The dangers of consuming food or drink that contain chemicals

 The World Health Organization (WHO) today classified aspartame, a popular artificial sweetener, as a possible carcinogen. The decision was based on limited evidence and doesn’t change the recommended acceptable daily intake levels for aspartame.

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in many low-calorie products like Diet Coke and sugar-free Jell-O. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decades ago, but some people continue to question the safety of this sugar substitute.

I want to insert my comments now before you finish reading this. The Food and Drug Administration or FDA allows chemicals in food because it's in very small amounts. But because most of these chemicals are commonly used in several different foods and drinks no one knows how much the average person is consuming. And because chemicals in the body don't pass through, they normally get stored in fat cells, and those fat cells can become cancerous.

The human body can only process natural food and drinks, like water or juice from fruits or vegetables. Any food or drink additives that can't be processed will be stored in the body. The body can't pass through anything that it can't process.

So the question is what can I eat and what can't I eat.? Recently, eating natural food and drinking bottled water has become the new trend.

                                                                                                                                                             

Eat only fresh food, which pretty much eliminates canned foods, anything that comes frozen, and even dairy products. I forget to mention bakery goods. You can make your own bread, pies, and cakes because you know what ingredients you use. The problem with buying ready-made food is that commercial food companies will substitute natural ingredients with chemicals that taste the same to keep the price down. Read the label when in doubt.     

The WHO’s cancer research group, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), uses four categories to classify carcinogens or cancer-causing agents.

Aspartame is now listed in Group 2B alongside things like gasoline, lead, and whole-leaf aloe vera extract. Group 1 consists of harmful substances with “sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans,” including tobacco smoke and ultraviolet radiation.

To be placed in Group 2B, the research group must find “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans,” or “sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals,” or “strong evidence that the agent exhibits key characteristics of carcinogens (regardless of whether from exposed humans or human cells or from experimental systems).”

“For current consumers of diet drinks, this news isn’t cause for major alarm. Aspartame has been classed in IARC’s Category 2B, which means there’s limited evidence that it might cause cancer, not that it does or is likely to,” Alexandra Jones, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow in Food Policy and Law at the George Institute for Global Health in Australia, said in a statement.

How Dangerous Is Aspartame?

Some people have turned to aspartame and other artificial sweeteners as a way to reduce their sugar intake. Consuming too many added sugars has increased the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

But with the news that aspartame is a “possible carcinogen,” some people may wonder if the swap from sugar to aspartame is worth it.

“No one ingredient or food increases cancer risk. It’s the amounts and patterns of food we consume over time, along with other genetic and lifestyle factors, that influence health risk,” Debbie Petitpain, MS, RDN, LDN, a registered dietitian in Charleston, South Carolina, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Verywell in an email.

Aspartame is one of six sweeteners currently approved by the FDA as “safe for the general population under certain conditions of use.” The FDA determined that it’s safe for most people to consume up to 50 mg/kg body weight of aspartame every day.

Most of this article was written by experts in the field and it only pertains to sweeteners put into drinks because it's widely used. This is not the only chemical widely used in our foods and drinks. Most low-fat or low carb foods or drinks have little taste so chemical food additives are added to adhance the flavor.

Think about your health when your shopping.

Follow me on X or Twitter @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Health and Fitness

 There are so many new things happening in health and fitness right now. Social media sites have new posts almost every day. I want to caution you not to listen to all the noise you hear. Most of these announcements are really ads that want you to buy their product. You don't have to spend money to lose weight.     

Some of us are simply going about this the wrong way. The object is really about losing body fat. Don't bother using a scale to see how you're doing. The scale can lie, but a tape measure never lies. If you're losing inches you're doing it the right way. You want the old-school tape measure like a seamstress uses. Don't measure frequently, twice a month is enough. It Takes time to lose an inch. Your jeans maybe a better way to measure gains. 

