking feat of reporting.” As Moss points out, the FDA is happy to give us guidelines on how much salt and fat to include in our daily diets, but–as a glance at any nutritional label shows–they’ve declined to make any recommendation at all about sugar.
Does this mean that:
(a) It’s OK to eat as much sugar as you like, or:
(b) There may be an unsafe level of sugar consumption, but the FDA just doesn’t have the resources to figure out what that level is, or:
(c) The FDA knows how much sugar we can eat without harming our health, but the food industry won’t let them tell us.
How is the average American supposed to interpret this absence of information?
Nestle: Whoa. Slow down. Let’s back up a minute. The FDA sets nutritional standards for food labels, but the Institute of Medicine (IOM) sets nutritional standards for dietary intake. To understand what’s happening with the FDA and food labels, we have to talk about what the IOM used to call the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) but now calls Dietary Reference Intakes (which, confusingly, include RDAs and other standards, such as Upper Limits).
In 2002, the IOM set standards for total carbohydrates–sugars and starches (which are converted to sugars in the body). In its review of the evidence, the IOM set the RDA for total carbohydrates at 130 grams a day (roughly 4 ounces) to meet the needs of the brain for fuel. This amount is much less than typically consumed by adults.
As for sugars, the IOM noted that the average intake of sugars among adolescent males was 143 grams per day, and that the heaviest users were consuming 208 grams per day–much more than the amount of total carbohydrate needed.
Since sugars are not required nutrients, the IOM could not set an RDA. And although it did not have enough evidence to set an Upper Limit, the IOM suggested that the maximum level of intake of added sugars (as opposed to those naturally present in foods) should be a whopping 25% or less of calories.
Americans typically consume around 20% of calories from added sugars. Taken at face value, the IOM suggestion made it sound as if current intake levels were just fine. The sugar industry happily viewed 25% as a recommendation, not a maximum.
Before the sugar industry got after them, many countries recommended an upper level of sugar intake at 10% of calories. That’s what the U.S. Pyramid did in 1992.
The sugar industry does not like the 10% recommendation. It means, for example, that just one of Mayor Bloomberg’s 16-ounce sodas takes care of recommended sugar intake for the day.
Robert Lustig, who is largely concerned about what too much fructose does to us, thinks that 50 grams of sugar (sucrose or HFCS) is a reasonable Upper Limit for most people. This would provide 25 grams of fructose, which the body can handle with relative ease. What’s interesting about his

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Don't work out every day

As I have written in other posts, it is important to rest your muscles, especially major ones, for a day after you work them out. Other muscles, such as abdominal muscles, are used all of the time, so it is important to rest several days a week. Working out four days a week or every other day is ideal. Consult your personal trainer. Write a comment and I can consult you over the Internet for a fee.

It is also good mentally to give it a rest. If you love a certain food or the movies, you don't eat it or go every day. Your body's metabolism will be sped up from working out. How much partially depends on your genetics. But if you work out every day, your metabolism will plateau. Your body will get used to it. So "trick" your body and achieve better results by giving it a rest.

Here is a recent New York Times article on this topic:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/why-four-workouts-a-week-may-be-better-than-six/?ref=health

Monday, February 11, 2013

Should you exercise if you have the cold or flu?

Here is a post from Reuters: http://blouinnews.com/node/47623

According to experts, if you have a fever or pain, take it easy, so as not to elevate your temperature. But if you have a cold or slight flu, it's okay to work out.