Schwartz Labs

Aspartame can be found in more than 6,000 foods, including soft drinks, chewing gum, table-top sweeteners, diet and diabetic foods, breakfast cereals, jams, sweets, vitamins, prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Sold commercially under names like NutraSweet, Canderel, and now AminoSweet, Aspartame producer Ajinomoto chose to re brand it under the name AminoSweet, to “remind the industry that aspartame tastes just like sugar, and that it’s made from amino acids – the building blocks of protein that are abundant in our diet.” Until I started doing some reading I did not even realize that aspartame is the most controversial food additive in history, and its approval for use in food was the most contested in FDA history. In the end, the artificial sweetener was approved, not on scientific grounds, but rather because of strong political and financial pressure. In this case, the agenda is to make you believe that aspartame is a natural sweetener made with two amino acids that are essential for health and present in your diet already. They want you to believe aspartame delivers all the benefits of sugar and none of its drawbacks. While I am not an expert on aspartame I  certainly would not classify amino sweet as a “health” product as the name suggests.

I would like to hear from others out there that feel like they may have experienced side effects from ingesting aspartame?

Chris @ Schwartz Labs

Allow me to rant for just a moment.  I recently read a blog outlining the 7 reasons overweight people are overweight.  This study took the patrons of a buffet style restaurant and studied their eating habits in an effort to understand why some patrons were fat, and some were not.  Here are a couple of the bullet points:

Overweight people use larger plates.  Larger people chose the larger plates when offered the option of large or small plates.

Overweight people eat while looking at food.  The fattest people sat facing the buffet rather than away from it.

Ok, so here is my problem with this blog.  There were several other reasons listed but I noticed one glaring omission from the list.  These overweight people are eating AT A BUFFET.  Hello.  Does anyone else think maybe that would be the place to start an investigation on why you are still fat?  You are choosing a restaurant where you pay one fee and get an ENDLESS SUPPLY OF FOOD.  And let me just point out, I’ve never seen a buffet that actually supplies healthy, low fat, good for you food.  Most of the time we are talking  high fat, high sodium, high sugar bounties that go for miles.

Not that there aren’t healthy alternatives.  I’ve seen as many as three sugar free dessert options on a buffet line.  Right next to the full fat triple stack chocolate decadence cake.  Right.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which one I’m going for…and I maintain a healthy diet (mostly).

Let’s face it.  Turning your chair around so you are facing away from the buffet isn’t going to make you thin.  And it’s not the size of your plate that will determine your long term weight…it’s what you put on it. 

Educating ourselves on proper nutrition and getting our big butts out of those buffet lines are key components to a good weight loss plan.  Couple a good diet with cardiovascular exercise AND weight training and you have all the components you need to peel off those years of triple stack chocolate decadence.

The Team at Schwartz Labs

Let Schwartz help you get on track with your weight loss and fitness goals.  Visit www.schwartzlabs.com for our full line of nutrition and performance supplements!

Green Tea

Were you aware green tea is the most consumed beverage in the world behind water? Besides tasting pleasant green tea is said to have a relaxing effect. This mood enhancing effect can be traced to an amino acid in the tea called L-theanine.  L-theanine is a free amino acid found almost exclusively in tea plants. The intended use of L-theanine is that of a mental and physical relaxant that does not induce drowsiness. In the past it was difficult, expensive and inefficient to to isolate L-theanine for its neurological benefits. Recently methods for producing L-theanine were introduced that are much more efficient not requiring a bundle of tea leaves to produce. Most of the research on L-theanine has been conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare. In 1964 the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare approved L-theanine for unlimited use in all foods, with the exception of infant foods. L-theanine is most effective taken in doses of 50 milligrams to 200 milligrams with the effect being felt within 30 minutes. Currently the FDA recommends a maximum dose of 1200 milligrams a day, although the reason for this limit is not clear, due to its demonstrated safety.