I tried to buy dextrose at a very nice health food store early this month, and they didn't know what I was talking about.

I don't like to order anything online, I like to buy locally - and I'd prefer to see the item before I order it.

I've read online that Walmart has glucose/dextrose in the pharmacy section with the diabetic supplies, and I've not yet checked local drugstores.

I thought that bodybuilders frequently purchased Dextrose -- I'm quite surprised that any health food store wouldn't care it???

Yeah, I wish that KARO would get that horrid poison High Fructose Corn Syrup OUT of their light corn syrup -- it really angers me that they threw it in there -- AND I don't remember seeing in ON THE LABEL.

So I'd be afraid to buy ANYTHING from them.

I'll have to find out which Big Agribiz owns them, and/or who Karo owns, so I avoid all of them.

I'm really irritated with this.

Hi Annie,
If you have a business in the area that provides supplies for home brewing, they would most likely carry powdered dextrose, since that is one of the ingredients needed for brewing beer. My health food store has a home brewing section in their store so that may be why they carry it.

For what it is worth, I have a bottle of Karo Light Syrup in my pantry and high fructose corn syrup is the second ingredient listed. (Light corn syrup is the first.)

Cathy

Thanks Cathy, I'll have to check a larger city, the only place I found here only had maltodextrin, not plain powdered dextrose for sale.

Here are 2 recipes from the University of Iowa 'Virtual Hospital' for re-hydrating sports drinks, both of which are fructose free and require some plain powdered dextrose:

http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/.../eatingout.html

I stopped using my daily dose of agave nectar and coconut milk in my coffee 4 weeks ago. That was nearly all the fructose I was consuming on a regular basis. I rarely eat fruit, I eat mostly green vegetables, occasionally a carrot or two. No processed food with HFCS or other sugars.

I am shocked at how my chronic brain fog has lifted! I had one bad day, 2 weeks after this change, during which I was trying to cut way back on caffeine. Since then my mental functioning has been unbelievably improved. I had attributed it to fatigue, or growing older, or perimenopause. But it was more likely fructose, or possibly sugar. I poked around on the internet for any mention of fructose + brain fog and didn't find anything, but did find sugar + brain fog linked. I can't recall if any of the many links provided in this thread talked about brain fog.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know about this. I used to just give up when I was trying to cast around in my memory for something that wasn't right there because it rarely was retrieved; now I'm able to pull up pretty much everything I'm looking for.

Interesting tale. Could you clarify whether you have given up caffeine totally or just the sugars? You say:



Since you gave up the caffeine? Since you cut back on caffeine? Since you gave up sugar? I'm really not quite with you.

And, if it's not prying too much, what would be your exact or approximate age ? I am hazarding a guess that not only do we share similar weight and height stats, but also age (I'm mid 40s).

I have been somewhat lax about my plan in the last couple of days, and have eaten much more carby food than I would normally do. I can really feel it today: I feel totally tired and lethargic. Silly that I forgot that I don't just eat this way to lose weight, but because fewer carbs and more fat in my diet are simply the right fuels for me!!! Too many carbs today and yesterday has made me feel really icky now.

But I can't get my head round giving up sugar and coffee. (I am still working on my Swabian plum cake and beer addictions!!! ) But maybe I should give it a try...

Looking forward to hearing from you,

amanda

Hi Amanda, sorry I wasn't more clear. I didn't give up on coffee. I just watch carefully now how much I take in each day. I think I was suffering withdrawals by having twice as much some days. I may give it up in the future but right now it's too much for me to take on. The morning I was having a mental collapse while trying to cut back I ended up drinking coffee and the fog and fatigue lifted enough that I felt I could get through the day.

I'm still consuming in a little bit of sugar, the brown rice syrup. I've ordered some dextrose and will give that a try in a couple of days. Overall my sugar consumption has decreased by eliminating the agave nectar and coconut milk and my fructose consumption has drastically decreased. (Although compared to most Americans my fructose consumption was pretty miniscule.)

I am 50.

No probs and thank you for answering my questions!

I was glad to hear you lost your brain fog despite continued coffee consumption!!!

amanda

Regarding brain fog, the most recent short-term study on calorie restriction, conducted at the University of Munster in Germany and published online in January by the National Academy of Sciences, lasted three months and determined that reducing calorie intake by 30 percent improved memory ability by 20 percent.

You may want to read THIS.

Bo

I agree with Bo. CR and/or IF seems worthwhile.

I'm currently on Fast-5 and South Beach and it's working really great so far.

Patrick

I dunno. Being hungry really messes with my brain. However, on IF I'm actually less hungry.

My window of food is 13h00 to 18h00. But most days I'm not hungry before 16h00. In order to achieve this I must only have water in between. If I have an herbal tea, diet drink or anything other than water to drink, I'll be hungry.

It's spectacular how easy it is when you absolutely only have water. It's not about calories, because when I start eating at 16h00, I become very hungry and eat for 2 hours nearly non stop.

Since my insulin has time to go a lot lower in my 19 to 22 hours fast, I lose weight faster on the same amount of calories.

Patrick

Did you switch from Dr. K to South Beach, Patrick? Interesting - South Beach makes a lot more sense to me if you eliminate (low-GI) fructose...

Yes I'm on a trial of South Beach combined with Fast-5. I know SB is moderate fat, but I don't mind that. I can have a bit of carbs, because of the Fast-5. But, I will always maintain my fructose at the lowest I can, now that I know what it does.

I'm really melting. Soon I will have lost all the weight I put on with my experiments.

Patrick

Here's the reason, as given by cnn.com at
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/2...mory/index.html

"Why the improvement?

The researchers showed that women who cut calories became more sensitive to the blood sugar-- regulating hormone insulin and had a drop in the inflammation-associated molecule C-reactive protein. Both factors have been linked to an improvement in brain function."

Here's another report on the same study from Yale:

http://www.yaleir.vasculardomain.co...ticle_id=623410


"The research also tested whether a dietary increase in unsaturated fatty acids, such as the omega-3 fatty acids found in some fish, would yield similar benefits. Although these healthy fats have spurred better cognitive performance in rats, the new study failed to find a similar effect in humans."

Christy