After two weeks juicing and then going to have my blood tests done, I am on to solids, I lost weight and got my blood sugar down to 5 and under, so another winning result for just 14 days of juicing, and if everyone juiced I would be happy to keep on juicing, but it is a little anti social, I have my daughter home from uni again doing her final prac in her final year of study, and she doesn't juice, although I have talked her into a few now and then, and my eldest daughter is still toying with the idea of getting healthy, I have given her a juicer and a great book of information on what nutrients our bodies need for optimum health, but she has yet to make a start, i don't want to push too hard, I know the feeling you get from the inside out, when you juice, it is like your body is processing every last nutrient and repays you with the feeling of aliveness, it is almost euphoric, I have been eating solids for just 3 days and already have lost that feeling, starting to feel sluggish and bloated even though I am still eating healthy home made foods (so I know whats in it) but nothing beats Juicing so after I do the social thing and go out for a meal with the family, try out one or two of the recipes I have been collating for the last couple of weeks, I will return to my juicing, in time to go to the doctors and receive my results for the blood tests. This doctors visit will mark 12 months since I first embarked on the 28 day juice fast, that changed my life and my relation to food, I lost a great deal of weight, and came off all my medication, that means I haven't had any diabetic meds for 12 months, I believe I have reversed my diabetes, and it has been said that you have to keep the weight off for 12 months? well if that is so then I have accomplished that also, but in my mind I haven't reached my goal in weight loss, that goal that everyone tells you that can't be reached! well I don't think that should mean that you stop trying and my incentive is the cruise we are going on later this year, I will have to lose a lot of weight before then, because I will probably gain a lot on the cruise, unless they have a juice bar onboard then I will be cruising and juicing. Today I shared a youtube video on the Myths of High Cholesterol, I never tire of hearing people saying they got it wrong! that the information about Saturated Fats and cholesterol /heart disease are wrong, it is about time that the real culprits for our ill health and obesity problems are being told, but you have to listen to what is being said, and you have to want good health to make the change, so I am sharing it again here, it is pretty clear that Sugar and Toxic oils are the blame. The 4 things you can GIVE UP TODAY for your long term health are –
And if you’re on a statin, or your doctor wants you to go on a statin, take a look at Zoe Harcombe’s website. She discusses what is high cholesterol, is it in fact healthy, side effects of statins and the impending lawsuits. Love this quote from her – “My top tip is: don’t have a cholesterol test and then you’ll have one fewer thing to worry about”. That is about all I have for today, Keep Calm and Juice!
0 Comments
Day 10 and doing well, have lost a total of 2.6kilo that is almost double what I gained while off the juice, so the scales are moving in the right direction again, my blood sugars have been below 5 for the last 4 days this morning at 4.2, so obviously the addition of a soup to warm the belly is not having any negative effects on the fasting, we have been enjoying a tomoto and vegetable soup I made on Monday night for the last two nights and I have a cauliflower and sweet potato soup on the stove, I couldn't resist roasting some garlic to add to this soup, I have made the soup before, but wanted the hint of roasted flavour in there this time, I can hardly wait till dinner. I am happy to hear that my daughter and her family are starting to think about getting healthier, and along with doing some body building exercise my daughter is taking a look at some things that could change in their diet, now I would love to rush over there and clean out their pantry and ban everyone from consuming too much sugar and processed foods but I would only spook them into giving it up before they have started, so I am going to be supportive and respect their pace but they have made a start and that is the main thing, too often people make a attempt to get healthier on the outside, with weights and exercise regimes only to complete the daily workouts by eating all the wrong foods. Two things I know for sure about exercise, it makes you hungry and you won't lose weight with exercise alone, while exercise is important especially cardiovascular workouts, you would have to run a marathon to work a mars bar. I have said before that people believe they don't consume much sugar, because they don't add sugar to their drinks and meals, but it is the hidden sugars that do the most damage, and processed foods are deadly, they are a chemical shit storm, you can make homemade biscuits with just four ingredients, but pick up any packet of biscuits from the shelf and look at the list of ingredients, to me it is scary and I think