posted April 12, 2006 10:13 PM            

Thanks for the great post. I agree that low GI foods are best. I tend to eat a lot of pasta and processed foods (which isn't good), but I also love fruits and vegetables (which are good).

You mentioned not skipping breakfast. I have not eaten breakfast regularly for the past decade.

I eat meals in the following fashion:

1-2 pm: Lunch
4 pm: Light snack
5-6 pm: Dinner (sometimes at 7-8 pm if I'm busy)

I try to break my eating down into 500 calorie per meal regimens. I reason that to maintain my body weight of 119 lbs (5 foot 2 frame), I need to eat approximately 1500 calories per day based upon my less than active lifestyle (I do exercise roughly 2-3 hours per week, however).

By this July -- my 30th birthday -- I want to switch my diet completely to either a Mediterranean diet rich in fish, seafood and bread, or an Asian diet rich in fish, rice and soy-based foods (tofu/soybeans).

For drinks I want to only consume green tea, water, orange juice and milk.

I don't know of any store in my town (Phoenix, AZ) that sells Fructose-free orange juice. Know of any?

Paul

------------------
Few cats act their age, while
most just cough up furballs.

posted April 12, 2006 10:47 PM            

>> You mentioned not skipping breakfast.
>> I have not eaten breakfast regularly for the past decade.

Neither did I -- big mistake. Your body has been starving all night, then you need to get up and moving. It needs fuel.

Personally (and I am doing a lot of exercise so tread carefully here) I am having a slow-release protein supplement drink just before going to bed so that there is food for my muscles overnight. But you can only do this if you really, honestly, moved a lot of weight during the day, otherwise you can put on weight.

>> I try to break my eating down into 500 calorie per meal regimens.

Whatever level of caloric intake you need, try to break it down into more meals. I know it can be a right royal pain, but it is worth it. The rule of thumb for me is that approximately the size of your palm is one portion -- that takes into account your size -- and you want one portion of low-GI carbs like vegetables, AND one portion of protein (meat, chicken or especially fish) at each of SIX meals per day. Some of my 'meals' are nothing more than a protein shake made with full-cream milk.

If you want to get more accurate (and you do NOT need to), you want to work out your lean body mass. Go to a gym or a doctor and have a skin fold test; they should be able to give you a single number that is your percentage of body fat. Let's work a fictional example with round numbers. Say you weigh 80 kg and are at 30% body fat. It follows that the rest is non-fat, or lean body mass. 100% - 30% is 70%, and 70% of 80 kg is 56 kg. That says that you have 56 kg of muscle, bone and water. To lose FAT and reduce BULK (not necessarily WEIGHT becuase you might add muscle mass), you need 2g of protein per kg of LEAN body mass per day. In this example, you would need to eat 112g of protein per day, or around 19g in each of six meals. This would be, close enough, to what would cover your palm <g>.

If you are more than 10% in total fat percentage over where you want to be, you should try to restrict your carb intake to below 40 g per day (again spread across the six meals). Otherwise, go with the one "portion" per meal. Women want to be around 22% and men around 19% body fat for good health.

>> By this July -- my 30th birthday -- I want to switch my diet
>> completely to either a Mediterranean diet rich in fish,
>> seafood and bread, or an Asian diet rich in fish, rice
>> and soy-based foods (tofu/soybeans).

Both can be healthy, but neither is necessary. Make sure that whatever you choose can be maintained indefinitely -- you have to enjoy it. Make sure you get enough calcium and omega-3 fatty acids, even if you have to take supplements to do so, although a balanced and varied diet is preferable.

>> For drinks I want to only consume green tea, water,
>> orange juice and milk.

I'd lay off the orange juice and eat the orange. One glass of orange juice will have all the calories and sugars of several oranges and very little or no fibre. Fruit juices in general are not a good idea -- you would be far better off eating the fruits themselves. And don't discount diet soft-drinks (I think you guys call them sodas?). Aspartame is NOT harmful, despite some urban myths. Of course, water is a must.

