Well, well, well... More Fat Research
Mar. 24th, 2010 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polimicksI have news of more studies on fat and weight loss.
First we have this study (http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/), which demonstrates that consumption of HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) leads to more weight gain than a comparable intake of actual sugar. The study also demonstrates that rats fed a diet that includes HFCS not only become obese, but have other symptoms usually attributed to just being fat in general, metabolic disorders, higher rates of triglycerides, and more visceral fat, the fat most recently blamed for diabetes. Rats fed a diet of the same amount of calories, without HFCS do not have those problems, nor do they get obese.
Now, I know a lot of you will just start bleating, "Well, just stop eating HFCS!"
You really don't know how difficult that is, do you? Once my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, we made a concerted effort to weed HFCS out of our diet.* You would not believe the things it's in: ketchup, bread, fruit juice, many yogurts, most packaged foods, soup... I could go on and on. If someone lives in a food desert or does not have the time to prepare meals from scratch, like we do now, they're fucked. You can't get away from the stuff. I found it listed in the ingredients of bread I bought at our hippie, organic grocery store.
It has taken a LOT of effort on our part to get HFCS out of our diet, and it's expensive. The stuff without HFCS just plain costs more. It takes time, you HAVE to read labels, as the FDA (under Bush, btw) neutered the power of "organic" claims.
Ok, next study, found on Jezebel: http://jezebel.com/5500912/latest-in-unrealistic-exercise-recommendations-a-full-hour-every-day Ok, US federal guidelines are athat peole get 150 minutes of exercise a week for health benefits. That works out to a little over 20 minutes a day. The study cited by Jezebel says that in order to not gain weight, people (women) should work out at least an hour a day. Ok, the thing that Jezebel, and I, would like to point out, is that hour a day is not to LOSE weight, but just to not gain any.
Further articles on the study reveal that the study says that the hour a day of exercise to not gain weight only worked on women who had a BMI of less than 25 to begin with. It didn't do shit for the women with higher BMIs: http://www.livescience.com/health/weight-gain-exercise-overweight-100324.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Livesciencecom+(LiveScience.com+Science+Headline+Feed)
This backs up another study (http://www.livescience.com/health/090106-exercise-obesity.html) which points out that fat women generally have exercise levels the same as thinner women. That article points it all at diet, which may be true considering the women in Chicago probably have diets loaded with HFCS, by virtue of being in this country and in a city notorious for food deserts. BUT it also does not rule out genetics, because yes, all the women in the study are of "African" descent (African American women in Chicago, Nigerian women in Nigeria), but they do not mention any attempts to make sure that the African American women are actually of Nigerian descent. Africa's a big place, cupcake, and there are a LOT of different genetic pools all over that great big continent.
Unfortunately, the LiveScience folks didn't give me enough info to look up the actual study, although maybe when I have more time to wade through results, I might give it a shot.
So, yeah, as the government funds more research into obesity, and relies less on research funded by the diet industrial complex, we're finding more and more evidence that the "Thin is Healthy" and "Calories in/Calories out" party lines are bullshit.
*I think it's worth noting that while, when we cut HCFS, he lost 45 lbs (no longer drinking a six pack of Coke a day will do that), I lost nothing. For starters, because I don't drink pop as a rule, anyway, and so couldn't cut it. Though we do eat pretty much the exact same stuff.
ETA: Actual HCFS study http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T0N-4YGHGM1-1&_user=582538&_coverDate=02%2F26%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000029718&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=582538&md5=a4aa1ceb69a7b128aac56f9668239dbd
And a refutation of said study: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/03/does-high-fructose-corn-syrup-make-you-fatter.ars Whose conclusion seems to be, "Well, they're probably right, but sloppy."
ETA 2: Ok, since I will bow to those with superior knowledge of the scientific process (I'm a History major, with a Marxist bent, yo) that the aforementioned study is flawed. HOWEVER, this does not mean that the premise that HFCS is bad is wrong. If you go to the study bibiliography you will find other less flawed research that pre-dated this study, and inspired it.
