Its common knowledge that eating sugar does no favors for a body. But is sugar having worse effects than just adding empty calories to our diets?

Award winning investigative science journalist and cofounder of the Nutrition Science Initiative Gary Taubes discusses the detrimental effects that excessive sugar consumption has on people, and how excessive may be actually a lot lower than you might think. Taubes is the author of the new book, "The Case Against Sugar."

For years, dietary fat and salt shouldered the blame for causing heart disease and high blood pressure. But, according to Taubes, the body of evidence supporting that blame is insubstantial. Instead, he points to another culprit: sugar.

Taubes attributes the rise in sugar consumption and subsequent rise in obesity and diabetes in the U.S. to the increased popularity of low fat diets that often substituted fat for sugar in the 1980s.

Coinciding with the beginning of the [obesity] epidemic, [refined sugars and grains] had become in effect heart healthy diet foods, Taubes said. The government was even pushing the food industry to create low fat products, and in order to make those low fat products tasty, the food industry was replacing the fat with sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Taubes distinguishes between added sugars and naturally occurring sugars, like those you might get from fruits or vegetables.

For instance, when we consume the sugar in an apple, a medium sized apple, about 85 percent water, what isnt water is fiber, which we dont digest, and then sugar and fructose, Taubes said. Most of the apple is water and fiber, which slows down the digestion of the sugars. When you eat an apple you get a relatively small dose of sugar and you digest it slowly.

Taubes emphasizes the importance of acknowledging that a diet that might benefit one individual might not benefit another. He is of the somewhat controversial belief that people who suffer from obesity or diabetes should avoid eating fruit altogether, because, according to him, the negative effects from the sugar and carbohydrates in the fruit will outweigh the benefits.

We give public health advice in this country to everyone equally as though they all should be eating the same diet, Taubes said. One of the things Ive been arguing is that in obesity and diabetes, even though fruit would be harmless if not benevolent to a marathon runner, its not doing any favors to an obese or diabetic individual.

For those who arent obese or diabetic, Taubes acknowledges that a little bit of added sugar is not hazardous, but he doesnt encourage it. He likens the philosophy of everything in moderation to allowing recovering cigarette addicts to continue to smoke, so long as they dont go overboard.

Smokers will tell you, they cant imagine life without cigarettes any more than the rest of us can imagine life without smoking, Taubes said. We dont say too many cigarettes cause lung cancer, we say cigarettes cause lung cancer. We dont advise smokers to smoke in moderation, we advise smokers not to smoke.

Taubes holds what he calls another controversial opinion: that reducing overall caloric intake wont decrease weight. Rather, he places the blame for causing people to be overweight on the type of calories consumed, an unsurprising opinion for the author of a book titled Good Calories, Bad Calories. Specifically, Taubes says the calories that pack on pounds are those from refined carbs and, of course, sugar. He recommends opting for a high-fat, low-carb diet along the lines of the Atkins diet instead.

Taubes is cautiously optimistic about the future of high-fat, low-carb diets, with some doctors already embracing the diet. In order for it to become fully mainstream, he says, medical organizations will have to acknowledge that they made mistakes. He says finds it difficult to imagine theyll do so, but remains positive that the diet will catch on.

Im hoping this will be revolution from the bottom up, because patients and individuals can go on these diets and see how well they work themselves, Taubes said. Physicians can see that they can finally make their patients healthy rather than giving them drugs to resolve their symptoms.

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Subtracting added sugar: Society's sweet addiction and how to fight it - WRVO Public Media

12 ways to make dieting easier Men's Fitness "To be successful in the long run, I don't think absolute restriction is all that important," Mazur says. Rather, it's more important to find balance, moderate, and take the time to fit in those foods you really enjoy. "Take an 80/20 approach," he ...

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ENID, Okla. Exercise, fruit and vegetables, lean meat and whole grains are all keys to fighting obesity.

There are a couple of different perspectives in the fight, said John Friedl, physical activity and nutrition manager for Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Theres the individual level, at which individuals should take in a balanced diet and be physically active up to the recommendations, he said.

But then theres also things outside of the kind of individual responsibility that go to how are citizens of the communities we live in, the state that we live in, how do we start to re-shape the environment to where it really promotes health and wellness, rather than promoting an unhealthy lifestyle to where we have to go out of our way to be healthy?Friedlsaid.We want people being physically active, but theres also the responsibility of communities of this state to give people a healthy environment so that its not as hard to be healthy.

Recommendations on eating and exercise can be found at shape yourfutureok.com. The website, maintained by OSDH, is in collaborationwith Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust. Its a clearinghouse of information with links to other places to be healthy, but its all vetted through physical activity and nutrition experts, he said.

