Miscellany: 10/28/15

Stevia, Artificial Sweeteners and Health

I was looking at an ad today for a raw protein bar (I'm not a big fan of gimmick foods, but sometimes based on my schedule and appetite, they can be convenient and a change of pace) when I noticed they were marketing: "No wheat! No soy! No stevia!"  Now I've been aware of the wheat belly diet (see here for WebMD's review); I modestly use whole wheat products like sandwich thins and tortillas, stemming from my low-carb period of 2003-4--there are often in the range of 4-15 net carbs a serving (after netting out fiber grams). As someone with underactive thyroid issues, I normally try to stay away from soy. But stevia?
 

In short, there are no panaceas when it comes to weight loss. It does seem, at least in the short term, stevia does not have the dysfunctional metabolic effects sometimes seen with artificial sweeteners:

A 2004 study in rats found low-calorie sweeteners led the animals to overeat, possibly because of a mismatch between the perceived sweetness and the expected calories from sugar, according to the paper in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders. The author of that study later argued that people who use artificial sweeteners may suffer health problems associated with excess sugar, including metabolic syndrome, which can be a precursor to diabetes.
"A number of studies suggest people who regularly consume ASB [artificially sweetened beverages] are at increased risk compared with those that do not consume ASB," Dr. Susan E. Swithers said in a 2013 opinion letter in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The same effect does not occur with stevia:

 A 2010 study in the journal Appetite tested several artificial sweeteners against sugar and each other in 19 lean people and 12 obese people.The study found people did not overeat after consuming a meal made with stevia instead of sugar. Their blood sugar was lower after a meal made with stevia than after eating a meal with sugar, and eating food with stevia resulted in lower insulin levels than eating either sucrose and aspartame.

I know I've mentioned this incident in my political blog and probably also in this blog that I was active in a Yahoo low carb group forum about a dozen years back. I was dealing with Atkins fundamentalists with a wolf pack mentality on anyone deviating from orthodoxy. I was more liberal in terms of dietary restrictions (in particular case, this one woman who complained that she wasn't losing weight and posted her menu (I think which came from a nutritionist). Almost immediately the fundamentalists fixated on the corn kernels in her mixed veggies; I rolled my eyes and said, "Give me a break." I asked the woman, "What exercises are you doing?" The woman responded, "What exercise? I'm wheelchair-bound..." Others then joined in the discussion with suggestions.) The forum, which generally consisted of otherwise healthy people with weight issues,was a sinkhole of time. Near the end of my tenure, I got blasted by some mother, whose child is epileptic and found that a low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet had worked wonders for her child, irrationally accusing me of attempting to dispense medical advice without a license. The Atkins fundamentalists gave the mother high-fives for putting me into my place.

So let me say for the record that while I do have applied research skills, I haven't done original research in the nutrition or related disciplines; I do know how to evaluate experimental design, measure validity, statistical power, and limitations on inferences from results. I haven't been trained in the health/medical sector and realize that people with serious physical conditions--e.g., organ disease, diabetes, disabilities, etc.--may have nuanced dietary restrictions. Not to mention there are something like 4B prescriptions written a year and it's very possible that dietary changes could offset or confound one's condition or medicines.

Let me give a couple of examples from stevia. There has been a limited number of studies which suggest that stevia may have moderating effects on hypertension and diabetes; some forms of stevia have been traditionally used for contraceptive purposes. So obviously if you are taking related medicines (e.g., hypertension) or fertility treatments, you need to check with your physician, e.g., to ensure any stevia use doesn't exacerbate dosage issues and result in dangerous low blood pressure or other issues.

The interested reader may want to read this response to various Internet fearmongers on the safety of stevia. NOTE: I have purchased several kilograms of stevia powder over the past 5 years, almost all of which has been used to sweeten beverages, principally iced tea.

Finally: The October Staircase Whoosh

My earlier posts this month voiced frustration I seemed to be zigzagging the same 6-pound range for weeks when I finally broke through over the past few days, dropping 5 lbs. below my range floor to a new diet low yesterday. I did have a couple of readings below my official recorded weight (my current digital scale readings tend to vary; I require a confirmatory weight reading), suggesting up to 3 more lbs. possible in this whoosh--only to weigh in this morning 4 lbs. higher. Sigh. I know my diet was rigorous yesterday; this is likely what I've termed in the past as a dead cat bounce. It wouldn't surprise me if I quickly lose 3 of those back by Friday; who knows? Maybe this bounce ends up lower on the staircase. All things considered, a 5-lb. drop over a month is a respectable 1-1.5 lb/week pace. I seemed to drop twice as much 12 years back, but my exercise regimen was more rigorous back then.