that biscuits should be the first thing that is deleted from your pantry to make the start of getting healthy on the inside. On the subject of cooking instead of buying processed, if you look hard enough at the supermarket there are products made with stevia that are sugar free (fructose free) that will assist you in making delicious treats without the guilt of the sugar, I found all these products and have used these products for the last 2 years, until recently that is, when the products were deleted from the shelves. These products are not cheap, but they are economical but I think with the addition of sugar free products the supermarkets are not selling as much of the "Sweet Poison" as they use to, and because a box of sugar free icing sugar will last you 4 times as long if not more than a bag of normal icing sugar, you only need to buy it once every 2 months, that is how long mine would last if not longer, cause basically I only used it when there was a birthday cake to make. I was a grocery manager and I understand the strategies that these big supermarkets use, so even though these products are dearer and give the store a much greater profit margin, the turn over is not as great and therefore they would rather stock a fast moving shit product, than give the consumer a choice, their reasoning being that if the sugar free item is not there they will take what is! Well not if you are sugar free and want to stay that way. If you would like to make your family some sugar free choc chip biscuits, you can purchase the chocolate melts online, at http://www.shop-vitalitybrands.com/ Even with the postage they are cheaper than I was paying at Woolies,
Stay Calm and Juice The reboot is going well, I have not craved any tea even though we have had some chilly evenings, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I had only regained just over one kilo after the birthday party and the other treats (low carb muesli slice) I had consumed, Oh did I mention that I also had a few alcoholic drinks at my daughter's birthday party? well I did and this is my main concern when coming off a juice fast that the alcohol will put me back to square one, but I did do some homework on the subject long ago to find that the sugars in alcohol do in fact digest differently in the body and don't contain very much of the deadly "fructose" so as long as I don't go on an alcoholic binge my blood sugars shouldn't be upset too much, although it is advised if you are a diabetic that you shouldn't drink, but that is just sad, but then again the whole diabetic disease is sad even when it is controlled like mine is now, you always have to be aware, you are not cured you have just locked it up and as I say, you hold the key! anyway back to my recent/current reboot, I am on day 5 and have already lost the weight I gained also my blood sugars are 5.6 at the moment, so that is in the normal range so I am happy with that, it is very easy to do juice only in the summer months, but we all crave something warm in our bellies when it is cold, hence why I started drinking tea again last time but not wanting to backslide into the Sugarine addiction again I have been supplementing the vegetable juices with vegetable soups, home made of course I would never buy or consume processed soup, beside the additives in processes soup and all the sugar and salt, the vege is cooked at such high temps that there isn't any goodness left, I was never much of a soup person to start with but after juicing my palate has changed, now one of my favourite soups is, parsnip soup, I use to make this with bacon which is also very nice, but because I am fasting and only consuming protein from vegetables, I omit the bacon and just have parsnip, onion and garlic with a sprinkle of pepper and turmeric, it really does warm you up on a cold night and is really satisfying, so that is what I will be making tonight and maybe a cauliflower and sweet potato on the weekend, one of the hardest things about juice fasting for me now is seeing all the recipes that are low carb and sugar free that I want to try, but of course if I cook them I will want to eat the goods, so I put them on the to do list for when I am off the fast, I haven't really committed to an end date this reboot, but want to go at least another 5 days, and I am sure that wont be hard, I am becoming a rebooting ninja, my body just accepts that solids have become a sometimes food, and I no longer have the side effects of the fasting that you may get on your first 3 days of your very first fast, if you can get past day 3 you can go as long as you want. Well I am off to make my parsnip soup! Keep Calm and Juice! So after the fortnight of celebrations for my youngest daughters 21st, I did do 11 days on a juice fast to compensate the weight gain and the yuckiness of the over indulgence of the celebrations, and by yuckiness I meant the lethargic lifeless feeling you get when you experience a carbohydrate overload, even though I didn't eat excessive amounts of carbs because I am so over that, what I did consume in the way of carbs was excessive for my now low carb system, so using my magic "KEY" I embarked on a vegetable juice fast.
