jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

GMO food has been getting bad publicity, but scientists have always been fooling around with our food.

http://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-fruits-and-vegetables-looked-like-before-we-domesticated-them?action_object_map=%5B800846636710258%5D&action_ref_map=&action_type_map=%5B%22og.shares%22%5D

davefales Loc: Virginia

Read "Wheat Belly" to learn how non-GMO hybridization has changed wheat for the worse.

"two slices of whole grain bread increases blood sugar higher than 6 teaspoons of table sugar"...or two Snickers bars.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

That's why I don't use whole wheat when I make bread

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

So instead of a whole wheat cereal for breakfast I should eat 2 snickers bars?

davefales Loc: Virginia

If your goal is to spike your blood sugar level. :D :D :D

Kraken Loc: Barry's Bay

I quit eating bread and pasta and anything made with flour and cut way back on my sugar intake and have lost 48 lbs. since last April.

davefales Loc: Virginia

:thumbup: :thumbup:

machia Loc: NJ

I saw an article about the affect on preservatives on the human body . While its goal is to preserve shelf life and increased safety from food poisoning by spoilage , chemicals that acheive this are in large amounts carcinogens . And the most alarming fact is the affects of food that contain hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils . This method of molecular manipulation has caused cardiovascular problems to skyrocket since the 1950's . And the culprit is the by-product of this hydrogenation . It's called Trans Fats and is in practically everything . Peanut butter , margarine , cake and cake mixes , almost all processed foods , and the list goes on . Even when labels state 0.00 trans fats in some hydrogenated products , it is actually a misleading number based on portions .
The best way to avoid trans fats is to eat as basic as you can , eat hydrogenated foods in moderation and try to ultimately avoid them altogether . The article stated that trans fats are so bad , that it would be better to eat saturated fats , animal fat rather than a trans fat , which according to the article is responsible for the sharp rise in cardiovascular disease starting in the 1950's .
I remember having to pass a tough physical exam in 1990 , and in preparation for this exam I worked out everyday and watched everything I ate for 3 months . Not only did I feel better but my cholesterol which was always borderline , I guess due to my love for pizza etc. , fell to 80 !
I guess we are what we eat .

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Great news! now I have a good excuse to eat Snickers bars. :D

Yes, a lot of our so-called food is really messed up.

Take a look at what's in one food we eat on a regular basis.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Which is why I simply roll up my salami and cheese and put it between two Snickers bars. The all in one meal.
--Bob
8-)

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Now that is a bold statement. I would like a citation.

WRONG

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=grams%20of%20sugar%20in%20a%20slice%20of%20whole%20wheat%20bread

1.6 grams of sugar in two slices of whole wheat bread

There are 20 grams in one snicker bar.

Where do you get this misinformation?

ole sarg Loc: south florida

If the food is so dangerous and so bad why are we living longer? In fact, our longevity seems to have a high correlation with the safety of our food and water supply. The greatest sci/medical advance in relation to longevity was and remains water purificaton.

Yes cutting back on carbs will cause weight loss as will exercise.

BTW the only energy source for the brain is sugar!

davefales Loc: Virginia

Sorry I should have been more careful. Two slices of whole wheat bread have the same effect on raising blood sugar as two Snickers. You might find the book informative.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Congratulations! That is a healthy thing to do!

IF YOU NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT:
All carbs are turned into sugar in the intestine. When we absorb sugar our pancreas pumps out insulin which is needed for sugar to get in to cells to be burned for fuel. However, insulin is also a hormone which tells the body: "Yeah! We have CARBS coming in! Start making FAT!" And this allows the quick utilization of that sugar and makes you hungry for more within a few hours. This used to serve a very important purpose - imagine living in a temperate climate hundreds or thousands of years ago. No freezers, no canning jars, no grocery store... When most of the carbohydrate foods were available was at the end of the summer and the fall - and you needed to eat as much and store it for the winter the only way available - in your body fat. Just like a bear, if you had a decent amount of body fat you might survive the winter, and females would be more likely to keep the species going if they had some extra body fat. But we do not hibernate - and during winter months there were no carbohydrate foods generally available - game might be killed for food. Some cultures had dried meat or fish. Without the availability of carbohydrate foods there is no need for the organism to be constantly hungry -and it wasn't!

Even Darwin observed this: omnivores like monkeys exhibited hunger from the moment they awoke until they went to sleep - the entire day was spent searching for food and eating anything available. Carnivores like lions did not have this behavior. They lay around for hours or days, and then would eventually kill something and eat for a while, then hang out... He related this to the gaucho cowboys of Argentina, with whom he spent several weeks. He had heard the legends that the gauchos had no hunger - and he saw that when on a trail drive, they only ate dried beef or killed a calf to eat - they had a strictly carnivorous diet - and they could indeed ride for several days between meals and did not complain of hunger.

So - all of this explains the great benefit of going carb-free if you need to lose weight. "Lean-and-green" as they say. And even if not going totally carb-free, if you just stop bringing bread, crackers, pasta, and cereal in to the house (and do not use sugar!) you will lose a lot of weight. Doing a full-on low-carb diet gets very old, though. Some foods, such as beans and corn, are carbohydrate foods that we generally do not over-eat. One way to broaden out the low-carb diet is to only eat carbohydrate foods if you will be exercising afterwards - like walking for 45-60 minutes. Exercise dramatically reduces the need for insulin to be produced. I did the low-carb diet for five months and lost a lot of weight, even though I allowed myself to "cheat" - I would have a cookie or a glass of orange juice - but only before I went for a walk. This allowed me to not feel so deprived but also gave me motivation to walk! (Mind games can be important when you are trying to lose weight!) -Stephen Blythe, photographer, physician, educator - and nutritionist

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

1. Absolutely correct about longevity - and safe food and water have especially reduced infant and child mortality - which increases the number for "average longevity". So many people do not understand this and when they refer to the average longevity 250 years ago being 45 years they think there were no old people around. In fact, if you lived to make it to 20 back then you had almost as good a chance of living to 80 as you do now. (Of course, we have cars and tobacco killing a lot of us off early these days).

3. After a week or so without carbohydrates (sugar) the brain can turn on enzymes which can burn ketones (formed by the breakdown of fats) for fuel. The 600 Calories or so per day needed by the brain can then come from dietary or body fat. This is one reason the low-carb diets can be helpful (as long as the total calories consumed is lower than burned off). Some cultures, such as the Eskimos, traditionally lived on a diet with no carbs whatsoever (and they never got scurvy). Anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stafansson lived for over a year with the Eskimo in the early 1900's and documented carefully their lifestyle, including diet. People thought he was a fraud because a number of arctic expeditions had previously met with great tragedy with most of the members dying from scurvy. In response he and another researcher spent a year living on nothing but meat in a research center after his return, simply to prove that it was indeed possible. The early days of nutrition research were pretty interesting!