Losing fat is about burning body fat. I start in the morning by doing some exercise. Because I'm in my 70s and my body is used to exercise. I only work out for 20 or 30 minutes a day. I do stretches and yoga first for about 15 minutes, than some days I use dumbells for about 10 minutes or I bike ride for 1 hour. I only bike once or twice a week. I use the dumbells every other day. Using weighs will build muscle and that means your body will burn more fat. The more muscle mass you have the more fat you burn. That's why a very slim, lean, muscular people can eat more carbs and more fat then a people trying to lose fat. 

Exercise is only a small part of losing fat. The hard part for me was changing my diet and only eating food and drinking things that would help me lose fat. That was hard because I was drinking alcohol every day. Not hard liquor but beer and wine. There are too many calories in alcohol. Yes, you still should count calories. I counted calories for about two weeks. First I counted calories while I was on my old diet. Then after I changed my diet I counted calories for another week. I add all the calories I consume in the week and divide by seven to get the average per day. Then I do the same for the new diet and compare. You have to reduce the calorie count by 600 calories a day to lose weight. It's easy to accomplish, because the new diet should have less carbs and less sugar. 

The average overweight American consumes over 3000 calories a day. Drinks alone are more then 1000 calories. So you might think that just just cutting back on the drink calories will reduce the calorie count and I will lose weight. Yes and no; yes you will lose some weight but you won't be losing body fat. To lose body fat you need to eat food that burn fat. 

I had to change to a diet of protein shakes with plant-based protein and non-dairy milk like soy or almond milk. That's about 30 grams of protein or about of my daily alotment. For lunch I would eat a chicken breast with two vegetables. or beans and one vegetable. I always drink water with a meal. That can be another 30 grams of protein. Some days I vary the meal with a salad with spinach, beans, chicken, chick peas, celery, and maybe beets. This again is high in protein. Be careful what type of salad dressing you use, most of the jar dressings are high in calories. Later in the afternoon, I eat something small like an apple and after that I stop eating. You want to give your system about 6 hours to digest your food before bedtime. 

It will help you reduce calories if you stop drinking calories. There are several brands of zero calorie drinks on the market. Drinking plain water with food is still the best thing you can do for your body. There are several good purification systems on the market or just buy bottled water. 

For those of you who have tried and failed to lose weight or regained the weight, you can get help on the internet, but ebooks might be an easier way. You can spend hours looking through countless websites trying to find the right plan for you. I went that route myself. I did months of research reading everything I could find and nothing I tried work, I always gained the weight back.I found that skimming through ebooks was quicker and easier.

 Follow me on X or Twitter @gertsraymo70369 or @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K. If you are using Amazon you want to get the Kindle app to purchase my book.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “Getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Losing Body Fat

  “According to the Mayo Clinic, there are many factors that affect your weight, such as genetics, age, gender, hormones, medications, stress, sleep quality, and physical activity. However, the most important factor is your diet. What you eat and drink has a direct impact on how many calories you consume and how many calories you burn. Therefore, choosing the right diet plan is crucial for achieving your weight loss goals.”

So why is the diet part the most important part of weight loss? The larger the percentage of body fat you have to more difficult it is to lose weight. You can actually be a small person who is not overweight and still has a large percentage of body fat. If your percentage of fat is 30% or more of your body mass, you have too much fat. When you have too much fat, it's easy to add more fat. That's because of a person's lifestyle. The way you live your life can add fat which adds pounds. A middle-aged person can easily add 3 to 5 pounds a year.

This happens without you realizing it until one day your pants don't fit. But Why You might ask? As a person ages, you are usually less active. If this is you it can be because of many different things. Maybe at work, you spend more time behind a desk, Maybe you don't get as much exercise as you did a few years ago, and maybe as you gained weight over the years, you consume a little food, or drink. Everything has calories except water, tea, and coffee. 

The title of this post is "Losing Body Fat" which is the only thing you need to lose. If you lose inches you will lose weight. You don't need a scale, you only need a tape measure. But don't expect instant results, Losing one inch can take a couple weeks. 

