'Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show' Episode 106: Part 2 Of My Chat With 'The Biggest Loser' Bill Germanakos

"Got Milk?" ad with "The Biggest Loser" Bill Germanakos

After sharing with you Part 1 of my interview with "The Biggest Loser" 4 winner Bill Germanakos on my podcast show on Monday, it's time to hear Part 2 and the conclusion of that interview during Episode 106 of "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore" today. Fans of the hit NBC-TV reality weight loss series "The Biggest Loser" are given a small glimpse behind-the-scenes of what makes this one of the most popular and inspiring shows on television these days.

Click on the "LISTEN NOW" link below or download it to your iPod to hear today's podcast:

"The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore" Episode 106 [17:43m]: LISTEN NOW | Download

Bill Germanakos was quite candid during Part 2 of my interview with him about how he feels about livin' la vida low-carb. I was grinning from ear to ear when I heard him talking about keeping his carbohydrate intake to 20 percent of his total calories (WOO HOO!) and avoiding "anything white," including bread, pasta, and sugar. This was quite refreshing to hear and not surprising since every previous winner of "The Biggest Loser" has implemented some form of carbohydrate restriction to their diet.

In Part 2 of my interview with Bill Germanakos, he also talks about what kind of sweetener he uses instead of sugar (and it just might surprise you!), the enormous benefits of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise in his weight loss success, the inherent dangers of drinking regular soda (and our host Jimmy confesses to Bill how much sugary soda he used to drink!), as well as Bill's potential plans for the future to continue inspiring and educating the masses about getting healthy.

It's time for you to be your own "biggest loser" right now by:

1. Listening at the official web site
2. Calling (818) 688-2763 to listen via Podlinez
3. Subscribing to the RSS feed
4. Going to iTunes--Click here to subscribe!

Now that you've heard from Bill Germanakos in Episode 106 of "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore," I'm curious to hear your reaction. Do you like his chances for keeping the weight off long-term by continuing down the low-carb path he has chosen for himself? Are you intrigued by the fact that the nutritionists and trainers on the show taught him about the inherent dangers of consuming too many carbs on weight and health? Talk about it in the show notes section of Episode 106 and express yourself.

Like I shared in my previous podcast post, I am in the midst of bringing you more interviews with the contestants from Season 4 of "The Biggest Loser," including Bill's brother and the at-home $100,000 winner Jim Germanakos as well as his fellow Black Team members Hollie Self and Isabeau Miller, Red Team members David Griffin, Lezlye Donahue, and "B" Andretti, as well as Blue Team members Neil Tejwani, Nicole Michalik, Ryan Rodriguez, Kae Whang, and the oldest contestant ever--62-year old Jerry Lisenby. I've been working diligently for over a month trying to secure these interviews and will share them with you soon and very soon. :)

Don't forget to check out the outstanding web sites created by Bill Germanakos located at HalfTheManTwiceTheMan.com and BiggestLoserTwins.com to keep up with what is happening with the Season 4 winner of "The Biggest Loser." You can even book Bill and Jim Germanakos to come speak in your area and buy some cool merchandise from the brothers, including that CD with Sinatra favorites sung by Jim. You can listen to FREE clips from the CD, too.

THANKS for your support of "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore" and listen again on Monday as we bring you another motivating and inspiring message of hope in your healthy low-carb lifestyle. SEE YA THEN! ;)

The Sudden Switch From Sucrose To Fructose Made Us Fat And Sick

Fructose looks innocent enough, but just how harmful is it?

We all know that consuming sugar can be detrimental to your weight loss plans, especially if you are livin' la vida low-carb. The overconsumption of sugar is arguably one of the most ignored causes of obesity, diabetes, and other health ailments in the world today. But why has sugar become such a major part of our society unlike in past generations.

It all goes back to around the time my generation was born in the early 1970s when manufacturers decided to stop using sucrose, aka table sugar, as the primary sweetening agent found in most soft drinks at the time and switch it over to fructose, a form of sugar extracted from fruit, instead. Sounds innocent enough, doesn't it? But not so fast.

Prior to switch from sucrose to fructose in the 1970s, the average American consumed about 1/2 pound of fructose, mostly in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), annually. In 1997, wanna know how much fructose people in the United States were eating? Hold on to your hat because this is a SHOCKER--60 POUNDS A YEAR!!!

The part that really stinks to high heaven is the fact that HFCS is in EVERYTHING nowadays. It's almost impossible to pick up very many foods at all in your local grocery store without coming across this health menace. That's one of the major concerns science journalist Michael Pollan shared in his outstanding book The Omnivore's Dilemma.


