Posts Tagged ‘Musclemadness’

Artificial Sweetners

ARTIFICIAL SWEETNERS

Sucralose

Ever heard of Sucralose? Well Sucralose is the newest non-nutritive sweetener on the market. It is most well known for its claim to be made from sugar. It is used alone or found in Splenda and is 600 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). When used alone, it provides essentially no calories and is not fully absorbed.

This artificial sweetener can be used for cooking, so it has rapidly become one of the most popular and highly consumed artificial sweeteners.

The most misunderstood fact about sucralose is that it is nothing like sugar even though the marketing implies that it is. Sucralose was actually discovered while trying to create a new insecticide!!!

 It may have started out as sugar, but the final product is anything but sugar and without going into the bio-chemistry of i…it is unlike anything found in nature.

If you read the fine print on the Splenda web site, it states that “although sucralose has a structure like sugar and a sugar-like taste, it is not natural.”

The presence of chlorine is thought to be the most dangerous component of sucralose. Chlorine is considered a carcinogen and has been used in poisonous gas, disinfectants, pesticides, and plastics. The digestion and absorption of sucralose is not clear due to a lack of long-term studies on humans. The majority of studies were done on animals for short lengths of time. The alleged symptoms associated with sucralose are gastrointestinal problems (bloating, gas, diarrhea, nausea), skin irritations (rash, hives, redness, itching, swelling), wheezing, cough, runny nose, chest pains, palpitations, anxiety, anger, moods swings, depression, and itchy eyes. The only way to be sure of the safety of sucralose is to have long-term studies on humans done.

Splenda is a product that contains the artificial sweetener sucralose, but that is not all.

Sucralose does have calories, but because it is 600 times sweeter than sugar, very small amounts are needed to achieve the desired sweetness so you most likely won’t consume enough to get any calories. The other two ingredients in Splenda are dextrose and maltodextrin, which are used to increase bulk and are carbohydrates that do have calories.

One cup of Splenda contains 96 calories and 32 grams of carbohydrates, which is often unnoticed due to the label claiming that it’s a no calorie sweetener. Because this is found in so many products and can be used in cooking, it can be possible to consume 1 cup or more each day. For people with diabetes, this is a significant amount of carbohydrates, and for people who are watching their weight, this can be a problem. Consuming an additional 100 calories a day can result in a weight gain of 10 lbs. per year!

Please spear some thoughts on this and think again before using any Artificial Sweeteners…they are “artificial”….therefore cannot be natural!

However do not panic! If you don’t eat sugar and don’t eat artificial sweetener doesn’t mean you are left with a bitter mouth! ….in fact there is ALWAYS a healthier alterative…the way to go when it comes to sweet tooth is STEVIA…never heard of it? Of course not! They do not sell it in the UK (It would be interesting to ask yourself why??? But I won’t go there!) But you can find it online, just google  Stevia Extract, and it comes in powder or liquid extract.

Stevia is totally natural as it is a plant extract and totally calorie FREE!

So as you can see…once again YOU have a choice…

Gym Love J

Christmas Do’s & Dont’s

Yes it’s that time of year again when the weather takes a turn for the worst, fitness becomes less of a priority and the festive foods take over!

While it’s very easy to get caught up with the cold weather, snow and generally jolly moods, let’s not forget to keep focus on the well being of our bodies.

This may sound like hard work given all the elements we are facing but in actual fact it’s not really that difficult.  If you can sustain 30 minutes of cardio/resistance training per day that will see you through the month of December very nicely.

The trap you don’t want to fall into is going to work and finding yourself eating the cup cakes and other goodies in large trays that your very generous peers have left.  This will result in you eating nothing BUT SUGAR for 8 hours and this will continue for weeks because the next day another friendly peer will also bring in some festive yummies.

Then there will be after hour drinks and bar nights resuting in late dinners and so forth…and you will casually smile and accept what is going on because its Christmas!…Well it’s not quite Christmas, it’s the “lead up” to Christmas but you will only be more than happy to tell yourself that it is…

Now before we tackle the do’s let’s just quickly get the do not’s out of the way first as I like to end on positive and lighter notes…

Do Not…

- Do not starve yourself during the day so you can over indulge on snacks, goodies and Christmas diners

- Avoid sitting at your desk and snacking for 8 hours on cakes and goodies that your work peers have bought in!

- Separate yourself from your nearest and dearests December habits, they may not want to look after themselves as well as you do

- Avoid late night diners and going to bed straight after

- Do not get drunk on every given opportunity & avoid “one for the road”

- Do not be bullied into eating and drinking more because friends and family members are saying “go ooooooon……you know you want to”….it’s a trap!

Do…

- Drink plenty of water during the day, this will help release toxins from your body

- Do try the odd cup cake but don’t get excited and get caught up in the moment and find yourself elbow deep in tray full of assorted cakes!

- Continue to eat 3 regular meals during the day

- DO 30 MINUTES OF CARDIO/RESISTANCE TRAINING EVERY DAY

When I say cardio I am talking about going for a jog, swimming, skipping cycling any fitness activity that will have your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes.

Not only will this help you burn calories but it will keep your mind, body and immune system fit during the month of December…this will not only keep you active but it sets you up nicely for your New Years Resolutions.

Resistance training could be body weight exercises such as push ups, sit ups, squats, lunges etc…these exercises will help keep your muscles remain strong, supple, flexible, toned and well conditioned! 

Other advantages to 30 minutes of exercise per day is it keeps your immune system finely tuned resulting in you minimising your chances of catching a cold/flu and other airborn viruses that tend to pop up during the colder temperatures of December.

 I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and wonderful “Lead Up” to and Christmas

Deepak Bhangu
Head of Operations & Personal Trainer
Musclemadness