Let’s Talk About My Paper Because I Just Finished and I Swear it is Interesting

Date: March 20, 2013

Author: astottler

Like my title? Haha. But first let’s get down to business with some eats! Dinner last night was awesome! We had leftover rotisserie chicken, so I searched for a soup recipe that called for it, and boy did I pick a winner. Since I’m attempting the whole Whole30 thing, I wanted a recipe that was paleo, so I found one on Against All Grain. The recipe is for leftover roast chicken soup with roasted vegetables. My family and I could not get enough of it!

On the side was an artichoke and dipping sauce made from store bought garlic aioli and vinaigrette salad dressing.

And guess what I did this morning guys?!? SPIN CLASS! I was so pumped to be back in it, and even though it was a 6 am class, I was up before my alarm. It felt awesome. It wasn’t that difficult of a class (and I didn’t try to make it harder) so it was the perfect class to come back into. I listened to the radio in the car and realized that lots must have happened while I was sick because I didn’t recognize half of the songs!

After a good workout, I had a smoothie and some mashed potatoes.The smoothie is a few weeks old, and was the second half of a smoothie I had when I was sick. It is much better when my throat isn’t so swollen up! I’m not 100% sure what is in it, seeing as I didn’t make it myself, since I was incapable of leaving my bed, but I know it has 2 kinds of grapes, and strawberries. And is fancy because it was made from an actual recipe. My mom has been begging me to finish it all week because we got new glasses and she wanted to get rid of the old ones. Notice the new glasses?I also had half a banana with peanut butter. I am trying to have low quantities of nuts every day so that I don’t completely lose my tolerance. Sigh. The only thing better than an early morning workout? Going back to bed after an early morning workout. Yay spring break! Well kind of. I had to finish a paper today. Which is worth like half my grade. Let’s just say I spent a long time staring at a computer screen today. Actually, I’ve been on the computer way too much these past few days. Everything is starting to get blurry. When I was finishing up my research late tonight I had to blow up the words so I could read them. So sorry if I have a ton of typos in this!

I was hungry by 10:30, but at 11, I had to take a field trip to the grocery store to do research for my paper. I recorded the sugar content of tons of different foods, more on that later, as well as empty health claims. Yeahh I’m kind of angry about marketing right now! Anyways, staring at the worst junk food for about an hour while you are hungry turns out to not be the best idea. I ended up picking up some flavor blasted goldfish which just happened to open themselves in the car. Goodbyeee Whole30. Lunch was leftover soup and nachos (tortilla chips with melted cheddar cheese).Plus a probiotic chocolate bar. Gotta recover from all those antibiotics, right?? My mom picked up Poptarts at the grocery which were on my mind all afternoon, so yeahh that happened. HahWHOLE30hah. Dinner was Whole30 though, mostly because I planned it out ahead of time.Turkey burgers (Minus the bun), sweet potato “fries”, green beans, and tons of homemade ketchup of course! I made a delicious last minute decision to add garlic powder just as the burgers were finishing up in the oven. The sweet potato fries (which we made with yams) were delicious. We just cut up yams and roasted them in the oven. They weren’t exactly crispy, but I’m not a fan of crispy fries anyways!

Today was another reminder as to why I really need to do this Whole30 thing. I don’t think I will survive break (which is extra long, this week is technically finals week but I don’t have any) if I don’t have some sort of control! And I seriously do feel better when I stick to it! Plus, I’m going to go into the scary world of sugar in a bit! But first:My failed attempts to convince my sister that she really is missing out on cat time.

Ok, onto my paper! I just finished writing a 12 page research paper on the connection between sugar consumption and the obesity epidemic, as well as other health problems. So lucky you guys, you get to hear all about it!

So first let’s talk about why sugar causes people to gain weight. One of the biggest factors is that it doesn’t suppress ghrelin, the hunger hormone, to stop telling you that you are hungry. Additionally, it the fructose half of sugar does not trigger any insulin response, which therefore doesn’t trigger leptin, the hormone that tells you you are satiated. But it gets worse. Chronic sugar consumption can cause a condition called leptin resistance. Leptin is produced by fat cells. Back in the caveman days before we messed up our hormonal signaling, this would regulate body weight. If we were underweight, fats cells would not send leptin signals telling the brain to stop eating. Instead, the brain would be instructed to eat more and move less (to conserve energy). If we were overweight, the fat cells in our bodies would be full, and therefore signal the brain that we don’t need to eat as much. Here’s where leptin resistance comes in. It is believed that chronically high insulin levels somehow block the leptin signal. Anyway, what happens as a result is that if you are leptin resistant and overweight, your fat cells will send leptin signals to the brain, but the brain won’t be able to “see” these signals, so it will think you are starving, driving you to eat more and move less. If you are dealing with this hormonal jungle, how can you possibly lose weight? And did I mention scientists can induce leptin resistance in rats by feeding them sugar? Yeahh kind of scary.