And make sure you have regular milk. Full-cream milk is only 4% fat, and lower in carbs than low-fat milk. And it tastes better too.

Caffiene, in moderation, is also good for you as it is a mild thermogenic -- your metabolism runs a bit faster, burning more calories. Like most things, the key word is moderation. Green tea is great (and I love it too) but if you enjoy coffee or black tea, go right ahead and have some. (By coffee, I mean real coffee, not the instant stuff, and NOT the decaf stuff either).

>> I don't know of any store in my town (Phoenix, AZ)
>> that sells Fructose-free orange juice. Know of any?

Sorry, no. I'm a LONG way from Arizona -- Melbourne, Australia to be exact.

-- Jim

posted April 12, 2006 11:03 PM            

How do you know this?

I read about the recent study. It is useless, no conclusion can be drawn from it.

Considering what Aspartame breaks down into, it stands to reason that large quantities of aspartame on an empty stomach is bad for you.

Anyway, diet soda-pop tastes like somebody put a chemical in it.

posted April 12, 2006 11:29 PM            

Over the course of 4 meals, this works out to 375 calories per meal for a total of 1500 per day.

The only fish I really like is tuna. A low-fat mayo with tuna and celery sounds good.

One fruit I am absolutely crazy for is Watermelon. I love watermelon and eat it in bulk whenever possible.

For veggies, I like carrots, green peas and yellow corn. Sometimes I will eat sweet yams.

My bread intake is almost exclusively wheat bread.

And, of course, I love peanut butter. Any low-fat, non-hydrogenated peanut butter supplement is desired the most. All the peanut butter on the store shelves at the local supermarket is fully hydrogenated with cotton oil.

I always try very hard to limit fast food intake to perhaps twice a month. I rarely eat hamburgers and usually go to Taco Bell when I do (rarely) go out for fast food.

On the Taco Bell menu I like the Beef-and-potato burrito and the 7-layer burrito. Sometimes I will order the Mexican Pizza meal with tacos when I am really famished.

In general, I value foods accordingly from highest (most valued) to lowest (least valued):

1. Potato foods (usually a mashed potato/instant potato).
2. Chicken or beef foods (almost exclusively ground beef products).
3. Tuna ("Chicken of the Sea" brand).
4. Bread (wheat bread; but sometimes regular rolls or even corn bread).
5. Basalmic Vinegar (I consume this with bread whenever possible).
5. Fruits (watermelon, mangos and oranges whenever possible; sometimes strawberries and occasionally grapes).
6. Veggies (carrots, green peas and yellow corn).
7. Sugar (any and all types).
8. Salt (mostly french fries).

The only problem with processed frozen foods is the relatively high sodium intake. Some frozen dinner meals contribute as much as 42-50% of the daily sodium intake for a single meal. This is clearly not good.

When I look at foods before I buy them, I look at the following (in order):

1. Calories (anything less than 200 calories per serving I put back on the shelf).

2. Fat (anything above 30 grams of fat per serving I also generally put back on the shelf).

3. Saturated Fat (anything above 10 grams of saturated fat I almost exlusively put back on the self).

4. Sodium (anything more than 40% of the daily value is generally shelved).

4. Protein (anything less than 3 grams per serving is generally not purchased).

5. Fiber (anything less than 1-2 grams per serving is generally not purchased).

6. Aspartame (anything with aspartame I generally avoid; I've heard very negative things about Aspartame, that it causes cancer, etc.).

7. Sugars (anything more than 10% of the daily value is generally left on the shelf).

Other things I look for are:

8. Vitamin A & C (if the product has both/either vitamins, it earns bonus points).

9. Calcium (calcium content must generally be above 2% for me to purchase the food).

10. Iron (must be above 4%).

An example of a food product I (unfortunately) eat from time to time is the frozen burrito. This is a practice I wish to quickly phase out of my regimen).

