posted February 03, 2000 02:19 PM            

Lobo

Sugar Invasion: In The Beginning (highlights)

In colonial America, table sugar cost around $2.40 a pound, but now sugar is around $0.30 a pound. Adjusted for an average 4% rate of inflation, that pound of sugar would have cost us about $6,800 a pound in today's dollars!! No wonder it was never
used much back then!

In 1795, a large-scale method of granulating sugar was devised, and Louisiana farmers began growing sugar cane as a major crop. (Sugar was first refined from cane or beets. )

During the 70's, high fructose corn syrup was introduced and is now the most widely used type of refined sugar.

Glucose, as high in calories as refined sugar, is actually a predigested food that undergoes no processing at all in the stomach OR intestines. Glucose, not as sweet tasting as sugar, is widely used as a cheap filler and is not required by the FDA to be listed on the label. (very convenient huh?!)

In 1994, FDA research shows sugar consumption averaged 149 pounds per person per year. This is @37 teaspoons per day.

As little as two teaspoons of sugar can cause a radical change in the balance of micro nutrients and the delicate ratios required for growth.

The minerals needed to digest sugar: Chromium, manganese, cobalt, copper, zinc, and magnesium. All of which have been stripped from sugar during the refining process and must be supplied by the body further depleting mineral reserves and thereby disrupting the body's chemistry.

Refined Sugar includes: sucrose; fructose; glucose; dextrose; levulse; maltose; raw sugar; turbinado sugar; maple sugar; galactose; brown sugar; dextrine; barley malt; rice syrup; corn sweetener, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, and yes, even honey. All of these are simple sugars. They take very little time to digest and get into the bloodstream where they perform the same disturbance to your body chemistry as table sugar. (some are worse than others of course)

The White Grim Reaper & How it Attacks:

In the body, minerals rule over all other nutrients. Vitamins, proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, fats and enzymes require minerals for activity. Trace minerals, such as zinc, chromium, and copper are needed in small amounts. They are, however, no less important to the functioning of the body than are the macro mineral - calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulphur, and chloride. Of the 84 known minerals, 17 are considered to be essential, if there is a shortage of just one of these essential minerals, the
balance of activity in the entire system can be thrown off, negatively impacting the entire chain of growth and further rendering other nutrients ineffective and useless.

Sugar directly impacts the endocrine system and determines which minerals are going to be most affected. This system is made up of several organs - or glands and is the automatic pilot of processes in the body. It regulates all involuntary activities. Some
of which are: respiration; heartbeat; digestion, assimilation, and elimination of food; body temperature; and others, all come under the supervision of the endocrine glands. The endocrine glands include the pituitary, the thyroid, the parathyroid, the hypothalamus, the adrenals, part of the pancreas, the thymus, the pineal, and the gonads. These glands are characterized by their ability to produce chemical messengers called HORMONES. Sugar directly reduces the efficiency of the glands causing both a decrease and increase in hormone secretion. When ingesting sugar, certain glands are accelerated to function at a faster-that-normal speed. These glands include the pancreas, which secretes the insulin needed to metabolize sugar, and a part of the adrenal gland called the adrenal medulla, which produces epinephrine (adrenaline). Epinephrine is the hormone responsible for stimulating the breakdown of stored glycogen back to the usable glucose. These glands also control the assimilation of calcium; the faster they work, the more calcium is absorbed into the blood. Other glands, such as the thyroid and the adrenals, are reduced to a slower-than-normal activity level due to sugar. These glands control the assimilation of
phosphorus. So just as the overstimulation of the calcium regulators causes an increase in calcium, the suppression of these phosphorus regulators leads to a decreases in phosphorus. Such a decrease means an OVERALL REDUCTION in usable calcium even as the overall calcium level in the blood rises. This results a calcium-phosphorus imbalance. This calcium-phosphorus imbalance renders the body less capable of breaking down proteins into amino acids. (ARE YOU HEARING THIS?) Among other uses, amino acids are also the essential building block of HORMONES. Moreover, with less
protein, insulin begins to diminish resulting in an insulin deficiency.

Our metabolism is also directly influenced. Metabolism is the process by which food is broken down into essential nutrients that can be absorbed by the cells of the body. This function is performed by enzymes, and enzymes are influenced by minerals - which are unbalanced by sugar. Most enzymes are, in fact, mineral dependant and not only work to digest food, but to bring about certain necessary biochemical functions. Chymotrypsin, for example, is a zinc-dependent enzyme needed to fine-tune carbohydrate metabolism and it is also used to counteract inflammation and reduce swelling! If and when we eat sugar, it is difficult for the body to digest and metabolize anything in the small intestine due to the lack (or decrease) of functioning enzymes.