First we have this study (http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/), which demonstrates that consumption of HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) leads to more weight gain than a comparable intake of actual sugar. The study also demonstrates that rats fed a diet that includes HFCS not only become obese, but have other symptoms usually attributed to just being fat in general, metabolic disorders, higher rates of triglycerides, and more visceral fat, the fat most recently blamed for diabetes. Rats fed a diet of the same amount of calories, without HFCS do not have those problems, nor do they get obese.
Now, I know a lot of you will just start bleating, "Well, just stop eating HFCS!"
You really don't know how difficult that is, do you? Once my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, we made a concerted effort to weed HFCS out of our diet.* You would not believe the things it's in: ketchup, bread, fruit juice, many yogurts, most packaged foods, soup... I could go on and on. If someone lives in a food desert or does not have the time to prepare meals from scratch, like we do now, they're fucked. You can't get away from the stuff. I found it listed in the ingredients of bread I bought at our hippie, organic grocery store.
It has taken a LOT of effort on our part to get HFCS out of our diet, and it's expensive. The stuff without HFCS just plain costs more. It takes time, you HAVE to read labels, as the FDA (under Bush, btw) neutered the power of "organic" claims.
Ok, next study, found on Jezebel: http://jezebel.com/5500912/latest-in-unrealistic-exercise-recommendations-a-full-hour-every-day Ok, US federal guidelines are athat peole get 150 minutes of exercise a week for health benefits. That works out to a little over 20 minutes a day. The study cited by Jezebel says that in order to not gain weight, people (women) should work out at least an hour a day. Ok, the thing that Jezebel, and I, would like to point out, is that hour a day is not to LOSE weight, but just to not gain any.
Further articles on the study reveal that the study says that the hour a day of exercise to not gain weight only worked on women who had a BMI of less than 25 to begin with. It didn't do shit for the women with higher BMIs: http://www.livescience.com/health/weight-gain-exercise-overweight-100324.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Livesciencecom+(LiveScience.com+Science+Headline+Feed)
This backs up another study (http://www.livescience.com/health/090106-exercise-obesity.html) which points out that fat women generally have exercise levels the same as thinner women. That article points it all at diet, which may be true considering the women in Chicago probably have diets loaded with HFCS, by virtue of being in this country and in a city notorious for food deserts. BUT it also does not rule out genetics, because yes, all the women in the study are of "African" descent (African American women in Chicago, Nigerian women in Nigeria), but they do not mention any attempts to make sure that the African American women are actually of Nigerian descent. Africa's a big place, cupcake, and there are a LOT of different genetic pools all over that great big continent.
Unfortunately, the LiveScience folks didn't give me enough info to look up the actual study, although maybe when I have more time to wade through results, I might give it a shot.
So, yeah, as the government funds more research into obesity, and relies less on research funded by the diet industrial complex, we're finding more and more evidence that the "Thin is Healthy" and "Calories in/Calories out" party lines are bullshit.
*I think it's worth noting that while, when we cut HCFS, he lost 45 lbs (no longer drinking a six pack of Coke a day will do that), I lost nothing. For starters, because I don't drink pop as a rule, anyway, and so couldn't cut it. Though we do eat pretty much the exact same stuff.
ETA: Actual HCFS study http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T0N-4YGHGM1-1&_user=582538&_coverDate=02%2F26%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000029718&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=582538&md5=a4aa1ceb69a7b128aac56f9668239dbd
And a refutation of said study: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/03/does-high-fructose-corn-syrup-make-you-fatter.ars Whose conclusion seems to be, "Well, they're probably right, but sloppy."
ETA 2: Ok, since I will bow to those with superior knowledge of the scientific process (I'm a History major, with a Marxist bent, yo) that the aforementioned study is flawed. HOWEVER, this does not mean that the premise that HFCS is bad is wrong. If you go to the study bibiliography you will find other less flawed research that pre-dated this study, and inspired it.
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Date: 2010-03-24 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-24 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-24 05:55 pm (UTC)Trader Joes I get my coffee and luna bars at, though, because I can't beat their prices. (And they have a better selection of fair trade coffees.)
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Date: 2010-03-24 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-24 07:10 pm (UTC)