The truth about High Fructose Corn Syrup

There is a lot of confusing information out there about high fructose corn syrup.  First were the claims that it was linked to obesity because more and more things were made from it. Unfortunately there was no proof provided to back that up.  The corn refiners took advantage of that and started advertising campaigns like this commercial.

So does that mean that it is the same as cane sugar?  Not quite.

What is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)? It is made from corn. The corn is ground down into corn starch, the starch is refined into a glucose syrup and then enzymes are added to turn the glucose into fructose.  When all is said and done the mixture is about 55% fructose.  Both glucose and fructose are naturally occurring substances while not normally in the quantities we consume them. So we have established that  HFCS is made from corn and that it is refined into a naturally occurring substance in foods like apples.  So far the commercial is right on.  It also says that it is fine in moderation.  Also true.  If you are able to control your consumption of HFCS it does not have any severe side effects.

How does HFCS interact with the body? Recent studies are finding that your body's need to eat is heavily influenced by 2 hormones leptin and ghrelin. These 2 hormones are always in balance. Leptin checks to see if you have enough energy stores.  If you are eating regularly then your leptin level rises and tells the brain that it can burn as many calories as it likes because you have the reserves.  If you do not have the available energy then your ghrelin level rises and tells the brain that we need to conserve energy.  This will cause you to stop burning fat and become hungry.

When that check is made to see how much fuel you have available the body does not recognize fructose and a real energy source.  This means that you will not burn calories as fast and it will take more time to burn the calories you took in. You can read more about leptin and ghrelin here.

So what do we do? High fructose corn syrup is in much of what we eat.  You don't have to avoid it all together just be aware of how much you are consuming.  There are alternative to the more popular products that contain HFCS.  Pepsi has made strides to put original cane sugar back in it's drinks with it's "throwback" line.

Main point: Don't just listen to the talking heads.  These days no one is going to find out the entire story for you least of all the popular media.  Be aware of what you put in your body and how it effects you.  Here is a challenge for you: The next thing you eat that has nutritional facts on it, pick a ingredient you don't recognize and look it up.  Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good for you and just because it's artificial doesn't mean it's bad.  As George Carlin said "crap is all natural, that doesn't mean I want to eat it."

Happy living
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Ab Myth - it's not muscle it's fat!

I have heard some of the craziest things in the world regarding abs.  One of them being he's not strong he's fat. Granted this is the exception rather than the rule.  Many people think that you can target belly fat by doing tons of ab workouts.  That is only going to work if you already have an extremely low body fat to begin with.  You will build your abdominal muscles and there are some fantastic benefits to that, but there won't be anything visible. This is why many of the Strength competition guys look like they have extra belly.  It's really just a small layer of fat over the muscle.  Also for people that are trying to gain a lot of muscle, also called 'hard gainers', consuming enough food to grow muscle without gaining a little fat is extremely difficult if not impossible.  Did you know the guys and girls you see in bodybuilding competitions are normally weaker during competition than the rest of the year?  That's because they eat more to pack on the muscle and then eat less and do more carido to have the lowest body fat possible to compete.

 

Let's break this down a little though.  For those of us not entering a strong man or body building competition any time soon, the logic is much simpler.  If you have enough willpower to keep working those abs to the point where you can see that area getting bigger, you are still working out more than the average American. More muscle also means you burn more calories so if you have not been increasing your calorie intake you should be loosing weight. The best way would be to work on all muscle groups evenly.  Even if you could get just your abs and nothing else, would you really want to be as over balanced as this guy? 

 

My personal experience with this was in high school.  I wasn't athletic and didn't participate in sports but I did get into kickboxing.  It was mainly cardio but we did plenty of crunches, planks, and pushups as well.  However not giving a damn about being healthy (as teenagers normally don't) I finished every workout session off with a Mountain Dew and anything that I was burning I was eating more to compensate.  Not on purpose, just because I was hungry more often. Point is my abs were getting bigger but my body fat percentage wasn't going down any.  My aunt noticed that I was filling out and told me I needed to slim down.  I explained my situation and she laughed at me.  She told me that I was silly and working out tighted up the fat.  You are allowed to laugh all I could do was sit and stare at her dumbfounded. Point is that you can get bad information from anyone even if they mean well.

Granted you are talking to someone who sill doesn't have defined abs so feel free to believe what you will. However if you want the lowdown from a professional here is my favorite article on the subject.



