Domestic Geek

One of my online friends, Bug from An Indian Summer, is currently hosting a few of hours of Blogathon radio over at KMRL Mojo Radio. There's a link to the player on the left sidebar of the KMRL Mojo Radio blogathon blog. If you see me dancing or singing in the cam, that's what I'm listening to.

She's blogging for the American Cancer Society. Head over to her blog to sponser her if you're so inclined.

Whoops, this one's a little late. I got busy reading other blogathon sites.

We have different kinds of stress to deal with today that people in days gone by didn't have to deal with. They could also relieve some of that stress they did have through hard, physical labor. I'm convinced that part of the reason we have such high levels of insomnia and other health-related issues is our bodies inability to deal with stress.

One way to deal with stress, as Marsia suggested to me, is to meditate or pray. I've been doing a lot of reading lately about how that internal chatter that is always going on in our heads is so detrimental to our well-being. It's so difficult to turn all that off, but it's definitely something I've been working on.

The fact is that when we're under stress, our bodies go into a kind of panic mode and hang onto fat stores. We also manifest diseases and hinder our bodies ability to heal itself.

We live in interesting times, for sure. We've got the benefits from so many cool technological advances. It's hard to believe that just a few short years ago we didn't have the Internet, yet now just about everybody I know functions both at work and home in some capacity by using computers and the Internet (mail, surfing, etc). Then there are big screen TVs that turn your home into a movie theater and video game systems and all of it leads to us spending quite a bit of time on our butts.

We also live in dangerous times. Parents don't dare turn their kids out into the streets to play unsupervised. I remember as a child leaving the house in the morning and wandering around to different neighbor kids' houses. Except for a couple of meal breaks, we stayed outside playing until it got too dark to see.

It's definitely having negative effects on our health.

One more sugar-related post.

We're facing an obesity epidemic in this country. Due in part to our sedentary lifestyles to be sure, but one can not overlook that the rising numbers started just about the time that High Fructose Corn Syrup was developed. It's quite the complicated procedure to extract HFCS from corn, yet it is still cheaper for manufacturers to use it than other sweetener sources such as cane or beet sugar.

Since it's not a naturally occurring substance, our bodies can't deal with it well. Here's an excerpt from a San Francisco Times article describing how HFCS leads to weight gain:

And unlike other types of carbohydrate made up of glucose, fructose does not stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin. Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at UC Davis who studies the metabolic effects of fructose, has also shown that fructose fails to increase the production of leptin, a hormone produced by the body's fat cells.

Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control body weight. And in another metabolic twist, Havel's research shows that fructose does not appear to suppress the production of ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger and appetite.

"Because fructose in isolation doesn't activate the hormones that regulate body weight as do other types of carbohydrate composed of glucose, consuming a diet high in fructose could lead to taking in more calories and, over time, to weight gain," he says.

In addition to obesity, researchers believe there is a link between HFCS and the increased rates of type 2 diabetes, as well.

What I found most shocking when I was researching HFCS a few years ago for a speech I was preparing for a public speaking class is that it's seemingly everything. In addition to it's expected places like soda, it's in most yogurts, health drinks like SoBe, frozen foods to extend shelf life, breads to increase browning...it's even in that Chewy Trail Mix bar I ate for breakfast (damn, forgot to check the label last night when I bought those).

What's the most telling is when trying to find people that believe it has no ill health effects for human, you find people connected with the corn industry. Hmmm.

This is going to be a little quick post because I'm getting a little behind reading all the health related information sites while researching my topics. I had really intended to get this all researched in advance, but stupid work and RSS feed problems got in my way this week. I'm also trying to see what some of the other bloggers are up to. That was the good thing about blogging on the B schedule last year. I cruised around all the other sites and then concentrated on my own blogging later.

Mike and Marcus are usually off mountain biking together but last Saturday Mike took a pretty bad tumble and screwed up his ribs or something. They're having lunch at McDonalds and are supposed to bring me back some nuggets. Not a great lunch since I've been talking about eating healthier, but hey, if you're watching my cam, you'll see I just ate an apple.

Mmmmm...nuggets.