Typical Idaho diet?

Coke Zero is actually pretty good once you get used to it.

How to make soda good:
1. Put one part soda in glass.
2. Put two parts seltzer water (flavored or unflavored, but without any sweetener of any kind) in glass.
3. Imbibe.

The AHA really screwed up, a few decades ago, when it decided to go after fats instead of sugar. If you are of a scientific bent, I recommend "Good Calories, Bad Calories", otherwise (although neither book is really lite reading) "Why We Get Fat", both by Gary Taubes. The AHA gets raked over the coals for blowing this one, then dragging their feet on fixing it, as evidence mounts against them. A lot of people are dead, on account of this blunder. Replace your Frosted Flakes and skim milk with bacon and eggs, and you'll be making a big step towards living longer (and, sure, losing weight, if that's your thing.)

You should read the Gary Taubes book while enjoying Tillamook Mudslide ice cream. It's the best!

Chainsaw juggling is only really dangerous if you don't know how to juggle.

/I juggle
//not chainsaws though
///but I would if I had three chainsaws

yum! time to go bake some cookies!

Not to "defend" sugar but from my reading of the paper this was a poorly constructed study. I think it says little about mice, let alone humans. The mice were taken from the floor of a bakery(!?), the death rate was correlated at p=0.05 (barely noticable, p=1 is perfectly correlated, 0 no correlation), and the mice were sort of thrown together thus not controlling for competition for mates/food/space.

Also the mice did not get their cause of death examined. Smells fishy

So mice are a poor indicator of a healthy sugar level.

Now let's give chocolate to dogs.

@4: "Replace your Frosted Flakes and skim milk with bacon and eggs, and you'll be making a big step towards living longer"

Uh, not quite. A Mediterranean diet, heavy on the veggies and olive oil and light on the fish is probably the one that will win the day. Also, low glycemic-index carbs are your friends. But ditching the sugar is a very important step.

#2. Water tastes even better. No getting used to it either...

A surprising amount of what we consume thinking it is sugar is corn syrup / sweetener which is worse.

I agree with #3 Seltzer water is the way to go. Though disagree with the soda part of his recipe, use fruit juice and or tea instead.

Do not add sugar to any mass produced foods, or salt for that manner.

If you want cookies and what not, make them yourself, or buy em from someone who mixes the dough themselves.

There done your no longer consuming too much sugar/sweatner.

For years AHA has been saying limit sugar calories to 100, 6 teaspoons a day, for women, and 150, 9 teaspoons for men. A single 12oz can of soda has about 8 teaspoons, putting women over the limit, and only slightly below it.

Here's a news story from 4 years ago citing the AHA recommendations, and they weren't new then either.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32543288/ns/he…

Yep sugar is pretty fucking bad for you but don't worry about it before you're 40.

JARRITOS!!!!!

I heard sugar is ok if you inject it.

Yeah, I had no problem with sugar-- until I did. Until refined carbs combined with sugar made me faint.

I'm currently staring more-than-probable Adult Onset Diabetes in the face: which includes blurring vision and tintinitis.

So no more sugar for me, or white flour or any other refined carbs, if I can help it.

Which may still be too late.

Is Sugar Toxic (NYT) - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazi…

Bee@11: Veggies and olive oil, sure, cool, but I think you'd find the two books I suggested very interesting. He pulls together a critical review of a hell of lot of scientific literature, and the broad historical perspective he provides in GCBC is particularly unusual. Despite the cheesy sounding titles, neither book reads like just another "diet trend of the year" pamphlet.

"I mean, why not? The FDA doesn't make recommendations about our daily sugar intake like it does with salt and fat."

Maybe I just had a really good bio teacher. I can think of a whole list of 'why nots' when it comes to glucose spikes (and falls), insulin and diabetes.

It's the simple sugars silly.

jesus, just take care of your teeth.