The perfect time for me to do the fast as my daughter had returned to UNI and I wouldn't be tempted by the treats that I cook for her, although all treats cooked in this house are sugar free, when your on a juice only fast it is tempting, my plan was to fast for as long as I could while the daughter was back at Uni, but she was home again after just 11 days so I took myself off the fast, I had already lost the weight I had gained plus a little bit more in these 11 days and was feeling good again, so to take a break from fasting was not going to set me back too far, after all she was only home for the weekend and then I started to juice again. One difference though, because of the cold weather we have been experiencing I have taken to drinking tea again, which has been playing havoc with my sleeping (again), and also I have been using Sugarine to sweeten the tea, which is a big no no according to Dr Mercola a health guru that is dead against these types of sweeteners, and my cousin Kathy also gave me the wave of the disapproving finger about using Sugarine, even though Kathy voiced her disapproval via an email, I could still picture her finger pointed and waving telling me, " No good cuz it will kill you!" so for Kathy and the need of a better sleeping pattern, I am calling it quits on the tea drinking again, as from tomorrow when I start a new Juice fast, and this time go as long as I can. My very first juice fast which was around this time last year, actually August 2015, I went 28 days without stopping for anything, and I mean anything, at the time we had my daughter and her family living here and my daughter was cooking for her husband and my grandkids, I thought would make it extremely difficult, but admittedly some meals they enjoyed were not to my liking anyway so that makes it easier if you don't crave the food, but some were quiet tempting but I was feeling so good with the vegetable juices that I wanted to see the end results, so I managed that juice fast for 28 days without drinking any tea or coffee and not having any Sugarine tablets, so I know that I can do it again. The weekend just gone saw me at another birthday celebration, this time for my eldest daughter at her house, and for most celebrations I am always going to go with the flow, everyone I know or who knows me, is aware that I am sugar free, but rather than making a big song and dance about it, I like to go with the flow of things and not make a fuss, i don't expect anyone to make something special for my wants and on most occasions I will bring along something that meets with my sugar free mantra. But having said that and although I did take along some sugar free carrot cakes, I was not tempted but curious to try a slither of birthday cake that was purchased for many dollars from Michele's Bakery, mainly because everyone was oohing and arring this cake, although even the person that bought the cake was unsure if it was caramel or butterscotch, but I can tell you that it was the sweetest thing I have tasted in such a long time, it was sickly sweet, and most of the adults had to have not one generous slice but two, still they failed to say if it was caramel or butterscotch, myself from the slither I had, put my money on caramel, and while it was moist and creamy and quiet tasty, I no doubt consumed more than a days worth of sugar in that one small serve of cake, which to be honest gave me a very sick feeling after eating it, which may have been the guilt of doing so or just the amount of sugar didn't sit well with the other food I had consumed. I bang on so much about the evils of sugar but I just want to be like everyone else and therefore have concluded it would make my life a lot easier and guilt free if everyone just went sugar free too. I am more than ready to start a new juicing fast called a "Reboot" which is apt in name as I will be rebooting my system back to the state it was in last August, the one thing I will miss most on this next fast will be the recently created recipe of low carb muesli bars, I will have to write up the recipe and post it here on my page under recipes, it is the best thing I have created to date (my opinion of course) well I am off to make a batch of juices for my Reboot starting tomorrow 18 July 2016. "Keep calm and Juice!" On a recent trip to Sydney, I visited a favourite haunt of mine "Dymocks" book store on George street, I hadn't been in the store for over 40 years. While browsing for Joe Cross's new book "Juice it to Lose it" I picked up another Juicing book "Juicing for Health" this book is just what I have been looking for, the front cover states 81 Juicing recipes and 76 ingredients, but that is not what interested me the most.. The first thing that impressed me was the section titled "Natures Pharmacy " in this chapter it gives you a full description of the ingredient, the Health benefits and Healers, for instance, take "Kale" we all know that it is a super food, but until I started juicing I had never tried Kale, and I started adding it to my juices because I heard it was a super food but I still didn't know why. Here is an excerpt from the book... [Kale produces a deep green, nutrient packed juice that combines very well with other ingredients, especially Lemon, which intensifies the tasted. Kale leaves are quite tough and may sometimes be hard to push through a juicer. Health Benefits: Reduces the risk of cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke; promotes healthy eyesight; increases testosterone; boosts the immune system; and supports the digestive system. Healers Kale is an excellent source of vitamins A and C, calcium, beta-carotene, alpha-linoleic and chlorophyll. It is a good source of potassium, phosphorus, iron, manganese, copper, magnesium and B vitamins.] That information is repeated for the other 75 ingredients so that is a wealth of knowledge right there, but wait there is more, part two of the book "Recipes for Health" has segregated the chapters for the different health issues, whether you want to juice for Weight Loss and Digestion or General Health and Well Being, there are juices to match your ailment, for me I would select "Spinach Sugar Stabilizer" under the general health and well being, this being especially for Type 2 diabetes. This is the page that impresses me the most, because not only am I interested in drinking a juice designed to stabilize my blood sugars I want to know other important stuff, like how many calories, protein, sugar and carbohydrates , this information is important if you have weight to loose or you are actually Juice fasting, you need to know you are getting enough of the good stuff. Each Recipe has a two page spread and besides offering the nutritional panel, it gives a little spiel on the disease, then the recipe as follows...