A fructose molecule gives a skeletal view of this dangerous sugar

You may be wondering what's so bad about fructose compared with sucrose. There are several metabolic issues at work that should shed some light on this:

- Fructose needs the liver to break it down

The process of metabolizing fructose uses up lots of energy molecules called Adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. When this happens, the body reacts by feeling really tired and repeating this strain on the liver has been found to cause fatty liver disease and could lead to metabolic syndrome. Additionally, the more fructose that is in your system, the greater risk you are putting the protein in your body. And that's not a good thing at all!

- Fructose needs sucrose to be absorbed properly

The abundance of fructose combined with the lack of sucrose in the modern diet means most people are putting a strain on their lower intestine to digest the fructose. This causes pain gas and abdominal issues, including bloating and diarrhea.

- Fructose doesn't just add calories, it's harmful on its own

While most of the so-called health "experts" talk about sugary sodas as merely "empty calories," the fact is the fructose in them is what causes the most problems in the weight and health of those who consume it.

This is a scary thought for me personally because I used to consume the equivalent of 16-20 cans of Coca-Cola on a daily basis before I started livin' la vida low-carb. That's about 45g sugar, all in the form of high fructose corn syrup, per can. So I was guzzling down--BRACE YOURSELF--upwards of 900 grams of sugar (much of which is fructose) just in my soda consumption before the Atkins diet. And we won't even talk about the HFCS that was in all those snack cakes I used to eat, too! EEEEEEK!

I thank the good Lord above that I didn't do major damage to my body putting my body through fructose shock treatment because the negative side effects of this sugar are difficult to ignore despite the spin Audrae Erickson from the Corn Refiner's Association attempted to use in defense of HFCS. She claimed that it is merely a natural product that everyone should be eating as part of their healthy diet. Yeah right! Just wait until you see what this stuff does to your body and see if you buy into that lie.

Studies have already shown that fructose speeds up the process of becoming obese, but it gets even worse than that! Fructose is KNOWN to raise your triglycerides which also leads to obesity and metabolic syndrome. Uric acid is raised in the body and the risk of getting gout increases leading to inflammation of the arteries which rapidly begins clogging your arteries (see, it's not the fat you consume, but the SUGAR in the form of fructose that leads to cardiovascular problems).

Many people also have fructose intolerance, similar to lactose intolerance with milk-based products, that causes their body to experience severe cramping, gas, stomach pain, indigestion, and worse. If you thought eating maltitol was bad, then you ain't seen nothing until you have experienced an intolerance to fructose!

In light of my horrendous consumption of 900+ grams of fructose just from sodas before 2004, you might think you can get away with a lot less of that with no ill effects. But you would be wrong. The fact is all you need is as little as 60g fructose commonly found in ONE large soft drink from McDonald's or Super Big Gulp from 7-11 and the potential damage to your liver and the accumulation of body fat will commence. Is there any wonder how my weight ever got to be over 400 pounds now?

The scary part about fructose is that it is not just in sugary soda. Most people get hundreds of grams MORE of this stuff in their body when they eat foods like bread, cookies, cake, ketchup (yep, HFCS is in it, too!), snack cakes, and even fruit. You'll notice all of those foods just happen to be HIGH-CARB, too, so it's yet another reason why you should be livin' la vida low-carb. ;)

But even those of us on the low-carb lifestyle should be mindful of the fructose that is put in barbecue sauce and other grilling condiments because of something known as advanced glycoslated end products, or AGEs. This one should be easy to remember because AGEs lead to an advancement in aging. We already know a high-carb/high-sugar diet leads to age-related macular degeneration and a whole host of other health ailments, but this one should make you pay close attention.

AGEs are created when a chemical reaction happens when proteins are heated in combination with fructose sugars. Toasting or grilling leads to a process known as cartelization where the protein reacts to the fructose it comes in contact with to cause stiffening of the arteries and an increase in blood pressure. The AGEs also damage your kidneyes, eyes, and essential organs. Our bodies will absorb 10 percent of the AGEs we consume--enough to cause some serious damage if you are not careful.

Try to avoid using sugary sauces when cooking meats, but also keep in mind that a lot of grilled meats have sugar injected into them. That's why getting the best quality of grass-fed, organic beef, for example, is going to be the healthiest for your low-carb lifestyle. Just because it tastes good doesn't necessarily mean it's good for you.

Most egregious of all regarding fructose that comes from HFCS is that fact that the corn has been genetically modified (GMO). These GMO crops are a huge question mark as it relates to your health. There are absolutely ZERO long-term studies on the safety of consuming ANYTHING with GMO in them and God only knows what this is doing to our body. Yep, we're one big human experiment for the corn producers as they make out pretty good on this. The highly-refined process of creating HFCS makes this potentially hazardous substance that much worse. YIKES!

Hopefully now you understand a little better why our modern-day society is so full of fat people who are sicker than they've ever been before. It's no coincidence people! The next time you are at the grocery store, just pick up anything off the shelves in the middle aisles and you'll see that arch nemesis of weight control and health known as fructose in just about EVERYTHING! Be smart, make better choices, and refuse to allow this stuff inside your body. You'll be glad you did.

