While You're At It ....

We're so excited to be running this campaign to help combat childhood obesity. This pilot program will be expanded each year until childhood obesity (now at a shameful 15% nationwide) is reduced to 5%.

If you are in need of losing weight, or know someone you can sponsor, please join us!!

For the month of April, I want you to focus on reducing the faux foods in our life. This is such a perfect time to give up the junk and add in fresh veggies. "Eat Clean" and you'll eliminate the high fructose corn syrup that sabotages your weight efforts, the hydrogenated oils that contribute to heart disease, and the dyes and preservatives and stabilizers that give your food the shelflife (and taste) of plastic.

Log on, track your weight, and let's contribute your success to our kids. When you lose, kids win!!

Getting Fat on High Fructose Corn Syrup

Regarding High Fructose Corn Syrup.

“The digestion, absorption, and metabolism of fructose … favors de novo lipogenesis [fat creation].” “In mammals, fructose is known to be able to raise plasma triacylglycerol concentrations significantly; consequently, this may induce obesity.”
Horm Metab Res. 2005 Jan;37(1):32-5.

“A high flux of fructose to the liver, the main organ capable of metabolizing this simple carbohydrate, perturbs glucose metabolism and glucose uptake pathways, and leads to a significantly enhanced rate of de novo lipogenesis and triglyceride (TG) synthesis …

These metabolic disturbances appear to underlie the induction of insulin resistance commonly observed with high fructose feeding in both humans and animal models.”
Nutr Metab (Lond). 2005 Feb 21;2(1):5

Thus, the problem with high fructose corn syrup is not just about the calories!!

This sweetener doesn’t clear from the blood stream like natural sugar, and so it stimulates the liver to make fat!!

This was a revelation. It's not just fat that makes you fat. It's this syrup. Or, more appropriately, it's the sugar overload.

The Gastro-Physics of Dietary Anti-Matter

"People watch," next time you’re in the grocery line. There’s always someone with carts that bulge with every conceivable kind of diet food. Flats of turkey bacon prop listlessly against the fat free half & half and Olestra cookies. At first glance, this is clearly someone who is completely health conscious, diet minded, and watching what they eat.

But peek beneath the basket to the lower rack – where you normally find dog food, kitty litter, and other toxic chemicals – and you will see the case of Pepsi or Mountain Dew. Diet foods and junk foods in the same cart might suggest mental illness, a slippage into delusional optimism, or some other form of brain rot.

However, unbeknownst to the rest of us, these folks are actually brilliant physicists, only disguised as profoundly confused shoppers, so as not to attract any attention. They throw you off their trail with very characteristic behaviors, like chasing a candy bar with a Diet Coke.

Yes, we can now release the fact that these scientists are members of the little know branch of their field known as Gastro-Physics, and they are actually testing a high-level theory regarding matter and anti-matter. Just as matter can be annihilated by anti-matter, they will show how calories can be eliminated, erased, eradicated, exterminated, and just forgotten about altogether if you consume them within their Universal opposite.

Oreos and low fat milk cancel perfectly, and M&Ms are vaporized into the next astral plane when thrown into a trail mix bag with a few Spanish peanuts.

Sorry for the dive into the rigors of this phenomenon, but the calorie cancellation must happen within a certain time frame, if you are serious about blipping away that ingot of taffy you just ate.

It’s like your mother explained, logically, that swimming after you eat a baloney and cheese sandwich at the beach will make you drop like a rock to the bottom of the ocean, unless you wait the required 30 minutes or so.

In just the same way, Gastro-physicists indicate that full cancellation can only take effect if the diet product smashes into the junk food within 7.45 minutes. These guys are brilliant.

So the next time you see cleverly disguised Gastro-Physicists conducting their experiments in your grocery store, don’t sneer. They’re not as daft as they seem.

History of the Oktoberfest

The Royal Wedding12th October 1810

Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on 12th October 1810.

The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the happy royal event. The fields have been named Theresienwiese ("Theresa's fields") in honor of the Crown Princess ever since, although the locals have since abbreviated the name simply to the "Wies'n".

Horse races in the presence of the Royal Family marked the close of the event that was celebrated as a festival for the whole of Bavaria. The decision to repeat the horse races in the subsequent year gave rise to the tradition of the Oktoberfest.

The Oktoberfest continues in 1811
In 1811 an added feature to the horse races was the first Agricultural Show, designed to boost Bavarian agricultureThe horse races, which were the oldest and - at one time - the most popular event of the festival are no longer held today. But the Agricultural Show is still held every three years during the Oktoberfest on the southern part of the festival grounds.

In the first few decades the choice of amusements was sparse. The first carousel and two swings were set up in 1818. Visitors were able to quench their thirst at small beer stands which grew rapidly in number. In 1896 the beer stands were replaced by the first beer tents and halls set up by enterprising landlords with the backing of the breweries.

The remainder of the festival site was taken up by a fun-fair. The range of carousels etc. on offer was already increasing rapidly in the 1870s as the fairground trade continued to grow and develop in Germany.


172nd Oktoberfest 2005

Today, the Oktoberfest is the largest festival in the world, with an international flavor characteristic of the 21th century: some 6 million visitors from all around the world converge on the Oktoberfest each year.

And since the Oktoberfest is still held on the Theresienwiese, the locals still refer to the event simply as the "Wies'n". So "welcome to the Wies'n" means nothing other than "welcome to the Oktoberfest"!

