Monday's I'm up at 4:30 to teach my 5:45am cycling class. Many mornings the last thing I want to do is eat something, although I know I probably should. My club has a lot of smart people so I asked our nutritionist, Tyler Young, her thoughts on what all us early spinners should be eating before, during and after our Indoor cycling classes…
If you have additional questions, post a comment and I'll have Tyler respond.
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We are trying something a little different; the music plays in the background for the whole Podcast. Do you like it this way? Post a comment and let me know.
Ben Greenfield is our newest ICI/PRO Team Contributor. Through his new RockStar Triathlete Academy, Ben has promised to help me with my training for the three Multi-Sport events I have committed to this summer.
Besides all of his education and experience as a competitive endurance athlete Ben is an Indoor Cycling Instructor just like us. He knows how to use a Spinning Indoor Cycling class to train for competitive endurance events and how to build a class that focuses on training (what I call Indoor Cycling 2.0). You can learn more about Ben here.
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Let’s use this post on labeling loopholes to cover three of them. The first is glycerin.
Glycerin (or glycerol) is an alcohol. It’s not like ethanol, so it won’t give you a buzz, but it is an alcohol.
So what? Maybe you haven’t heard of it or haven’t paid much attention to it, but it’s used as a sweetener. It’s in many foods — including about 99.999% of the food bars that are so convenient and far too numerous to name individually. It’s always in the ingredient lists because the FDA insists, but that’s where the disclosure seems to end.
Things may get fuzzy once you check the nutrient counts. If you were ever geeky enough (yes, that would describe me) to do the arithmetic and calculate the calories of fat, carbs and protein in a glycerin-containing food bar, you might notice a discrepancy between the carb numbers you calculated and the label count of carbs per serving. According to Mendosa.com’s Diabetes Update, about half the glycerin-containing bars that were tested were off in their nutrient counts.
Why is that? Glycerin/glycerol doesn’t fall into the reported categories. Strictly speaking, it’s not a carb, not a protein, not a fat, so it doesn’t have to be counted in with any one of them.
What that technicality allows the product developers and packagers to do is make claims on the label, such as “low carb” or “no carbs”. They can say “low sugar” or “sugar-free.” The claims are considered true because glycerin isn’t any of those.
But it’s definitely a sweetener — and often high on the list of predominant ingredients. The product developers know that, of course, but some are willing to keep consumers in the dark because it might limit sales if everyone understood how much sweetener they were getting in the bars. Don’t be fooled.
A second labeling trick is how sugars are placed on ingredient lists. Several bars use a variety of sweeteners and list each of them separately. (I’ll blow the whistle on Cliff Bars because I’ve counted between 9 and 13 different sugars on their labels. At last count, there were no exceptions.)
This practice may encourage the “casual” label reader to skip over many of the sugars (such as “cane juice”) or simply remain unaware of how much sugar is in the bar as a whole. If all the sugar in the bar came from the same source, it would have to be first on the list as the predominant ingredient. Separating the sugars prevents that.
Here’s another labeling trick, although it’s not really about nutrition.
Does anyone besides me remember the “large economy size”? You may already have noticed that unit prices on large sizes are sometime higher than on smaller sizes. Shoppers who are hurried or shopping with young children may not bother to check the unit pricing. They buy the large size because they need that quantity and also — out of cultural habit — expect the larger size to be a better value.
Product developers are paid to know all of these things and help food companies take advantage of it (and us). The only way to prevent it is to remain aware.
The current nutrition buzz is that sugar’s bad news. It is.
The fact that admitting this is considered a new direction by nutritionists, dietitians and the public shows how off-base the nutrition field was for such a long time. It even makes the nutrition field appear ridiculous.
At least, to me. I’ve been blasting sugar for 20+ years, at times getting blasted back for doing it.
But it’s worth tracking the events, so we can blame the culprits who deserve it….
Once Upon a Time, Sugar Was Bad
In science journals in the 1970s, sugar’s negative health effects were getting lots of attention. Films were available — some very good. A popular book was written on problems of sugar consumption: Sugar Blues, by William Dufty.
Interestingly, Sugar Blues was written before much (if anything) was known about the brain chemicals triggered by sugar. And way before any connection was made between sugar and appetite, cravings, health, moods, and more.
It wasn’t till 1975 that endorphin (beta-endorphin) was “discovered.” So the 1974 book was a little ahead of its time. And yet it was timely because scientists were researching sugar.
That wasn’t good news for the sugar industry. And the sugar industry is a powerful lobby in Washington, D.C.
If you don’t think food industry lobbyists influence the government, an eye-opening book is Food Politics by Marion Nestle. She describes the laborious, frustrating process of developing the original Food Guide Pyramid.[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Nestle was working for the USDA and visited daily by beef and dairy industry reps. Their complaints — and the pressure they applied — were significant factors in the Food Guide Pyramid, released in 1991.
Those complaints made the original Pyramid vague and confusing for consumers in several ways. Years later, it had to be revised for clarification. (That’s a side issue, but stay with me.)
The take-home point is that the food industries are the real constituents of the USDA. We, the consumers, are not. Our health is of far less concern to that government agency than placating its constituents.
Which brings us back to sugar in the late 1970s.