Miscellany: 10/22/15

Unorthodox Eats

This is still one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen on the silver screen:



I've been somewhat adventurous an eater. There are a few dishes I can't stand; one is canned chicken, which is somewhat unintuitive because I love fresh/frozen chicken--baked, fried, grilled. All parts. Since my low carb days, I've been into organ meats on a periodic basis, and I've probably averaged at least a package a month of chicken livers, hearts and/or gizzards.

But I don't know what it is about the brine or liquid, but I can't stand canned chicken--even if I'm hunger. I remember my maternal grandfather loved it; we were staying with him (a mom-and-pop grocer) while Dad was securing family housing at his next military assignment. My mom's female cousin lived with her own family up the street from us; after school, my younger siblings and I would stop by the cousin's apartment and watch TV or play with her school age daughters. I think Mom called to let us know that dinner was ready, and I got the word we were having canned chicken sandwiches. I got myself invited to dinner with the cousin's family.

I also don't like chicken on pizza, at least without a tomato-based sauce. Other idiosyncrasies: I'll eat pineapple by itself, but not on pizzas or ham. But I'll eat duck with orange sauce. However, there have been other dishes my family liked that I didn't--in particular, cream corn and jellied/pickled pigs feet. It's not that I have a hangup about pig parts but the jellied/pickled presentation. As for corn, I love popped corn and fresh corn on the cob; frozen corn often retains the corn-on-the-cob taste, but I usually take a pass on canned corn.

But I would be adventuresome within the context of my experience. I wanted to try venison, even though my Dad didn't hunt (to the best of my knowledge) and my Mom never prepared it. I've seen ads for jerky from more exotic animals like alligator, boar, snake, or kangaroo; I would probably try these. Now I realize millions of people have eaten different types of cuisine from different parts of the globe, but most people I know are wary of dishes they aren't accustomed to. I remember when I went to my first Taste of Chicago festival; I sampled this African goat stew with bananas; surprisingly tasty!

Some things I try and I'm just not into. To me, squid is like chewing on flavorless gum. I don't get the yuppie sushi thing at all; I've had it more than once. I did a project in Brazil (see below) where millions of Japanese-Brazilians lived and there were lots of ethnic restaurants; my teammate loved sushi and would eat it daily (within reason our meals could be expensed; I remember one time he pleaded with me that he would find a restaurant that would cook fish). And sake is definitely an acquired taste; in my experience, it tastes like something fermented in an old army boot

When I visited São Paulo, Brazil back in 1995 for a few months at a client site, I experienced many new for me dishes; I developed a taste for very strong coffee, a wonderful concept of churrascarias (sort of a one-price Brazilian steakhouse where you start out with a lavish salad bar, and waiters constantly patrol with cooked meats, chicken hearts, etc. on skewer that are carved onto plates. I once hadn't noticed a green/red button near my plate; I pointed out my plate was full. He shrugged his shoulders and put a second plate in front of me. Even though the waiters couldn't speak English and I spoke a limited amount of Portuguese, I ate well enough to put on 20 pounds in 3 months, which didn't make my girlfriend happy. (There were some things that I wouldn't eat; in one of the more American-friendly hotels, they often put out some eggs on the buffet line (more standard fare included sandwich fixings, fruit, etc.); one day I started to scoop up some scrambled eggs, when I saw some greenish coloring to the eggs--I wasn't that adventurous.)

But next to churrascarias, there was feijoada, typically served on Wednesdays and Saturdays. (The story I was told by my client hosts is mentioned in the Smithsonian piece, that it was a slave or peasant feast of beans and leftover parts of animals not served to the upper class in the old slave days, like ham or bacon.) You might see dishes exotic to me, like tongue and pig ears. Feijoada was the yuppie thing to do . I think I sampled a little of everything, probably on dares from my hosts.  I remember trying a pig's ear; it was okay, but not my thing. Been there, done that.

Where is this all leading to? Insects, in particular crickets. Now I've known for some time that vendors (e.g., on Amazon) sell chocolate-covered insects (although a little too pricey to interest me in buying them, same as with exotic jerky).  There is a (new to me) high-end protein bar which is based on a key ingredient of cricket flour. Consider the following image:

Courtesy of Exoprotein

One can sample a 4-pack of Exoprotein's 4 flavors (e.g., peanut butter and jelly, cocoa nut, etc.); see the above vendor website link. The nutritional labels vary, but to give a rough estimate, a bar is 300 calories, maybe 15 net carbs, and a healthy chunk of calories in fat grams, up to half or more, a quarter so of daily fat guidelines. although the sweeteners tend to be ingredients like honey. The bars, sold in dozen-count single flavor or variety boxes, range in the pricier $3/bar range. I could do without food politics in the sales pitch; I'm not one of the anti-GMO crowd (I occasionally discuss the issue in my political blog), the organics or the lovacore (buy local produce) crowd. I have decided to order a sampler and may give my independent review in a future post.

Lab-Grown Burgers?