on the opposite page it has a full list of the Ingredients to Stabilize Blood Sugar, that was just one recipe and there is another 80 in the book, it covers everything you can think of from Heart disease to Acne, it includes a 3 and 7 day detoxing diet plan, as well as some handy tips for making your own juice recipes . I bought this book instead of the one I was searching for and found, I considered this to be the better value book and I am extremely happy with it, I will be referencing this book for years to come. The Details: Publisher: Mendocino Press Published: May 2015 Format: Paperback, 288 pages Genre: Health and Nutrition Acquired from: Dymocks George Street Sydney Cost: $16.99 My Rating on this book is 4.5 - The only thing it lacks is images.Reviews Yes it is true, I have been off the grid and off the wagon for nearly two weeks now, and to be honest although I have had some great times, I am not feeling as bright eyed and bushy tailed, as I was previously before the fine dinning and partaking of alcoholic beverages. Most people fall off the wagon for a day maybe two but I jumped off and went partying, for well over a week, but in my defense, it was my youngest daughter's 21st we were celebrating and no body likes a party pooper, I did however have some sensible raw food options before I hit Sydney, and manged to squeeze in a Boost juice (Eden being my favourite) but when it came to the fine dinning on the Captain Cook cruise I just went with the flow, no one twisted my arm, and I was keen to try the different cocktails on offer especially when they were half priced at happy hour, that made me happy for sure. I am not condoning throwing all caution to the wind and lose total control of your eating regime, but it is a testament to my own control I have now on my health and well being, as I have said before in other blogs I have written, I have found the key to my health, and having that key is gold, so I believe that the once in a blue moon you can let your hair down (pretty sure the moon was blue or was that the bottom of the cocktail glass ha ha?) next week I will be putting my key to the test, I will be doing a reboot (juice fast) and getting my juice on! I am pretty sure that I did more partying than my daughter did, but I have way more experience at the "eat, drink and be merry" and I thought that some of the foods I ate would make me merry, but I found that I didn't really miss eating the carbs, that old feeling of "carbohydrate overload" and wanting to after eating, returned a couple of times, happy to say that the fine dinning on the Captain Cook Cruise did not have that effect, but I did enjoy one of the richest desserts I have ever had, it was called a chocolate Roche, we all ordered a different dessert, Terri had the vanilla slice which she enjoyed, I ordered the flour less orange cake with hazelnut syrup, I thought I was being concerning when ordering a flour less dessert but was worried about the hazelnut syrup, but I had no need to worry, when the dessert came to the table, the syrup was like 3 dots on the side of the plate, I had to laugh but it was nice enough, not the most extravagant dessert, no that was Andrew's dessert! he ordered the Chocolate Roche, we all had a taste of it and all agreed that it was very rich and Terri couldn't possibly, Andrew not being a dessert type of person passed, so it was down to me to be the Goldilocks and eat the whole thing, mind you we are talking fine dinning and it was no bigger than a chook egg but the richness was devine. We visited the zoo and arrived right on lunch time, so without giving it too much thought we grabbed a burger each and some chips and water to drink and when I paid for it, I thought the girl had made a mistake, but no not mistaken it was the dearest burger and chips meal EVER! but at least it was edible not the greatest burger I have had but definitely the dearest. The rest of the week the food was not even worth mentioning, although a little nostalgic having lunch in the Town Hall Coles cafeteria, which is not Coles anymore it is Woolworths, and it looks nothing like it use to, and the food is just average, but it was in the right spot at the right time, we had been to Dymocks another nostalgic destination for me, growing up in Sydney meant that I frequented these places most weekends, and a must see for my daughter who is a genuine book worm, I envy the amount of reading she does, I can't remember the last time I read a book from cover to cover. I did in fact buy a book which I will be reviewing soon, that is my new thing that I have wanted to do for some time now, review books, but as my daughter states to me that in order to do this you must read the books first. Terri has a lot to say about books go on over to her blog http://www.lebookchronicles.com/index.html if you are into Young Romance, although she does review other books as well, i will have a go at reviewing .... sugar free and juicing books (no surprise there ha ha) Well that is about all I have to say for today on my big week of eating and drinking, can't wait to get back to the juicing though my body seems to craving the nutrients, I have a different mind set to what it once was, now I just eat what I want when I want, but holding on very tightly to the key! So has the penny dropped? have the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally seen