Love is like Oxygen

196.2 lbs

So, uh, I can't really explain the huge drop but I'll try. It sort of annoys me that one of my spiky things is all curvy now. Stupid mathematics. But if you remember, that is, if you are a regular reader (reading this blog makes you lose weight! It's scientifically proven even!), I added some weight training in on Sunday. That little bit of cyclic interval weight training paid huge dividends. I will be doing it again today. Not only did I drop 4 lbs in 3 days, I have made my body fat % fall even further. Here is another odd thing: I actually ate more than I would on an average day, yesterday. Now my theories suck at times but I bet tomorrow will show little or no weight loss but by the time Saturday rolls around it should be under 195. I have my fingers crossed.

I was going to write on a really gross story about an obese man whose skin grew around the webbing of the lawn chair he had sat in for the past two years. Heck that sentence was gross enough. Today I prefer to make it a bit more sweet. Oh man, I slay me with my musical puns.

I just read a study from 2004 about artificial sweeteners conducted by Purdue University. Here is what it said in a nutshell:

"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar."

Now they did this study, not only with saccharin but with other artificial sweeteners as well. In less scientific terms they came to the conclusion that artificial sweeteners actually add fat weight to your body. Sweeteners do this because they actually trigger your brain to eat more. This whole process causes your body to shut down your metabolism or make you eat more food to compensate for the calories your body originally expected. Sugar, ironically, does not have the same effect.

When we eat, we eat with all of our senses. The smell of certain foods can trigger small physical responses in your body, even seeing certain foods can do the same thing. Our body works like Pavlov's dogs, we salivate, after a fashion, at the sound of the dinner bell. Taste is a big contributor to how our body decides to process certain foods. Taste is intimately linked with smell. You might have remembered doing an experiment as a kid where you were asked to tastes something blind folded or without being able to smell it. The synergistic nature of your senses is what makes eating enjoyable. After reading the article, I can see how the simple Shangri-La diet works. It also helps me to understand how fructose (in various forms) can be a problem - your body doesn't process it normally. Your body as a physical system will not truly be satisfied, thus you eat more.

What do you think a study on something that has a higher level of fructose in it, a substance that also matches the sweetness level of sugar, has to say? Let's just see what Princeton has to say on high fructose corn syrup (fructose is fructose is fructose):

"These rats aren't just getting fat; they're demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides..."

Well, holy sweet mother of Elvis, isn't that just a reworded version of the conclusion Purdue had on a no-calorie artificial sweeteners? The kicker, they weren't even using as high a level of HFCS found in a common soda.

Here is another quote from another scientific article that will twist your brain a bit and will drive the point home even further:

Fructose is perhaps best known for its presence in the sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup or HFCS, which is typically 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose, similar to the mix that can be found in fruits. - ScienceDaily - Limiting Fructose May Boost Weight Loss

Now I am not going to go on a rampage about fruit because fruit, in and of itself, has more vitamins and fiber than an extract. But one would be wise not to eat fruit as a base for their daily diet. Besides, similar vitamins and fiber can be found in legumes and veggies in greater abundance. If we treated fruits, sodas etc. as treats instead of staples which at one point, they weren't almost universally, we'd be better off. Did you know at the same time period America started slipping into overwhelming obesity, vegetable consumption dropped and fruit consumption sky rocketed? It makes you think that perhaps the government and nutritionists shouldn't be lumping the two together. That ain't sweet, but the following video is...