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

Aspartame is the artificial sweetener that has taken over almost EVERY diet product on the market. Even though there are many artificial sweeteners available, aspartame seems to be the favorite right now. It’s also the favorite scapegoat of many groups, saying that aspartame was pushed through the FDA approval process and is the cause of a wide number of ailments.

The European Ramazzini Foundation in Bologna, Italy conducted a study on aspartame which stated that it caused cancer. The FDA has released their review of that study here:

• US FDA/CFSAN – FDA Statement on European Aspartame Study

They asked for the data and the ERF provided some, but not all the data. They also refused to let the FDA review the pathological slides, which are thin slices of the organs of the test animals mounted on slides so they can be analyzed. Based on the data that they DID receive, here are their findings.

Additionally, the data that were provided to FDA do not appear to support the aspartame-related findings reported by ERF. Based on our review, pathological changes were incidental and appeared spontaneously in the study animals, and none of the histopathological changes reported appear to be related to treatment with aspartame. FDA believes that additional insight on the study findings could be provided by an internationally-sponsored pathology working group examination of appropriate tissue slides from the study.

Considering results from the large number of studies on aspartame’s safety, including five previously conducted negative chronic carcinogenicity studies, a recently reported large epidemiology study with negative associations between the use of aspartame and the occurrence of tumors, and negative findings from a series of three transgenic mouse assays, FDA finds no reason to alter its previous conclusion that aspartame is safe as a general purpose sweetener in food.

To be honest, aspartame is fake food. It makes things sweet like sugar does, but doesn’t add calories. It hasn’t even been proven to help you lose weight. It might be safe to eat, but there are doubts as to whether it’s the best for you. If you have a diet soda addiction, then you can rest easy knowing that the FDA has reviewed its safety and still deems it safe, but remember that nothing quenches thirst better than water.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, May 1 2007

“Why does he have to change balls?” I asked when I was playing on the softball team a couple of years ago.

“Because if we used the girl’s ball, the guys would always hit them out of the park,” he answered.

“Why don’t we just use the guy’s ball all the time?” I naively asked.

He didn’t have an answer.

I found out in the middle of a softball game that there is different sports equipment for women and men, but did you know HOW many sports are different? The Apple Lady over at The Daily Apple has the specifics:

• The Daily Apple: Apple #240: Women’s vs Men’s Sports

She wonders what I did back when I realized they had been pitching me a different ball the whole time:

I wonder how long it will take before the equipment across sports is equalized. It has to happen. I mean, they don’t make women run the 350 meter relay while men run the 400 meter relay, do they? They used to say that women shouldn’t really compete in track because all that running jostled their important baby-making organs. But they’ve changed their minds about that idiocy, thankfully. So it has to be a matter of time before people realize, hey, maybe women can actually handle a basketball that’s one inch larger.

When I hit my first double, does it really count? It was with the girl’s ball, so it was easier for me to hit that double than it would be for a guy. Is that really fair?

In the end, changing the sports equipment for women makes our accomplishments look less admirable. “Sure, she hit a double. She was pitched the girl’s ball. She wouldn’t even make it to base if she had to hit OUR ball,” is what the nay-sayers would say.

Quit assuming that we can’t handle your sports equipment and then assuming our accomplishments aren’t as worthy because you forced us to use the “easier” equipment. If we fail, so be it, but let us fail on the same ground as you do.

I had an interesting comment on my entry about Pinkberry:

The FDA has cracked down on Pinkberry? Pinkberry isn’t really frozen yogurt?! I might believe it, but the commenter didn’t put a real name, they just put FDA in the name field. Additionally, the commenter didn’t include a link to the FDA announcements which state EVERY single company they have served injunctions to. So, I did the research.

I searched the FDA website, but they have no mention of Pinkberry at all. The case was the same with the phrase “Red Mango” and “Ice Berry,” two Korean companies that have similar products. Compared with Cortislim, with eight entries, Pinkberry’s nose is clean. The FDA has NOT told Pinkberry to stop calling their product frozen yogurt.

I thought that maybe this is something that the local news programs had reported and I missed because I don’t live in Los Angeles, so I did a search for Pinkberry and FDA. I came up with a lot of results. Here’s one from Somah.com in the comments section:

Again, it’s an anonymous poster saying the exact same thing as the commenter on my site. It even looks like a cut and paste job.

