How and where your carbs are stored is key to knowing what to eat

Carbs are stored as either fat or glycogen (stored sugar). The key is that there are two types of glycogen that go in two very different-sized "storage bins" in the body, each with a different primary purpose:

Storage Bin 1: The liver - holds about 100 grams of carbs which are used to keep general circulating blood sugar up to the brain and muscles during the day

Storage Bin 2: The skeletal muscles - hold about 200-600 grams of carbs depending on how much muscle you have; these carbs are used primarily for the muscles themselves, but can be "dumped" into the bloodstream when the liver runs out if necessary. It is key that there is a very wide variation in how easily people "let go" of the sugar in their muscles, which is reflected in how easily some people hold on to muscle mass while others lose it fast.

Secondly, it is key that the fructose you eat (from fruit and sweets) can only be stored in the liver--remembering that liver stores are relatively small. Therefore you can easily go over your storage capacity when you eat too much fructose, and the excess automatically turns to fat. The point: fructose is easy to overeat. Little bits throughout the day are better than gobs all at once.

Thirdly, those trying to build muscle mass will get no use out of fructose in terms of replacing the sugar in their muscles after working out, as fructose will never end up in muscles. Instead, they need to eat starches like root vegetables, beans, potatoes, and grains (though grains have many downsides). Again, these cannot be eaten all at once, better in small bits throughout the day so as to avoid jacking blood sugar up, which spikes insulin and leads to more carbs stored as fat.

Finally, always eat some protein with carbs to keep your blood sugar from dropping through glucagon.

Vitamin D crucial in winter

Just about everybody is deficient in Vitamin D in winter, and many are severely deficient. Muscle weakness,

In summer when the sun is intense enough, we make this "sunshine vitamin" out of circulating cholesterol when the sun's rays hit our skin and eyes, but the intensity of winter sun is not strong enough to do the conversion. This is because the extremely indirect angle of the sun in winter diffuses solar energy such a wide area that any given point on earth receives only a fraction of summer sun intensity.

-Vitamin D has to build up in the body, it doesn't happen all at once. But you can definitely feel the effects as your stores increase. Having said that, you can't just chug it because the body can only absorb so much at a time. The best approach is to buy the highest possible dosage and take 1 in morning and 1 at night, maybe even one more in afternoon until you feel it build up.

-The FDA had long kept the maximum Vitamin D allowed in supplements very low. They finally changed this a few years ago, so now you can get the dosage you really need.

-"My vitamin pill says it has 100% of Vitamin D." Not even close to enough. We absorb a fraction of the vitamin supplements we take.

"Sugar is sugar" commercial is blatantly false in multiple ways

There are literally dozens of types of sugar which are all different and have different effects in the body. "Sugar is sugar" is completely false.
The Corn Refiners Association popular commerical "Sugar is Sugar" tries to claim that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is just like cane sugar (regular table sugar).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyj2N-AspqU

A Princeton University study showed again what everybody knew from experience, that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) - which is the main ingredient in most sodas and lots of junk food - is more fattening than regular table sugar.
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/

A 2009 study featured in Time magazine had a similar finding:

All Sugars Aren't the Same: Glucose Is Better, Study Says
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1892841,00.html

On top of this, the commercial presents HFCS as "corn sugar", a seemingly natural product, which it is not by a longshot. Dextrose (a form of glucose), not HFCS, is the natural sugar found in corn and it is not a health problem, in fact it is what bodybuilders take post-workout because it is sugar in simplest form. HFCS, on the other hand, is an artificial substance created by putting corn starch through a series of three industrial enzymatic processes.

HFCS has also been implicated as the primary source of AGEs (Advaced Glycation End Products) which are now known to cause cardiovascular problems (esp. endothelial dysfunction) as well as Alzheimer's.

Moreover, even a basic understanding of sugars and how humans process them tells you that "sugar is sugar" is false. There are many types of sugars which are processed very differently by the body. Some are processed in the liver, some in the intestines, some do not need processing at all. Moreover, different sugars require different enzymes to break them down, ex. starches require amylase enzymes, sucrose needs sucrase, etc. and different people have more or less of these enzymes which results in differing abilities among people to break down different types of sugars.

