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<p>If you live in the right area, it is relatively easy to avoid HFCS. Where I live there are a lot of ethnic stores and most everything in them is made with real sugar because it’s imported from other countries where HFCS is rarely used. I also find things like candy bars are much smaller, and cheaper, than the US versions.</p>
<p>I am sitting in a hotel room and waiting for breakfast to be served downstairs. I am hungry because I have been flying for the last 24 + hours and have only eaten things that were fresh or fish. There will be something downstairs in the breakfast room I am sure and then I will get on another flight. I would have ordered some room service last night but the menus from the five restaurants I was given at the desk seemed to consist of junk food. How about an “onion ring tower” or award winning “Peking zing chicken wings.” How about a tostada salad! I love America!</p>
<p>My sympathies, Overseas. One of the wonderful things about living in a motorhome is that the problem you’re faced with right now never comes up. Nothing with HFCS is allowed in our “house,” nor are transfats and a few other substances we’ve decided we could live without. No matter where we travel, then, we have access to good food.</p>
<p>Colby College, by the way (where we are now for a summer program), does a fine job of providing vegetarian and unprocessed choices. They’re a little short on whole grains and cooked veg sometimes–and someone in the kitchen seems to believe that converted white rice requires no further cooking, but you can certainly eat reasonably well in the dining halls here if you try.</p>
<p>An extra 30 pounds can certainly take one from “normal” to “overweight” and even to “obese” on the BMI calculators. Female, 5’3’’ 140 pounds = BMI of 24.8= “normal”. Female 5’3’ 170 pounds = BMI of 30.1 = “obese.” Source: CDC.</p>
<p>Avoiding products containing HFCS is easier than you might think (at least if you live in a metropolitan area). Shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joes or even some regular supermarkets that have “health food” aisles. (Regular old oatmeal is a good choice for breakfast). Yes, you must check the contents of everything, but there are many, many products that do not contain HFCS. Avoid all processed, pre-packaged meals, pack your own lunch and eat dinner at home as much as possible.</p>
<p>It DOES require effort and commitment, but once you get into the habit, it becomes reflexive. (Admittedly, dining while travelling can be a challenge, but order only grilled meats and fresh vegetables if they are offered).</p>
<p>If you look into the Restricted Calorie Diet world, you’ll find people who are essentially obsessed with two things…food and immortality. There may be solid science behind the idea that you’d be healthier and live longer by severely restricting intake but what a way to live – counting every gram of food, weighing every bite, knowing the calorie count of everything and the taste of nothing. I’ve also seen photos of people who have lived this way for a long time and they don’t look so good – no fat beneath the skin so it hangs from the bones, every bone showing like an anatomical specimen. I think we must all find a happy medium, some scale between obsession and obesity, which varies for each person. </p>
<p>One good thing to emerge from it, though, is the growing prevalence of a product known as Quorn. It is essentially protein grown in a vat – from some form of mushroom. It gives the same necessary protein as meat but without the associated environmental ills. It’s been available in Britain for years and is now breaking into Middle America. It’s about like a chicken nugget but can be dressed up in a variety of ways. One day, perhaps soon, you won’t be able to tell whether you are cutting into premium beef or a slab of mycoprotein. It will look and taste the same.</p>
<p>Good post #171, Garland.</p>
<p>As Americans we have chosen (or been sucked into) very unhealthy living patterns. In my town, we have NO sidewalks. I moved here from an urban neighborhood and didn’t even really think about it - until our first attempt to go for a walk. 
