Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Note to self: Next time I feel like bingeing, look at all the photos on this website. It makes me want to stay away from food and become a vegetarian all at the same time.

• Top 10 Disgusting Foods - The List Universe

Their list of the Top Ten Most Disgusting Foods are as follows:

1. Snake Blood and Bile
2. Balut - Duck Fetus
3. Bee Larvae
4. Spiders
5. Monkeys Brains
6. Rats
7. Caterpilla Fungus
8. Bird Spit
9. Ox Penis
10. Kopi Luwak: Rodent Feces

Their names alone don’t sound too bad, but when you see all the photos and the descriptions of what they are, it makes me want to stop eating for at least an hour.

We are celebrating another Valentine’s Day the healthy way. You can read how to do it here:

• Starling Fitness » Have a Healthy Valentine’s Day

• Starling Fitness » Valentine’s Breakfast In Bed

• Starling Fitness » Choose a Healthy Valentine’s Dinner

So many times, we try to love each other by feeding. It’s a basic human drive to want to feed the ones we love. Our tribe must endure and if there is an abundance of food, they should eat as much as they can because we want them to be able to survive a famine.

Fortunately, our nation hasn’t seen a famine for a LONG time. The irony of our biological instincts is that sometimes they don’t work. In this case, it might be more loving if we DIDN’T feed our loved ones.

Remember that this holiday!

It looks like Sheldon finally noticed that Cookie Monster doesn’t eat cookies anymore. While I categorically disagree with removing that bit of Sesame Street lore from the beloved children’s show, I’m not against changing fairytales in general. Check out this comic from Dave Kellett:

• Sheldon™ Comic Strip: Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett

In the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel, the children are lured into the clutches of a bad witch with a gingerbread house. Something BAD happens to them when they eat too much candy and sweets. That’s one fairytale that doesn’t need revamping for a healthy lifestyle.

This week’s US Weekly reads:

Jessica’s Agony
Bullied For Her Weight
Her rage over ‘fat’ insults
Suddenly back with a trainer
Tony’s reaction and did he cheat?
How she’s tortured…

Do they think that we don’t remember? Did we forget WHO is bullying her?

Just in case we did, last week’s US Weekly got left behind. US Weekly isn’t some “nice” tabloid that’s trying to protect poor Jessica Simpson. They were the ones who were perfectly happy to post the photos and repeat the “Jumbo Jessica” insult.

Bad form, US Weekly, bad form.

This week, Dawn Porter goes to Los Angeles to further her goal to get to a Size Zero.

She goes to Barry’s Boot Camp in West Hollywood to see how the celebrities workout. She also interviews Debbie Matenopoulos, who has been a size zero on how she maintains her weight. She said:

“The thinner that people become the more roles [in Hollywood] that they seem to get. Right now I’m a size 2-4, but I was a size zero. I’m a size 25 jean.”

She stands up and shows Dawn her waistline. Dawn asks, “How do you maintain that?” Debbie replies,

“You don’t eat. It’s a HARD thing. It’s so easy to get caught up in it. I went on a fast for 18 days and did not eat food. Not an ounce. I was drinking these Chinese herbs, this brown water, and doing yoga and being very sad. And I kept saying, ‘I’m very calm. Food just distracts you from really what’s going on.” All my friends kept saying, ‘You don’t have oxygen going to your brain. That’s why you think this.’”

THAT’S what people are doing to get to size zero.

Next week, Dawn goes to Venice Beach to see if normal people are just as obsessed with being size zero as the celebrities in Hollywood.

I got this question in the comments the other day:

Hi,
I am type 2 diabetic.May I use organic cane sugar as a sweetener instead of splenda?
Thanks
manoucher

Dear Manoucher,

Firstly, it’s NEVER a good idea to get medical advice from the Internet. My favorite quote from Chasing Windmills is true in every case:

If you trust Google more than your doctor then maybe it’s time to switch doctors.

Jadelr and Cristina Cordova, Chasing Windmills, 08-21-06

That said, it seems the question is whether organic cane sugar will affect a diabetic the same as NORMAL sugar. Can you use organic cane sugar instead of Splenda?

The answer to that question is NO.

Just because something is organic doesn’t automatically mean it’s healthy. Organic cane sugar is still SUGAR. It has the word right in its name. It will effect you the same way as white sugar or high fructose corn syrup or any of the other foods that are restricted for diabetics.