For example, all of these are chemically different categories of sugars:
Monosaccharides - glucose/dextrose, fructose, galactose, xylose and ribose
Disaccharides - sucrose and lactose
Polysaccharides - starches (from bread to potatoes to rice etc.) and glycogen (stored sugar in muscle and liver)

Myths about fat from documentary "Fathead"

This short funny clip "Big Fat Lies" from the documentary "Fathead" explains in a nutshell how fat came to be vilified.

Big Fat Lies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8WA5wcaHp4

Truth is, while there are industrial junk-food fats like soybean oil and corn oil (i.e. in Fritos and potato chips) that are not healthy, there is a much larger list of fats that are good for you adn that people have eaten as a primary fuel source for thousands of years, from plant fats like nuts, coconut oil, and olive oil to animal fats like dairy cream and meat fats if not overcooked.

As mentioned in previous posts, fats are slow burning fuel, carbs are fast-burning fuel, and these are the only two fuels humans have. So if you're not eating enough fats, your going to necessarily overeat carbs by a landslide, which cause weight gain, send your blood sugar through the roof, spike your insulin, make you tired and likely diabetic.

Excessive sitting is a health hazard apart from lack of exercise

Spending way too much time sitting is a serious health hazard, regardless of how much much you exercise when not sitting. Scientists suggest "interrupting" sitting by walking around periodically, standing while talking on the phone or to others, etc.

Experts: Sitting Too Much Could Be Deadly
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/20/health/healthy_living/main6119907.shtml

Your Health: Too much sitting puts the body on idle
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/painter/2010-02-01-yourhealth01_ST_N.htm

Lead still in DC water

If you move to DC, you have to have your water tested for lead. Lead poisoning in the water supply continues to be a problem in DC, despite public awareness of the problem for decades.

People continue to wonder what the problem is with DC schools, citing money, socioeconomic factors, etc. How about kids, particularly "Poor kids who live in older buildings" (Jaffe) being poisoned by lead?

Lead in D.C. water is a public health disaster by Harry Jaffe
http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/harry-jaffe-lead-dc-water-public-health-disaster

CDC Report: D.C.'s Water May Still Contain Lead from the DCist
http://dcist.com/2010/12/cdc_dc_pipes_still_may_be_contamina.php

High Lead Levels Found in D.C. Kids
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012602402.html

Water-cleanup experiment caused lead poisoning
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40275/title/Water-cleanup_experiment_caused_lead_poisoning

Wikipedia entry: Lead contamination in Washington, D.C. drinking water
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_contamination_in_Washington,_D.C._drinking_water#2004:_Washington_Post

Caffeine after exercise inhibits muscle building

Personally, I'm not a big fan of caffeine, as one cup of coffee at noon keeps me up at night. Which makes it that much more baffling how for a few years there I downed multiple liters (literally) of diet Coke a day (i.e. was addicted). The only caffeine I get now is in occasional chocolate bars or the little bits left in decaf, which I think is good (still enough caffeine to keep me up at night).

But regardless of how much caffeine you can tolerate, caffeine following exercise is a bad idea. In a nutshell, caffeine inhibits the building of muscle, which is exactly what you don't want during the 30-90 minute post-workout (PWO) "anabolic window", a special time for building muscle.

According to Ori Hofmekler, author of the popular Warrior Diet and an upcoming book "Unlocking Your Muscle Gene", caffeine inhibits mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin), the muscle-building mechanism. This is OK, he argues, before excercise, because you don't build muscle while you exercise but rather aftward. It works against recovery, however, post-workout.

Hofmekler cites three thing that "spring-load" mTOR so that it can come back with a vengeance when the time comes to build muscle: fasting, exercise, and caffeine. When the spring is released, it builds muscle (assuming there are enough amino acids available from protein). Drinking coffee after exercise prevents the spring from being released.

"Fasting, exercise and coffee inhibit mTOR in a way that can be compared to a spring being compressed in a closed box."

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/16/ori-hofmekler-on-coffee.aspx