Domestic Geek

We have a big tree outside our house that gets infested with beetles every year. I think they're Elm Beetles. Anyway, they've been particularly bad this year. The poor tree has hardly any green left in the leaves at all. What really sucks is when they get into the house. There is dead beetles that I need to vacuum up all over the place. There's one that keeps landing on my monitor as I type. When I went to look out the back door earlier, the screen was just covered in them.

That's Pet Shop Boys for the uniformed. "Always on My Mind" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lost of Money)" are two of the greatest songs ever.

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.

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.

I've been having a bad bout of insomnia again lately. Even when I can sleep in, I can't. Even though I have to get up for work at 5am, it's not uncommon lately for me to be awake at midnight. Frankly, it's starting to worry me a little.

I know my sleep deprivation has to be the cause of a particularly stupid act on my part last night. When I got home from work and sat down at the computer, I kicked my shoes off in the walkway to the door. I glanced down at them later and thought to myself that I really should move them. Well, not once, not twice, but FIVE separate times I tripped over them in the dark walking out of my room.

The final one was when I had come back to close down the computers for the night and not only did I trip over the shoes, but also bruised my ankle on a step stool and jacked up my right wrist when it slammed into the wall to keep me from falling. Yeah, my nickname is Grace.