Its kind of an easier way to make sure that what youre looking at is actually valid and not just pulled off the internet from anywhere,Friedlsaid.

Another source is the U.S. Department of Agriculture website.

Its all the things most of us have been taught all our life. The fruits and vegetables, the lean meat and good, whole grains is the foundation of really what we should be taking in,he said.

Children need age-appropriate physical activities,Friedlsaid.

Along with shapeyourfutureok.com, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website provides guidelines for children.

Obviously, if a younger child doesnt have the coordination to partake in an activity, they shouldnt be doing that physical activity,he said.

Children under age 18 need about an hour a day of moderate, vigorous physical activity.

Their heart should be going just a little bit faster, they should really be breathing just a little bit harder. Its not a casual walk. Adults need 30 minutes on most days of the week, with the combination of cardiovascular exercises like jogging, biking, swimming, but also some strength-training exercises. So it could be bodyweight exercises, it could be lifting some weights, but to really help build those muscles. Then you also want some flexibility training in there to do some light stretching to make sure your muscles dont get too tight. Children need all three types of those as well, but at an age appropriate level, he said.

If the weight status of an individual is so high they really need to lose some weight, and burn more calories and adjust intake, it has to be a balanced, slow approach,Friedl said.

Not the, How rapidly can we lose this? Thats not really a healthy way to lose weight, he said.

Long-term, fad diets are really not successful, and really not healthy,Friedlsaid.

I think we all have the examples of somebody thats gone on a fad diet and rapidly in one to two to three weeks seen some success in losing some weight. Initially, oftentimes people can lose some weight, just because its different, just because its a reduction in calories. But in the long term, theres a reason theyre all fad diets, he said. In the long term, its really not a sustainable diet, its really not a sustainable level of calories to take in, and so after that initial drop, you tend to kind of see things level off and possibly even kind of regain some of the weight as your body adjusts to that current intake of calories.

Or its just unsustainable to eat whatever the fad has to eat every day for the next 20 to 30 years of your life; theres no way you can actually live that way. In the long term, fad diets really arent successful. Again, thats why theyre fad diets and not ongoing diets. Thats why the balanced fruit and vegetables, lean proteins and whole wheats, as far as carbohydrates, is really kind of sustained because its something that people really can do. It is maintainable, where these fad diets, its just not a sustainable way to survive and exist in the environment that we live in.

Depending on the type of diet, there are some inherent dangers.

The focus on a particular type of food, or a particular type of substance to take in, then if youre not taking in that balance ... youre not getting the vitamins, and minerals and things that your body really needs to function. You can lose the weight, you can survive on it for a little while, but your body doesnt really work properly, and eventually some of the body systems start to shut down or slow down, and you just dont feel good and youre not operating at a high level,Friedlsaid. Just like if you never get your oil changed in your car, it can run for a little while, but the damage youre doing to that engine oftentimes isnt reversible.

You can take in the one thing theyre telling you to eat all the time, but if youre not getting the protein you need, your muscles arent developing, theyre starting to break down; your organs are made of muscle, so the organs start to break down, theyre not functioning the way you need to.

The body does not process a multivitamin quite the same as eating fruits and vegetables, he said.

You dont want to restrict your body from getting something thats a healthy nutrient,Friedlsaid. Thats one of the things that oftentimes we talk about. What are the bad things that I should be avoiding? The high sugars, the fats, those things. And thats a good conversation to have, but on the flip side its, What do I really need to take in to be healthy? What do I need to take in to be well? Thats where we look at that balance of those macronutrients, the carbohydrates, the proteins, the dairies, but then also those other chemicals that are in a variety of fruits and vegetables. Getting a different array of colors in your fruits and vegetables kind of comes with different vitamins and minerals.

Making sure youre really taking in a variety of fruits and vegetables, a variety of meat or protein sources and some good, healthy carbohydrates really keeps your body taking in what you need so you can really function at your best.

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Expert shares keys to fighting obesity - Enid News & Eagle

Bye Bye Bao Bao: As America says goodbye, panda work continues Smithsonian Insider (blog) Lounging inside a specially outfitted crate aboard a panda-branded jet departing Dulles International Airport, Bao Bao will be served her usual bamboo, apple and sweet potato diet and soothed by the familiar faces and voices of her keepers to ease her ... and more »

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Bye Bye Bao Bao: As America says goodbye, panda work continues - Smithsonian Insider (blog)

Commentary By Amanda Merck, MPH | 10 hours ago

Kathryn Boyd-Batstone / Rivard Report

Runners charge up one of the many uphills along the Mission Reach trail.