I’ll briefly do through some other scary sugar related diseases. If you want a full explanation of the processes, feel free to email me! (astottler@gmail.com) Metabolic syndrome often comes with obesity, and is a whole set of diseases including Type 2 Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, fatty liver disease (yes, like the kind alcoholics get), and heart disease. Oh yeah, and there are links between sugar consumption and cancer. Pretty scary stuff! But of course this all only happens with EXCESS sugar consumption (which pretty much sums up MY day haha!).

So let’s talk about sugary foods for a minute. I won’t go into WHY sugar is in everything we eat (hint: low fat trend and High Fructose Corn Syrup), but let’s talk numbers. Let’s talk advertising. The maximum recommended daily consumption of added sugar is 20-24 grams. That’s not very much, considering the average American eats 88 grams. I could easily make a day of eating that gets the sugar count up to 88 grams. Here’s the example from my paper:

‘Many people may read about the dangers and sugar and think, “well, of course that isn’t talking about me. I don’t eat too much sugar.” However, it is amazing how fast the sugar adds up. The American Heart Association recommends Americans eat no more than 20 grams of added sugars a day (Main). But how much are we really eating? Adults eat about 88 grams of sugar a day (Krum). It is estimated that Americans consume nearly 500 calories of added sugar every day (Krum). Where is all this sugar coming from? A health conscious person may start the day with a bowl of Raisin Bran. That is 18 grams of sugar right there. For a snack to “satisfy hunger longer” as the box claims, this person might drink a delicious 18 grams of sugar in a Special K protein shake. For lunch? How about 6 ounces of low fat Tillamook vanilla yogurt? That is 34 grams of sugar, although it can be assumed that 10 grams of that is due to natural lactose sugars, leaving us with 24 grams of sugar. Our health conscious person might as well have an entire Hershey’s chocolate bar for 24 grams of sugar. The yogurt alone puts our healthy friend here over the maximum daily sugar recommendation. For dinner, he has a cup of Campbell’s tomato soup, for 14 grams of sugar, most of it in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup. But the soup comes in a microwaveable container that serves two, so he finished it off for a total of 28 grams of sugar. A health conscious person can easily consume the average amount of sugar an American eats in a day, 88 grams, without eating a single dessert.’

Children eat on average 128 grams of sugar a day. That’s what, 6 times the recommended quantity? And I can certainly see how. I made up a meal with the sugar quantities I found at the grocery that a child could easily eat for lunch at school. Let’s say he starts with a 12 ounce Pepsi. 41 grams. 2 slices of whole wheat bread, 6 grams each. 1 tablespoon of grape jelly, 13 grams. Peanut butter? 4 grams. Then for dessert, some fat free (!) devil’s Food Cookies, 2 at 7 grams each. That is 84 grams of sugar in a single meal. A meal many children might take to school. So let’s say the student is a little healthier and takes apple juice instead of soda, as many kids do. that’s still 28 grams of sugar, that’s still 71 grams of sugar in a meal. That’s about the size of 4 ping pong balls. This is all so crazy! No wonder we have so many obesity problems! And how many people realize this? How many parents buy these foods trying to do something healthy for their children, not realizing these foods are laced with sugar? I started to get really annoyed at marketing as well. Fig Newtons. “100% Whole Grain.” Healthy, right? How about 12 grams of sugar a serving (not TERRIBLE), and full of High Fructose Corn Syrup AND trans fat? Who still puts trans fat in foods anymore?? And how about frozen yogurt. Ben and Jerry’s frozen yogurt has like 24 grams in a half cup serving. That’s not horrible, given there are probably 10 grams of lactose sugars, but it is misleading, because seriously, who eats half a cup? Or one of my favorites, the Heart Healthy stamp of approval. As we’ve seen, sugar isn’t particularly heart healthy. All foods need to be to get that stamp of approval is low fat, and the company must pay money. On the sugariest soup I found (14 grams for a cup) was the heart healthy stamp.

And cereal. Guess which cereal wins the prize for most sugar? Not Lucky Charms. Not Cocoa Puffs. Raisin Bran. The traditional “healthy” cereal has 18 grams of sugar for a cup! At softball tournaments, hotels we stayed t usually had raisin bran and fruit loops. This used to be the one time I would have fruit loops. Then, I became more health conscious and switched to Raisin Bran. Heck, I should have just gone with the Fruit Loops! they have less sugar! How crazy is that??