</p>
<p>We are also a sprawl town, and the traffic is far worse now than it even was back when we first moved here. To get anywhere, you have to walk out on one of the main drags - and it is frightening and unpleasant (ha - stepping over dead deer). Being far too lazy to move, I put my dogs in the car everyday to drive 1/4 mile down the road to the park for our walk.</p>
<p>However, this is a town where our 5% of top kid athletes have nothing but the best - artificial turf, huge field houses, indoor ice rinks, gigantic swimming pools, you name it. But for the other 95% of the residents - squat. I can just hear the grumbling if somebody tried to pass a bond for sidewalks. But somehow, when we get hit with HUGE bonds for athletic facilities and new school buses - well, “It’s for the kids.”</p>
<p>Our kids get bused to school even if they live across the street. The bus stops at EVERY kid’s driveway - even for high schoolers. Off rolls this 50 lbs. overweight teen who saunters up to his door 20 feet away. He could have used the walk home!</p>
<p>We’ve skimmed off our top child athletes - they are completely missing in our neighborhoods as they are up at their professional fields practicing 24/7. So there are no kids left to go ringing doorbells, demanding that even the least fit kid get out there and cover the outfield (or whatever).</p>
<p>I can barely stand to eat in restaurants anymore - and I will not eat in any chains unless desperate on-the-road. The portions are so huge. Why??? I’d love to be able to eat all the courses of a meal, and not feel disgusting afterwards. It is possible! They do it in Europe!</p>
<p>Let’s face it, HFCS aside (or not), we eat too much and we move too little and it’s killing us.</p>
<p>This is a great article that was written in AARP, “Eat More, Stay Thin.” While it mentions genetics and metabolism are factors, it also states than people who are thin learned good habits about eating and exercise, and have practiced those habits over years (without ever starving themselves).
<a href=“AARP The Magazine - Feel Great. Save Money. Have Fun.”>AARP The Magazine - Feel Great. Save Money. Have Fun.;
<p>The whole deal with HFCS is somewhat silly also, in my opinion. It is very very easy to avoid anything with HFCS, if that’s the issue. As stated before, with some effort (and it is time-consuming and does take effort-- in this country), you can eat healthy.</p>
<p>In our city, more and more people–especially young people who have great careers-- have started moving back into the downtown areas. When they did, the demand went up for all the things that make living in a viable (and walkable) city so wonderful. </p>
<p>Weenie also makes some excellent points above. People do have choices in how they want to live.</p>
<p>From post #108:</p>
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<p>I apologize for bringing up a sore subject, but I have been grappling with this statement since I read it two days ago, (including at 2a.m. last night during my usual sleepless stretch of the night).</p>
<p>Could this really be true? It goes against any sort of rationale I can conjure. For example, I imagined an obese person, shipwrecked on a desert island, forced walk 10 miles a day to forage for a diet of fruit, nuts and fish. When that person is rescued a year later, will s/he still be obese?</p>
<p>Honestly, I’m not trying to be flippant in any way by asking this question. Perhaps there is a knowledgeable dietition or m.d. out there who could address this? Thanks.</p>
<p>“Let’s face it, HFCS aside (or not), we eat too much and we move too little and it’s killing us.”</p>
<p>First of all, and this is an aside, there are more corn-based products in food than HFCS. </p>
<p>The big question, however, is why (and all of a sudden) did we end up eating too much? In most cultures, during “down time” (time when less physical energy is expended), folks also downsize their calorie count. It isn’t a conscious process. It just happens. The body sends signals, or more accurately, the brain’s executive function is such that signals between the limbic system and the frontal lobes are such that decisions are made to eat less. When that executive function is disrupted (as it is in alcohol and drug addiction), the brain’s pleasure centers require “feeding”, and often overcome conscious decisionmaking, and feelings of satiety are muted. (There are now good brain imaging studies of “pleasureable eating”, and in many ways they mimic NIDA’s brain images related to drug use.)</p>
<p>It is true that, going from half a pound of HFCS to 72 lbs a year and rising is a caloric boost in and of itself. (Just imagine taking a normal, non HFCS-laden diet, and pouring 4 ounces of Karo syrup over it daily - that’s what the “average” American has in fact done since Archer, Daniels, Midland did its thing.) But, none of this explains why people would “choose” to do so? (and why, when HFCS products invade other cultures, precisely the same thing takes place, and in very short order), and why they would find it so difficult to stop?</p>
<p>Now, mind you, not everyone is obese, and not everyone has a genetic predisposition toward it, and not everyone eats 72 lbs. of HFCS a year (some folks eat much, much more than that.) But we now know that if we want to understand what is going on in so many areas of our life, a good place to start is neurobiology. And to me, it is downright silly to dismiss it cavalierly.</p>
<p>Bay: if you starve someone, they will surely lose weight. However, they will also lose health, muscle tone, and general fitness. Is that your goal? I thought we were talking about healthy weight loss here, not simple skinniness. </p>