Updated 2 hours ago

For San Antonio tobe at itshealthiest, its residentsneed and deserve safe places to move more and sit less.

However, there is inequity in the citysplaces designated for walking, biking, playing, and being active. City officials mustlook beyond maps of facility locations to the context of real people trying to make healthy life choices.

For example, a map of the Howard W. Peak Greenway Trail System shows an emerald necklace going around and through San Antonio. Yet, these trails are only open from sunrise to sunset, which means they are open less than 12 hours per day for six months out of the year.

Many working families striving tobe more active and less sedentaryare unable to access the trails within this limited window. Southside residents, in particular, face additional barriers because the southern-most access point of the Mission Trail off Villamain Road is only open between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Thats why I asked the San Antonio mayoral candidates about their plans to solve this inequity at the recent town hall forum hosted by the Rivard Report at the Pearl Stable.

What are you going to do to transform our incredible trail system from a recreational facility to a health and transportation facility that is safe and accessible for everyone? I asked Mayor Ivy Taylor, District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg, and Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Manuel Medina.

Listen to their full responses to the questions here.

Heres a quick snapshot of their responses:

I dont know about the hours that it should be open or not, because certainly we also want to make sure that anyone thats out there is safe, Taylor said.

It needs to [be] more than just a system that connects one park to another, Nirenberg said.

We need to make it easier for people to get to them, Medina said.

None of the candidates mentioned expanding hours, lighting, or patrolling trails, but we cannot ignore the great need for access to safe, active places.

Why? Heres a quick biology lesson (from someone who is not a biologist):

Our cardiovascular system is our lifeline for delivering oxygen, vitamins, minerals, proteins, hormones, and other chemicals to our organs, muscles, bones, and all other tissues. It also is our lifeline for getting rid of carbon dioxide and other waste. Our veins and arteries are constantly squeezing and releasing vasoconstriction and vasodilation to pump our nutrient- or waste-filled blood. Like any muscle atrophies without use, our blood vessels lose function and become less effective without physical activity. However, the exact mechanism through which this occurs is complex and not fully understood.

Basically, sitting increases inflammation, which damages the inner walls of your vessels (endothelium). Moderately intense physical activity, however, preserves the inner walls of these vessels and prevents plaque buildup and hardening.

These benefits are separate from the numerous other benefits obtained from variousother chemical, molecular, and biological processes that occur when you are physically active, such as reduced risk for diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, osteoporosis, and manytypes of cancer.

The good news is that walking works regardless of weight status or diet, and you can walk or be active in short bursts throughout your day without having to depart from your normal daily routine.

If you have access to safe places, that is.

Educating people about the trails is moot when they are closed for half the day. Similarly, considering the trails as a resource for connectivity isnt painting a complete picture because they are only open part-time, which is counterproductive to the essences of connectivity.

Arecent SA2020 report identified four indicators in San Antonio that have stopped progressing or are going in the wrong direction: public transportation, obesity, air quality, and walkability. According to the report there is a need to continue to make both behavioral and systemic changes in our policies and infrastructure in order to make lasting change.

I hope our city leaders consider making lasting infrastructure changes.

In the case of our greenway trail system, the infrastructure is mostly in place, so its a matter of opening it to the public to use at whichever times accommodatetheir busy schedules.

Kathryn Boyd-Batstone / Rivard Report

Broadway Street was closed for Sclova so hundreds of bikers could safely ride the streets.

While there are incredible programs and events across the cityFitness in the Park, Sclova, Fit Pass, Fit Family Challenge, San Antonio Walks, Mobile Fit, Walk This Way, and many more permanent infrastructure like trails and sidewalks need to be safe and accessible year-round.

I also hope our leaders can distinguish the line between physical activity for health and for exercise or recreation, which are historically only accessible for the privileged and less available for residents living in underserved areas. Physical activity for health includes walking, biking, dancing, playing, skating, doing yoga, swimming, and many otheractivities.

People of color and low-income populations are disproportionately burdened by pedestrian injuries and deaths.

According to Salud America!s research review on active spaces and Latino kids, fewer Latinos (70%) than whites (82.5%) describe having neighborhoods with safe places for kids to walk and play.

Studies show that walkable neighborhoods provide many economic, safety, environmental, health, and social benefits; however, not all neighborhoods in San Antonio are created equal, with many low-income, predominantly Latino neighborhoods lacking safe, walkable infrastructure.

Inequity in access to safe places to walk, bike, and play can be seen on the South, West, and East sides of San Antonio. Lack of safe places to be active means people living in these areas face disparities in obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.

