JUST SITTIN' AND THINKIN'

Which is dangerous when I'm the one doing it. This will be a quickie, 'cause frankly it's bedtime but if I don't do it now I'll be writing this in my head for the next hour and I'll never get to sleep.

What I"m laughingly calling Opration Crunch is doing fairly well so far. Hey, it's only a week, what can I say, except that my muffin or yogurt is definitely on the morning break menu. Nibbling veggies is good, but a little variety through the day is better.

Anyway as the title of this entry suggests I got to thinking. There is a study out there http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2005/06/13/diet_soda_and_obesity_is_there_a_link.php that tracked over six hundred people over an eight year period. At the end of that time results showed that those who drank diet sodas were more likely to be overweight. There are various theories. At least one mirrors my own (or mine mirrors theirs) in an earlier entry. Eating or drinking things that are sweet but no or low calorie keeps the cravings going.You can't relearn how to eat the good stuff if your tastebuds keep thinking that a lot of sweet things are normal.

And as an extra added attraction. Based on about five minutes of rigorous research I found several websites detailing  how the two most popular artificial sweeteners Aspertaime and Splenda may not only not be helping you lose weight but are actually dangerous to your health. Enter Splenda risks and Aspertaime risks in your search engine and see what pops up.

Anyway, this is where I was going in the first place. What if this whole artificial lo cal trip is the wrong way to go. I'm beginning to suspect that our bodies expect certain results when certain kinds of foods are eaten. That there will be an expected amount of energy from the food and when it doesn't get it, then our bodies will go looking for it. My body knows that when I crunch a small pile of raw veggies it's going to get a fair amount of fiber but not a lot of quick energy, so it doesn't go looking for more.

Natural sweets are generally a source of quick energy for your system. Foods that are normally higher in fat metabolize in a certain way and provide something the body is used to using for fuel. What if we eat things that the body expects to give an expected result and it when it doesn't get it, it goes "?" I'm not getting what I need, guess I'd better send signals to get what I expected. And sends out those hard to ignore signals that basically tell you your stomach thinks your throat has been cut.

So,  too many of us buy into the advertising and get the exact opposite result. Maybe being couch potatoes is only part of the problem. What if the "diet" industry is also part of the problem. A big part of the problem. A multi million don't bad mouth us part of the problem.

Oh, and I ran into one bozo who equated drinking diet soda with being less educated and not too bright. Darn I can't find the site again. He also quipped that he'd never seen thin people buy diet soda. Geez guy, which planet did you just beam down from?

Anyway, now that I've planted this little land mine it's time to hit the sack. Back to the salt mines tomorrow.