the light? well we can only hope, why should I care about the FDA you ask, well the old saying "America sneezes we catch the cold" so it is promising if the American big wigs have finally said UNCLE, then the Aussies will follow suit, they haven't exactly said UNCLE but close to it, finally they are in agreement that Carbohydrates are the culprit to the epidemic or as Robert Lustig says the Pandemic, of American Obesity and not Saturated fats! Diabetics following the advice of doctors and dietitians the NDSS guidelines and other antiquated advice on how to best manage their Blood Glucose Levels, have been told to eat Carbohydrates to help lower their insulin levels and it has been having the opposite effect, it is why most diabetics still have trouble managing glucose levels and lose weight, they have also been told to eat up to 6 small meals a day (which is also wrong) I know because I followed all this advice for 14 years and each year I got sicker. I recall in 2008 or around that era I decided to try the Atkins diet, and ignored the people that said the diet would make me sick, it didn't make me sick it actually helped my diabetes, and as I was at my heaviest at the time, I also lost considerable weight! (about 17 kilo) I had cut down on my carbohydrate intake, but I was trying to be too strict and felt so limited that I couldn't sustain the diet, so I decided that I had failed, I wasn't, eating much vegetables, at the time I was only a fan of the high carb veges like potato, and as we all know everything goes better with potato, so I was depressed at the thought that I couldn't eat my much loved carbs, so I totally understand why fellow diabetics feel the Low carb life style is too hard, but now that I have researched and live a low carb lifestyle, there is so much good information, so many media groups of LCHF (Low Carb/High Fat or Healthy Fat) with lots of moral support and great recipes, something I wish I had when I first went on Atkins. I have tried lots of the low carb recipes and I can honestly say that I don't miss the sugar or the high carb foods, I use a Stevia based product called "Natvia" as a substitute for sugar and all things sweet when making biscuits, cakes and muffins, and the best thing about Natvia is that it doesn't elevate your BGL, for non diabetic people, dextrose and Rice Malt syrup are great substitutes for sugar in cooking, these two products are glucose and there isn't any Fructose which is the harmful component of sugar! to keep things low carb I use Almond flour or Coconut flour as a substitute for high carb flours, and I am also using lots of real butter in my cooking and coconut oil too both high saturated fat which now the FDA is considering giving the OK to, they have almost agreed that the Low fat diet doesn't work and by going low fat the sugar intake has increased causing people to gain weight and get sicker. One of the media groups that I find very helpful called "ditch the carbs" posted a youtube video today which I found to have a good take on managing your diabetes and going low carb, the video is only 9.36 minutes long but well worth watching so here is the link/video My daughter has also experienced going low carb, and has recently posted a review of a low sugar low carb cook book, which I am very pleased about, I would like to be sent recipe books to review, but need more subscribers to my blog before I can request review books, in the mean time take a look at my daughters review blog _Le book Chronicles
As you know, I am always banging on about Sugar and why you shouldn't consume it in any form, so I decided to do a little cut and paste today, because I feel this article spells out all the reasons why you should avoid sugar like the plague cause both will kill you, and I think it is blunt enough for everyone to understand, I do think more and more people are now realizing that the problem with their diet and health comes down to Sugar, but the shops still sell it so some people still haven't got the message!
10 Disturbing Reasons Why Sugar is Bad For You Added sugar is the single worst ingredient in the modern diet.It can have harmful effects on metabolism and contribute to all sorts of diseases.Here are 10 disturbing reasons why you should avoid added sugar like the plague. 1. Added Sugar Contains No Essential Nutrients and is Bad For Your TeethYou’ve probably heard this a million times before… but it’s worth repeating. Added sugars (like sucrose and high fructose corn syrup) contain a whole bunch of calories with NO essential nutrients. For this reason, they are called “empty” calories. There are no proteins, essential fats, vitamins or minerals in sugar… just pure energy. When people eat up to 10-20% of calories as sugar (or more), this can become a major problem and contribute to nutrient deficiencies. Sugar is also very bad for the teeth, because it provides easily digestible energy for the bad bacteria in the mouth. Bottom Line: Sugar contains a lot of calories, with no essential nutrients. It also causes tooth decay by feeding the harmful bacteria in the mouth. 2. Added Sugar is High in Fructose, Which Can Overload Your Liver In order to understand what is so bad about sugar, then you need to understand what it is made of. Before sugar enters the bloodstream from the digestive tract, it is broken down into two simple sugars… glucose and fructose.
