Catching Up With Hungry Girl

Hungry Girl is one of my favorite destinations on the internet. She has great advice on healthy eating and dieting, features cool recipes, and wraps it all together with a contemporary flair. She's awesome. So, i was definitely happy to see her weigh in on all the recent hubbub concerning low-calorie sweeteners.

Artificial Sweetener Alert: HG's Take on This Breaking News!

"To deduce that artificial sweeteners cause weight gain from this limited research is a stretch on so many levels."

She points out several things to consider while reading this new research, including:

"Artificial sweeteners contain WAY FEWER CALORIES than sugar. So whatever you do, don't think for one second that consuming a high-calorie soda instead of a no-calorie one is a better idea for weight control."

That's a great point, and one that hasn't been mentioned enough.

So, kudos to Hungry Girl, and check out her whole site, tons of great stuff there including this recipe for some less guilty chili cheese fries. YUM!!

Emphasis on Diet Drinks

Interesting article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today about Pepsi's plan for 2008:

"PepsiCo Inc. will make a strong pitch this year for its Diet Pepsi Max and SoBe Life Water beverages to counter moves by Coca-Cola, which is aiming to win consumers with its Coke Zero no-calorie soda and Glaceau line of enhanced waters."

I think this article, even though it focuses on business aspects, really points out how varied and diverse the range of low-calorie beverages is. Whether it is from Pepsi, Coke, or Cadbury. The options when it comes to soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks is mind-boggling sometimes. I am all for the multitude of choices; it gives those trying to get an advantage while watching calories the choices they deserve.

AJC: Pepsi emphasizes diet drinks, water

New Pepsi in UK

Pepsi is ditching high fructose corn syrup for a new beverage in the UK called Pepsi Raw. Instead the soft drink will be flavored with cane sugar.

From the UK Metro:

"...Pepsi Raw has only natural ingredients including apple extract, plain caramel colouring, coffee leaf, tantaric acid from grapes, gum arabic from acacia trees, cane sugar and sparkling water."

I'm too young to remember when cane sugar was used in soft drinks instead of high fructose corn syrup, but I know that Mexican and Passover Coke have very devoted following due to their continued use of cane sugar. I like the taste of the current Coke and Pepsi just fine, but would definitely give something different a try. I think it's important to have choices when it comes to soft drinks (and most things in life). So whether it's sweetened with cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, or what have you, it's all good!

Metro: Pepsi launch new 'healthy' drink

And check out the racy ad!

Study Alleging Low-Calorie Sweeteners Causes Weight Gain Only Serves to Confuse Consumers

Okay by now I’m sure that most of you have heard about a new study from Purdue University alleging low-calorie sweeteners cause people to gain weight. It’s all over the place and the media is going crazy over the study because it’s “new,” “sexy” and “shocking.” On the other hand, the studies that have proven low-calorie sweeteners can absolutely help people with weight control are none of the adjectives described above – they are simply common sense.

As I’ve told you guys before I work on behalf of the Calorie Control Council (the “Council”). Naturally the Council has been inundated with media inquiries about this study. One of the more balanced pieces that I’ve read to date is the HealthDay News article (http://www.healthcentral.com/newsdetail/408/612564.html). It actually presented both sides of the story. I also loved this commentary on te ABC News Web site, from Dr. Keith-Thomas Ayoob, who notes, "This study has its share of weaknesses, such as studying a very small number of rats — as few as eight in some of the groups...There are a number of other flaws as well — enough to prevent drawing real conclusions from the results. What's more, these results contrast with other studies showing that rats do compensate for calories pretty well when there is no perceptible taste difference. "

Now I’m not here to try and convince every single person out there that this study is contradictory to numerous previous studies on the topic. I’m just here to present the facts, straight and to the point. Here are some real problems I see with this study and the way it's being presented by the media:

· This study was conducted on 27 rats. I don’t know about you but I don’t consider my body all that similar to a rat’s. This study has no relation to the human experience. You can’t take a study on rats and find direct relation to humans – that’s a shoddy approach.
· Rats love the taste of saccharin so obviously they’re going to eat more of it. Would you rather eat rat chow or saccharin? Give me the sweet stuff!
· This study has been taken out of context. Health professionals agree that weight gain is due to excess calories and light products can certainly be one tool in your toolbox as part of a weight control plan.
· The bottom line is that we are not rats and that caloric imbalance is what causes obesity.

You guys can decide to believe what you want. Like I said, all I want to do is point out the very biased way in which this study is being presented in the media.

Diet Soda and Sweeteners Helpful in Weight Control

Just to confirm this again, diet sodas do NOT cause weight gain.

A new study by Adam Drewnowski from the University of Washington's Center for Public Health Nutrition concludes that low-calorie (or no-calorie) sweeteners may be of help in resolving the obesity problem, although they are not magic bullets. Diet soda and low-calorie sweeteners can be a part of a sensible plan to cut calories through simple substitutions. Take out the high calorie food and replace it with a lower calorie version.

“Low-calorie sweeteners reduce the energy of most beverages to zero and lower the energy density of many foods. Every dietary guideline these days tells us to bulk up, hydrate, and consume foods with fewer calories but more volume,” says Drewnowski.

Check out the study here: Intense sweeteners, energy intake and the control of body weight

Great Game!

The game itself was great (and proved Carl right!), but I found a lot of the commercials to be pretty underwhelming (or downright offensive, SalesGenie, I'm looking at you). Some of the good ones were from the soda makers though. Check 'em out down below:

Diet Pepsi Max

Coca-Cola

Did you see any you thought were really good?

Do You Watch For The Commercials?

Instead of focusing on the game while watching the Super Bowl, do you instead find yourself waiting for the commercial breaks? I know that I will be anticipating what Madison Avenue can pull out of their hats this year. To tide you over here are a couple of cool soft drink related ones from last year:

Coca-Cola



Sierra Mist

Bonus Video

Not really my thing but...

"Sweet like a chic-a-cherry cola..."

Savage Garden - I Want You

Oh 1997, what have you wrought!!!