No More Corn Syrup!

[UfoTofU]

I'm reading an article about the link between high-fructose corn syrup and Type-II diabetes. This may be old news to some people. It was new to me. I like Lent

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by metroschultz

I have a case of "Gatorade" in the house.
I

I started making a great drink that picks me up faster and stronger then coffee, and hydrates better then Gatorade, start by making a strong ginger tea with real, caned or tea bags, after it steeps add a dash of salt for the electrolights (I use the gray mineral filled sea salt), some lemon juice, maple syrup and just a touch of cyan pepper powder, it should taste warm but not to spicy that you can't drink it, I've been drinking this before work and enjoying the rush of energy with out the normal crash you get after eating sugar, the ginger and cyan also helps boost your matablizem.

[bennelson]

Today is garbage day. The first garbage day since doing a full week of No More Corn Syrup.

In my kitchen, I have a slide-out built into one of my cabinets. Inside, is two, 13-gallon garbage cans. The front one is for trash, and the rear is for recycling.

When either is full, I take the trash bag out to a large garbage can in my garage. Recycling gets dumped into a big blue bin. On garbage day, I take the trash and recycling outside, add it to the garbage can and blue bin in the garage, and haul those to the curb.

This morning, I grabbed the trash. The bag was only really half-full, but I take it out anyways, so it doesn't just sit around and get smelly. I pulled out the recycling container and went out to the garage.

Now here's the weird part. The garbage can in the garage was EMPTY. I had never taken out the trash EVEN ONCE earlier in the week!

The recycling blue bin had some cans and bottles in it, but just a few.

What's going on here? Did I somehow misplace my trash and recycling? I looked around. Nope. Didn't find any.

The one trash bag wasn't even full. What's going on here?

Here's my idea. Corn Syrup and High Fructose Corn Syrup are usually in more processed food. More processed food usually has more packaging. Therefore, less corn syrup equals less garbage!

Is it that simple? By getting rid of Junk Food, I'm creating less junk?

In the recycling bin, aluminum soda cans and 2-liter plastic bottles were distinctly missing.

Another thing I have noticed is that some of the Organic products have slightly less packaging than their NON-Organic counterparts.

What have I been eating all week?

Oh - look at the compost bucket. Er, that IS sort of overflowing, isn't it... Well, guess I gotta take that out. However, that just gets turned into compost, and eventually recycled into tomatoes and cucumbers - all free of corn syrup AND packaging. Plus, I can measure those in Food-Feet, NOT Food-MILES. (See! I knew we would save some gas on this project!)

[metroschultz]

Originally Posted by kitaimdao

I'm reading an article about the link between high-fructose corn syrup and Type-II diabetes. This may be old news to some people. It was new to me. I like Lent

That I was hypoglycemic.
I actually passed out at work one day several years ago and came to rather quickly.
My boss though I needed to get checked out and off to the doc in a box we went. My blood sugar was so low they thought I was headed into an insulin coma. 2 I.V.s later and I was sent home for the day.
Follow up visits to my regular doc, where we tested for all sorts of stuff, (diabetes included) revealed my current state.
I learned a lot.
It is not like they show you in movies;
(Guy has low sugar,
Falls asleep walking in the mall.)
I can tell when my sugar drops. I get light headed and, if its real bad, a little nauseous.

Thank You for the tip Ryland,
I will try that.
Currently I am going to use up the Gatorade I have and then will use or modify your tea for later use.
My original plan was just to start making my own form of Gatorade any way.
I love lemonade.
Made with real sugar and some sodium and potassium amd whatever else I can think of to help the situation.

Ben, Thanx for the encouragement,
I have been trying to get the extra weight off for 2 years now. (needed to lose 143# at the start, only 70# more to go)
Jared shed his in under 2, but he is way taller than me and may not have sugar problems. Good thing he lost the weight before he developed some.
BTW hows Oprah's weight this month?
And I too love Miracle whip.
Krap again.
But the local mayo
Dukes, made right here in Va. down the road in Petersburg.
Has no HFCS. All it has is soybean oil,eggs,water, cider vinegar, salt, paprika,natural flavors and calcium disodium edta (preservative)
Guess I'm gonna become a mayonnaise man.