Some bright spots are occurring:In February 2017, State Rep.Celia Israel(D-Austin)proposed House Bill 1368 to lower the default speed limit in urban areas from 30 mph to 25 mph, as well as House Bill 1745 to allow cities to lower speed limits on certain highways withoutthe costly burdens mandated bycurrent legislation. Making it easier for cities to lower speed limits is critical because most crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists occur on arterial or collector roadways where default speeds are far greater than 30 mph.

District 5 Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales is leading the San Antonio Vision Zero initiative, with the goal to eliminate traffic fatalities, especially those of pedestrians.

According to SA2020, San Antonio continues to make progress on Complete Streets, but not at a rate great enough to meet the 2020 goal. When the City didnt meet Dignowity Hill residents standards for a street construction project, urban planners and residents got involved by requesting and successfully gaining more walkable streetscape elements.

Regardless, safe places to walk and be active are big part of public health and equity issues that need attention.

San Antonians would surely like to hearthat City leaders are working to improve equitable access to health facilities, includingexpanded hours, lighting, and safety. Research shows that scheduling park programs later in the evening keeps parks occupied bypeople engaging in beneficial activities, thusdeterring undesirable ones.

San Antonio has a new set of bond measureson the ballot in May.Its vital for community members to get involved and keep the focus on the real-life context in which these projects will be completed. Fifty-two plus miles of trails sounds great on paper and look awesome on a map, but if people cant walk their dogs on them before or after work, they representa missed opportunity.

Salud America! has a bank of resources and nationwide stories to help community members work with City leaders to increase access to safe places to walk and play, particularly in Latino communities.

Follow Salud America!on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest and register on our site. You can connect with local groups and organizations that are already working to make the healthy choice the easy choice, such asthe Active Living Council of San Antonio,a public-private partnership of policymakers, business leaders, school administrators, program providers, and community membersthatdeveloped the Active Living Plan for a Healthier San Antonio.Or you can learn from case studies of successful healthy change across the country.

Together, we canprioritize equitable access to safe, active places in San Antonio and beyond.

Amanda Merck is a content curator/research area specialist for Salud America! at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.

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Salud America!: On SA's Need for Safe, Accessible Recreation Spaces - Rivard Report

Posted: 12:00 a.m. Sunday, February 19, 2017

The reduction from five to three lanes, with better bike lanes, came up in a study of the U.S. 183 corridor.

Just to calm the waters up around the Arboretum, if I can, know first that the city of Austin is not about to narrow Jollyville Road from its current five lanes to three lanes. At least not in the next few years.

City transportation officials told me this last week, and I believe them. So Northwest Austin residents who have been atwitter about the possibility after it emerged as an option in an ongoing study of improvements in the U.S. 183 corridor for active transportation (cycling and walking, basically) can probably relax for now.

But the prospect of Austin officials putting the key thoroughfare on a road diet, something the city has already done to about 45 other road segments in Austin, provides a timely excuse to kick it around here. No doubt youve noticed the changes around town over the past 15 years or so, primarily the conversion of four-lane city streets to three lanes (a travel lane in each direction and a center left-turn lane), with wide bike lanes.

The city maintains, with what seems to be credible backing from studies and national transportation regulators, that for roads with traffic loads under 20,000 vehicles a day, cutting out a through lane in each direction can actually make things better for drivers. And, of course, for bicyclists, who typically would go from having no bike lane, or slender ones delineated only by painted stripes, to having a wide lane in each direction possibly protected by curbs or pylons.

The theory, as laid out in a May 2015 city report on right-sizing streets, is that the real traffic choke points on most four-lane streets are the intersections, not the stretches in between. That report says that at an intersection with a traffic signal, just 600 vehicles an hour can make it through the intersection on each lane. So if there are two lanes at the intersection (and those intersection lanes are typically retained in road diets), thats 1,200 cars an hour.

But the through lanes, the city argues, can each carry 1,800 cars per hour. So one lane, under this line of reasoning, is roomy enough to handle 50 percent more vehicles than can actually make it through the intersection.

On the upside (leaving the cyclists out of the argument for the moment), having a center turn lane or a median with left-turn bays means that oncoming cars have a 10- to 12-foot buffer zone. If a car strays out of its lane, it would be less likely to collide with an oncoming car. And there are fewer rear-end collisions as well, the argument goes, because people in a four-lane configuration might come up on a left-turning car unexpectedly and be unable to stop in time.

Nationwide right-sizing studies, that 2015 report says, typically observe between 19 percent and 47 percent reductions in overall crashes.

Oddly wide range, but, OK.

Back to Jollyville, which the careful reader might have noted above is a five-lane street, not a four-lane one. That means it already has the vehicle safety benefits associated with a center turn lane. So the question, to the extent that at some point the city will be mulling it for real, is whether the loss of a vehicle lane in each direction is worth the added safety for cyclists.