You can't starve yourself, some food and drink will add fat, and some food and drink will help you lose fat. 

Follow me on X or Twitter @gertsraymo70369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

You Can't Exercise Away a Bad Diet

 When it comes to losing weight, the evidence is pretty clear – “you can’t outrun a bad diet,” according to a recent editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

If your goal is weight loss, that gym membership is going to do little to drop the pounds when your diet is out of shape. If you hit the gym five days a week for 30 minutes a day and you’re not losing weight, you now know why. It’s not your metabolism. It’s not your hormones. It’s what and how much you eat. We would be surprised if we knew how little calories we really need. Foods like fish or seafood, grains, fruits, and vegetables don’t have that many calories. The average American will consume more than 3000 calories a day when actually 1500 is plenty. Unless you run 5 miles a day you don’t need a lot of calories. We consume half our daily calories in the drinks we consume. If we only drank water, coffee, and tea we could cut more than 1000 calories a day.

We’re talking about more than just your expanding belly and butt. A wicked diet causes more disease than physical inactivity, alcohol, and smoking combined, according to the editorial. Even those with a normal body mass index (BMI) often have metabolic abnormalities we usually see with obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease. Why? Their poor diet, despite their weight being seemingly healthy.

You often hear, “You’d have to jog 30 minutes to burn off that double cheeseburger.” But it’s more than that. The editorial cites a study showing an extra 150 calories of sugar causes more diabetes than the same number of calories in fat or protein. This isn’t permission to load up on all the fatty foods you want — too many calories is still going to lead to too much body fat.

In addition, research has shown that cutting carbohydrates in your diet is the most effective thing you can do to reduce problems including high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and manage diabetes, the editorial notes. Those benefits are seen even if you don’t lose weight.

Don’t sit down just yet. Exercise is still critically important for optimal health. Exercise is medicine. If you’re active, your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and some cancers plummets by at least 30%. No drug can do that. Exercise just doesn’t help much with weight loss.

If you’re looking to slim down for bathing suit season, take a good hard look at what’s on your plate. Load up on veggies and lean protein. Skip the starchy carbs and junk food. And when you’ve hit your goal weight, hit the gym to continue on your journey to good health.

Follow me on Twitter @gertsraymo70369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Does Stress Add Pounds

 Stress works differently for everyone. For some, it will increase your appetite; for others, it works just the opposite. I found this study in another post today. In the past research has suggested that overeating may be caused by an addiction to things like salt or sugar and it’s these addictions that cause overweight and obesity. But what if it’s not addiction? What if your body is looking for a way to relieve stress. And subconsciously your body uses comfort food as a way to relieve the stress in your life.

Scientists have found receptors for stress-activated hormones on taste cells responsible for sweet, umami, and bitter tastes – a finding that suggests stress can directly act on our perception of how food and drink tastes.

New research has identified receptor sites for stress-activated hormones on oral taste cells that are responsible for our ability to taste sweet, bitter, and umami. The findings suggest that these hormones, known as glucocorticoids, may act directly on taste receptor cells under conditions of stress to affect how these cells respond to sugars and certain other taste stimuli.

“Sweet taste may be particularly affected by stress,” suggested lead author M. Rockwell Parker, Ph.D., from the Monell Chemical Sciences Center in the US. “Our results may provide a molecular mechanism to help explain why some people eat more sugary foods when they are experiencing intense stress.”

According to senior author Robert Margolskee, MD, Ph.D., the fact that taste cells are found throughout our body may mean that stress-induced hormones can have much broader effects.” Taste receptors in the gut and pancreas might also be influenced by stress, potentially impacting metabolism of sugars and other nutrients and affecting appetite,” he said – noting that future studies will continue to explore how stress hormones act to affect the taste system.