<p>In your example, the starved person might well gain all of the weight and then some back when s/he returned to civilization. </p>
<p>Have you read about the traditional pre-Captain Cook Hawaiian culture, which is essentially what you describe? Those Hawaiians were BIG then and they’re BIG now.</p>
<p>Also, the person on the desert island may not have been subjected to years of dieting. My mom made me start dieting at four years old (when I was perhaps 10 pounds away from the perfect skinny kid she wanted) and each time I lost weight I also lost muscle mass. Therefore, my body repeatedly was robbed of its “fat burning” function. Without muscle, the body can’t burn food. Each dieting adventure makes the problem worse for a person with a strong genetic propensity.</p>
<p>BTW, an overweight friend of mine has “slimmer’s syndrome.” Apparently, the last time she lost weight she lost too fast and stripped all the fat from a vital nerve. Now each step is agony. What will happen to her weight now?</p>
<p>Bay: I know you are being sincere, and I have no problem with your sincere and logical question. It’s just that people with basically functioning metabolisms can’t understand how different the situation is for those whose bodies really don’t work in this area. Dieting? Couinterproduction. Exercise? Of course wonderful but neer impossible in my case because of exercise induced asthma. (Again, my body doesn’t work because respiratory system behaves in the opposite way it should under stimulation of exercise.) To really control my asthma I’d need daily doses of prednisone pills. Guess what that does to weight and muscle mass. To basically control it, I inhale steroids every day – guess what they do?</p>
<p>Yes, my situation is extreme, but not unique. I have known many obese women, and each had a story very similar to mine. Everyone has certainly tried the diet/exercise strategy. Many have lost 100 lbs. only to regain it when the let-up on their regimens at all. None just said oh well and ate a dozen donuts.</p>
<p>BTW: Through NEVER eating anything I wasn’t supposed to, I managed to keep my weight within 20 - 25 lbs. of what is was meant to be until I was thirty-eight when my second child, my son, was born. Since then, my body resists every attempt I make. Should I have not had him, my darling son whom I adore, who is going off to Williams in September? If I’d had a crystal ball should I have stopped at one child while my body still responded to my attempts to regulate its weight? Bay: What do you think? I ask you because I do recognize your good intentions, not to single you out.</p>
<p>I liked this quote from Al Gore’s movie: It’s not what we don’t know, but what we don’t know that we think we do that will destroy us.</p>
<p>So I’m sure many of you do “know” that all one has to do is diet and exercise to maintain weight. Since this works for you, I can only be envious. But you are wrong if you “know” that that is all I would have to do.</p>
<p>dmd,</p>
<p>I was not imagining starvation, rather a diet of fruit, nuts and fish which would be quite healthful and walking 10 miles per day which would provide much fitness.</p>
<p>I grew up in Hawaii, and anecdotally, I don’t remember thinking the Hawaiians were big people either then (the 1970s) or in historic drawings of them. But I could be wrong about that, I guess.</p>
<p>I just read this article and thought it may interesting to some people here: <a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19845784/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19845784/</a></p>
<p>I don’t think it gives much detail, but 75% of Americans becoming overweight by 2015 is a pretty huge number, if it holds any truth to it at all.</p>
<p>I was happy to read this one though: <a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19856501/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19856501/</a></p>
<p>I think so many children are being taught horrible eating habits at home, and since they spend most of their time at school its good to try and enforce some good ones. At the very least expose them to some new healthy foods. As a vegan, the only option available to me in my HS cafeteria was fries. I couldn’t even have a salad because there was cheese already mixed in.</p>
<p>Over the next 10 years, there will <em>always</em> be a ‘bestselling’ diet book.</p>
<p>Today on the NY Times List…</p>
<p>“21 POUNDS IN 21 DAYS, by Roni DeLuz with James Hester. (Collins, $24.95.) A detox diet from the owner of the Marthas Vineyard Holistic Retreat.”</p>
<p>“THE BEST LIFE DIET, by Bob Greene. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) The author of Total Body Makeover offers a lifelong plan for losing weight.”</p>
<p>“THE WEIGHT LOSS CURE “THEY” DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, by Kevin Trudeau (Alliance)”</p>
<p>“THE 5-FACTOR DIET, by Harley Pasternak with Myatt Murphy (Meredith)”</p>
<p>However, I wouldn’t mind 21 days in Martha’s Vineyard. No wonder it is currently #1.</p>
<p>Your Health
The Drinking Man’s Diet
Alan Farnham </p>
<p>"Did you ever hear of a diet which was fun to follow? A diet which would let you have two martinis before lunch, and a thick steak generously spread with Sauce B</p>
<p>Re: mythmom post #192</p>
<p>Thank you mythmom for another intelligent (and sensitive!) post. I hope that you (and everyone else who’s struggling with their weight/health/life) are having a good day.</p>
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<p>Sure, weight loss is a huge business. One reason why is that weight loss has many features in common with religion:</p>
<p>The topic is emotional.
