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How Much Do You Know About Sugar?

Now that science is showing dietary fats aren’t the primary cause of the obesity and metabolic disorder epidemics plaguing Western societies, dietary sugars are getting a closer look.  It does appear over-consumption of sugar, added sugars in particular, are contributing factors to the increasing numbers of obese and individuals with Type II diabetes of recent decades.  So, today we’re talking sugar.

What Is Sugar?

Sugar is the layman’s term for saccharides.  Saccharides reside naturally in any food in our diet that contains carbohydrates.  Therefore, virtually every food derived from plants – beans, nuts, fruits, vegetables, grains – contains some form of sugar.  Dairy also contains natural sugars.

The simplest form of saccharides are monosaccharides of which there are three: glucose (aka dextrose), fructose and galactose.  Many foods contain combinations of two monosaccharides, known as disaccharides.  There are three types of disaccharides: sucrose in produce (glucose + fructose); maltose in grains (two glucose molecules); lactose in milk (galactose + glucose).

Do We Need Sugar?

Yes, we do need sugar.  And, if you’ve ever experienced a bout of low blood sugar that led to light-headedness or fainting, you understand why.

All sugars in our diet are broken down by the digestive process into fructose and glucose and sent to the liver where they’re further processed into glycogen.  Some is stored and some is released into the blood, known as blood glucose.  Blood glucose is necessary to maintain cell function and to store in muscle as fuel for movement.

However, too much glucose in the blood can be toxic.  In response to glycogen being produced in the liver, the pancreas releases the hormone insulin, which serves as the gatekeeper to blood glucose.  Insulin is necessary to keep blood glucose from getting too high.

People who have Type II diabetes have insulin resistance and some are also inefficient at producing insulin.  Unless they take lifestyle or drug interventions, their blood glucose will be chronically high.  There are many theories as to why the number of adults and children developing diabetes has increased.  One theory is the over-consumption of sugars, resulting in a rollercoaster ride of blood glucose and insulin production which could lead to dysfunction.

Diabetes isn’t the only threat from over-consumption of sugars.  Unused carbohydrates get stored as body fat.  Some body fat is vital.  But an excess of it, especially visceral fat stored in the abdomen, is unhealthy.

Sugar Consumption & The Glycemic Index

As we’ve learned with fats and proteins, we need them to survive but too much, particularly of the wrong kind, can be detrimental to our health.  The same is true of carbohydrates and the sugars they contain.  What’s the right kind of sugar and how much is enough?

The quest to answer this question led scientists to develop The Glycemic Index (GI).  The GI ranks foods on a scale from 0 to 100.  The higher the number the food is assigned, the higher that particular food raises blood glucose levels after consumption.

Many assume fruits contain more sugars than vegetables and, while that’s generally true, it’s not always the case.  Yes, lettuce’s GI is 10 and watermelon’s GI is 72.  But cherries have a GI of 22 while pumpkin’s is 75.  The problem with using generalities or a GI number to guide food choices is that it’s more complicated than that.  For example, watermelon’s GI is seven points higher than granulated sugar.  Even without taking into consideration that watermelon has vitamins, minerals and fiber and sugar doesn’t, no reasonable person would conclude it’s healthier to eat sugar over watermelon.

What we need to be careful about is added sugars – sweeteners added to pre-packaged and home prepared foods.  Added sweeteners like granulated sugar, syrups and honey are predominantly sugar with little to no nutritional value.  Too much of them in addition to the natural sugars we already consume in whole foods is how we’re likely getting into trouble.

Here’s an overview of common added sweeteners:

Table Sugars

Raw Sugar: Most table sugar comes from either sugar cane or sugar beets.  In both cases, the plant is heated into juice and put through a centrifuge.  This separates the syrup from the sugar crystals.  Molasses is a by-product of this process.  These sugar crystals, called raw sugar, are brown, course and 97.5% sucrose.  The remaining 2.5% is molasses which contains minerals and water.  Turbinado sugar is raw sugar with the surface molasses washed off making it appear whiter.

White Granulated Sugar: White sugar (99.9% sucrose) is the result of refining raw sugar by removing the molasses and grinding into finer crystals.  Simple (cane) syrup is made by dissolving granulated sugar in boiling water, forming a sweet liquid that incorporates better into cold drinks than grains of sugar.

Confectioner’s Sugar: Powdered sugar is white granulated sugar that’s milled to a powder for a lighter texture.  An anti-caking agent, such as corn starch, is often added.

Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is granulated sugar with molasses added back in.  Therefore, brown sugar has traces of minerals and water and is slightly less sweet than white sugar.  Dark brown sugar has a higher molasses content compared to light brown sugar.

Invert Sugar: The product of the hydrolysis of sucrose into equal parts fructose and glucose.  This occurs naturally in fruits and honey.  Food manufacturers duplicate this process to produce invert cane sugar for packaged foods.

Corn Syrup

Corn syrup is produced by removing the starch from the corn kernel, mixing it with hydrochloric acid and applying heat under pressure.  This process converts the starch molecules to sugar.  The syrup is filtered for impurities and evaporated to remove excess water.  Store-bought corn syrup is dextrose which is 75% the sweetness of sucrose.

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Developed to create a sweeter corn syrup to use in place of granulated sugar in processed foods and soft drinks.  Corn syrup goes through a series of enzyme applications and heat to convert the dextrose to fructose.  The longer the process, the higher the concentration of fructose and the sweeter it is.

Plant Syrups & Nectars

Fruit nectars (such as agave) and tree saps (such as maple) are extracted from the plant and boiled to remove water and concentrate the natural sugars into a syrup.  Raw syrups are less refined (heated at lower temperatures and less filtered) than regular syrups.