[i_am_socket]

RE: Gatorade - the powdered mix has no HFCS. It's what I use for workouts.

Good call on the lack of trash! I'll have to check my garbage can at home...

Notice any weight change one week later?

[Ryland]

Ben are you keeping track of money spent on food as well?

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by i_am_socket

Notice any weight change one week later?

I was going to just say NO to the weight loss question, but then I thought I should actually go weigh myself first.

The scale read 179 lbs.

Now, I believe that people naturally have weight fluctuations throughout the day, and that not every scale is as accurate as it maybe should be.

Also, I am NOT an overweight guy, so I am NOT expecting to loose any weight. And just so you know, I have NOT changed my level of physical activity since starting this project at all.

Still, the scale is down, not up!


(PS: Schultz, do a web search for "cinnamon and blood-sugar")

Ben are you keeping track of money spent on food as well?

No, I really haven't, but I can tell you that I have not been to a fast-food place once. Besides regular groceries, I went out to dinner with my wife once, and we got a "take-and-bake" (cheese only, added our own toppings) once.

I am also reading Mark Bittman's book, FOOD MATTERS: A GUIDE TO CONSCIOUS EATING. The main premise of the book is: Eat More Plants, eat less animals, don't eat processed stuff.

It also includes LOTS of recipes and a solid month of meal planning! That's just about right for my project!

[bennelson]

Today's breakfast was leftover Organic Potato and Leek Soup with fresh cracked pepper and dill.

I think this is the first time I have ever eaten potato soup that WASN'T covered with bacon and cheese.
(The recipe DOES have some cheese in it though, but much less than most recipes.)

The bright color of the soup comes from organic potatoes. They really have a rich flavor. I have never been a big fan of regular baked potatoes, because they don't have their own flavor, so you have to add butter or sourcream or something just to make them taste decent. These potatoes taste great all by themselves, and even better as soup!

I'm liking this whole no corn syrup thing - food not only tastes better, but it has some color as well!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by bennelson

Is it that simple? By getting rid of Junk Food, I'm creating less junk?

Yes, it really is that simple :-) Where many of my neighbors put out a couple of overflowing wheelie bins every week, I put out the old-fashioned trash can about every other week - and even then, it's hardly ever full. They don't give me a break on my trash bill, though.

If you want to carry things a step further, look around for a store that has a lot of things in bulk. The one I shop at (which has the not-undeserved reputation as the el cheapo place where all the illegals shop - it's so cheap it doesn't even have Muzak, which is why I started shopping there :-)) has not just bulk flour, but about 15 different kinds of flour. No packaging, just scoop up however much you want, and if you're an extremist, you can bring your own bags.

[bennelson]

So today, I was eating lunch.

I had from scratch black bean soup with garlic, carrot, and celery, which was leftover from last nights dinner.

With it, I also had a big chunk-o-bread. Which was test trial # two of me actually making bread from scratch. This one was a mix of wheat flour and corn meal with a 10-grain crust rub.

While eating it, I was talking to my wife and commenting how there was no butter or oil in the bread, or cheese on the soup.

I had to pause mid-spoon-ful. Wait a minute....
No butter, no cheese, no meat, no honey.

Holy crap! I just cooked VEGAN! (and didn't even realize it at the time!)

Amazingly the bread did NOT require any butter or honey. The soup really didn't need any meat or cheese or sour cream.

They both got some really good flavor from (gasp!) their INGREDIENTS!

The better part of the ingredients were Organic. My wife has been buying more and more organics. Besides the lack of pesticides, they actually TASTE better too. My wife seems to notice it more than I do, though.

I have noticed that the food I have been eating lately tends to have a more subtle flavor to it. It doesn't have to be SOOO sweet or salty, or whatever flavor the commercial food industry is bashing you over the head with.

It simply is what it is.

And that's a good thing.