Dietary Weapons of Mass Distraction (WMD)

As hoards of low-carb proponents invade the nutritional landscape, the increasingly tired low-fat guard seems to be giving way before their steady march and drumbeat.

This invasion is a preemptive strike to find and remove the stockpiled food molecules that could be used to attack your health and explode your weight. Low-carb campaign hawks insist they are out there, ready to be launched against us at any moment. We know where they are – stockpiled in bread, rice, and potatoes.

International food observers are investigating the suspicious links between the axis-of-evil molecules and the thin, healthy people of the world. The French, for example, have flagrantly thumbed their noses at U.S. efforts once again by eating white bread baguettes twice per day, every day. Even worse, they steadfastly deny any relationship between daily carbs and weight or health problems. The Communist Chinese, ever a nettle for Western efforts, eat their high-carb rice every day, in blatant disregard of U.S. dietary resolutions.

Opinion at home is far from unanimous, as shown by our own scientists in a recent Tufts University study directly comparing the effectiveness of low - carb, low - fat, Weight Watchers, and Zone approaches. The question was simple. If done correctly, which theory actually works the best to lower weight?

The result? Micromanaging carbs was no more effective than counting up points or fats or anything else. Thus, the investigators came up empty handed – the carb content of the food was irrelevant to weight loss.

Without definitive proof that carbs present a threat, and with recent evidence showing their irrelevance to weight loss itself, carbs have become the dietary “weapons of mass distraction". The resulting campaign to win the hearts and minds of the people, by stoking fears of these molecules, distracts us from the real culprit -- domestic Biggie Sized habits of personal overconsumption.

Dietary WMD not only divert us from more pressing problems at home, but pre-emptive invasions of this region of the nutritional world will lead to a quagmire of weight and health problems. Already the neo-Atkins’ intelligencia have rolled back fruit and vegetable consumption because of carb levels that – we now find out – were never a problem to begin with.

It becomes clearer by the day that this nutritional war was founded upon dubious premises with no plan to win the long-term weight management peace. Will we have the courage to admit our past misunderestimates? Or will we "stay the course"? Only time, and our waistlines, will tell.

Politics versus Pate: Arnold Must Decide

The California Conundrum

The California Assembly and Senate passed S.B. 1520 - sponsored by Senate president John Burton (D-San Francisco) - to ban California fois gras by 2012, and to prohibit the sale of the products.

Animal advocates have long argued that the production of pate de foie gras - involving the feeding of ducks and geese to swell their livers up to 10 times their normal size -- amounts to undeniable animal cruelty. Gov. Schwarzenegger now must choose between politics and pate.

Losing Weight Like You Eat Your Ice Cream

“Life is like a box of chocolates,” drawled Forrest Gump.

Metaphors are great. Writers use them all the time because, simply put, they get your attention and really drive a point home.

That’s because life and a box of chocolates have as much in common as French Toast for breakfast and a French Toast to your health.

But you know a punch line is coming to connect the dots and relate two rediculously unrelated things. So you wait, listening sharply to catch the thread that makes it make sense.

“You never know what you are going to get.” Aaahhh, riiigghhtt!

The mismatch, mental twisting, and surprise resolution slam the point home. There. That’s the micro-anatomy of our most common literary tool. So how about a metaphor for eating healthy?

Losing weight is like eating a single scoop death-by-chocolate ice cream cone. Okay, that nailed the “man, this strains reason” part. But now let me explain.

First of all, real connoisseurs know that you must linger over your ice cream: chasing runners, keeping it off the pavement, and pushing it right to the bottom of the cone without bathing in it. These are all vital factors. It’s a process.

And that’s the point. It just takes time, and when you’re finished with that ball, you think … perfect!

Now imagine that same single scoop of ice cream, but this time placed in the deep empty hollow of a cereal bowl. We see it down there, sad and lonely, and invariably decide that it needs 3 more scoop buddies.

That’s because we believe we are getting gypped somehow if our food doesn’t fill the space.

Now. What does this have to do your dinner tonight? Well, the space you serve your food in matters. If you put dinner on a gigantic platter, you’ll end up with helpings 2, 3, and 4 on the plate all at the same time. And if it’s in front of you … you’re going to eat it.

So a basic message you can take home and try tonight is simply to begin on smaller plates. This trick exploits one of the bedrock laws of the Universe.

There’s four of them in all: E=MC2, Finder’s Keeper’s, The Conservation of Matter and Energy, and the big one – Your Eyes Are Bigger Than Your Stomach.

Simply handling this last law prevents the drastic overeating so typical of American buffet trough-feeders. And, repealing this law of nature doesn’t require any higher math or even a physics degree.

Take the first step to solving your portion problems by beginning with a smaller space for your food. Next, eat your food like you eat your ice cream – a little at a time. Enjoy it by making it last.

Small bites increase the length and pleasure of the meal. When your focus is more on enjoyment than consumption, that smaller amount becomes … perfect!

Your calories drop with your portion sizes and you love your food more – just like lingering over your single scoop death-by-chocolate ice cream cone!

Aaahhh, riiigghhtt!

Urban Sprawl is unhealthy

Urban sprawl leads to fat sprawl.

Feel like you're own fat is sprawling out of control?
There may be a link between your belly bulge and urban sprawl.


Read the whole story.