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Amanda Hart
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« on: March 23, 2012, 10:33:16 AM »

Starting a thread to direct traffic away from getting the New Album Discussion thread any more off the rails. Like I said in that thread, I'm a nutritionist/physiologist and teach professional level courses at a couple of colleges in the area. I would be happy to lead any discussion on the topic. There is just so much bad health information out there, and just as the rest of this board features Beach Boys experts clearing up misconceptions, I figured I could do my part and pass some of my knowledge along. I'll try not to totally take over or be too condescending or anything, but it may happen anyway  Evil.

A general word about artificial sweeteners:

Artificial sweeteners are not inherently bad for you. They fall into two basic categories: glucose based and amino acid based. In both cases a glucose or AA molecule is chemically manipulated so that a carbon is removed from it's backbone and replaced by something your body doesn't have the ability to breakdown. In most cases, carbon is replaced by chloride. Since your body doesn't have the ability to digest this hybrid molecule, ideally it passes through your system, not getting absorbed thus no calories. The problem comes in if your body can't simply pass it through. For those people, their bodies recognize the molecule as a carb or protein and put all of their efforts into digesting them. Their enzymes overreact, either in their saliva, leaving a metallic aftertaste, or in their intestines leaving them with dehydration, headaches or diarrhea. If artificial sweeteners do this to you, don't eat them.

Most soft drinks use aspartame as their non-caloric sweetener. Aspartame is an amino acid base, which is why every bottle or can carries that PKU warning. PKU is one the the things they test for with the foot prick at birth, so if you had it you'd know already. Other than those two instances, artificial sweeteners pose no real danger, as long as you aren't only eating foods with artificial sweeteners. In the rat studies that people always get in a huff about artificial sweeteners causing cancer, those rats only ate pure sucrolose (Splenda) and they got brain tumors, which is more likely because of the food they weren't eating then the food they were.

As Mikie said, the real danger in any type of sodas is the phosphoric acid. It's really hard on your stomach and can dissolve other nutrients before your body has a chance to absorb them. It will also compete with calcium for absorption binding sites and replace calcium stores in your bones and teeth, causing low bone density and rot.

I'm going to stop myself here because I could go on for 10 years and this post is already getting long. There were other things in that thread, especially related to macronutrient metabolism, that I want to address, but we'll see where this goes first. Thanks for indulging me.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2012, 12:51:20 PM by Amanda Hart » Logged
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« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2012, 11:42:23 AM »

Very interesting, Amanda. I came over here because the discussion on the other thread was intriguing me, in spite of its off topic nature.

How do you feel about sodium benzoate? As a result of what I've read, I have cut it out of my diet. There is so much pseudoscientific information out there, though...
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Amanda Hart
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« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2012, 01:22:08 PM »

How do you feel about sodium benzoate? As a result of what I've read, I have cut it out of my diet. There is so much pseudoscientific information out there, though...

The effects of sodium benzoate aren't really that different from any other preservative, and they'll all basically not good for you. Think about why we eat food; to break it down into energy and other essential nutrients. If we are putting chemicals in our foods to keep them from breaking down on the shelf, they are also going to be more difficult to breakdown in our bodies. If things don't breakdown, we miss out on the nutrients that may be in those foods. This is also putting us at higher risk for intestinal problems, because if the stomach can't break the food down properly that increase the amount of time it spends in the colon, and there is a direct relationship between increased transit time in the colon and every non-genetic intestinal disease.

Sodium benzoate itself gets a lot of press because it has been linked to behavioral problems in recent studies. At high levels there seem to be links to neuromuscular problems and hyperactivity. At a point (which hasn't been established by the FDA yet) it is toxic, but so is everything else - including things that are good for you like carbs, protein, water and fat soluble vitamins.

You definitely aren't missing anything by cutting it out of your diet. Your body can process a little of it, so for other people who still consume it from time to time, that's probably okay. In general though, you should try to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible, so limiting preservatives of all types is probably in your best interest. Most foods that contain preservatives aren't good choices in the first place. Fresh food tastes so much better and isn't that much more difficult to prepare. Convenience is the number one reason people cite for eating processed food, but it's just as convenient to grab a banana as it is to grab a fake fruit breakfast bar full of chemicals, preservatives and gums.
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« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2012, 01:26:49 PM »

I'd like to hear your thoughts/knowledge on genetically modified food.

Another one of those "it causes cancer" "no it doesn't it's good for you!"

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« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2012, 01:35:36 PM »

How do you feel about sodium benzoate? As a result of what I've read, I have cut it out of my diet. There is so much pseudoscientific information out there, though...