I covered this topic recently with some British video clips; what intrigues me is not so much the scientific process (not that it doesn't interest me: see sample clip below) but how you could scale up the process to mass produce product for supermarket distribution. The cost of a burger has come down from nearly a third of a million dollars to about $11:

Post expects to be able to produce the patties on a large enough scale to sell them for under $10 a piece in a matter of five years. "Once we can grow the tissue in a reactor the size of an Olympic swimming pool, we should be able to achieve that sort of volume," Post said. "For perspective, half a swimming pool would allow us to feed about 20,000 people for a year."

While the price of the burger has dropped to almost-reasonable prices, Post told ABC that it will still be another 20 to 30 years before it's commercially viable. Among the hurdles still left to overcome: figuring out how to produce test-tube meat at scale, and coming up with a way to produce it that doesn't use fetal calf serum (currently, cells are grown in the serum, which is taken from cow fetus blood).

Some human testers argue that they miss the juiciness and the satiating fat of a regular burger; others think that consumers will be too squeamish to try "frankenmeat"; as for me, I would try it in a heartbeat (see above segment).



Do Artificial Sweeteners Interfere With Nutrtition or Metabolism?

This is an interesting topic, although I rarely use artificial sweeteners beyond an occasional cup of coffee and low-calorie drink mixes. I drink a lot of ice tea, which I normally sweeten with stevia. I rarely eat artificially-sweetened foods or soft drinks; over the last 4 or 5 years, I've almost never bought soft drinks unless traveling or moving between cities (which hasn't been that often). Even when I drank soft drinks more frequently (always diet versions), I normally rationed myself to one glass or can a day.

The research from what I understand is far from comprehensive and suggestive that the significant use of artificial sweeteners may desensitize the body from more efficient metabolic responses, not unlike the boy who cries wolf one too many times. See this WebMd source for a more detailed, technical discussion. There is enough there to want me want to taper down the nominal use of sweeteners I'm now consuming.

Plateau Month on the Renewed Diet

This has been an exasperating month with little or no loss over the past month, after an early 10-pound or so drop in restarting my diet in August. On a positive note, my weight is down for the year, but I'm still triple-digits away from my goal weight.  I've been cycling up and down roughly the same 6-pound interval all month extending from late last month. For example, yesterday I lost nearly a pound to find myself up 2 pounds this morning. Obviously I didn't binge yesterday. Mid-month I stopped weighing myself  out of frustration, and I found myself at the tail end of a whoosh the other day, nearly taking out my month low. In the past, I've been in similar ruts when all of a sudden I get a monster whoosh/drop of 10-12 lbs.over a few days. I figure I'm overdue a 5-6 lb. drop any day now. So I thought I was going to crash through the month low this morning, but found myself back up two, which sucks. I'm not happy with the scale I have--I can get consecutive readings up to 2 lbs. apart; I usually log a repeated scale readout. Yesterday my first reading was a new month low, but I had to revise it up a pound because it wouldn't repeat.

The Renewed Diet and Dealing With Bounces and Plateaus

I don't know what it is about my latest digital scale--my latest scale measures to fifths of a pound and it's not unusual to see consecutive weigh-ins to differ by up to a pound or more. Usually I look for a repeated weight confirmation before registering my weight, first thing in the morning.

About 10 days back, I reached a yearly low--only to see my weight literally bounce up over 5 pounds overnight. I was stunned--it's not like I binged on my diet, ate too many carbs, etc. I quickly dropped off a quick 1.5 pounds, just to see me bounce back up a pound. For most of the rest of the period I dropped down a half pound or so, except for another bounce or two. I finally got back down to my starting point yesterday and went down another half-pound or so to another diet low this morning. Obviously I hope I have another 2-3 pounds to go on this whoosh. I was hoping for a steady 1.5-2 lb. lost a week; I still recall my successful 2003-2004 low carb diet when I seemed to lost about 3.5 lbs. a week; I stalled a few weeks shy of a major anniversary for my folks and basically took a break; one of the problems with a low-carb lifestyle is that it can be boring. The problem was when I tried going back on the regimen  I stalled out again. I don't think I ever completely abandoned the lower-carb lifestyle, but most of the 90-odd lbs. I had lost eventually returned. I have attributed some of it to a lower exercise rate and a thyroid deficiency; at one point over the past year, I developed a painful heel spur, enough to spend $40 on xrays. Did overeating play a role? Clearly yes. At some jobs I ate out more, and in IT pizza is a staple for business meetings etc.--I didn't necessarily restrict myself to one slice.  My Mom would mail the occasional care package of cookies or other treats around holiday times. During the first few months of my Nutrisystem diet, I quickly took off 40 lbs. but once again I stalled; I'm not sure whether my body at some point just adjusts to the new normal. The problem is sticking to the diet once I've stalled or gotten bored.