My other favorite: I was looking at Nesquick mix, and it had huge writing on one container that said “25% less sugar!” I examined the regular Nesquick, which was in a different container, and was utterly confused when I saw they had the same sugar content. Then I read the fine print. It was actually “25% Less Sugar Than Chocolate Syrup.” I saw this marketing trick on a couple of other things. The product seems like a healthier version of itself, but the fine print reveals it is just slightly healthier than some other brand or something.

Ok, rant over! I hope you guys learned something interesting! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or comment below!

What marketing do you find misleading?

I don’t eat pork, but I just found out the chicken sausages my family buys are made with pork casings! SO MAD!

Make Up Post 1/15!

Date: January 17, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So sorry that I didn’t post last night! I had to work on a paper, and it was already getting late, plus I knew I’d have to be up early this morning. So here it is:

You know you’re truly a blogger when something in your life happens and the first thing you do is think about how you will describe it on you blog…

So the reason for the delayed post is I had a paper to write last night, and it was getting late as it was. Gahh. So my day?

I woke up at 5:20 and busted my butt to get out to workout as soon as possible, so I would finish my erg in time for a 7 am spin class. Right before I walked out the door (around 5:35) I remembered that nothing opens here until 6. So…if I got inside at 6 there was no way I’d be done by 7, and I’d be stuck waiting outside in the cold…luckily there was someone there who opened up early, but I’m not sure what I’ll do next Tuesday. I certainly don’t want to depend on that! I loved the spin class, as usual. I’ve only been to this instructor’s classes once before, but I really like her music choices. My legs were pretty shot after an hour of erging and 45 minutes of spin, but I pressed on! I still had a 30 minute run! I initially planned to do it on the treadmill, but they were all full or broken, and I didn’t have time to wait around! Instead, I headed out into Winter Wonderland (not sure a few sheets of ice constitutes Winter Wonderland, but I’ll roll with it). The best part? I got to listen to my favorite scientist talk (nerdy, I know), Dr. Robert Lustig. He recently came out with a new book about the dangers of sugar, and he was on NPR’s Science Friday to talk about the book and answer listener questions. Aaaand it was available on my NPR app. And even more perfect, it was 29 minutes. Obviously, it was meant to be. I’ve listened to a ton of sugar podcast while I run in the past, so this was no new experience.

As for the actual run? I took it pretty slow, but powered through and finished. I saw so much ice and frost! I’ve never exactly seen a frozen puddle before so naturally I had to stop and look at every single one, and test if it was frozen.

This one? Well, it was frozen on the surface. Yes, that is my footprint.

By the end, I was pretty hungry. I just had a few bites of my frozen Peanut Butter Vanilla Protein Bars beforehand, which was hours earlier. I was excited to finally get to a different dining hall for breakfast. Why? I can get some veggies in!

There is an omelette station with all kinds of goodies, so I always snag some spinach for my breakfast sandwich. On my plate: Half a whole wheat english muffin topped with spinach, scrambled eggs and cheddar, and mushrooms (how great would this be with avocado?). I also had some melon, and an unknown type of yellow fruit. One thing was for sure though, it wasn’t ripe! It tasted ok, but was really tough. My theory is that it was pineapple. I also has some pistachios. This dining hall has gone upscale for breakfast lately.

Just look at that fancy shmancy cheese platter!

After breakfast was a shower and then class, and then back to the dining hall for lunch!

The healthier options weren’t all that interesting, so I went with something less on the healthy side, because it looked pretty good!

I first filled up half my plate with Asian chicken salad (though I never seemed to find any chicken…), which hit the spot perfectly. I was hoping for something different than the vinaigrette salads I’ve been having lately. So what else is on that plate? Mexican rice, fajita chicken (I skipped the tortilla), a bit of refried beans, and nacho casserole. Plus some sauteed greens. It was really tasty! I saw that someone else had salsa and guacamole on their plate, so I went back and added some after I photographed. I was hankering for something sweet, so I went for a not too sugary alternative.

See? That pineapple was actually good, I could totally tell what it was! Plus cinnamon raisin toast with Smart Balance. Seriously, that stuff is so good! I think I may have overdid it a bit on the carbs, but hey, my plate was half veggies, right? By the way, those veggies on my dessert plate were for later.

I cracked open a mango before practice, and unfortunately it was pretty brown on the inside, but I still got a good 1/2 of it. I hate when I let food go bad, especially in my dorm room, because any food I have that has the capacity to go bad is a treat. I was really angry at myself earlier too because I had to toss 2 oranges because I never put them in the fridge. I also snacked on frozen cherries and a few bites of protein bar. Plus, I made a pb sandwich for later, which just happened to finish the jar, so I naturally had to take care of that. 😉

Since I knew i had a paper to write that evening, I packed a pb sandwich and those veggies which you saw earlier to eat in the van on the way back from practice, so I could go straight to the library. Unfortunately, this plan was foiled when a teammate twisted my arm into eating dinner with her. I figured a few more veggies couldn’t hurt.

