Eat organic fruit, Godam you.
Most of us born in Australia, Canada, the US and England are surrounded by sugar, in the form of cakes, soda, juices, candy, ice cream, white sugar, and processed foods. The combination of sugar (fructose and sucrose) and carbohydrates makes us fat. For example cakes, donuts and many deserts. When combined the carbohydrates quickly convert into sugar which is stored as fat. Oils and fats combined with carbohydrates appear to do the same thing. Look at Italians and olive oil soaked spaghetti. The good news is that fats are healthy as long as you don’t eat them with carbohydrates and sugar. Olive Oil, Avocadoes, Cheese and Butter are good examples of healthy food when eaten properly.
A German now living in Canada recently posted an article on how, since moving to Canada he has never been sick, when in contrast, he lived in Germany he was often sick. The reason he gives makes a lot of sense. He said in Canada, in the 90’s, you could buy a huge plate of bacon, eggs and fried potatoes and black coffee, for $2 and be thin as a rake and never catch a cold: protein. But, in Germany he was often sick with one virus or another and deduced it was because of the traditional German breakfast of bread and jam with a mug of hot chocolate: sugar. On completion of his analysis he has foregone sugar, completely, and stayed strong, healthy and free if illness. I have done the same for 3 months (eating some fruit) and feel much stronger.
We also celebrate with too much sugar. Birthday cakes, ice cream, soda etc. as children. When we ‘grow up, and out’ we are programmed to think that sugar is a treat, making us fatter as we stop exercising. This is an easy fix. Celebrate with fruit and healthy foods, because you are not a child anymore and you want to have a long and happy life.
Buddhist Monk, Super Star, Thich Nhat Hanh says in his book ‘The Miracle of Mindfulness’ to his friend while he (his friend) was eating a peach what are you thinking about, and his friend answered about their trip, and tomorrow, and… Thich said it would be better to only think about the peach while you are eating the peach. The flavour, the juices, colours and smells. Be joyous about such a wonderous thing as a peach. Next time you are drinking a slurpy, or donut, remove the childhood sugar celebration programming from your mind and replace it with Thich’s mindfulness. Will you still want to eat it once you realize it is full of sugar, preservatives, artificial flavourings: poison. What God has created on Earth already is amazing, superior and delicious compared to any junk food created by humans for a profit.
Try a Keto Diet for a month it is a wonderful way to stop eating excessive sugar and carbohydrates. Don’t eat any sugar or carbohydrates for a month. The beauty of a keto diet is when you wean yourself back onto sugar you will find fruit, especially organic fresh fruit, delicious beyond your wildest dreams. Oh, and while you are on it you can eat cheese, oils, fish, meat, green vegetables and nuts. You will lose weight and find your tastebuds.
HealthUSNEWS.com
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Whether you are biting into an apple, downing a soda or munching on a piece of candy, the sugar you
are consuming is made of two molecules: glucose and fructose. Table sugar is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose, while fruits as well as high-fructose corn syrup both contain anywhere from 40 to 55 percent fructose.
But it’s how these sugar molecules are packaged that ultimately determines the sugar’s effect on your health, explains registered dietitian Jim White, spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and owner of Jim White Fitness & Nutrition Studios in Virginia.
When packaged in whole foods such as fruit, naturally occurring sugars come with a healthy helping of fiber, slowing the body’s breakdown of these sugars, tempering their effect on blood sugar and insulin levels and reducing your body’s propensity to store energy from sugar as fat, he explains.
“Fruit contains natural sugars, but fruit is so much more than just sugar. Fruit is relatively low-calorie and contains essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients that we don’t get from other foods but need for optimum health,” says St. Louis-based registered dietitian Alexandra Caspero. Hence why, in one study of 65,226 adults, people who ate seven or more servings of fruit and veggies per day had a 42 percent lower risk of dying during the study’s follow-up compared to those who ate less than one full serving per day.
Plus, all fiber, antioxidants and other nutrients aside, fruit contains significantly less sugar than packaged foods such as soda, candy and snack items. For instance, a 182-gram apple contains 19 grams of sugar while a 58-gram candy bar contains 35 grams of the sweet stuff.
“You can definitely overeat added sugars, but it’s very difficult to overeat sugar if you’re only getting it from whole fruit,” White says.
For instance, research from Emory University shows that the average American eats 55 grams of fructose per day, accounting for more than 10 percent of total caloric intake. Sugar-sweetened beverages were responsible for 30 percent of fructose intake. Fruit and fruit juice contributed 19 percent.
“When I’m analyzing diets for weight loss, too much fruit is rarely the culprit,” Caspero says. After all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 76 percent of the U.S. population doesn’t get the recommended three servings of fruit per day. (A serving equals one whole piece or a half cup of chopped fruit.)
And research suggests that eating even more than that might not be a bad thing.
According to one Metabolism study, when participants ate 20 servings of fruit per day for two weeks, they experienced no adverse effects in their weight, blood pressure or triglyceride levels. They did, however, reduce their LDL (bad) cholesterol levels by 38 points. Meanwhile, a 2013 Nutrition Journal study found that decreasing fruit intake had no benefit on the blood sugar levels, weights or waist circumferences of people with Type 2 diabetes.