Sodium Benzoate: The Next Great Health Threat?

After blogging in December 2006 about an ongoing cover-up since 1990 by the Food & Drug Administration over cancer-causing amounts of benzene found in some popular soft drinks, now this Belfast Telegraph story highlights a new UK study on sodium benzoate causing damage to DNA bringing that whole controversy back into the limelight again.

Lead researcher Peter W. Piper, professor of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Sheffield, wanted to know what impact a food additive known as E211--the scientific name for the common preservative sodium benzoate used in most soft drinks to prevent molding--has on cells in the body. The cancer connection has already been established when benzene is mixed with vitamin C.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA), which is the British version of the FDA, has already removed four brands of soft drinks from store shelves last year for having excessively high levels of benzene. Piper says the concern is worse than first believed.

In a test conducted on living yeast cells in his lab, the sodium benzoate in the soft drinks sampled actually caused damage to the mitochondria--the important "power station" in DNA.

"These chemicals [in the soft drinks] have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether," Piper exclaimed.

Yikes! Is this really as fatalistic as he's making it out to be?

Piper continued: "The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it--as happens in a number of diseased states--then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA--Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of aging."

Okay, so let me get this straight. Sodium benzoate found in many soft drinks and various food products has been found to damage the mitochondria in DNA which then leads to new brain diseases and premature aging. You got all that? Are you buying it? This blogger sure isn't!

Of course, the soft drink manufacturers point to their trust in the approval of sodium benzoate by the Food Standards Agency as their evidence of the safety of this ingredient. However, like the FDA here in the United States, can we REALLY trust that information? The European Union doesn't think so as evidenced by their emergency investigation into Piper's claims.

A representative from that group said they now need to reevaluate the long-term consequences of consuming sodium benzoate since the findings by the World Health Organization in 2000 which found it was safe are likely outdated.

Additionally, Piper said the FDA-approval of benzene needs updating.

"The food industry will say these compounds have been tested and they are complete safe," he said. "By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago."

Hmmm. This is the same corrupt FDA which refuses to admit they were wrong about the high-carb, low-fat diet being a healthy nutritional approach despite the lack of long-term studies to back that claim up. And let's not forget about their role in the current scandal over the diabetes drug Avandia! What makes Piper think the FDA is gonna start a fact-finding mission on sodium benzoate now?

As you know, I love my Diet Coke with Splenda and I notice it does not contain sodium benzoate, but rather potassium benzoate (aka E212). There was nothing in Piper's study about this similar preservative, so the jury is still out about it. I'm not gonna stop drinking it just yet.

Piper says he hopes parents are cautious about allowing their children to be "drinking large amounts" of sodas sweetened with sodium benzoate. Which ones would that be? Diet Orange Crush, Vault Zero, Fanta Pineapple, Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and the new Diet Pepsi Max, among others. The Coca-Cola Company has already settled their lawsuits by agreeing to change the formulations of their beverages containing sodium benzoate.

PepsiCo still has legal action pending against it and a U.S. District judge denied a motion to dismiss filed by the defendants in the case despite the fact that they have already reformulated the offensive products. Stay tuned for more information about these lawsuits.

You can e-mail Professor Peter Piper about this study at Peter.Piper@sheffield.ac.uk.

Read more information about the soft drink/benzene connection in this excellent blog post about it as well as the Wikipedia page on this topic. What say YOU about this controversy?

Psychiatrist: Drinking Coca-Cola Is Healthy

Dr. Foreyt says Coke adds 'balance and variety and moderation' to diet

As the 10th International Congress on Obesity commences this week in Sydney, Australia, the nearly 3,000 health experts participating are trying to figure out why obesity rates have gotten completely out of control worldwide. This meeting of the minds, which happens every four years, is supposed to help bring about changes that would start to bring obesity rates down (ironically, though, since the first meeting in 1970, obesity has exploded to astronomical rates in virtually every country in the world with no sign of slowing down anytime soon).

One of the people attending this year's obesity conference is Dr. John Foreyt, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Houston, TX-based Baylor College of Medicine, whose role there is to convince attendees that sugary soft drinks such as Coca-Cola are not responsible for making people get fat. That's right, the Coca-Cola company has actually paid Dr. Foreyt to attend this event on their behalf to plead the case that soft drinks are not the reason for obesity.

In a radio segment on ABC Australia's "The World Today", Dr. Foreyt explained why he believes the criticisms of products like Coke are unwarranted and that sugary soft drinks have become an unfair target and scapegoat in the obesity debate.

"I think the answer to really looking at a healthy lifestyle is balance and variety and moderation, and any time you pick out a single culprit you're going to really be in trouble, because, you know, obesity and health risks are all associated with multiple factors," Dr. Foreyt told ABC.