The reason why so many people prefer organic cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup is because they think it TASTES better. I’m not sure whether that’s true or not. Personally, I can’t tell the difference between USA Coca-Cola (made with high fructose corn syrup) and Mexican Coca-Cola (made with cane sugar), but a lot of people say they can tell the difference.

If you’re diabetic, however, organic cane sugar acts exactly the same in your body as beet sugar or corn syrup. They are all simple carbohydrates that break down easily in the body and wreak havoc on insulin levels.

Remember to talk to your doctor, but if you’re diabetic, I think you should stay away from ALL sugars.

Good luck,
Laura Moncur

Back in April of 2007, I wrote an entry about Diet Coke Plus:

• Starling Fitness » Diet Coke Plus

Back then, I said:

Just because they added a few vitamins and minerals doesn’t mean it’s any healthier for you. If you enjoy Diet Coke, don’t bother spending the extra money for this. You don’t need a multi-vitamin in your soda when you eat whole foods in healthy portions.

I still believe that’s true, but it’s supremely pleasing to know that the FDA believes the same thing. Here is a copy of the FDA’s warning letter to Coca-Cola for their product, Diet Coke Plus:

• FDA Warning Letter to Coca-Cola

They are bothered because the word “plus” is supposed to indicate more nutrients than a reference and they didn’t provide that information, but this is even more damning:

Your product Diet Coke Plus is a carbonated beverage. The policy on fortification states that the FDA does not consider it appropriate to fortify snack foods such as carbonated beverages.

It took a year and a half for the FDA to smack down Coca-Cola, but they were eventually able to get them. I’m glad to know that they are doing their best to take care of American consumers.

The BBC has created this BRILLIANT documentary called Super Slim Me. Dawn Porter is a healthy reporter who never had to diet in her life. She looks gorgeous at the beginning of the documentary, hires a team of doctors and nutritionists and embarks on the goal of getting to Size Zero.

She starts with a beautiful 33 inch waist and a VERY healthy BMI of 22. Here is part one:

She sets up a dietary regime with her nutritionist of 500 calories a day. All she eats during the day would look like this:

This is NOT a healthy diet and she knows it. That’s why she has a team of doctors monitoring her progress during this experiment.

Tune in next week to see Part two of the BBC’s Super Slim Me.

The tabloids are in a tizzy about Jessica Simpson. They have decided that only the most anorexic of our stars are worthy of positive attention. Jessica Simpson has finally gotten to a NORMAL weight and they have deemed her “Jumbo Jessica.”

• Curvier Jessica Simpson dukes it out with tabloids - USATODAY.com

The tormenting has gotten so bad that Jessica’s sister, Ashlee, has spoken out:

“I am completely disgusted by the headlines concerning my sister’s weight,” Ashlee Simpson-Wentz said Tuesday on her blog.

“All women come in different shapes, sizes, and forms, and just because you’re a celebrity, there shouldn’t be a different standard.”

When Jessica Simpson was working out four hours a day to get her Daisy Duke figure, the tabloids blasted her for being too thin. They said that she was anorexic. Now that she is a little curvier, they’re calling her fat. Is there anything good enough for the tabloids?

Next time you see those newspapers at the checkout stand, don’t even look at them. Don’t consider buying them. Just pass them on by, because if Jessica Simpson is “Jumbo” what does that make the rest of the women on the planet? Tabloid magazines are just misogyny in action. Don’t let them get any of your money.

Photo via: Curvier Jessica Simpson dukes it out with tabloids - USATODAY.com

Daisy Duke photo via: a pro-ana site for “thinspiration.” NO LINK FOR YOU!

Yesterday, we watched the video for Weight Bias at Home and School, but this one is even MORE important. Weight Bias in Healthcare is FAR more dangerous and pervasive. It doesn’t matter what your ailment, if you go into a doctor as an overweight adult, they will ALWAYS blame your weight and make assumptions about your eating habits.

I’m sure doctors watch this video and think that it’s blown out of proportion, but this is EXACTLY the kind of health “care” I received when I was at my highest weight. If you think that you have been discriminated against by any healthcare professional, don’t go back to them. If it’s a nurse or desk staff, mention it to the doctor, but if the doctor shows the same disregard, find a new one. That’s what I did and now it’s MUCH easier going in for a yearly check up.

Via: Rudd Sound Bites: Rudd Center Releases Videos on Weight Bias