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Pictures by sumoman.co  CC-BY

About me, myself, and my blog

So the other day someone wanted to know what "Before you Actuate" meant.  So I figured anyone reading this might like an explanation as well.  The whole business started with my friend Ray/Sebron and his YouTube channel. He had done a few videos before but was starting the YTO (YouTube Orbit) the objective is to post 1 video a day for an entire year.  It doesn't have to be long or very interesting but there needs to be one a day with the opportunity for a few misses. As of today he has reached 310 videos so almost there.  Which when you see the extremely long list of people who have failed trying to do this it is a very impressive feat. 

So watching these got me interested in video and editing so I got hold of some software and started messing around.  I released a video on 11/11/11 just because I thought it was cool.  It really wasn't much of anything but I wanted to be able to say I put up my first video on that date.  The video was all old footage I had taken with different cameras over a very long period of time so it had no point to it.  It just looking like a movie trailer for nothing.  Somehow that snip-it got a ton of hits at least for a first video on a channel with nothing else on it.  That channel is called SelfActuate.  The thought process behind that was that I wanted to do fun exciting things and share them on an epic scale.  To actualize my hopes, dreams, plans, and whatnot.  I only made one other video for that channel and decided that I needed to refine my skills a bit.  So I jumped over to an old channel I had set up with the intention of posting stupid videos to practice with.  Come to find out vlogging or video blogging is a thing and people actually started watching what I posted.  That channel became SAVY SelfActuate Vlog on YouTube.  Corny but everything on that channel is so it fits.  I have still been uploading videos there that have a little less production time to them.

 I had started my masters program around that time as well so as time was getting short I've made less and less.  I wanted a place to write down ideas I had for videos that were never made so I was trying to track them here.  So the original concept was before the SelfActuate video there is the blog. Hence "Before You Actuate".  However since then it has taken on a bit of a different meaning.  I've always been into fitness but more so recently.  Now the title has come to mean "before you try this be prepared" or for geeks "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."  So my new goal is to put together what I'm doing fitness wise and share what I find and let you know if it works or not.  Hope your enjoying so far!

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PS: I should have some new videos up soon and they may even be health related!

Meal Plans?

An article on one of my favorite sites explains how you should be breaking down your diet on a good workout plan.  So I thought I would give it a shot and at least compare what I am doing to what I should be doing. Here is the link if you want to try it out for yourselves.

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/how-to-create-a-bodybuilding-diet.html
So here’s how it works. Use the calculator here to determine how many calories you should be taking in per day. This is a common calculation and worked out the same for the My Fitness Pal mobile app.  Next you break down the calories into 30% protein, 50% carbs, and 20% protein.  (Yea I was never a big fan of Atkins either) turn the calories into grams (use the site) and then divide each one by the number of meals per day.

For me that was 2500 cals per day
Protein 750 = 187.5g
Carbs 1250 = 312.5g
Fat 500 = 56g

At 6 meals per day (which is about what you should be doing to keep your metab up and gain more nutrients from what your eating) My Per meal is

P 31.5
C 52
F 9.3

What I like best about the article is whether you buy into the numbers or not there is a nice long list on the best places to get your healthy Proteins, Carbs, and fats.

Based on this it looks like I’m getting what I need from the right areas but I’m over doing it it the fat section and not getting quite enough in the protein area.  Considering the new workout routine I’m trying this might be an issue.  Another interesting fact is that fat slows down the digestion process so the meal/snack/supplement you have after a workout should contain as little fat as possible.  Point being that while you might feel nice and manly after pumping serious iron at the gym your not helping yourself by having a big steak.  My issue is that I mix my protein with skim milk that has less fat in it but it’s still there.
I also did some research on body fat percentage and was told that once a week was not to often even though my gym says once a month. hmmmm  Wonder they are just tired of seeing me shirtless?  Oh well.  I also found that the caliper system isn’t the most reliable and changes dramatically when you change who is performing the test.  My last test said 14% and the one before that 17% only a month before but with a different person.  I didn’t even bother tracking it.  At least if you stay with the same person you know what direction your going in.  So my new and more precise goal (for now is to gain weight while lowering body fat percentage or at least keeping it the same.  Once I bulk a little I can break out the Insanity videos again and slim down in a hurry.  At least it worked that way last time.

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