Poisonous Fruit

Well now way back in the Bible

Temptations always come along

There's always somebody tempting

Somebody into doing something they know is wrong

They say Eve tempted Adam with an apple

But man I ain't going for that 

                    Bruce Springsteen 1984

 

Fruit is Sugar Corn Pops.  When I was a kid watching the Saturday morning cartoons, it seemed like every commercial for the sweet cereals would say they were “fortified with 10 essential vitamins".  I was only about 6 or 7, but even I knew that was a crock.  I knew that stuff was bad for you; that's why my mom told me to eat my vegetables and not to "eat your Sugar Corn Pops and Peanut Butter Captain Crunch”.

 

         The difference is fruit is horrible for you, but no one seems to have figured this out.  All the focus has been on the good things that fruit has in it, like antioxidants and vitamins.  While this is true, that is far outweighed by the fact that fruit is sky high in sugars and carbohydrates.  Basically, you’re going to get fat loading up on fruit, and then you’ll have far greater problems than whether you get enough antioxidants in your system.

         The numbers aren't pretty.  A banana will cost you about 30 carbs, a pear 25, an apple 20.  The carbs are almost all sugar.  If juice is your thing, it raises your blood sugar even faster than the same solid food does (please don't ask me the science on why).  I can't think of a faster way to get sugar in your blood stream, unless you want to go Breaking Bad and inject it.

         Somehow fruit and vegetables have gotten lumped in together in the national consciousness, as if both are equally healthy.  If I could point to one major factor as to why we have an obesity and diabetes epidemic in this country, it would be this.  People are starting out their mornings downing almost 100 carbs, feeling physically great for about 30 minutes because they're on a sugar high, and feeling psychologically great because they think they just ate a healthy breakfast.  Let's keep this simple: vegetables are great for you and most of them are low-carb, while fruit is the opposite. 

         Someone told me that the Weight Watchers meal plan calls for an unlimited amount of fruit.  If this is true, you're going to have a lot of fat dieters.  Let's keep this simple part two: all sugars spike your blood sugar and are bad for you, whether fruit sugar, cane sugar, etc.  Until people start understanding the difference between fruit and vegetables, our health problems in this country will continue to get worse.

         Have a good night everyone.

         JR

The Only Diet That Works

In touch with the ground
I'm on the hunt I'm after you
Smell like I sound I'm lost in a crowd.
And I'm hungry like the wolf.
Straddle the line in discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt I'm after you.
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I'm hungry like the wolf

           Duran Duran 1982

I can't seem to get away from thoughts of food. I grew up in a household where my parents ate healthy and exercised consistently. When I got older I dialed that up a few obsessive levels, working out like a fiend and maybe eating a little too clean. And then I married a professional dietitian. What can you do?

Between the lifestyle and reading a ton on the subject the last 30 years, I've come to a few conclusions. The most important one is that for weight loss, nothing works except low carbs. The good news is that makes it simple, because you can ignore all the other indicators, like fat, calories, etc. The bad news is it’s not an easy diet; I like eating dead animal as much as the next guy, but what I really want is pizza, ice cream, and as much kid’s birthday cake as I can get my hands on.

          The science is pretty simple. When you eat carbohydrates your blood sugar spikes, and insulin is produced to lower the sugar levels. The insulin converts into fat in your body. The evidence is overwhelming that as our carbohydrate/sugar level has increased, obesity has skyrocketed.  Diabetes was virtually nonexistent 100 years ago, prior to the prevalence of processed carb-loaded foods and the increase in sugar consumption.  Even mainstream dieticians, with whom I have very little nice things to say about, are starting to push a slightly less carb dominated diet.

          When the Atkins craze caught fire in the 90s, I thought this was the one diet that would stick because, well, it works. It didn't and I think there are three main reasons for this. 1^st, as I said before, carbs, especially the sweet ones, just taste better than protein. 2^nd, the diet is totally counterintuitive to most people. It logically make sense that if you lower your intake of fat you will be less fat, and if you eat foods high in fat you will get fat, right? Except for the fact that it's not true.

Lastly, people misunderstood the diet. They just assumed that it required a permanent state of not eating any carbs, when it really called for a very short period of no carbs and a permanent state of reduced carbs. Not eating any carbohydratess for long stretches is impossible. If you want to see something funny, watch a bodybuilder right before a contest, after they've done three days of what they call “carb depleting”. They're basically incoherent. Please don't ask me how I know this.

          Why does reducing the consumption of carbs drop the pounds? Who knows? The most logical answer that I've heard is that early humans were hunter/gatherers, spending their time eating protein-rich animals and fish that they killed. Evolution took care of the rest, and over time this diet became the most efficient one. Whatever the reason, it works.

          Have a good night everyone. I'm gonna go grab a steak.

           JR