On the back label of a recently consumed Marquez burrito lists the following nutrients:

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size - 1 Burrito (142g)
Servings - 1

Calories 350
Fat Cal. 130

Total Fat 14g (22%)
Saturated Fat 5g (25%)
Trans Fat 0g (I highly doubt this; some foods are listed as "0g" when they really have > 0.5g)

Cholesterol 20mg (7%) (I generally shy away from any foods that list any cholesterol whatsoever; though the burrito is an exception)

Sodium 660mg (28%) (This is too much sodium for a single food item)

Total Carbohydrate 46g (15%)
Dietary Fiber 6g (24%)
Sugars 1g
Protein 11g

Vitamin A 8%
Vitamin C 2%
Calcium 4%
Iron 20%

And then we get to the actual ingredients inside the burrito itself:

Ingredients: Water, Beef, Pinto Beans. Contains less than 2% of: Onions, Flavorings, Beef Seasoning [Salt, Maltodextrin, Dextrose, Flavor (Beef Broth, Maltodextrin, Salt, Dextrose, Phosphoric Acid, Disodium Inosinate), Natural Flavor, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Beef Flavor, Nonflour, Dry Milk], Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Sugar, Textured Vegetable Protein Product (Soy Flour, Caramel Color, Zinc Oxide, Niacinamide, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Gluconate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Ed Note: some of these ingredients sound absolutely ridiculous!), Riboflavin, Cyanocobalamin), Salt, Modified Food Starch. Tortilla: Bleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil (is it just me, or do many of these ingredients repeat?), Corn Flour, Salt, Dough Conditioner (Whey, L-Cysteine Hydrochloride), Guar Gum (not really gum, right?), Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Corn Starch, Calcium Sulfate, Monocalcium Phosphate). Contains: Milk, Wheat, Soy.

(Windsor Frozen Foods Houston, TX 77098 - 1-800-548-6363)

Ok, that took about 20 minutes just to type in. Two observations:

1. Half of these ingredients sound like they either cause cancer or belong on the back of a bag of cat food.

2. Why does a burrito, which is simple to make, take so many 'hidden' ingredients nonetheless?

Paul

posted April 13, 2006 06:20 AM            

quote:

---

1. Potato foods (usually a mashed potato/instant potato).
2. Chicken or beef foods (almost exclusively ground beef products).
3. Tuna ("Chicken of the Sea" brand).
4. Bread (wheat bread; but sometimes regular rolls or even corn bread).
5. Balsamic Vinegar (I consume this with bread whenever possible).
5. Fruits (watermelon, mangos and oranges whenever possible; sometimes strawberries and occasionally grapes).
6. Veggies (carrots, green peas and yellow corn).
7. Sugar (any and all types).
8. Salt (mostly french fries).

---

Anything instant is probably not good. I'd keep away from potatoes
except maybe once a week. Try a baked sweet potato.
Hamburger isn't the best meat for you unless it's really lean.
I'd stick with more chicken and tuna.
Whole wheat bread is ok in moderation. There is really good
low-carb whole-wheat bread that has only 6 carbs per slice.
Balsamic Vinegar is a freebie. The fruits you listed are really
high in sugar. Try cantaloupe (we call it "Musk-melon" around here).
Same for the veggies you listed. Carrots, peas and corn all break
down to high values of sugar so I'd stay away from all of them.
Try fresh spinach, broccoli, or asparagus. Do I need to comment
on sugar and salt?

I try to keep carbs down to 60 or less per day.

I'd also like to add to my post earlier that my bad cholesterol
is way down and my blood work is great since switching to
this diet.

posted April 13, 2006 07:18 AM            

quote:

---

Carrots, peas and corn all break down to high values of
sugar so I'd stay away from all of them.

---

How bad are carrots in comparison with ... whatever?

posted April 13, 2006 11:17 AM            

>> How do you know this? (re Aspartame)
>> I read about the recent study. It is useless,
>> no conclusion can be drawn from it.
>> Considering what Aspartame breaks down into,
>> it stands to reason that large quantities of
>> aspartame on an empty stomach is bad for you.