This is not a problem if we eat a little bit (such as from fruit) or we just finished an exercise session. In this case, the fructose will be turned into glycogen and stored in the liver until we need it. However, if the liver is full of glycogen (much more common), eating a lot of fructose overloads the liver, forcing it to turn the fructose into fat . When repeatedly eating large amounts of sugar, this process can lead to fatty liver and all sorts of serious problems (5). Keep in mind that all of this does NOT apply to fruit. It is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruit. There is also massive individual variability here. People who are healthy and active can tolerate more sugar than people who are inactive and eat a Western, high-carb, high-calorie diet. Bottom Line: For people who are inactive and eat a Western diet, large amounts of fructose from added sugars get turned into fat in the liver. 3. Overloading The Liver With Fructose Can Cause Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease When fructose get turned into fat in the liver, it is shipped out as VLDL cholesterol particles. However, not all of the fat gets out, some of it can lodge in the liver. This can lead to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), a growing problem in Western countries that is strongly associated with metabolic diseases . Studies show that individuals with fatty liver consume up to 2-3 times as much fructose as the average person (7, 8). Bottom Line: Excess fructose gets turned into fat, which can lodge in the liver and cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. 4. Sugar Can Cause Insulin Resistance, a Stepping Stone Towards Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes Insulin is a very important hormone in the body. It allows glucose (blood sugar) to enter cells from the bloodstream and tells the cells to start burning glucose instead of fat. Having too much glucose in the blood is highly toxic and one of the reasons for complications of diabetes, like blindness. One feature of the metabolic dysfunction that is caused by the Western diet, is that insulin stops working as it should. The cells become “resistant” to it. This is also known as insulin resistance, which is believed to be a leading driver of many diseases… including metabolic syndrome, obesity, cardiovascular disease andespecially type II diabetes . Many studies show that sugar consumption is associated with insulin resistance, especially when it is consumed in large amounts . Bottom Line: When people eat a lot of sugar, it can cause resistance to the hormone insulin, which can contribute to many diseases. 5. The Insulin Resistance Can Progress to Type II Diabetes When our cells become resistant to the effects of insulin, the beta cells in our pancreas make more of it. This is crucial, because chronically elevated blood sugars can cause severe harm. Eventually, as insulin resistance becomes progressively worse, the pancreas can’t keep up with the demand of producing enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels down. At this point, blood sugar levels skyrocket and a diagnosis of type II diabetes is made. Given that sugar can cause insulin resistance, it is not surprising to see that people who drink sugar-sweetened beverages have up to an 83% higher risk of Type II diabetes . Bottom Line: Because of the harmful effects of sugar on the function of insulin, it is a leading driver of type II diabetes. 6. Sugar Can Give You Cancer Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and is characterized by uncontrolled growth and multiplication of cells. Insulin is one of the key hormones in regulating this sort of growth. For this reason, many scientists believe that having constantly elevated insulin levels (a consequence of sugar consumption) can contribute to cancer . In addition, the metabolic problems associated with sugar consumption are a known driver of inflammation, another potential cause of cancer. Multiple studies show that people who eat a lot of sugar are at a much higher risk of getting cancer (16, 17, 18). Bottom Line: There is considerable evidence that sugar, due to its harmful effects on metabolism, can contribute to cancer. 7. Due to its Effects on Hormones and the Brain, Sugar has Unique Fat-Promoting Effects Not all calories are created equal. Different foods can have different effects on our brains and the hormones that control food intake. Studies show that fructose doesn’t have the same kind of effect on satiety as glucose. In one study, people drank either a fructose-sweetened drink or a glucose-sweetened drink. Afterwards, the fructose drinkers had much less activity in the satiety centers of the brain and felt hungrier . There is also a study where fructose didn’t lower the hunger hormone ghrelin nearly as much as glucose did. Over time, because the calories from sugar aren’t as fulfilling, this can translate into an increased calorie intake. Bottom Line: Fructose doesn’t cause satiety in the brain or lower the hunger hormone ghrelin nearly as much as glucose. 8. Because it Causes Massive Dopamine Release in The Brain, Sugar is Highly Addictive Sugar can be addictive for a lot of people. Like abusive drugs, sugar causes a release of dopamine in the reward center of the brain . The problem with sugar and many junk foods is that they can cause massive dopamine release… much more than we were ever exposed to from foods found in nature. For this reason, people who have a susceptibility to addiction can become strongly addicted to sugar and other junk foods. The “everything in moderation” message may be a bad idea for people who are addicted to junk food… because the only thing that works for true addiction is abstinence. Bottom Line: Because sugar causes a large release of dopamine in the brain, it can cause addiction in a lot of people. 9. Sugar is a Leading Contributor to Obesity in Both Children and Adults The way sugar affects hormones and the brain is a recipe for fat gain disaster. It leads to decreased satiety… and can get people addicted so that they lose control over their consumption. Not surprisingly, people who consume the most sugar are by far the most likely to become overweight or obese. This applies to all age groups. Many studies have examined the link between sugar consumption and obesity and found a strong statistical association . The link is especially strong in children, where each daily serving of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with a whopping 60% increased risk of obesity . One of the most important things you can do if you need to lose weight is to significantly cut back on sugar consumption. Bottom Line: Because of the effects of sugar on hormones and the brain, sugar dramatically increases the risk of becoming overweight or obese. 10. It Ain’t The Fat… It’s SUGAR That Raises Your Cholesterol and Gives You Heart Disease For many decades, people have blamed saturated fat for heart disease… which is the #1 killer in the world. However… new studies are showing that saturated fat is harmless . The evidence is mounting that sugar, NOT fat, may be one of the leading drivers of heart disease via the harmful effects of fructose on metabolism . Studies show that large amounts of fructose can raise triglycerides, small, dense LDL and oxidized LDL (very, very bad), raise blood glucose and insulin levels and increase abdominal obesity… in as little as 10 weeks . These are all major risk factors for heart disease. Not surprisingly, many observational studies find a strong statistical association between sugar consumption and the risk of heart disease. Take Home Message For people who can’t tolerate it, added sugar is incredibly harmful. Empty calories are just the tip of the iceberg. The saying "don't judge a book by it's cover" should be applied to your restaurant meals too, unless you are cooking every meal from scratch, do you really know what is in it? or more to the question what the food has been cooked in? We don't go out often but when we do, I always try to make the healthiest choices but even knowing (NOW) what I do, I am sure I am still consuming foods and food stuffs (pretend foods like vegetable and seed oils) each time I go out for a meal with my family. Living in a Country town doesn't offer the "Real Food Organic Restaurants" we don't even have a Boost Juice outlet (much to my disappointment) I love places where you can go and pick and choose what you want in a juice, I like to know that I am still getting more veg to fruit ratio rather than picking off a set menu, I walked past a coffee shop that had a big sign "Fresh Juice made while you wait" when I looked at what was on offer the only vegetable was a carrot! but heaps of fruit, I think they are missing the point, it is not about getting more sugar into your diet it is about getting more nutrients into your body.