The sugar industry didn’t care for the scientific emphasis on the health problems linked with sugar and began working its evil.
Sugar Devil Spins Fat As the Enemy
By 1984, fats had been designated the new Dietary Demon.
From that point until the late 1990s — and beyond — we suffered through the low-fat craze. And a craze it was, although it was disguised as the Right Way To Eat.
Some people still believe it! They even cite Ancel Keys, whose work has since been debunked by several sources.
During that time, several things happened — none good, except for the sugar industry.
First, scientists turned away from sugar and began looking at fats.
They investigated health problems linked with high-fat diets, saturated fats, red meats, cheeses, and other “bad fats.” New scientific findings emerged and found their way into mainstream media.
In 1995, an entire supplement of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) published the papers from a conference on dietary sugar.
The presenters were hand-selected from researchers whose names I immediately recognized. They consistently found that sugar had no negative consequences on health, weight, or even cavities.
Do I have to tell you that funding for these scientists come from makers of sugary food products?
Here’s the take-away: After the conference, all companies attending (General Mills, Kraft, and other big sugar-users you know) could “legitimately” claim that their reps had attended a scientific conference — where it was conclusively shown that sugar is not bad for any reason whatsoever.
Also during the low-fat craze, the food industry developed low-fat and nonfat versions of their products. Conveniently for the sugar industry — and not coincidentally — the products used sugar to replace the flavor lost when fat was removed.
One example? Cream cheese. The full-fat product contains no sugar, but the nonfat version did and does. A line of low-fat frozen foods — ironically named Healthy Choice — added sugar to every product, including soup. Other companies followed.
Product developers even created artificial fats. Remember Olean and Olestra? (How about the side effects, such as anal leakage? Perhaps that’s a story for a different post.)
With all of these low- and nonfat foods available, dietary fat fell far below the original recommendation of 30%.
That 30% had been endorsed by the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society — until the low-fat craze hit us.
My clinical observation was that protein intake fell, too, especially among women. Protein contains fat — sometimes a lot — so women who were concerned with weight loss just let that go. They started eating carbs, and lots of them.[/wlm_private]
Part 2 is about how we became a nation of sugar junkies and what happened when fitness professionals finally saw the light.
As a nutritionist, I find that my food is under scrutiny all the time. Recently, I attended a weeklong seminar that had nothing to do with nutrition, but my food was still scrutinized.
Every morning started with a different fitness activity. Afterward, the instructor gave us breakfast guidelines, recommending that we eat just fruit “because it’s easy to digest.”
I know better than to start my day with a plate of sugar, so I went to the buffet and put together a meal that was appropriate for me.
Because this will be relevant in a moment, here was my breakfast:[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge'] spinach, walnuts and a poached egg. The buffet didn’t have poached eggs alone; they were part of the eggs Benedict. But I simply eat around unwanted foods, so I ate the egg and left the English muffin and Canadian bacon on my plate. No sauce.
A woman in the seminar walked over to my table and said I wasn’t complying with the fitness instructor’s guidelines. She pointed her finger at each item on my plate, one at a time, and criticized it. This happened while I was still eating my meal.
If you’re thinking it was inappropriate for her to do that, I agree. Perhaps to my discredit, I objected to her behavior, and explained my objection to the fitness instructor’s guidelines to start the day with sugar.
What can we take from this? (Other than not to criticize other people’s food while they’re eating!)
– Know your nutrition needs. These may be different from your likes. Know what you need to thrive and feel good. Seek out those foods, no matter what.
– Don’t let other people’s guidelines steer you away from the foods you know are best for you. The myth that fruit is healthful persists. Many people still have no idea that fructose — the sugar in fruit — is arguably the most unhealthful sugar. Stay with what works for you, no matter what.
– Navigate a buffet carefully to find what you need, especially vegetables. I found the spinach for my breakfast at the omelet station. Diced tomatoes and mushrooms were also there. If there are no salads, a burrito station can provide lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and more. You get the idea. Find vegetables, no matter what.
– Know how to find what you need on a restaurant menu. Friends laugh at me because my meals “always look the same.” They do: protein, vegetables, complex starch, healthful fat. Do I care if my friends laugh? Absolutely not. I just want the meal I want — and have learned to create it, no matter what.
For example, I’ve ordered two salads for my main course when the menu offered nothing better. In the south, I’ve ordered fried chicken and scraped off the breading with my fork. Keep your needs in mind and forget the rest — including the House Specialty! It’s frequently a high-fat, sauce-laden extravaganza that might make you feel ill afterward.
– Pay attention to how you feel after a meal — both good and bad. If everyone else felt good after a meal but you didn’t, that food wasn’t for you. If you felt great, try to duplicate that meal as closely as possible at other times and places.
– Remember your protein needs above all. Keep it as lean as possible. The fitness instructor told us protein is overrated — but he knew nothing about foods and brain chemistry.
If you’re a sugar addict who’s trying to stay away from sugar, protein is key. It will help you survive and thrive as you give up sugar. If you need to carry envelopes of protein powder with you, do it. I’ve done that many times. Get your protein, no matter what.
– Don’t worry about the opinions of others. You deserve to eat right and feel good. No matter what![/wlm_private]