The first organ of the endocrine system to come into contact with ingested foods is the pancreas. Insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas, is responsible for controlling the amount of sugar in the bloodstream. When we ingest sugar, or blood sugar level goes up. Clusters of endocrine cells in the pancreas, called the islets of Langerhans, detect this excess sugar and secrete insulin. The hypothalamus is also highly sensitive to changes in blood sugar. It is this endocrine reflex causing the release of insulin which brings the body's sugar level back to normal. However, this overstimulation of the pancreas by continuous and over consumption of sugar, eventually causes blood sugar levels to drop below normal (hypoglycemia) as well as further depleting mineral stores to process this excess sugar. But wait, there is more. In addition to insulin, the islets secrete another hormone called glucagon, which stimulates the release of glycogen, a sugar stored in the liver and tissues to compensate for the dramatic drop in blood sugar (again caused by the over stimulation and ingestion of sugar). This mechanism eventually wears out from
overuse and glycogen released diminishes resulting in a craving to restore blood sugar level by eating more sugar! A very, very nasty cycle indeed. But sugar isn't done yet, there are other ramifications.

When we eat sugar and our blood sugar rises, insulin levels in our blood also must rise. The thyroid gland must now secrete the hormone thyroxin into the bloodstream to open the receptor cells and allow insulin into the cells. This process diminishes and exhausts the thyroid, and since the thyroid regulates metabolic functions, everything in the body slows down. Blood moves through the body more slowly decreasing the delivery of nutrients. This slow down further inhibits the ability of the enzymes to digest food. As such, food will begin to putrefy in the small intestine causing inflammation reaction by which the intestine uses protect itself (and the colon) from the undigested proteins. This inflammation and resulting mucus makes the intestine diameter smaller. This again reduces and slows down not only feces (commonly called constipation), but the whole digestive process and makes it nearly impossible for what little nutrients that may have been available to reach the bloodstream. This also allows harmful bacteria the time they need to SEEP back into the wall of the colon and become toxic - ouch! And lets not mention the resulting intestinal gas as a result of improper metabolic functions.

But all is not lost, there is a cure so to speak. There are no up-front costs, you do not have to finance a dime, or incur any cost what so ever. You do not have to find a source, or worry about getting scammed. All you have to do is STOP EATING PROCESSED AND REFINED SUGAR. Don't try to go cold turkey, just take it one step at a time. Maybe then first thing you could do is stop drinking sodas, or just stop eating candy bars. But what ever you do, stop FRICKING EATING SUGAR!

posted February 03, 2000 03:40 PM            

Yep I agree with you on the sugar.

posted February 04, 2000 01:53 AM            

Naprox, you beyond help so there is little I can do - cept sign you up for some private personal training class with our next Canadian Mr. O and hope you finally come to realize his potential :P

Hardball2, YES! YES! YES! Read the label!!!

Bird-dog, a.... humm.... (sniff)... well yah, good point :^)

posted February 04, 2000 01:59 AM            

I realize that processed foods are bad- but I try to compensate- at this point changing my eating habits is not a viable option.

posted February 04, 2000 02:12 AM            

Them dosages do sound about right, cept I've never had to do the spirulina tabs thing. BTW, You do know it is algae right? And that I feed it to my fish every day. If you need a bulk deal just let me know.

Late

Lobo

posted February 08, 2000 02:38 PM            

Ok.. enough ribbing. You do indeed bring out some very valid points. Specific situations do require a supplementation of simple sugar. We as BBers will often use such a post workout drink to recover glyco stores. But keep in mind that a recovery drink is used at a time when the stomach is empty (for the most part) and the simple sugar is assimilated very quickly and often through the lining itself. In the overall scheme of things, this limited use makes up a very small portion in our day to day diet. And yes, hopefully we are all on a quality diet with proper vitamins/mineral supplementation so that we see a beneficial result when using simple sugars for recovery.

However, and I can't stress this strongly enough, our tendency to ingest the worst possible type of sugar (refined & processed - i.e. high fructose corn syrup) on consistent basis is REAL and happens all to frequently. (Read some of the other posts.) The 40 grams of sugar in that mountain dew is pure shit and does not do anything beneficial for the body. The one or two teaspoons of sugar in your coffee, that 15 grams in your cereal, or a snack of yogurt with 16-20 grams of sugar in it. Hell, before you know it, by the end of the day you have taken in 100 grams of this shit and DO NOT REALIZE IT! My overriding message it to increase the awareness of the amounts of sugar in everyday items and to help fellow BBers (and others in sport) take a mer second or two and READ THE LABELS! This area of our diet is soooo over looked. I am guilty and have lost many years of progress.... God, how many mountain dews and snicker bars did I eat after a Baseball game as a young kid. Or that big peanut buster parfait from Dairy Queen on a Friday night date. Or that BOX of Ho Ho's in college when getting the muchies - and you know how you get them I could go on and on. But you all get my point.

My next rebuttal is on the artificial sweeteners. I presume you eluded to them in a negative way. And I would agree with you. They are also detrimental. Look at the 100's if not 1000's of web pages about them. I do have an alternative, it's called Stevia. A totally naturally sweet plant extract from the Stevia Rebaudiana Bertoni herb.