This is a very interesting and new way to look at the overweight problem. We already know that life in America has become increasingly stressful for the middle class and lower income population and it’s interesting that it’s these same people that have an over-weight problem. If money problems are causing stress that is causing the overweight problem, then maybe we’re using the wrong approach to solving the over-weight problem

Losing body fat should be your goal. Read up on weight loss and losing body fat. It doesn’t cost money to lose weight. The internet is full of free information Weight. Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

Also, follow me on Twitter @gertsraymo70369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

How To Beat the Evil Food Industry

 Sometimes we take things for granted. We listen to the advertising and look at the attractive sign with the calories listed by the price and think “o.k., this seems healthy. It’s a basic sandwich, how bad could it be.” Restaurant food is made to taste good, no one said it had to be good for you. The same with the prepared foods we buy at the supermarket.

The object of the food industry is to make your food tastes good, and you will come back again. In most cases, healthy food is sort of bland. It lacks the seasoning, sauces, and gravy that gives the flavor that everyone loves. In that respect, the food industry and restaurants have the same goal, Keep the customer coming back.

All that extra flavor that we love adds extra calories but no extra nutrition. In order to lose weight, we want to eat fresh. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh poultry and seafood, and stop drinking calories.

It’s a well-known medical fact that the more calories you consume, the shorter your life span. Eating fresh and eating clean reduces your calories without dieting. When we stop drinking calories, we can reduce our calorie intake by more than 1000 calories a day. That alone will help you lose weight.

Canned or frozen vegetables will contain some chemicals. If you read the package, it tells you the sodium content, and sugar content. The industry doesn't use the word "salt" anymore. Why, because sodium chemicals are cheaper. Sugar is still used in some products, but most products contain a sweetener that replaces sugar. Not because it's healthier, but because it's cheaper. Many of those companies in the food industry don't like increasing prices. I know that sounds crazy looking back on all the price increases this year. Ever since the 1970's companies would rather use cheaper ingrediency, than raise prices. 

Today's price increase are due to labor increases, and transportation costs. Only a small amount of those increase was due to supplies costs. 

Yes, the raw materials did increase in price, but why, because the cost of the labor increased Thing about it for a minute, when you buy shirt, it costs more today. Why, because of labor and transportation costs. Why was transportation effected? Because fuel increased and labor increased. The price of food and beverages will come down over time, But the labor part of that cost isn't going to get cheaper.

I'm getting away from the meaning of the post. Processed foods are the foods with the most labor built in. The price of basic fresh foods will reduce in price faster because there is less labor involved in that food.

You will spend more time in the kitchen doing prep work before dinner, but you can save money and eat healthier.

Follow me on Twitter @gertsraymo70369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

How To Avoid Common Hacks

  This is a different topic than I usually write about, but it's happening more frequently today than ever before. I attended a seminar yesterday and I was surprised that hacking a cell phone is the new hack. And it's easier than you think. 

Hacking has become so easy to do, Hackers can get your info from your cell phone in a minute. So now hackers are going after the general public. It is pretty easy to spot someone who has money.

We all have WiFi turned on our cell phones all the time. We need it in buildings when we leave the house. Hackers will use your WiFi connection to hack your phone and copy your personal information while you're shopping, in a restaurant, or just walking in a crowded area. You probably won't even know it happened until the money is missing from your bank account.

How do we prevent this? Simply turn out your WiFi when you leave the house. If you work in an office, most offices don't use WiFi because they don't want the liability of someone hacking the WiFi. Simply use the connection from your cell phone provider.

To protect the content on your phone, never use public charging stations, and never use public WiFi. The same practice should be used with laptops and cell phones.

I speak from experience if you have ever picked up a virus and didn't know how, it was probably from public WiFi. You don't even have to be using your phone to get hacked. When we set our phones down we don't turn them off and the wifi is on, so you can receive calls or messages and that's how you can be hacked. 

Don't be a victim, if you have lost your identity you are probably leaving yourself exposed. Hackers always look to do the easiest hack. Hacks that only take a minute. 

Hackers use apps that can find a wifi connection, then the app looks thru your apps and opens whatever they are looking for. Be careful when you leave your house, and keep your wifi off.