Here’s another search result from Colleen Cuisine was in her comments section of her weblog:

Well, ANOTHER, anonymous post this time stating that the Yogurt Association had been involved. After a thorough search of the National Yogurt Association’s website, there wasn’t one mention of Pinkberry with even a tentative warning. A search for frozen yogurt turned up this comment:

No standard of identity exists for frozen yogurt products, but they too may contain live and active cultures.

In order for manufacturers to carry the seal, refrigerated yogurt products must contain at least 100 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacture, and frozen yogurt products must contain 10 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacture.

The National Yogurt Association has standards, but it doesn’t look like they’ve announced anything against Pinkberry.

Wow, yet another, anonymous post with no proof. Can you really trust the word of someone who won’t stand behind their words or back them up with proof? Can you trust them THREE times?

In fact, the ONLY mention of Pinkberry and FDA that wasn’t the troll was this article from East West Magazine:

• East West Magazine – The Yogurt Heard Round the World

They said:

Compared to its heavier cousin ice cream, Pinkberry’s frozen yogurt can be described as having “less calories and fat, but not healthier,” says Sass, who compared Pinkberry’s nutritional facts with FDA requirements for when a food can put the word “healthy” on its label. The froyo alone, Pinkberry’s as well as frozen yogurt in general, does not have enough vitamins to be labeled as such, she says. But since Pinkberry is not being sold in stores, no food label is actually required and calling it “healthy” is not against FDA regulations.

So, it looks like Pinkberry is trying to follow the standards for the FDA’s requirements for the word “healthy.” East West Magazine doesn’t have the troll on their comments because they require registration to log in.

It looks like someone is out to get Pinkberry. As of this date, the FDA hasn’t said anything to Pinkberry about their frozen yogurt standing. If anyone wants to say something to the contrary, they need to back it up with proof.

This week, Iportion had a wonderful entry about why she likes and dislikes her home gym:

• Iportion: Book News, Home Gyms, thankfull

Here are her ideas:

Why I dislike home gyms

• Can be distracted by the open fridge or home snack bar. “This is my biggest issue which is why I do a lot of walks”
• Can get distracted by the computer.

Why I like home gym

• I do not have to wait long time to use my equipment. If I want to use my stability ball I use it. If a family member wants it I just use another favorite equipment since everything is what I like.
• I have no monthly fees.
• I don’t have to find a baby sitter. I don’t have to wait till my husband comes home.
• I can exercise even when I can’t make it out.
• If I don’t use my equipment I am wasting money.

What about you? What are you doing for exercise?

Do you have a gym membership?

Do you have exercise equipment at home?

Do you even need exercise equipment?

I love my treadmill, but I also get a lot of benefit from exercising around other people. I don’t like cleaning up their sweat, though…

While we were traveling, I thought I would indulge. We bought a package of Oreos and we ate six. Why?

They just didn’t taste as good as Oreos used to taste. We couldn’t figure it out until we looked at the ingredients. They no longer use partially hydrogenated oil as an ingredient and have replaced it with palm oil.

Who knew that all I liked in Oreos was the trans fat. When I was craving Oreos, it wasn’t the chocolately cookie, it was the trans fat. I’m sure that’s the only ingredient that has changed and suddenly, they just don’t taste as good.

It’s not like my tastes have changed. I still crave Oreos and I can’t fulfill that craving now because they have removed that harmful ingredient. I know it’s better for me, but I still miss the flavor.

I had no idea that all I was craving was trans fat…

Keira Knightly has been fighting the tabloids. They have been writing articles about her body assuming that she has anorexia and she has even sued a few of them. Then she showed up to the premier of Pirate of the Caribbean in this dress and the rumors sparked again. One can understand why. She looks painfully thin in this dress.

A photograph is just one moment in time

The truth of the matter is, a photograph is just one moment in time. There have been times when I weighed less, but my photographs still made me look fat. There have been times when I weighed more and I looked fantastic. This photo of Keira Knightly is just one moment in time. She happened to be thin at the time and the dress revealed that. Was she thin the previous day? Yeah, but no one posted the photos of her schlepping around in a t-shirt and jeans that she probably wore that day because they weren’t controversial enough.

