Get Gary Fit

Artificial sweeteners seem to get invented by accident … in labs. Saccharin was developed by chemist Constantin Fahlberg. He forgot to wash his hands after trying to invent new uses for coal tar. When he was eating dinner, noticed that it tasted sweet - coal tar.

Splenda is the commercial name for sucralose-based artificial sweetener. Sucralose is made by replacing three select hydrogen-oxygen groups on sucrose (table sugar) molecules with three chlorine atoms. Very little research on the side effects of Splenda has been done. This concerns me. I’m also not a fan of the chlorine aspect of it.

One of my favorite diet drinks, among many, Coke Zero contains Aspartame.

Aspartame was discovered by chemist James M. Schlatter. He was trying to produce an anti-ulcer drug candidate. He licked his finger to lift a paper and noticed it was sweet.

“Upon ingestion, aspartame breaks down into natural residual components, including aspartic acid, phenylalanine, methanol, and further breakdown products including formaldehyde and formic acid, accumulation of the latter being suspected as the major cause of injury in methanol poisoning.”

Let us look at the three components:

1. Aspartic acid - an amino acid. Aspartate is non-essential in mammals. Reactions to excess aspartate includes: Headaches/migraines, nausea, fatigue, sleep problems, vision problems, anxiety attacks, depression, and more. 
2. Phenylalanine - an amino acid. In large quantities interferes with the production of serotonin.
   
   
3. Methanol - Simplest alcohol. Flammable. Used by Mobil for producing gasoline. Methanol has a high toxicity in humans. If ingested, for example, as little as 10 mL of pure methanol can cause permanent blindness by destruction of the optic nerve, and 30 ml is potentially fatal.

At one point, 4 years ago, I was drinking 12 cans of Coke Zero a day. Now I am down to 3-6 cans a day. It is time to finally quit the soda. This was enough to motivate me.

Sources: Discovery Science, Wikipedia, How Stuff Works, Mercola, Women to Women 

The type of calories consumed do affect weight gain. The body balances itself out. If you ever have felt that you had “pent up energy” and wanted to run about… well it was pent up. Personally, I’ve noticed that if I load up on Paleo foods that I will feel like I have more energy. This is the body’s way to balance and expend excess calories consumed.

However, as with carbohydrates, they are stored as fat instead of being converted to usable energy. Then with a  low calorie, low-fat, high carbohydrate diet then this is a triple hit. I’ve experienced this in my life. I’d lose a little bit of weight, most of which muscle, and watch my “belly” grow. The once off the “diet”, gain back what I lost and then some. Often looking fatter.

The body is hungry, and one eats carbs which are then stored as fat. Little of those calories are converted to usable energy. The body conserves energy being used to compensate for such. On top of that, one is consuming less calories and instinctively metabolism slows and the body tries to conserve energy being spent.  A cycle that repeats to “fatten” one up.

What has been working best for me is to eat plenty of naturally fatty grass-fed free-range meats, vegetables, and fruit. Meanwhile ending / limiting the consumption of flour, sugar, processed snacks, potatoes, pasta and other carbohydrates.

More to come.

Two years ago, in 2009, I had a lipid panel taken. My triglycerides were 336. “Normal level” should be about 130. My doctor told me to eat a low-fat diet and exercise. The problem about the low-fat diet, is that it will lower both HDL and LDL. Both of mine were low.

However, a low HDL will raise triglycerides. It was making it worse. I remembered the days of me trying The South Beach Diet so I went that route. It helped. My weight dropped. I was eating very little carbohydrates, cooking with olive oil, and ate no processed food.

Little did I know that the oleic acid found in olive oil raises HDL while lowering LDL without consuming more carbohydrates. And as an added benefit your triglycerides go down because HDL went up. I’ve scheduled a doctor’s appointment on August 11th, will try to get another lipid panel done to monitor any improvements. Gotta keep fit.