While I agree that there are many different reasons for obesity, that doesn't give companies like Coca-Cola a free pass on their distinct role in making the problem even worse with their products. Dr. Foreyt is making the argument that drinking sugary Coke is indeed a part of a healthy diet when he states that it is all about "balance and variety and moderation."

But the reality is there is no room for the excessive amounts of sugar, in the form of the absolute worst food ingredient ever invented--high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), that they put in Coca-Cola to be consumed by most people. The idea that drinking Coke to "balance" your diet and then expecting people to eat in "moderation" (can you say calorie-restricted portion control diets that may be unhealthy and ineffective for many?) is just more of the same old garbage and meaningless dietary advice we've always heard.

When is somebody going to muster up the guts to say sugar is NOT a part of a healthy lifestyle because your body doesn't need it?! When I weighed over 400 pounds before I started livin' la vida low-carb in 2004, I was drinking Coke like it was going out of style. In fact, it got to the point that I was mindlessly drinking about 16 Coca-Colas A DAY! EEEEK! I know, I know, that was pretty stupid on my part. But my story is probably not all that uncommon among the obese.

For people like Dr. Foreyt whose job is to analyze human behavior, I wonder if he can adequately explain why people guzzle so much Coke that it makes them fat. Oh, but wait, he's got an answer that explains why you can't point the finger at the Coke for people consuming too many calories.

"Well, calories are calories are calories, so you want to look at balance, and if people are getting their calories from one source, too many calories, people can get in trouble, but that caloric source can be anything," he exclaimed to ABC. "So you really have to look at your overall diet. I think that's still the bottom line."

Oh, now this is getting good. So, Dr. Foreyt is saying that as long as you are counting the calories consumed in those cans of Coke and keep the number low enough to induce weight loss or weight maintenance, then you should be okay in terms of controlling your weight. Does he think we're a bunch of morons or what?

The calories consumed in a can of Coca-Cola have no nutritional value whatsoever, Dr. Foreyt. Even in these ridiculous 100-calorie foods that are on store shelves today (like the Coke can at the top of this blog post), the idea that people have the ability to control themselves enough to only drink one or two of these pint-sized overpriced sodas is irrational. If the overweight and obese had the innate ability to control their calorie intake, then they wouldn't be dealing with a weight problem in the first place, would they?

Furthermore, if "calories are calories are calories" is so true, then why don't we hear the same kind of message regarding eating high amounts of fruits, vegetables, juice, rice, pasta, bread and other high-carb foods which can pack a lot of calories, too? If it's truly all about calories, then what makes these food widgets any different from the calories in Coca-Cola? Hmmm?

When I started the Atkins diet in January 2004, I did not suddenly begin counting calories. Nearly three years later, I still haven't and yet my weight has remained stable. How could this be? Well, for one thing, I stopped drinking those 16 sugary Cokes I used to drink per day and replaced them with tons of water and diet soda. Permanently distancing myself from the devastating effects of sugar on my body has been undoubtedly one of the best things I could have done not only for my weight, but also my overall health.

This is a cold hard fact that is completely lost on these "experts" like Dr. Foreyt who are too closely tied to companies like Coca-Cola and the big bucks they flash to anyone gullible enough to become an apologist for their sugar-loaded products. Sugar IS responsible for obesity in a lot of people and that extends well beyond soft drinks. Candy makers, doughnut shops, bakeries--the list goes on and on--all bear some responsibility along with soda companies to warn people about the negative impact overconsumption of their products will have on their weight and health. But there are just too many interest groups involved for that to ever be allowed to happen.

When Dr. Foreyt was asked about how his links to Coca-Cola might be skewing his conclusions about the high-sugar products he is endorsing as part of a healthy lifestyle, he responded with incredulous laughter.

"Oh, absolutely not," he retorted to ABC. "No, No. I think the bottom line for most people, they're very reasonable, they have good judgment and common sense, which means balance and variety and moderation in all things, including diet and physical activity."

Nobody else is laughing, Dr. Foreyt. We're not buying anything you are saying about this because it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. While I am not one of the fanatics calling for warning labels to be put on soda cans, I don't think anyone with any semblance of credibility can say with a straight face that drinking Coca-Cola or any other soft drink with upwards of 50g of sugar per 8-ounce serving can be a part of a healthy lifestyle. IT IS NOT and saying otherwise is the most ludicrous and damaging thing you could do to a world dealing with an obesity epidemic. Shame on you, Dr. Foreyt! SHAME ON YOU!

You can e-mail Dr. John Foreyt your thoughts about his support for Coke consumption as part of a healthy lifestyle at jforeyt@bcm.edu.

9-4-06 UPDATE: Fellow health advocate and weight loss success Julia Havey writes about this subject in an article at LowCarbNewsline.com today.