Archives for May 2013

And what might that be?

To begin with, Lustig has some food advice (in a nutshell) –

• Oranges. Eat the fruit, don’t drink the juice. Fruit juice in cartons has had all the fibre squeezed out of it, making its sugars more dangerous.

• Home-baked cookies and cakes. If you must eat them, bake them yourself with one third less sugar than the recipe says. Lustig says they even taste better that way.

A simple enough list.

Another one from Canada’s Food Guide.

The thing is, sugar has always been associated with happiness. Hindi-speaking folks will be familiar with the sayings about “Mooh meetha karo”, “Tumhare moonh mein ghee-shakkar”. To a truly health-conscious person today, this can present a challenge!

And sugar’s insidious presence is hard to escape: it’s something we mostly wouldn’t even notice until unless actively trying to avoid it. From the quite obvious beverages and sweets right down to most unexpected things like Bangalore’s Darshini’s spicy sambars are sweetened. Even cornflakes, fruit yogurt, cereals, bread, pasta sauces, it’s everywhere!

Have you ever tried to cut down your sugar intake?

Nowadays I’m always on the alert for added and hidden sugars because I have been off the “refined sugar” bandwagon for quite some time now. Remember that “Five White Poisons” thing? But I admit that it wasn’t easy, to start with. And some days it is still a challenge.

But there have been times in my life (at least two of them for a year or longer). when I’ve been totally “off” sugar (just on a whim). Interestingly, during those phases, I couldn’t even stand the taste of something like, say, sweet lemonade, and preferred it with a pinch of salt instead. It was easy to abstain completely. So it’s possible to exist just fine (and much better, in fact!) without added sugar, I’ve found. Why did I ever get back? Wish I knew. (Although there’s a good chance that it was probably my addiction to fondness for tea, which I do like sweetened a bit!) Now my current goal is to try that again and this time stay off sugar for good.

The other thing is, it’s quite difficult to abstain from sugar without stepping on some toes.

To begin with, especially if you are a new convert, no one else among your family or friends might share your zeal, and it’s going to take a little extra-effort to have sugar-less versions of things.

You will constitute a minority, and have to adapt to becoming somewhat of a “special needs” person.

Then, those well-meaning friends and family members will try to talk you out of your eccentric idea, and at the same time ply you with temptations and emotional blackmail.

Of course, one really easy way to make healthy choices is to simply avoid shopping at departmental stores altogether, or even eating out. Hardly any processed, packaged or ready-to-eat food will pass the test for ‘no added sugar’ (in all it’s stealth forms) besides the other undesirables such as refined flours, fats and synthetic additives. While this may not even be possible for everyone, making a healthier choice will surely be easier, if armed with the knowledge. I’ve not entirely managed it, either, especially not the eating out part, but, getting there…. 🙂 We need more sites like Fooducate which help decode nutrition label ‘babble’.

If you are (or know of someone) on a professional, standard weight loss program, or on a restricted diet due to health reasons (diabetes, heart ailments, cancer..) chances are a nutritionist or diet specialist would have advised severely slashing or even completely stopping, the amount of sugar being consumed. This ‘slashing’ would seem severe even if you didn’t really think it was ‘much’ to begin with. (Interestingly, another broad spectrum of eatables that get the axe in such cases, are “bakery products”. Food for thought? )

Obviously, the first thing to do when trying to cut out refined sugar, is to look for healthier alternatives.

Which begs the question – Is there such a thing as healthy sugar?
The answer it seems is, NO.
Sugar in any form is still sugar.

According to Dr.Carolyn Dean, even though natural sweeteners such as molasses, unprocessed honey, fruit juice contain low levels of nutrients like B vitamins, and minerals such as iron, calcium and potassium, they are still only marginally better than plain white table sugar, and should be limited in their intake. Switching over from sugar to sugar-free substitutes is even worse. Those such as aspartame, which is a neurotoxin should be “avoided like the plague”; – it has been shown to cause birth defects, brain tumours, and seizures and to contribute to diabetes and emotional disorders. A good sweet substitute without calories is Stevia. It also has antimicrobial properties and in fact actually lowers the blood sugar levels in diabetics by helping to regulate the pancreatic system.

So, while it is good to try weaning oneself off refined sugar, in the long run, it’s a good idea to restrict intake of it’s substitutes, too.