The end product is intangible.
And the potential profits are considerable.</p>
<p>Which is why both religion and weight loss have been fertile fields for amateurs with a New Theory, hucksters out make a buck, and zealots who are incapable of listening to reason.</p>
<p>mini: With regard to your comments about HFCS . . . while I can believe that the consumption of HFCS contributes to obesity, and I understand that HFCS may work in some way that fails to tell the body or brain that it’s “full,” the truth is that HFCS is mostly found in pre-packaged foods. </p>
<p>That’s the “choice” we can make, certainly with regard to HFCS. Knowing where you food comes from, what’s in it, how it’s grown and raised, and creating home-cooked meals from scratch-- which admittedly will take more time, effort, and money-- will help one eliminate HFCS (if that’s the problem, as you say) and ultimately eat healthier. Despite what you think, that most definitely is a “choice.” You also complain about table salt having sugar in it. Well, for those people who eat table salt, how difficult is it to buy a big carton of Morton’s salt, or sea salt, take it home, and pour it into your table salt shaker? Better yet, don’t eat the salt at all, and season your food with herbs. Grow your own. Even if you live in a condo with no yard, you can grow herbs in containers. These are, in fact, choices one can make. I don’t know about losing weight, but doing some of these things would certainly be healthier choices. No one is forcing anyone to buy pre-packaged foods laced with HFCS. As people demand healthy alternatives, and simply don’t buy this stuff, those alternatives will become more easily available.</p>
<p>The point I was most interested in making regarding dieting is that they don’t work (I’ll pass on religion). They also seem to be getting nuttier and nuttier. I actually looked at the 21 pounds in 21 days on Amazon, and stopped reading the reviews when they mentioned coffee colonics. Ewwww.</p>
<p>If they worked, we could have stopped with the drinking man’s diet, which seems prudent and moderate by comparison.</p>
<p>Or consider:</p>
<p>"William Banting might be the most important 19th-century London coffin-maker that nobody’s ever heard of. In 1862, he was a mess: sick, unhappy and so fat that he had to heave his way downstairs facing backward. He could not tie his shoes without the aid of boot hooks. He tried everything to shed the weight: taking “the waters and climate of Leamington many times,” consulting the best doctors in England (including one who, cryptically, tried to “blister” his ears), and even vigorously rowing “a good, heavy, safe boat” for two hours a day. But he could never manage to lose more than 6 pounds. Finally, desperate, he found a doctor who advised him to abstain from foods containing starch or “saccharine matter”: bread, butter, milk, sugar, beer and potatoes.</p>
<p>After a year on this proto-Atkins diet, Banting had reduced his weight to 156 pounds. He was so delighted with himself that he wrote and published a pamphlet on his methods, declaring that “I hold the reins of health and comfort in my own hands … It is simply miraculous.” His “Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public” was snatched up by readers eager to find their own miracle, and for the next 50 years or so, “banting” actually became a household word for dieting."</p>