The effects of sodium benzoate aren't really that different from any other preservative, and they'll all basically not good for you. Think about why we eat food; to break it down into energy and other essential nutrients. If we are putting chemicals in our foods to keep them from breaking down on the shelf, they are also going to be more difficult to breakdown in our bodies. If things don't breakdown, we miss out on the nutrients that may be in those foods. This is also putting us at higher risk for intestinal problems, because if the stomach can't break the food down properly that increase the amount of time it spends in the colon, and there is a direct relationship between increased transit time in the colon and every non-genetic intestinal disease.

Sodium benzoate itself gets a lot of press because it has been linked to behavioral problems in recent studies. At high levels there seem to be links to neuromuscular problems and hyperactivity. At a point (which hasn't been established by the FDA yet) it is toxic, but so is everything else - including things that are good for you like carbs, protein, water and fat soluble vitamins.

You definitely aren't missing anything by cutting it out of your diet. Your body can process a little of it, so for other people who still consume it from time to time, that's probably okay. In general though, you should try to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible, so limiting preservatives of all types is probably in your best interest. Most foods that contain preservatives aren't good choices in the first place. Fresh food tastes so much better and isn't that much more difficult to prepare. Convenience is the number one reason people cite for eating processed food, but it's just as convenient to grab a banana as it is to grab a fake fruit breakfast bar full of chemicals, preservatives and gums.
Much appreciated, Amanda! I also read that Vitamin C/Ascorbic Acidand Sodium Benzoate (which are used together in many processed foods) form benzene when the temperature gets high enough. Scary stuff. Many thanks.
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Amanda Hart
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« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2012, 02:25:27 PM »

I'd like to hear your thoughts/knowledge on genetically modified food.

Another one of those "it causes cancer" "no it doesn't it's good for you!"


GMOs are such a muddy area. The reason why? The FDA/USDA does not permit testing on humans, so since testing is not allowed, most of these ginormous food corporations just start modifying their crops with no idea what the long term effects will be and put on store shelves. This is how we got where we did with trans fats (the only thing I ever tell clients/students to completely eliminate from their diets) since testing wasn't permitted and it looked good on paper hydrogenated oils got FDA approval and now you have gen-x and -yers with clogged arteries at 25.

The concerning thing about GMOs is when they are changing the DNA of the food to include pesticides. At this point, this is only happening to the big money crops; corn, soy, potatoes and the like. But since 98% of soy grown in the US is genetically modified in some way and 95% of corn it's pretty scary to think what the potential problems could be. Since we have no way of testing this stuff it could be anything, there is not enough evidence and there won't be until it starts effecting consumers. The lines are easy to draw, if it kills bugs, it's not unreasonable to think it can harm humans. There just isn't enough evidence out there yet to say whether it does or not.

A law was passed in the US 2010 that food producers were supposed to designate all foods containing GMOs on labels, but I know it hasn't gone into effect yet and keeps getting pushed back. This law requires listing country of origin, whether or not the food was modified and if so why. Some companies however, have made this information available already. For me personally, the reason why a food was modified will determine whether or not I'll eat it. If it's something that may occur naturally and the lab helped it along, I don't have a particular problem with it. For instance, if they combine the DNA of a variety of strawberries that gives big berries with a variety that gives really colorful ones to make the most appetizing looking berry possible, I'm okay with that. If the wind blows that right way on a berry farm that might happen anyway.

Sometimes GMOs are used for good, like golden rice. Scientists have planted rice modified to contain Vitamin A in places like Africia and India, where blindness resulting from malnourishment is commonplace. Similar things are also happening with iodine. In Western countries iodine deficiency stopped being a problem when they started fortifying table salt in the 1920s. But in poorer countries that don't have access to mass produced goods, genetically modified crops are saving lives. On the other hand, there are actually bananas being grown in parts of Africa with HIV antibiotics in them. I feel like that is definitely crossing a line. Some Western scientist with too much grant money said "Hooray! Let's medicate these poor idiots without their consent or even their knowledge and see what happens!"

Obviously this is a really complex issue. This technology has the potential to solve a lot of problems or create a lot of worse ones.

But, back to the smaller scale of what you can do. Educate yourself on what you're eating. Research these companies, a lot of times you can find the information by searching for your grocery store and finding their suppliers. Local, smaller suppliers are less likely to be using GMOs. Regional and local chains often don't have the resources to fund the experimentation that national chains do, and their food has less distance to travel before it hits store shelves, so they are less likely to have GMOs. Obviously anything certified organic does not have GMOs. Again, shortening the supply chain and eating as close to natural as possible is your best bet.
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Amanda Hart
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« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2012, 02:28:47 PM »

Much appreciated, Amanda! I also read that Vitamin C/Ascorbic Acidand Sodium Benzoate (which are used together in many processed foods) form benzene when the temperature gets high enough. Scary stuff. Many thanks.

Yep, and these companies think they are doing us a favor by making crappy "fruit drinks" with 300% daily value of vitamin C. Then parents give it to their kids and wonder why their so moody all the time.
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