Evel Knievel's remake of The Clone Wars
So, you kind of have an idea of what the weight you want to lose, or lift, looks like now. But what about the stuff you’re putting into your body? Maybe you’ve seen the ads for 5 Hour Energy, where a disembodied hand spoons sugar into “conventional” energy drinks to illustrate how much is in them (Answer: quite a bit, which I’m sure comes as a huge surprise to anyone who’s tasted one /sarcasm).
Taking this one step further, a funky little illustrative comparison site has recently been getting some mindshare, using sugar cubes. I, personally, love sugar cubes (the item, not the band), though I never have occasion to do anything with them. They’re more toy than food, really.
After checking that page out, though… does anyone else have an uncontrollable urge to stack pennies, or is that just me?
Obviously, there’s a lot of sugar sources out there, and even folks who are being conscientious with their eating habits are still going to get some (unless they’re doing something drastically carbohydrate-avoidant, like the Atkins program). That being the case, all sugars are not created equal (and none of them are created Equal). A good rule of thumb, for sugar especially, but for food in general, can be summed up as “The less-processed, the better.” Fruits, honey, and raw sugars are about as “good” as you’re apt to find; at the opposite end of the sugary spectrum is the oft-reviled High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).
Honestly, if you’re only going to make one change to what you eat, and don’t want to drink more water (which, and I’m not going to BS you here — you’re probably not drinking enough water), cutting out sources of HFCS is probably one of the easiest ways to eat healthier. There’s really no delicate way to put it – HFCS is really bad for you. Independent of the calories, the havoc it wreaks on your blood sugar and metabolism are reason enough to steer clear.
Contributing to those entertainingly (or alarmingly) large and precarious stacks of sucrose even further is the fact that, as was alluded to in Mike’s article yesterday, portion sizes aren’t always what we think they are. That 12oz soft drink is considered a serving and a half, not a single serving. Yeah, I’m gonna drink part of a can, then finish it later and drink part of another one, and then finish that one later. Serving sizes, at least as measured by the RDA, are eight fluid ounces (one cup). Other than Red Bull and those other small, skinny cans, or those stumpy “kid pack” sized soft drink packs, none of us are exactly in the habit of drinking stuff in quantities that modest — even our coffee cups around the office are frequently twelve ounces (in comparison, the ones at diners are more like five to eight oz, depending on where you go).
[Editor's Note: Mike's coffee cup is more like a liter, or a kiddie pool, or something. The man really, really likes his coffee. For the record, he takes it with Splenda. Rafe is a deranged heathen, and takes his with raw sugar, and either creamer or a lemon wedge.]
Image courtesy of My Utterances (Uttaranchal – Nainital)
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I have given up many vices. I have given up cigarettes. I have given up eating just about anything that would appear on This Is Why You’re Fat. I have given up drinking alcohol on a regular basis.
But I will never, ever, give up my coffee.
Charlton Heston had his gun. You have your mug. The “cold, dead fingers” part remains the same.
You know, energy drinks are my downfall. I’ll go with the diet versions if I have the option (and assuming I haven’t had much, if any, artificial sweeteners that day), but they are rarely stocked in the vending machines at work.
On the plus side, I tend to get in 100-150 oz of caffeine/processed sugar free fluids a day, at least half of which are plain water.
Lemon? In coffee??? Whodathunkit?
You could always buy some Five Hour Energy in bulk and keep it in your desk, Becka.
As far as the lemon-in-coffee thing, if you consider it to be a particularly strong, very dark variant of tea.
I gotta say that I agree with Mike – those 5 hour things live up to their billing. During C14 and D*C last year, I pretty much subsisted on those and EAS’ ready-to-drink protein shakes.