HFCS & 2 great books

Just a quick note on something amazing I saw yesterday at The Fresh Market, a high end/gourmet supermarket chain that has a store near us. They had a product tasting yesterday and several of the products featured were Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, & Sprite. So what, you say. What was incredible is that these were IMPORTED from MEXICO and contained REAL SUGAR instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup/Corn Sugar. It tasted like the Coke I drank as a child. I have recently seen ketchup and soda with "NO HFCS or MADE WITH REAL SUGAR" on the labels.

I use Hammer Nutrition products exclusively and they use no simple sugars in their products but are really opposed to HFCS. The July 2010 edition of their magazine, Endurance News, had a great article about a March 2010 study done by Princeton University. Three groups of rats were given different diets. Group A got rat chow and water, Group B got rat chow and HFCS water (at 1/2 the concentration of soft drinks) and Group C got a high-fat diet. The result was a increase in weight by some of the rats on the high-fat diet but all the rats on the HFCS water became obese. They found that the HFCS is processed by the liver into fat while sugar went into the bloodstream to provide a glucose/energy boost (though temporary).

Reference: Bocarsly, M.E., et al. "High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristics of obesity in rats: Increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels." Pharmocology Biochemistry and Behavior, 2010; DOI 10.1016/j.pbb.2010.02.012

Here are 2 great books I received as gifts: 17 Hours to Glory by Muller/Carlson and Trizophrenia: Inside the Minds of a Triathlete by Jef Mallet. Jef is the cartoonist/triathlete who created Frazz, the songwriter/school janitor/triathlete cartoon character. Jef's book has some hilarious observations on triathletes and makes us laugh at ourselves. ("How old is your new girlfriend? She's 30-34 age group.")

17 Hours to Glory profiles 17 Pro or Famous triathletes in their quests at the Hawaiian Ironman. It really give you an insight into the training levels of Iron-distance athletes. Both are available at Amazon.