I also had a few slices of fruit and another slice of cinnamon raisin toast. Unfortunately, this sparked a major carb craving (glucose rollercoaster anyone?) (see glucose post here).

Or maybe it was a result of my no sugar challenge? Either way, back at my room I pulled this baby out of the freezer:

Peanut butter banana bread! I want to say this is the recipe I used, but I’m not entirely sure. I used whole wheat pastry flour and and most likely reduced the sugar, although I’m not sure. I really like the texture of the bread. It is nice and oat-y. I love the idea of using oats in banana bread! My only suggestion for improvement might be adding a swirl of peanut butter. So this time I added my own!

After all those carbs, I finally headed to the library, but it was an hour later than I was hoping to get there. Oh well, I finished the paper.

A few notes:

My legs were sooo tired all day when I was biking around!

I think I need to rethink my meal timing. I wasn’t all that hungry at lunch, since it hadn’t really been that long since breakfast. I think that threw me off a little bit.

And lastly: I promise I’ll do a sugar post soon! Hopefully this weekend!

Any big weekend plans?

Goals

Date: December 30, 2012

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Today was my first day of 3-a-days. The morning started out early. We left our hotel at 6 after a quick breakfast/snack of a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and an apple. It was so cold this morning! I couldn’t feel my hands for probably the first hour. After our row at about 9, I went for breakfast number 2 at the training center.

I had a slice of banana bread, 2 whole grain pancakes, 1 with syrup and one with smart balance (not pictured), a veggie egg scramble, fruit, and a hardboiled egg white. And a small mug of hot cocoa on the side.

After breakfast and a short break for a team meeting, we were back on the water for our second row of the morning. I hadn’t rowed in a month before yesterday so after 4 hours of rowing this morning, I was feeling pretty tight. Tomorrow morning should be interesting…

Just a side note, I promise this won’t turn into a rowing blog, it’s just all that I am doing right now at training camp. I just eat, row, and sleep, and considering I’m already documenting my eating, and my unconscious self is not too interesting, that leaves rowing.

After our row was lunch at the training center. I started with a salad with Greek dressing and a bit of chicken salad. I also had a chicken breast, which I put on the salad, steamed veggies, and a taste of scalloped potatoes.

For dessert, I had chocolate fro-yo with chocolate chips and peanut butter.

After lunch we returned to the hotel for a much needed nap. When I woke up, I was sooo hungry, but I didn’t really want to eat anything because I had to leave for a run in an hour, but the thought that dinner would be several hours away convinced me I needed something. I ate half a granola bar, which managed to hold me over.

Our run was 40 minutes in the rain and dark. It felt good but I finished completely drenched. By the time we arrived at dinner, I was ready for something hot. I grabbed a big mug of hot cocoa, and then filled my plate with chicken, steamed veggies, and tortellini (plus ketchup).

I ended up going back for seconds on the chicken because I had difficulty getting the meat off the bone, and added a little brown rice to my plate as well. For dessert I had a cinnamon raisin english muffin with butter, a few pieces of dried fruit, and a little bit of chocolate fro-yo with coconut and marshmallows. I also had a Kashi dipped cinnamon raisin granola bar. I was underwhelmed. The bar was very dry and a little too sweet for my taste.

I wish I hadn’t eaten quite so much at dinner. I returned to the hotel very full and also very thirsty. I was too full to drink as much as I probably should have.

Today, I was talking to some of my teammates. We’ve been asked to set goals for ourselves, and one of my teammates said that she wanted to give up dessert. This made me uncomfortable. I have dabbled with giving up sugar with some success. I always feel way better, but eventually go back to eating sugar. This is truly a personal topic for me, as I have struggled with sugar for a long time. I realized that I felt uncomfortable because I felt someone was going to be eating better than me, and my competitive instinct kicked in. Obviously this is not healthy. I want to have a better attitude so that I can help myself and others improve our health.

At the same time, I realized that this means that I am not happy with my eating. If I was satisfied with my eating, that discomfort would go away. I’m most concerned with the sources of sugar in my meals, rather than dessert. Most of the sugar I have been eating I have not been in the mood for, or even necessarily enjoyed. For example, I am very picky with maple syrup, and I didn’t like the kind at the cafeteria, so my pancake (which I think was whole grain) wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been. Part of this is a learning process. I need to seek out less sugary sources in the cafeteria, but now I know what to expect. Tomorrow I want to avoid added sugar and optimize my nutrition.

How do you feel when others talk about nutrition?