Do You Want Sugar With That? Cargo Trailer Cushions.

Fructose and Glucose are handled differently by the body:

Study shows fructose used differently from glucose.  Findings challenge common wisdom about sugars:

WASHINGTON. (Reuters) - "Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that challenges the common wisdom that all sugars are the same.

Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.

They said their finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, may help explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

"These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation," Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote.

"They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth."

Americans take in large amounts of fructose, mainly in high fructose corn syrup, a mix of fructose and glucose that is used in soft drinks, bread and a range of other foods.

Politicians, regulators, health experts and the industry have debated whether high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients have been helping make Americans fatter and less healthy.

Too much sugar of any kind not only adds pounds, but is also a key culprit in diabetes, heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

Several states, including New York and California, have weighed a tax on sweetened soft drinks to defray the cost of treating obesity-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The American Beverage Association, whose members include Coca-Cola (KO.N) and Kraft Foods (KFT.N) have strongly, and successfully, opposed efforts to tax soda. [ID:nN12233126]

The industry has also argued that sugar is sugar.

Heaney said his team found otherwise. They grew pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes and fed them both glucose and fructose.

Tumor cells thrive on sugar but they used the fructose to proliferate. "Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different," Heaney's team wrote.

"I think this paper has a lot of public health implications. Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of high fructose corn syrup in our diets," Heaney said in a statement.

Now the team hopes to develop a drug that might stop tumor cells from making use of fructose.

U.S. consumption of high fructose corn syrup went up 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, researchers reported in 2004 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition."

From: http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/08/02/cancer-fructose-idAFN0210830520100802

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Sugar: Addictive Poison?

"Is sugar even worse than we’ve thought? I urge you to watch “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” an engaging, informative and entertaining video of Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology.

In this 90-minute lecture, you will see a superb speaker present the case against sugar- a case that would make a trial lawyer swoon with admiration. I’ve always been concerned about the negative health effects of sucrose in all its forms (table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc.), but Dr. Lustig’s presentation on the scientific evidence, as well as the extent of our societal dependence on sugar, has profoundly changed my viewpoint.

He points out that sugar is not just “empty calories” or “high glycemic” (as if that wasn’t bad enough). He correctly points out that the fructose molecules contained in sucrose (table sugar), high fructose corn syrup and other forms of added sugar in processed foods acts as a toxin to the liver when consumed in excess.

Similar to alcohol toxicity, sugar toxicity causes liver damage. The liver toxicity, in turn, fuels the cholesterol abnormalities, insulin resistance, inflammation, high blood pressure and other heart disease risk factors that drive the heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics that have skyrocketed during the past few decades.

If the health effects of sugar are equivalent in so many ways to those of chronic alcohol addiction, then how can we justify the daily average intake of 1/3 pound of sugar per man, woman and child in this country?

I admire what Dr. Lustig has accomplished in this presentation. Unfortunately, the societal dependence on sugar is so far advanced that reversing it seems improbable in the near term. Nevertheless, you can protect yourselves from excess sugar in modern processed foods by learning to carefully follow one of the many popular eating strategies that root out added sugars, including my own favorite eating strategy (that I use with most patients) discussed in detail in an earlier series of blog posts.

Thank you, Dr. Lustig for your leadership and a great lecture!"

From: http://blogs.webmd.com/life-with-diabetes-2/2010/05/sugar-addictive-poison.html

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76 Additional Ways Sugar Can Ruin Your Health

"In addition to throwing off your body's homeostasis and wreaking havoc on your metabolic processes, excess sugar has a number of other significant consequences.

Nancy Appleton, PhD, author of the book Lick the Sugar Habit[5], contributed an extensive list of the many ways sugar can ruin your health from a vast number of medical journals and other scientific publications.

1. Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.[6] [7]
2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.[8] [9] [10] [11]
3. Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.[12] [13]
4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.[14] [15] [16] [17]
5. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.[18]
6. Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.[19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]
7. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.[26] [27]
8. Sugar can weaken eyesight.[28] 1
9. Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.[29] [30] [31] [32] [33]
10. Sugar can cause premature aging.[34] In fact, the single most important factor that accelerates aging is insulin, which is triggered by sugar. 1
11. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.[35]
12. Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.[36] [37] [38]
13. Sugar contributes to obesity. [39] 1
14. Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, and multiple sclerosis.[40] [41] [42]
15. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections) [43]
16. Sugar can cause gallstones.[44]
17. Sugar can cause appendicitis.[45]
18. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.[46]
19. Sugar can cause varicose veins.[47]
20. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.[48]
21. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.[49]
22. Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.[50] [51] [52]
23. Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.[53]
24. Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.[54]
25. Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.[55]
26. High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs),which are sugar molecules that attach to and damage proteins in your body. AGEs speed up the aging of cells, which may contribute to a variety of chronic and fatal diseases. [56] 1
27. Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.[57]
28. Sugar causes food allergies.[58]
29. Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.[59]
30. Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.[60]
31. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.[61] [62]
32. Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.[63]
33. Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.[64] [65]
34. Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.[66]
35. Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.[67] [68]
36. Sugar can cause emphysema.[69]
37. High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.[70]
38. Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.[71]
39. Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease.[72]
40. Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide, and it can increase the amount of fat in your liver, leading to fatty liver disease.[73] [74]
41. Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.[75] [76] Fructose is helping to drive up rates of kidney disease. 1
42. Sugar can damage your pancreas.[77]
43. Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.[78]
44. Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.[79]
45. Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.[80]
46. Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.[81]
47. Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.[82]
48. Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect your children's grades and cause learning disorders.[83] [84]
49. Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves, which can alter your ability to think clearly.[85]
50. Sugar can cause depression.[86]
51. Sugar can increase your risk of gout.[87]
52. Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.[88] MRI studies show that adults 60 and older who have high uric acid are four to five times more likely to have vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's.1
53. Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.[89] [90] [91] [92]
54. Sugar can lead to dizziness.[93]
55. Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.[94]
56. A high sucrose diet of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.[95]
57. High sugar consumption by pregnant adolescents can lead to a substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold-increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.[96] [97]
58. Sugar is an addictive substance.[98]
59. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.[99]
60. Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.[100]
61. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.[101]
62. Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.[102]
63. The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.[103]
64. Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).[104]
65. Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.[105]
66. Sugar can impair the function of your adrenal glands.[106]
67. Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in normal, healthy individuals, thereby promoting chronic degenerative diseases.[107]
68. Intravenous feedings (IVs) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.[108]
69. Sugar increases your risk of polio.[109]
70. High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.[110]
71. Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.[111]
72. In intensive care units, limiting sugar saves lives.[112]
73. Sugar may induce cell death.[113]
74. In juvenile rehabilitation centers, when children were put on low sugar diets, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.[114]
75. Sugar dehydrates newborns.[115]
76. Sugar can cause gum disease.[116]

It should now be crystal clear just how damaging sugar is. You simply cannot achieve your highest degree of health and vitality if you are consuming a significant amount of it.

Fortunately, your body has an amazing ability to heal itself when given the basic nutrition it needs, and your liver has an incredible ability to regenerate. If you start making changes today, your health WILL begin to improve, returning you to the state of vitality that nature intended."

To see the references: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx

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Yesterday:

Jay and I really started to think this cargo trailer dinette cushion dilemma through.

If we used the thinner cushions that Sam gave me, the twin bed and the twin size dinette wouldn't be at the same height if and when, they were made into a king size bed.

If the thick foam and attached batting that we had cut into the right sizes from that discarded couch was used, it would be too high, and buying the right length table pole would also be a problem.  This is some really good quality dense foam.

We measured and re-measured the height of the bed's mattress.  We tore all the thick batting off each side of the dense foam, and the height was about right to match the height of the foam mattress on the bed.  But we had cut the cushions with the thick batting still attached, so when we put the table in place making the dinette made into a bed, it didn't fill up the whole length.  Those dinette cushions need to fit tight, or when it's a bed, they slide and make an uncomfortable gap in the middle.  So we went up into my attic, and brought the rest of the foam down, and cut some lengths of it and used the foam glue to stick them to the width end of each of the two seat cushions.  We cut it with an electric knife.  Most of this we did on a big table in the house, but we did the spray gluing outside because of the fumes, and mess.

All this measuring and fitting meant several trips back and forth up into the trailer, so I got my exercise.

We finished the bed's plywood by routering the Formica edges so we could put it into place, and try it all out.  Now because twin sheets and king sheets are different lengths, we also made a narrow foam removable end cushion for the bed, so that twin sheets can be used when it is a twin bed.  It can be covered with the same fabric as the dinette cushions.

We measured the circumference of all five cushions, to find out exactly how many yards of fabric would be needed.  I might not use the fabric that I had bought at a thrift shop as it isn't really upholstery material.  I am going to check the remnant area at Joanne's in Conroe in the next few days, and see what they have. 

We could have gone to the big Joanne's in The Woodlands today.  A lady who lives in Galveston was interested in buying the bath tub that came out of the 1947 Westcraft Coronado, and wanted me to take it 30 miles to The Woodlands this afternoon.  In Friday afternoon traffic, oh, that is terrible!  All the 'weekend warriors' are making their trek north on a Friday afternoon.

If I were to go to The Woodlands, it would be in a morning, not a Friday, and get back fast.  If I went this afternoon it would mean having to remove the heavy second seat in the van, lose time working and be stuck in traffic for hours on the way back.  She wouldn't pay for it ahead of time through PayPal, and wrote that she expected this tub to be perfect, and then she would pay for it.  Nowhere in the ad does it say that it is perfect, as it is used, so I could see this was going to be a long arduous, expensive trip for nothing, and declined.

Ray should be painting that last shelf that we built for the cargo trailer, today.