The whole furore over Aspartame is just another one of those things that gets credibility just because it is written down and appears plausible — we all have a deep-seated mistrust of the big chemical companies, and Aspartame is a “chemical” so it simply must be bad for us, right?

The problem is that this is a well-known hoax that has been around since 1995 — see the following web site:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blasp.htm

<QUOTE>

First off, despite the attribution at the top (absent in some versions of the message), this text was not written by "Nancy Markle" – whoever that may be. Its real author was one Betty Martini, who posted a host of similar messages to Usenet newsgroups in late 1995 and early 1996. The original email was penned in December 1995.

Ms. Martini, who is not a physician but says she has worked in the medical profession, has waged a single-minded battle for years against what she calls "the propaganda put out by industry and the FDA" regarding aspartame. To that end, she founded an organization called "Mission Possible International," represented on such Websites as Dave Rietz's http://www.dorway.com, which houses a vast archive of anti-aspartame literature.

Even if we credit Martini with good intentions (and there's no reason not to), it's difficult to take her email warning seriously. Among other things, it blithely implicates aspartame as the cause of just about every malady known to humankind. To recap the laundry list:

• "The methanol toxicity mimics multiple sclerosis..."
  
• "In the cases of systemic lupus, which is triggered by ASPARTAME, the victim usually does not know that the aspartame is the culprit."
  
• "If you...suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss-you probably have ASPARTAME DISEASE!"
  
• "In one lecture attended by the Ambassador of Uganda, he told us that their sugar industry is adding aspartame! He continued by saying that one of the industry leader's son could no longer walk - due in part by product usage!"
  
• "At the time of this first hearing, people were going blind. The methanol in the aspartame converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye."
  
• "Aspartame changes the brain's chemistry. It is the reason for severe seizures."
  
• "This drug also causes Birth Defects."
  
• "It makes you crave carbohydrates and will make you FAT."
  
• "The ingredients stimulates [sic] the neurons of the brain to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees."
  
• "Aspartame is especially deadly for diabetics."
  
• "...aspartame poisoning is escalating Alzheimer's Disease..."
  
• "...the phenylalanine in aspartame breaks down the seizure threshold and depletes serotonin, which causes manic depression, panic attacks, rage and violence..."
  
• "Aspartame Disease is partially the cause to what is behind some of the mystery of the Dessert [sic] Storm health problems."
  
• "When they remove brain tumors, they have found high levels of aspartame in them."
  

That's a dizzying array of charges – to which it's perfectly reasonable to respond: if it's all provable, why isn't the entire medical establishment up in arms about it? Why does the substance continue to have the FDA's approval? Why do reputable scientists and doctors scoff?

Martini's answer, as I mentioned above, is pat and comes in the form of a conspiracy theory: the NutraSweet Company has used its deep pockets to buy all but a very few critics off. i.e., the only sources you can trust, including doctors and scientists, are those approved by Martini.
</quote>

AND LATER IN THE ARTICLE (read it as there are a lot of rebuttals, but of course they are dismissed because they are all trying to “cover up”) we get to the non-profit MS Foundation:

<quote>

On Jan. 12, 1999 the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation posted its own rebuttal of the aspartame rumors, characterizing them as "rabidly inaccurate and scandalously misinformative." The article was researched and written by Dr. David Squillacote, respected neurologist and Senior Medical Advisor for the foundation. This was followed by an article published by the National MS Society which in part stated: "Many Internet surfers came across an article warning that the food additive aspartame was responsible for an MS 'epidemic.' In fact, none of the claims in the article were supported by scientific evidence." More from the MS Foundation: Examining the Safety of Aspartame by Ellen Guthrie, Pharm.D.

</quote>

Oh, and the original articles are hyper-linked directly from the above quotes at the URL I posted above, so you can see the original documents rather than just take them on faith. For example, the Multiple Sclerosis web site says:

<quote>

This hoax first came to the attention of the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in 1998, when those circulating it added the false claim that the MSF was suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to halt the sale and use of aspartame. The MSF neither condemns nor endorses aspartame, and has never filed suit against the FDA.