“I don’t recommend people eat as much fruit as they want, as some weight-loss programs recommend,” White says. (For example, fruits are zero points in Weight Watchers, meaning dieters can eat all they want.) “But it’s incredibly rare for anyone to actually need to decrease their fruit intake. Most need to work on eating more, not less.”
The Scoop on Fruit Juice
That said, is sipping fruit juice the same as eating whole fruit? Not exactly. In fact, many people need to reduce their intake of fruit juice, White says. After all, when juiced, the naturally occurring sugars in fruit are separated from the fruit’s beneficial fiber. Without the fiber, the sugar in your glass of OJ is processed much like the sugar in your soda.
Case in point: Research from the Harvard School of Public Health found that while people who eat more whole fruits (especially blueberries, grapes and apples) enjoy a significantly lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, greater intake of fruit juice (even 100-percent fruit juice) was associated with an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Another way of looking at why we are fat
The Guardian – George Monbiot
“Yes, we ate more in 1976, but differently. Today, we buy half as much fresh milk per person, but five times more yoghurt, three times more ice cream and – wait for it – 39 times as many dairy desserts. We buy half as many eggs as in 1976, but a third more breakfast cereals and twice the cereal snacks; half the total potatoes, but three times the crisps. While our direct purchases of sugar have sharply declined, the sugar we consume in drinks and confectionery is likely to have rocketed (there are purchase numbers only from 1992, at which point they were rising rapidly. Perhaps, as we consumed just 9kcal a day in the form of drinks in 1976, no one thought the numbers were worth collecting.) In other words, the opportunities to load our food with sugar have boomed. As some experts have long proposed, this seems to be the issue.
The shift has not happened by accident. As Jacques Peretti argued in his film The Men Who Made Us Fat, food companies have invested heavily in designing products that use sugar to bypass our natural appetite control mechanisms, and in packaging and promoting these products to break down what remains of our defences, including through the use of subliminal scents. They employ an army of food scientists and psychologists to trick us into eating more than we need, while their advertisers use the latest findings in neuroscience to overcome our resistance.”
Franciscan Health
What Did We Do Right About Eating In The 1950s?
Food comes from at home
Fast foods, pizza delivery and take out were never the norm until about the mid 1980s (coincidentally, when obesity rates started rising). In the 1950s to even the late 1970s, if you left the house for work or school, you brought a brown bag lunch – sandwich, piece of fruit, maybe one more item. (Was it always the healthiest? Maybe not. But was it calorie controlled? Yup!) Not the usual 500+ calorie drive thru items, 400+ calorie frappes and 200 calories of soda.
Take home message: Go shopping. Make a list of food you (and your family) need for breakfast, lunch, dinners and snacks for the week. And go grocery shopping every week!!!!
No super-sizing
Check out this comparison of a hamburger, fries and soda from the 1950s to today’s standards. Amazing isn’t it?
| Portion Sizes – 1950s | Portion Sizes – Now | |
| Soda | 7 oz. | 30+ oz. |
| Hamburger | 3.9 oz. | 12 oz. |
| French Fries | 2.4 oz. | 6.7 oz. |
Need to stop at a drive thru? Think smaller portions. Kids meals. Small hamburger and a soup or salad. Water instead of pop. Consider eating out a treat and not something to eat to a daily basis.
Eating in moderation
Ice cream, chips, pop or ordering pizza out were looked upon as treats – every now and then indulgences. And once my mom and her sisters ate it, there was no running back to the store to get more. They had to wait until the next shopping trip. My mom and aunts would say what a treat a take-out pizza was with some pop to be shared with the whole family. (Once a month mind you, not twice a week!)
My advice is to keep the loose change and debit card at home to minimize trips through the drive-through, vending machines and gas stations!
Buying real foods
Keep your shopping list simple. In general, I tend to suggest items that have more nutritional value and less items with excess salt, sugar and hydrogenated fats. I recommend keeping a food log of the week and see what kind of foods you are typically eating. Are most of your foods frozen or instant? Are they high in sodium (250mg or higher)? Do they have more than 5 grams of added sugar? Do they contain hydrogenated oils?
I recommend buying fruits and vegetables (whether in the produce section, frozen or even canned section), fresh whole meats, poultry and fish from the butcher counter, beans, nuts and seeds, 100% whole grains such as breads, rice and pastas, oatmeal and dairy. Limit the snack foods, “diet” foods and the like, and opt for REAL food instead.
Eating dinner as a family
The family that eats together, stays together!
With a TV now in every room of the house, smartphones and tablets galore, more and more families are eating meals in front of screens, in cars and in separate rooms. Research shows that kids who eat dinner with their families on a regular basis have a much lower risk of developing drug and alcohol habits in high school and that grades are improved.
Make an effort for most nights of the week, even if it’s a super quick meal, to sit down as a family. You’ll be amazed at what conversations arise from the dinner table.
Roditch October 2021