After doing my first Juice fast (28 days) my body was actually craving the juices, in fact if I have a whole day without a vege juice, I feel yuk, a bit depressed even, or maybe it is not the lack of the nutrients in that day that the juice provides my body, maybe it is the crap in the food I have eaten instead that makes me feel yuk? I hear people making comments on how great the hot chips tasted wrapped in the butchers paper or newspaper and you just tore open the packet and started eating them, surely people do realize it is not the packaging that made the chips taste so good, otherwise we would just go back to the old way of wrapping the chips, No it is what they were cooked in of course, good old Lard!, saturated fat! I remember my mother cooked in beef dripping, lard or Superfry we couldn't afford Olive oil, well that was pre 70's before they convinced people that we needed to start cooking our food in fake oils, they scared people into thinking that by using butter and saturated fats that they were heading for heart attacks but now we know that the opposite is true. Our local fish and chip shop cooks in "Cotton seed oil" why? because it is cheap, and why run a business if you can't make a profit right? but i don't know about you but I don't eat cotton I wear it, and don't get me started on Vegetable oils, you just don't get oil from vegetables! you get juice I can vouch for that and from that juice you get heaps of nutrients, which also reminds me of pre 70's meals at home, mum would feed me an array of vegetables every day, but I question how much goodness I was actually getting, the vege was boiled limp, and all the goodness went down the sink when the vegetables were drained, so we are thankful to the Asians that showed us that you don't need to cook the life out of the food and it tastes great, but beware they love to use sugar! So back to choosing a restaurant meal, I read the menu carefully and don't like to draw attention to myself by quizzing the staff on each and every item, so I generally pick something that sounds like it would be close to healthy and try to enjoy it, but wouldn't it be great if you had more options, so not only could you pick your steak to be cooked rare, medium rare or well done, but also if it was cooked in oil, dripping or coconut oil? and what about your salad and chips that come with every meal, could I not have my salad with dressing? it wasn't mentioned on the menu but when it came it was glistering with (????) should all your extras actually be extra that you request? and the chips what are they cooked in? how are they cooked? sometimes they taste like reheated leftovers, which for me it is good thing because I try to avoid carbs and if they taste awful then it is easy, and what about restaurant roast potatoes, that are not even roasted and most people just leave them on the plate, doesn't this tell the staff anything? like maybe no one likes potato cooked this way!, Oh and you are fighting a losing battle if you are trying to cut down on the amount you eat, with the size of the plates they use these days is just utterly ridiculous, the plate I had on Monday night was about 15 inches in diameter it needed it's own lazy Susan. Anyway my solution is to not eat out, not that we do it that often, and to stick to what makes my body happy (Vegetable juices) and keep ranting and raving about the sugar and toxic oils, which I think is slowly catching on, having 2 daughters one who tries to cut back on sugar content and the other daughter is proving harder to convert, the later actually had an eye opening moment last week, when asked pick up a lasagne that was under 6g's of sugar per serve, spent sometime actually reading labels and was blown away by the fact that Weight Watchers Lasagne had 21g's sugar compared to the 6 grams, of the lesser brand name one, and for curiosity sake you should check out the difference on all of Weight Watchers products, they all have more sugar than the similar item, my daughter wants to know how anyone actually loses weight on Weight Watchers, and from experience it is from cutting down the portion sizes, feeling hungry all the time but sticking to it so you wont feel ashamed at weigh in, but I bet if they did a survey they would find that they have a greater amount of people that just stop going and who put the weight back on if not a bit more, because the diet is unsustainable and believe it or not concentrates on Low Fat, which we know now means more sugar! so ditch the carbs and bring back the fat So when is a diet not a diet? can you take a "fad" diet and make it a life style change? I don't like to say the word diet, as soon as you mention the word, you are leaving yourself wide open for everyone's opinion of what is good and what is not, you will receive more negativity than support, especially if this is "Diet #139" and you yourself will be having doubts and feeling deprived. I hate the word "diet" I prefer to think that I am changing the way I eat and what I eat that is sustainable for the rest of my life (now that I have found what works for me!), and trust me it has taken a long time, but I feel I am managing not only my weight but my health and diabetes too so it is not a diet it is a life style change.
