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HFCS is bad for you. Next up: Water is wet

May 262010

All sugar is not created equal. (Image courtesy of Uwe Hermann on Flickr)

We have alluded to the nutritional atrocity that is high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), in the past, but now there’s a fair bit of clinical ammunition to back particular assertion that up.

And by “fair bit,” we mean “a couple of headshots using a railgun with Quad Damage.”

The BFG10K in question was some research done at Princeton University, which studied weight gain in rats. Using two different control groups – one eating plain rat chow, and one getting rat chow and a sugar-water concoction approximating a soft drink – rats that were washing their kibble down with a HFCS-sweetened beverage gained much more weight, as well as exhibited a greater number of markers for serious health issues in humans. These markers include elevated levels of triglycerides, more visceral fat, and the beginnings of what is called “metabolic syndrome” (in a nutshell, this is the body becoming less-sensitive to insulin; in other words, pre-diabetic). How much more weight? Nearly fifty percent more than the rats getting the same number of extra calories from drinking sugar water.

Not an accident

Op-Ed 2 Responses »

Apr 232010

Buttons is going to PAHMP JOO AHP.

One of the most common excuses people give for not lifting a challenging amount of weight during their workout is, “I don’t want to get huge muscles and look weird.” While it’s fine to worry about that sort of eventuality, it’s also kind of like worrying about putting together a heroic raid roster right after you hit level 20 – there is quite a bit of time and effort between where you are, and where you’d need to even worry about it. The “I’ll get too muscular” meme is, in short, a myth. As a matter of fact, working out with heavier loads has been shown to help people lose weight, and get that “trim and toned” look that so many folks are after. Getting past the, err, resistance to resistance training is a Jedi mind trick well worth performing on yourself.

Note: Lifting rocks or single-seater spacecraft with your mind won’t make you grow muscles, either. Depending on how much the wizened green dude on your back weighs, that might help a little bit. But it’s still a good idea to reach for something other than the candy-colored weights.

Excuses don’t burn calories

Op-Ed, Words Of +WIS No Responses »

Apr 052010

You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.

- Henry Ford

I will note with some wry bemusement that I had originally started writing this before Mike put together his Good Cop/Bad Cop piece. This is not going to be one of those sweetness and light, rah-rah-go-team columns. Instead, we are subjected to the unrelenting gaze of a boss fight that’s nothing more than a DPS check. There is no subtlety, it is merely Yoda giving you the hairy eyeball. We may not be Jedi Masters around here, but we’re also more than two feet tall, and don’t have Zombie Jim Henson’s hand up our butts.

In a nutshell, making excuses doesn’t burn any calories. Well, that’s not strictly true – it just doesn’t burn a heck of a lot more calories than you would just hanging around, not doing anything. For a 30 year old, 125 lb woman, standing around and talking burns approximately 45 calories per hour; a 35 year old, 200 pound guy would burn 66. If our imaginary friends were mopping instead of moping, she’d burn about 210 calories, and he would work off 350 during that same sixty minutes… and they’d have clean floors, too.

On the level

Op-Ed No Responses »

Mar 152010

Penny Arcade discusses the leveling drive.

Gabe and Tycho have fallen down this rabbit hole as well...

It looks like this whole motif of life being a game is contagious. According to folks speaking at the Games Development Conference, the next potential “killer app” is getting people to apply gaming and leveling mechanics to their lives. For things unrelated to using electronic gizmos or mechanical pencils and funky dice, the notion of “leveling up in life” is earning gaining a lot of mental traction with folks outside of the gaming industry. This is an almost inevitable side effect of those of us who grew up gaming hitting the point in our lives where, not only are we a meaningful target demographic, we’re in positions where we can begin to shape corporate policies.

Take a minute if you need to cackle maniacally at that thought. I’m going to.

The conceit of earning and unlocking achievements in the big blue room isn’t new; it’s just not been called that quite so openly before. Loyalty programs, such as frequent-flyer miles, have been around for decades, and they are a fairly subtle but direct implementation of this concept. By reaching such-and-such a milestone (dollars spent, miles flown, nights stayed, or whatever), you earn perks to encourage you to continue to prefer a particular service purveyor, whether that’s an airline, a hotel, or credit card.

Achievements serve as inducement to put in extra effort and attention to things we ought to be doing (as the friend who pointed out the IDGC link out to us put it, “I want achievements for everything, dammit. Especially brushing my teeth.”). However, just as leveling up in games gets tougher, it does in real life, too.

Slow and steady wins the race

Health News, Op-Ed 6 Responses »

Mar 022010

Bugs Bunny and Cecil Turtle are registered trademarks of Warner Brothers

Dieting is a touchy subject. We all have our own ideas as to what is the “best” way to lose weight, and with very little research we can often find studies that back up our claim. What’s more, we’re all pretty defensive of our choices. Getting together in a room full of low-carb and low-fat dieters and asking them which is the better way to diet is as fraught with danger as standing in the middle of the lobby of the Marriott at Dragon*Con with a bullhorn and asking what the best Science Fiction series is.

In the spirit of full disclosure I have to admit that I am a low-fat, calorie counting dieter. That’s what Weight Watchers® really is, when you get right down to it. They just wrap it up in a convenient system and assign food point values. I’ve been on Weight Watchers for over 9 years now and while the amount of weight I have lost has varied consistently I have managed to maintain the large majority of my loss following that program. As a result, I am obviously biased toward low-fat diets and a big proponent of them. I truly believe that portion control, exercise, and healthy food choices are the key factors in losing weight and keeping it off.

A study released in the Annals of Internal Medicine seems to back me up on that.