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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2007)
12 vernonia’s voice health & wellness june 2007 High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS); sugar alternative or health threat? By Heather Lewis, LMT, LMP, CLT Quiz: • What has FDA approval? • Can claim to be 100% natural and/or organic? • Has no nutrient value, [and in fact, robs your body of essential micronutrients used to metabolize it]? • Was not used until the 1970s but now makes up more than 20% of the aver- age American’s caloric intake by being incorporated into everything from apple turnovers to worcestershire sauce? Answer: High Fructose Corn Syrup. What exactly is yoga? Yoga has become very popular as a form of exercise. Many people see pictures of yogis twisted into pretzels and chanting OM and shy away thinking “I could never do that, or would not even want to.” But don’t shy away, yoga is for every age and gender. The word yoga means “union” in Sanskrit, the language of ancient India where yoga originated, referring to the union occurring between body, mind, and spirit. Most people think of yoga as asanas, which refers to the practice of physical pos- tures or poses. Asana is only one of the eight “limbs” or areas of yoga, the majority of which are more concerned with mental and spiritual well being than physical activity. Today, however, the words asana and yoga have become almost synony- mous to the practice of physical postures or poses. Initially yoga students benefit from performing the asanas. These poses are de- signed to exercise every muscle, nerve, and gland in the body. Refined over centu- ries, the postures precisely address the tension, holding, and sometimes blockage of energy in any particular joint or organ. When the tension is released, energy can flow more easily in the body and allow students to experience a sense of well-be- ing and strength—a balance of body, mind, and spirit. In the U.S., while parents try to provide their children nutritious meals, childhood obesity is growing at the rate of 15% per year. You’ve made a con- scious effort to exchange the frosted flakes for the raisin bran, and the white Our society in general is used to sitting on chairs or couches with poor posture for bread for the whole wheat. The highly processed foods don’t set foot in your extended periods of time. Our bodies were not designed to be used like this. They home. Yet looking closely at the label of most manufactured foods you’ll find were designed to squat, run, walk, lift and do the natural activities of primitive High Fructose Corn Syrup. daily existence. The results of these modern postural habits wreak havoc on our High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is the food industries equivalent of body with muscular shortening, tension, and energy blockages. Most of us are so nicotine to cigarettes. It not only sets you up for potential liver problems, it hin- accustomed to holding tension in our body that we don’t recognize the damage that ders your body’s ability to signal fullness. Fructose was thought of at one time it’s causing. to be the sugar alternative. You see, the tongue tastes sweet but the body metabolizes the fructose Yoga creates a healthy alignment for your bones, ligaments, and muscles. Another molecule only 40% as quickly as it metabolizes the glucose molecule. The rea- one of the eight limbs of yoga, meditation, works with your mind. Meditation gives son? Glucose can be metabolized in every cell of the body while fructose can you access to healing, to your inner pharmacy, according to Deepak Chopra, and to only be metabolized in the liver. transformation. Our society is so rushed that we are not mindful of things that oc- In nature fructose is found with glucose and bound with fiber, so the cur in our lives. We block pain with pills or substances, rush away to avoid things, body tastes the sweet, uses the glucose and passes the majority of the fructose and use all sorts of other tactics to avoid feeling these stresses. Stress is the number through with the fiber. However, pure fructose robs the body of its micronutrient one root of nearly all disease. Yoga creates awareness, mindfulness, and a way to- treasures in order to assimilate itself for physiological use. Research indicates ward relief from stress. With practice over time your skills increase and your stress that this free fructose interferes with the heart’s use of key minerals like mag- and tensions decrease. You learn how to surmount seemingly impossible obstacles nesium, copper and chromium. The livers develop fatty deposits and cirrhosis, in the practice of yoga. similar to problems that develop in the livers of alcoholics. Because fructose In a typical yoga class you would practice the poses, in addition you may receive needs these key minerals to assimilate, it inhibits collagen and elastin formation, instruction on breathing, chanting, meditation, or hear inspirational readings. The hence the hypertrophy of the heart and liver. variety and amount of this will depend on the individual teacher. Yoga is taught in The addictive properties, along with the inhibitory aspect of HFCS, classroom settings, programs can be designed for personal practice, and there are happens when fructose ingestion does not allow the brain to increase produc- many wonderful video, television classes, and tion of leptin (the hormone that books available on yoga. Fitness Training by triggers fullness). So your tongue Teresa McMahon, NSCA-CPT tastes sweet, your body is looking for 503.429.5051 energy normally produced by absorb- Deborah Steffen RYT is a certified and regis- 503.799.3424 able glucose – and when that is not Inspire yourseld to be... tered yoga trainer. She also has a background available, your brain tells you to keep Be Strong, Be Confident, Be Healthy eating until it gets that burst of energy as an instructional designer, holistic health it’s seeking. 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