Late

Lobo

posted February 08, 2000 04:34 PM         

About the suggars.. I have to admin that your posting did affect me - I've just had a coffee with artificial sweetener Have
reduced my daily intake for 5g (Now I can afford a Snickers hi)

During the races, we always use energy replacement supplement like TwinLab PowerFuel, CarboFuel or just PowerGel or PowerBar and stuff like this.
The point using these things is that they're made out of different glucose polimers. When the supplement comes into your stomach, the first
one to leave it is a simplest possible sugar. When this sugar has been burned or stored (with insulin), the properly designed
supplement would just be broken down from 2nd stage glucose polimer into simple one and digested from stomach.. and so on and so on.
That kind of supplement can provide you stable blood sugar level for quite long time. But, if the sugar level raises over the
insuline release treshold, then you're fucked-when the excess sugar has been burned, your sugar level immidiately drops below the normal level and
insulin stays in your blood preventing the fats and proteines to be converted into energy. At this moment, you can stop your bike, step down and sit in a car, or
you are a candidate for a blackout.

Remember, intensive workouts are powered by sugar - not by proteins or fat. Those converts to slowly into sugars and low sugar levels immidiately cause muscle loss.

Today, I've made 4hrs of training. When I came home, I was hungry. Usualy I drink a carbo recovery drink, but now I ran out of it
and I'm just to lazy to go get a new one. Ok, and I said - well it's true what Lobo said - to much sugar isn't good - and I ate
a little rice with chicken and sit behind my PC. Interesting about that is the fact, that I was not feeling OK until I havent
ate something sweet. It was just a fruit yogurt, with not more that 10g of sugar. Well.. I dont know either its a bad habbit or
a real need for sugar caused by depletion shock made with trainig. Body somethimes need a little energy bust to start the metabolic procceses.
It's the same with glucose infusions - in whole infusion, there is only 4g of glucose! I always tought that the infusions are for
energy replacement, but they're not.

Well Lobo, now Im posting a question : How to determine when do you really need the sugar or your need is only a bad habbit?

posted February 08, 2000 06:19 PM            

Man, I got to look in to this... HEY MACRO - YOU OUT THERE??? NAPY???

>>How to determine when do you really need the sugar or your need is only a bad habit?<<

Now this is really the kicker, sugar is addicting and you may/will experience withdrawal symptoms. My wife went cold turkey and got headaches, shakes for one day, was VERY irritable and lost her appetite for about three days. BTW, she is a NPC Judge and we both have extensive experience in this area and have seen a few folks just go nuts when we advise them to stop eating so much sugar. We usually recommend to taper it of over a month or so, BUT once your off of it (for a while) any processed sugars will give ya the SHITS big time and make you feel like you ate some bad fish.

As far as determining if your addicted, well keep track of your intake and see how it goes. It's just I've never really dealt with your type of nutritional requirements and don't feel very confident on my advice to you. On the other hand it is cool to learn about how you guys (and gals) eat, train, etc. Many of today's top athletes, trainers and coaches are quickly recognizing the potential benefits of "cross over" technology from other sports. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in doing our own thing we miss the opportunity to see what else is going on in the world of sports.

And might I suggest a sweet stack of Anavar/Winny/Primo and a small amout of test to get them leggs to thier max potential without to much mass... or I could drive up the road to AMGEN and get some "stuff" to thick'en up that blood fer yas I hear that shit is the BOMB!

Late

posted February 08, 2000 06:43 PM         

it all depends on the person.

i definately dont expect a disagreement when i say this:

you think that before we learned how to refine sugar compared to now where (especially in america) where everything is refined carbohydrate saturated and almost everybody is grosly obese, many with diabetes, that this method of refining sugar and bocomming a carbohydrate adict for -many- people has nothing to do with it??? wrong, it has everything to do with it.

posted February 08, 2000 08:46 PM         

Ok, you suggest Anavar/Primo/Winny.. I have posted already a message "increasing power without mass" and Matt suggested
Halotestin. Well, as far as I was further researching Halo, I found out that its very toxic to the liver - as most of the oral
AS are. I really dont have experiences with AS, so any info on how to increase power without adding weight would be very useful.
I also think that me as a cyclist, dont need such doses like you do. Im at least half lighter than you.. Does these things
work in small doses or do not work at all?

Otherwise, do you guys also injecting any detoxifiers or is it not neccesary in BB? I mean things like reduced glutatione (Tationil) or
Thiola for liver protection? What about B12 shots? And folic acid and iron? We are mostly on that things all the time.
What about injectable creatine? Do you use it?

About the glugose polimers for energy at the gym - I think you dont have to complicate your life with it. You dont need
so much calories for 1h of gym training. Your on-board glicogen stores are big enough to provide energy for at least 20min of
intense aerobic exercise. Its different for me - I have to go 6hrs on the intensity which is over the aerobic thershold all the time and from time to time even over anaerobic
treshold and that all requires carbo as main fuel. There is no way to go more than 2h30 without carbo supplementation.

Well, I think there is a lot of common interests between these two sports. And one is for sure- cycling and BB are both
top of the "juicing" sports so we can learn a lot from each other.

Well I hope I didn't wrote to much of that message and didnt slip away from main theme...anyway awaiting response..