It’s really the dress, not her body that was so interesting

Because the dress was so revealing, the press jumped on it. If she had worn a different dress, she wouldn’t have received so much attention. Anorexia is a very complicated disease and you cannot tell if someone has it just by their body type, just like you can’t tell whether someone has bingeing problems just because they are fat. In fact, it’s possible to be rather skinny and STILL have trouble with bingeing. Just calling someone anorexic because they are thin is just as discriminatory and hateful as calling someone lazy because they are fat.

I can’t believe in the Thrifty Gene hypothesis. It’s the idea that certain people are predisposed to be fat. It’s the idea that I might eat less than a skinny person and still gain weight. Medical science hasn’t found the thrifty gene yet, but they so believe it to be true that they are scrambling to find it.

I’ve learned a lot about nutrition and healthy eating, but in the end, I have that nagging doubt that the theories could change on a dime. It seems like medical science is never finished figuring out about our bodies and tomorrow they could discover that one simple gene change could make all the difference or they could disprove the idea and throw away everything they have been telling us since I was a kid. There’s no better authority to trust than medical science, but they don’t seem very trustworthy when they can change everything based on a theory.

What’s the point of eating healthy if I have no control?

I can’t believe that it’s all in my genes. I can’t, no matter how much science tells me that genetically some people are more likely to be fat. If I believe it, then I feel like there is no point in my eating healthy and exercising. No matter how much I’m bombarded with the idea, I can’t believe it.

Is that sticking my head in the sand? Maybe. In the end, however, it will be healthier for me to deny belief in the thrifty gene theory because it gives me hope. I don’t want all my hope taken away by medical science. I want to prove them wrong. I want to break free of all the labels that called me fat as a child. I can’t believe in their hypothesis, even if they are able to prove it’s true.

The Philco-Ford Corporation released a movie in 1967 that would show us how our lives would be in 1999. Here is a kitchen scene with a mother, her son and her husband. What will the computer allow the husband to eat?

This video seems strange to me because I remember seeing short clips like this on television and being so excited for the future to arrive. Instead, 1999 came and went. I don’t have a flying car, but I also don’t have a husband who thinks it’s my responsibility to feed him. This conversation between the husband and wife (via TV Phone) is interesting:

Wife: Earl, how about chicken salad?

Husband: Ew…

Cheese omelet?

Cheeseburger with french fries and a nice cold bottle of beer.

I’ll see…

She pulls up this screen on the computer:

It suggests roast beef, green salad and no-cal beer, which is apparently a good enough substitute for Earl.

We’re living in the year 2007 and there are no flying cars and still no calorie-free beer! The future is NOTHING like they told me it would be!

Via: Cynical-C Blog – » What 1999 Will Be Like (A Film from 1967)

Sunday, I filmed another Starling Fitness walking video. I walked past Old Faithful and watched it go off like clockwork. I walked past a boardwalk full of small geyers and springs. I even climbed a mountain and looked over Old Faithful from the top.

The climbing part was hard and a surprising reminder that I need to get working on my endurance. See if you can hear me panting in this snippet from the video:

In the end, I don’t think my panting is that distracting and I’ll probably just leave it in the video. The tourists talking to each other while Old Faithful is showing its best, however, is another story…

Next time you think that you’re not fit enough to tackle a hill or thin enough to go hiking, remember me panting and puffing my way up this hill. If I can do it, you can do it.

If you like this video, it will be ready for purchase in a few months. In the meantime, you can look at what is available right now here:

• Starling Fitness – Fitness, diet, and health weblog » Walking Videos For Sale

Yesterday, Mike and I saw a black bear in Yellowstone and I got a pretty good video of him:

• Starling Travel – Black Bear in Yellowstone

I am out of town AGAIN, this time in Yellowstone Park in Wyoming and Montana. Yesterday, I filmed a new walking video for Starling Fitness going past Old Faithful, a bunch of pretty geysers and springs and up a mountain. I haven’t had a chance to look at the footage, but if it’s good, I’ll make it available to you.

What is your favorite kind of exercise while you’re on vacation?

Do you make sure your hotel has a gym?

Do you have a gym membership that works wherever you travel?

What sorts of activities do you plan? Are they active or sedentary?

I have found that I am willing to walk on the treadmill for days on end just so I can be fit enough to do active things while I’m on vacation. While climbing up the mountain yesterday, I realized that I haven’t been doing nearly enough hill work. I guess it’s time to use that incline setting on the treadmill again once I get home. I think you’ll probably be able to hear me panting up the hill on the video. It might even be bad enough to ruin the footage. Hope not…