</quote>

The bottom line is that there is some evidence that, for a few people, Aspartame can result in an increased incidence of headaches, in which case you would indeed be well advised to avoid aspartame. Otherwise, there is NO evidence whatsoever of any dangerous side-effects to aspartame use. All of this seems to go back to a study done in 1996 where the increase in brain tumours was found to correlate with the increase in aspartame use. That study did not show any causal link, only that both brain tumours and aspartame use seemed to both be increasing at the same time. That correlation has since been broken as brain tumour rates have levelled off and aspartame use has continued to increase.

It is sort of like my saying that reading The Age (a more pro-business newspaper over here) causes heart attacks, because there is a statistically greater incidence of heart attacks amongst readers of the Age than readers of the Herald Sun (a lighter-weight newspaper) — this was a legit correlation in the 1980s, by the way — but this makes the same mistake: confusing co-incidence with causality. There is a co-incidence of readership of The Age and heart attacks, but that does not mean that one causes the other, and usually the passage of time removes the incidental link (as for example the general population begins to read the Age to get a better business perspective now that they also own shares). Or perhaps an even better example is the one on the FlyingSpaghettiMonster.org web site, where there is "proof" that global warming is "caused" by the global decrease in the number of pirates. It is all too easy to confuse correlation for causality, I am afraid.

If you are looking for more of these sorts of things, you might also want to look at this site:

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBUrbanMyths.shtml

Where you will find some all-time greats like:

• Anti-perspirant and Breast Cancer
  
• Shampoo causes cancer
  
• Sunscreen causes blindness
  

And my favourite:

• Loo with a view ( http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBUrbanMyths.shtml#loowithaview)
  

>> Anyway, diet soda-pop tastes like somebody put a chemical in it.

It can be a bit of an aquired taste. I find those sweetened with Aspartame to be quite palatable, unlike saccharin.

-- Jim
jimako.com

posted April 13, 2006 12:52 PM            

Aspartame on digestion breaks down into formaldehyde and methyl alcohol (wood alcohol). These poisons are rendered harmless by the presence of other, real, food. In fact fruits contain small quantities of formaldehyde and methyl alcohol naturally. The fruit juice acts as a buffer.

But on an empty stomach these chemicals -- without the buffer of real food -- are bad for you in sufficient quantities.

Here is Betty Martini’s website:
www.dorway.com/missionpossiblemain.htm

I don’t follow everything there.

posted April 13, 2006 12:59 PM            

Paul

------------------
Few cats act their age, while
most just cough up furballs.

posted April 13, 2006 02:41 PM            

The same folks who have been freaking out about aspartame also have been jumping up and down over sucralose (Splenda) because it contains chlorine. Of course, so does table salt, but detractors make it seem like if you're eating sucralose, it's like you're chugging down a bottle of Clorox.

posted April 13, 2006 03:28 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mike Stefanik:
Aspartame is really only dangerous for a small segment of the population that has phenylketonuria (commonly called PKU), which is a fairly rare genetic disorder that prevents the body from metabolizing the amino acid phenylalanine (aspartame is basically a combination of two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid). For people with the disorder, because they can't metabolize it, the phenylalanine builds up in their system and eventually inhibits the synthesis of neurotransmitters.

The same folks who have been freaking out about aspartame also have been jumping up and down over sucralose (Splenda) because it contains chlorine. Of course, so does table salt, but detractors make it seem like if you're eating sucralose, it's like you're chugging down a bottle of Clorox.

---

"chugging down a bottle of Clorox"

That had me laughing for quite awhile. :)

Paul

posted April 13, 2006 06:06 PM            

You told us you've abandoned PowerBasic programming. Why not go all the way and abandon this Forum?

posted April 13, 2006 06:25 PM            

Paul

posted April 13, 2006 06:55 PM            

quote:

---

How bad are carrots in comparison with ... whatever?

---

here is a comparison chart: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/low-carb-diet/NU00279

Carrots have obvious nutritional value, but for low-carb, they say "keep
the servings small", like 1/2 a cup.