I asked city officials whether the city had actually done any five-lane to three-lane road diets in Austin. I was surprised to hear that it has occurred eight times: on Shoal Creek Boulevard north of Steck Avenue, Harris Ridge Boulevard near Parmer Lane, Grove Boulevard north of Riverside Drive, Mesa Drive north of Spicewood Springs Road, Rutherford Lane near Cameron Road, Northcross Drive west of Burnet Road, Middle Fiskville Road north of Koenig Lane and East 51st Street west of U.S. 183.

However, all of those road sections have traffic volumes less than the section of Jollyville under study, according to Nathan Wilkes, an engineer with the Austin Transportation Department.

Jollyville Road at two spots between Great Hills Drive on the south and Spicewood Springs Road on the north had 18,000 to 19,000 vehicles a day in counts taken last year, Wilkes said. That means it is bumping up against that recommended limit for road diets.

What about bicycles, I asked Miller Nuttle, the campaigns director for BikeAustin, which supports road diets? He didnt have a count.

So I went out Wednesday morning to Jollyvilles intersection with Braker Lane to get a look at both the car and bike volumes during rush hour. I stayed for 90 minutes, starting about 7 a.m. It was a sunny day with temperatures in the low 40s, admittedly chilly for biking but about normal for mid-February.

My best estimate of vehicle volumes, based on counting cars going southbound during the 80-second green light cycles? About 1,500 per hour in that most prominent morning direction. The flow of cars was sporadically thick and pretty speedy. But I never really saw any congestion. No car had to wait through more than a single cycle of the light at Braker.

As for bicycles, well, I saw just 10 in those 90 minutes, and only four going southbound. For a 45-minute period starting at 7:32 a.m., not a single bicycle went by in either direction. Those four southbounders would amount to 0.3 of 1 percent of the total volume of cars and bikes.

Consider how much of the 60-foot-wide, curb-to-curb road would go to bikes 40 percent under a reduction to three car lanes, and the disparity is pretty stark.

Nuttle, perhaps anticipating that very few cyclists currently brave Jollyvilles unseparated bike lanes, said it is a chicken-and-egg situation. People wont ride bikes in significant numbers, he said, until Austin has a connected network of all ages and abilities bike lanes wide and/or protected pathways, or off-street trails but the lack of bike volume is used as damning evidence to argue against spending the money (and allocating asphalt) to build those better bikeways.

Maybe so. Its a theory. Austin has done a lot to help cyclists over the past 10 years or so, and, while there has been some added usage, bike commuting has yet to mushroom. Were still looking at less than 1.5 percent overall, based on the U.S. Census Bureaus 2013 American Community Survey, with something like 10 percent in the core of the city, according to bike advocates here. And Jollyville is far away from that core.

The study was occasioned by the coming expansion of U.S. 183 with four toll lanes, and two added free lanes, between MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and RM 620. Officials decided it would be too dangerous to put an off-street bike path along U.S. 183 because of all the business driveways through there and decided to look at nearby thoroughfares such as Jollyville.

The early version shows that five lanes could be maintained, with off-street bike lanes, for $42 million. The three-lane version is cheaper: $15 million.

City officials said nothing will happen until the U.S. 183 expansion is done, perhaps five years from now.

Maybe with all that added capacity nearby taking some of Jollyvilles current traffic, they said, the street could thrive in a slimmed down version. But thats a fight for another time.

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Could Jollyville Road drivers survive a 'road diet'? - MyStatesman.com

Dr. Vijay Bindingnavele joined us on 3 News First Edition to talk about the importance of adding fiber to your diet.

KIII 8:00 AM. CST February 19, 2017

CORPUS CHRISTI (KIII NEWS) - Constipation is a relatively common problem, but one, that can be avoided by sticking to a diet that is high in fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Dr. Vijay joined us this morning, to talk more about fiber and what is recommended in order to keep things flowing properly.

Dr. Vijay said, there have recently been reports of laxatives causing serious health problems. This can occur particularly if they are used incorrectly or by those who should not be using them. Constipation is a relatively common problem and one that can be avoided by sticking to a diet that is high in fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. This would give you the amount of fiber that is recommended and would help greatly in keeping bowel movements regular. When this alone doesn't work, then prunes or prune juice usually does the trick. When this also doesn't work and this problem occurs frequently, then a trip to your physician would be best. He or she may be able to identify changes in your diet that may help regularize your system.

( 2017 KIII)

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Dr. is In: The Importance of adding Fiber to your Diet - KIII TV3