Having said that I still read the diets and recipes that flood the Facebook pages, and I will recommend to anyone that asks, the way to go for optimum health and weight loss is Low carb high fat, I know a lot of people are scared by the term "high fat" but you should not be scared of the saturated fats that are good for you, it took the health professionals over 30 years to realize the advice on low fat anything and canola and vegetable oils was wrong! and in fact the wrong oils combined with sugar is what causes the inflammation that causes the heart problems, so what do you think about the health officials now? (for 30-40 years they have been feeding the public with the wrong information and making the nation fatter and sicker!) I know they make me angry, but what can you do the damage has been done, now it is up to you to undo as much of that damage as you can but working out which diet or "life style" works best for you and live with it, and not only will you be healthier but a whole lot happier. So how do you find what works for you? I did many years ago try the Atkins diet, the original Atkins designed by Dr Robert Atkins, I glossed over the details of the diet and stayed on the induction stage of the diet for way longer than I should have, I felt the diet was very restrictive and I felt deprived, but now I know this was because I hadn't kicked the sugar habit before I started, and if you are still craving sugar you will fail at all attempts to make your diet a life style change. I did lose weight and a fair bit of weight too about 17 kilos but it took about 4 months and I was unhappy, and when the weight started to go back on, I was even more unhappier, so I look at the Atkins as a fail for me, I didn't sustain the diet and I didn't keep the weight off. I am not trying to turn anyone off going on Atkins as it is primarily a Low carb diet, but it needed some tweaking and my taste buds needed to be sugar free, which they are now, and I basically live an Atkins lifestyle, i don't have carbs like (bread, potato, pasta, rice, SUGAR) but I get a small amount of carbs daily from my vegetable juices which is the key for me, when I was on Atkins I could have bacon and eggs, and meat and lots of veges, but I didn't like the taste of the veges, and I got sick of bacon and eggs (I know that sounds unbelievable, who gets sick of bacon right?) but if you have the same thing over and over you will get sick of it! [when I was 16 I went on a Israeli Army diet, which consisted eat apples for 2 days, then cheese for 2 days, boiled chicken for 2 days finishing with salad for 2 days, well back then I didn't like cheese so I went 4 days eating nothing but apples and to this day I can't eat an apple ha ha, also i did the same with tuna, for 6 months while doing tafe I took a small can of Tuna for lunch and now I don't like tuna] luckily for me I still like eggs and bacon occasionally and more importantly is, that I discovered all those vegetables that are good for you, like spinach, Kale, zucchini broccoli, fennel, cabbage, Brussels sprouts the list goes on and on, well they taste good in a juice! so now I get all the good nutrients in a juice, add in a lemon and lime some ginger and a green apple and you have a great healthy drink that is full of nutrition and tastes good, and the carb count is low!. That saying "don't knock it till you try it", is so true, 20 years ago if you said that I could get healthy lose weight and actually not feel deprived doing it, I would say "bring it on"! but then if you handed me a green juice and said it has spinach, broccoli, cabbage, etc in it, I would say "Arrr no thanks" and I wouldn't even try it, a bit like one of my daughters now, ha ha her reaction to juicing veges is "Hell No" but I think she is young give her another 20 years and she will look at food and lifestyle in a more matured way, like I do now. For those of us that have diabetes it is a juggling act, to find the right amount that works for you, something that you can call a life style not a diet, no one wants to diet for the rest of their life, especially when people scrutinize, every thing you eat once you proclaim to be on a diet, it is like they take it upon themselves to be your "guardian of the gob" put a handful of nuts in your mouth and on cue you will hear "should you be eating that?" and you should be grateful that someone cares enough, but it doesn't feel like that at the time because no one likes to be told what to do, and to be honest you have to take control of your own health, you have to want to lose weight more than you want the bar of chocolate or the cupcake, you have to make sacrifices, that you think you can't live without until you do and realise that you didn't need it, or want it afterall, and the bottom line is, you have to learn "Eat to Live" not "Live to Eat" |
Wendy MeersI am a mother of two grown daughters, 3 beautiful grand-babies. Retired freelance Web Designer and a Sugar Free - Juicing Crusader& Keto supporter Archives
May 2022
Categories
|