@11 The implication is that reducing the carbs and processed foods (skim milk) in favor of plenty of healthy fat ratios (more omega 3 than 6)--although contra current conventional wisdom standard of low fat diets--seems to show improved health (weight loss, improved lipid panels, reduced blood sugar and blood pressure, etc).

Do I think there's anything definitive there? No way, but there seems to be building evidence for effectiveness of low carb type diets in helping reduce issues encountered with the obesity epidemic.

@23 Oh, and this means increased vegetable consumption far more found in the standard diet as well.

When I worked at the Olympic Hotel, I regularly ate two big fat disgusting jelly donuts every morning without a thought. But then I changed jobs to one where I didn't have to run up and down the six flights of backstairs several times each morning (beautiful hotel, but you always have to go up three flights of steps to get anyplace in it) and it started to show.

I'm supposedly on the top end of the "ideal weight" range for my age, but I have a gut, and I hate it. It's not pretty, and I'm supposed to be the pretty one. Now I'm more stately.

But at the end of the day, it's important to remember Rose Castorini's words "Whatever you do, you're gonna die, just like everybody else"

@20, and it's worth highlighting that Gary is a 100% legit, award winning science writer. That the Crossfitters have been trying to clasp him in their shouty embrace is not to be held against him.

Is Mexican coke better than American coke? I'm assuming you mean coca-cola & not Peruvian bingo dust.

@27 Mexican Coke (coca cola) contains real sugar, not that crappy US high fructose corn syrup as the sweetener.

Over a year ago, I finally gave up soda. I was an addict in the worst way. I said I didn't have a problem with sugar, because I didn't eat a lot of sweets, but that is because I was drinking it all day--5-6 cans minimum.

It was hard, I had to taper off for a month. Eventually, it didn't taste good to me anymore. One reason was I also gave up fast food and processed food, so I wasn't pairing soda with grease. Sounds gross, right? but it was a perfect match of flavors to me, like some people pair wines with food. When I quit eating greasy foods, it was easy to stick with water and unsweet iced teas.

I have succeeded in keeping away from all sodas completely and fast food about 85% and have lost about a 100 pounds in 15 months. I feel amazing, like I am 20 again. I also try not to eat processed foods, but that is only about 50% successful. I don't consider it a diet, just eating better. When you say diet, I go into panic mode and eat more, so I just say I am not eating poorly anymore.

I do think sugar is a drug because it triggers all kinds of physiological responses that make us feel better. I'd like to give it up totally, but unless I retire from society and live in a cabin in the woods that is not going to happen. When I eat sugar, but I try to eat it with a meal or just afterward.

Everything in moderation and it isn't bad for you.

I don't generally like sweet as a flavor. I never eat candy and I think sweet entrees (sweet and sour chicken, etc.) are especially gross.
So what really annoys me is how HFCS is sneaked into EVERYTHING. I don't like sugar! Stop tricking me into eating it in my tomato sauce!

I like to chainsaw juggle while eating chocolate frosted sugar bombs, yum!

I was gonna say, if she switched from Mexican coke to Columbian coke, Cienna would have no weight issues to worry about. Well, except possibly getting too thin. And then there's the hit to her bank account would take. Oh well, whatever, stupid plan anyway.

I heard that eating sugar messes with your eyes: "Eating lots of sugary, starchy foods may increase age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness," sez WebMD.

So, you know. blindness, eventually.

How come all the fun stuff makes you go blind? Life's so unfair.

@29

You give me hope.

I typically drank 3-4 cans in a day, and it's really easy to do where it seems every place I've worked provides a giant cooler full of free soda. It wasn't until a cute girl started working with me a month or two ago that I started feeling self-conscious about my appearance, and by extension, my sugar intake. I think I've drank the equivalent of one can since she started. I still drink one here and there outside of work, but it's a huge decrease from my previous habit. I've already started to see a difference when I step on a scale.

I guess what I'm saying is that proximity to attractive people you hope to impress is a good motivator. Would that it could help everyone.

The butter in cookies encapsulates the sugar and renders it harmless.