Health for life

(Article first published as Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Linked to Diabetes and Abdominal Fat? on Technorati.)
As Americans continue to fight a losing battle in the war against abdominal fat, newly emerging information from the Endocrine Society implicates high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) with the metabolic disorder which leads to diabetes and storage of fat around the waist. HFCS is found in virtually every processed food and drink available on grocery store shelves because it’s inexpensive to produce, and readily available due to government subsidies.

Extensive research reveals that HFCS is metabolized much differently than regular sugar by the body. Although HFCS contains about the same amount of calories as sugar, the calories don’t register as being consumed by the brain, causing you to eat more before you feel full. Additionally, HFCS consumed from an early age affects the immature fat cells, forcing higher numbers to become mature abdominal fat cells in adult life.

HFCS promotes belly fat from early childhood, a problem with significant health implications considering the massive amounts of sweetened, processed foods and soft drinks consumed by children and teens. This research underlines the critical importance of eliminating HFCS from our diet at an early age, allowing our metabolism to release stored fat and lose weight naturally. Follow these steps to flush HFCS from your diet.

Step 1: Eliminate Soft Drinks and Fruit Juices
Americans consume nearly 45 pounds of HFCS every year, and one of the primary sources is sweetened beverages. Soft drinks and fruit juices contain between 150 and 200 calories per serving, and those calories don’t register as part of the total caloric intake for the day. This means that calories from HFCS sweetened drinks are much more likely to be stored directly as abdominal fat, making it very difficult to lose weight. Substitute water and tea which can be sweetened with the natural sweetener stevia, if necessary.

Step 2: Avoid Fast Foods and Processed Foods
Fast food is notorious for providing little nutritional value, and it’s loaded with HFCS in items you may not even suspect. In an effort to make their offerings more appealing to the taste buds, fast food makers pump high fructose corn syrup into shakes, salad dressings, chocolate milk, condiments, hamburger buns and even certain meats have been injected with the sweetener.

Virtually all processed and ined foods are laced with high amounts of the obesity sweetener. Read nutritional labels on all processed food items with a special eye on ketchup, pancake and cake mixes, luncheon meats and hot dogs. Substitute foods in their natural form which haven’t been created in a food manufacturing lab. Choose not to be a test subject in this very dangerous experiment.

Step 3: Choose 100% Organic Foods
Choose foods that remain in their most natural form which are typically found in the outer aisles in most food markets. When reading labels, look for ‘100% organic’, as this is your only guarantee no HFCS or other chemical contaminants have been added. Fill up on plenty of raw, leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and unprocessed meats to avoid the temptation from HFCS laced foods. Be caul to limit fruit consumption, as fructose is fruit sugar, and in excess can cause many of the same problems as its processed twin.

High fructose corn syrup is a metabolically active, unnatural sweetener which has been shown to alter the normal distribution of fat in the body. Humans didn’t evolve to process calories from HFCS, as it has only been in the food supply for the last 40 years. Help children and your family develop a healthy diet which is free of HFCS by reading all food labels and avoiding fast and processed foods, sugary drinks and fruit juices. Weight loss will be a welcome side effect as belly fat is naturally released and health is rapidly restored.

I dont want to say again and again that most of our dinner will be either salads or soups. For this weeks blogging marathon, am posting this quick,easy peasy and mildly tangy salad as my choice of theme for this week is Mango. In my previous post, i said that mango are showing their head in Indian groceries here and we couldnt resist to them and i picked some fresh raw mangoes from there few days back.

Seriously i never tried my hands in salad with raw mangoes, this time i really want to give a try and finally i did. Trust me, if you are mango lovers like me, am sure that you will definitely go crazy after having this salad. Sweetness of corn and carrot balance very well the tanginess of the raw mango and the crushed peanuts,sesame seeds gives a wonderful flavour to this simple salad. I didnt prepared any special dressing for this salad,just served them with salt,white pepper powder and olive oil. Give a try friends, am sure you guys will definitely love this fabulous salad.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 28th edition.Sending this salad to my own event Healthy Diet-Healthy Salads by Archana of The Mad Scientists Kitchen and to my another event CWS-Peanuts hosted by me.


1no Raw Mango (large & julienned)
2nos Carrots (medium size & julienned)
1cup Sweet corn kernels (canned)
Handful of raw peanuts (crushed)
1tbsp Sesame seeds
Salt
White pepper powder
Oilve oil (as per need)

Take the julienned raw mango pieces, carrot pieces,sweet corns in a bowl,give a mix.

Now add the crushed peanuts, sesame seeds to the veggies,give a mix.

Meanwhile take the salt,pepper powder,olive oil in a bowl,mix it and keep this dressing aside.

While serving the salad, add the already prepared dressing generously to salad, give a mix and serve.

Foxtail millet is one of the forgotten grains cooked earlier in some part of Tamilnadu and this is called as Thinai in tamil, its offered to Lord Muruga as prasadam. Millet flour mixed with honey is often offered to this god. There is a wonderful story behind this offerings and its a custom to give this millet flour mixed with honey as prasadhams to the devotees.