Can Podcasts Combat Obesity?

The Los Angeles Times health blog Booster Shots examines research that used podcasts to help people lose weight.

Successful weight loss may be just a podcast away.

But what's on that podcast could make the difference between losing a modest amount of weight and losing next to none, according to a new study out of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Researchers used two different types of podcasts--audio files that can be downloaded into an MP3 player or computer--to see which was more effective at helping 78 overweight and obese men and women shed pounds over 12 weeks. Read more

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Posted in: obesity,Weight Loss,weight loss podcasts

Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Really a "Sweet Surprise" for America?

Model and yoga activist Tara Stiles examines whether high fructose corn syrup is really a "sweet surprise" for America.

If you google "High Fructose Corn Syrup," the first thing that pops up is www.sweetsurprise.com. It's a sponsored link, right at the top. Go to the pretty website and you'll see healthy stalks of corn poking into a clear blue sky. A racially diverse group of kids and adults are pictured smiling around tables of pancakes, cereals, berries, and cornbread.

"HFCS is the chemical and nutritional equivalent of table sugar (sucrose). The two substances have the same calories, the same chemical composition and are metabolized identically." - Arthur Frank, M.D., Medical Director, George Washington University Weight Management Program. The Washington Times, December, 6, 2006

"In 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally listed HFCS as safe for use in food and reaffirmed that decision in 1996. The FDA noted that "the saccharide composition (glucose to fructose ratio) of HFCS is approximately the same as that of honey, invert sugar and the disaccharide sucrose (table sugar)." - Food and Drug Administration Federal Register, August 23, 1996

Sounds convincing. I had to retreat to Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" for a reality check. Read more

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Posted in: diabetes,high fructose corn syrup,obesity,Sweet Surprise

How High Fructose Corn Syrup Makes You Gain Weight

High fructose corn syrup is an obesity engine. A new study confirms that sugar type is just as important as calories. Researchers discovered that when as little as half the glucose was replaced with fructose, lipogenesis, the process by which sugars are turned into body fat, increased significantly

New research from UT Southwestern Medical Center shows the amazing speed that our bodies make body fat from fructose. One of the reasons why low carb diets help you lose weight is that they reduce your intake of fructose.

Even though fructose, a type of sugar, is found naturally abundance in fruit, it is also added to many processed foods. Fructose is probably best known for its presence in the sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is typically 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. It unfortunately has become the preferred sweetener for many food manufacturers. This is because it is cheaper, sweeter and easier to blend into beverages than table sugar. Read more

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Posted in: high fructose corn syrup,obesity