Honey

Raw Honey: Honeycombs are placed in a centrifuge to separate the honey from the comb.  The extracted honey passes through a sieve to remove wax particles and debris.  The honey is heated to 120° to melt crystals and filtered again.  This is when raw honey is bottled.  It’s thicker than processed honey and likely to have a milky appearance.  It contains natural enzymes and other nutrients such as antioxidants.  About 5% of commercial honey is bottled in this raw form.

Refined Honey: Raw honey is put through a flash heating at 165°, paper filtering and flash cooling before bottling.  The process creates a clearer, thinner liquid compared to raw honey but has no nutrient properties.  Honey is 40% fructose, 30% glucose and 20% water.

Sweet Endings

The take-away is get the bulk of your carbohydrates from whole, unprocessed foods and keep added sugars to a minimum.  Consume healthy proteins and fats along with healthy carbohydrates to guard against over-consuming carbs as a whole.

When choosing products with added sugars, be skimpy in consumption and choose wisely.  Less added sugar is always better than more and less processed is always better than more processed.  When adding sweeteners during food prep, consider reducing the amount or omitting whenever possible.

Sources: howstuffworks.com; quora.com; madehow.com

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Fit Tip of the Month: Simple Smart Food Swaps

Last week, I introduced this month’s Small Step – Substitutions.  It’s about making smart choices with foods.  Which seems like it should be easy.  But, as we’re all too aware, the health media is full of contradictions about what foods are and aren’t healthy choices.  What common sense was telling us all along, science is finally confirming in the latest clinical studies.

Back to the Basics

Forget the convoluted rules of the past few decades.  Think about eating like your great-grandparents, when obesity and lifestyle diseases were rare, and you’ll be making the right food choices.  In the case of proteins – consume them whole, with nothing removed and little added.  For complex carbohydrates – consume in the closest to raw as you can with little to no alterations.  Fats – don’t remove them from the healthy carbs and proteins you eat.  And keep them natural, not manufactured.

Healthy Dinner Plate: deck of cards represents protein

Healthy Swaps 101

All well and good, right?  But healthy eating can be more time consuming and expensive than unhealthy eating.  Below you’ll find examples of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks starting with the unhealthiest and progressing through healthy, healthier to the healthiest.  At least 80% of the time, choose the healthiest of the healthy options that you can afford in cost and time, remembering to stay true to proper serving sizes.

  • Breakfast: After an overnight fast it’s important to restore your energy supply with plenty of complex carbohydrates.  To keep you satisfied until lunch, it should also contain healthy doses of protein, fiber and fat.
    • Unhealthy: Corn flakes with skim milk.  Corn flakes are stripped down carbs, which basically amounts to a bowl full of sugar.  Adding skim milk gives you a little protein but with no fat, you’ll be starving before you make it to work.  Worse, the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K contained in the cereal and milk will literally get flushed away.
    • Healthy: High protein, high fiber, whole grain, low added sweetener cereal (cold, such as Kashi or hot, such as oatmeal) with whole or 2% milk.  Add fresh or unsweetened dried fruit.  This gives you all the macro and micronutrients you need.  The only down side is even the healthiest cold cereals and quick hot cereal packets may contain some unwanted ingredients such as industrial oils, added sweeteners and simple carbohydrates.  Select brands carefully to find options with the least amounts of these ingredients.
    • Healthier: Whole milk Greek plain yogurt with unsweetened granola and fresh or unsweetened dried fruit added.  Greek yogurt has more protein than traditional yogurt.  In addition to the protein and healthy fats, yogurt contains pro-biotics to keep the gastrointestinal system healthy.  If plain yogurt is too tart for your taste, opt for vanilla flavored Greek yogurt with the least amount of added sugars.
    • Healthiest: Two whole eggs – cooked the way you like – with a slice of whole grain toast, topped with a smear of grass-fed butter or natural nut butter, and whole fruit on the side.  And, we all need hydration in the morning – pick your preference of water, coffee, tea or milk.  Don’t have juice.  And, if you like tea or coffee but can’t tolerate it black, add an ample amount of whole milk, full-fat half & half or cream so you can keep added sweeteners to a minimum.

I think you get the idea, here’s how the rest of the day might look:

  • Lunch: Have water, milk or unsweetened iced tea with lunch instead of a soft drink.
    • Unhealthy: Sandwich made with large slices of white bread, processed meats, and tons of dressing with a side of potato chips.
    • Healthy: Half sandwich made with one slice of whole grain bread, unprocessed meat, fish, cheese or cooked egg, avocado slices, lettuce and tomato.  If you need crunch to satisfy you, opt for a small serving of veggie chips (such as the Terra brand) or whole grain corn chips.
    • Healthier: Tossed salad with at least one animal protein.  Add seeds or nuts instead of croutons for crunch.  Select a vinegar and olive oil-based dressing.
    • Healthiest: Broth based soup and side salad.  Be sure the soup or salad has at least one animal protein.  Add seeds or nuts to salad to satisfy the crunch craving.  Dress the salad with olive oil and vinegar.
  • Dinner: Drink water or milk with dinner
    • Unhealthy: Processed meats or breaded and deep fried foods; processed grains or starches.
    • Healthy: Grilled, roasted, baked or lightly sautéed beef, pork, lamb or poultry; brown rice, whole grain pastas or baked or roasted potatoes; raw, stir-fried or roasted vegetables.  You can do a meatless version of this meal with egg, cheese or unprocessed beans as the base protein.  Tomato, broth and olive oil based sauces are part of a healthy meal.  Cream based sauces, when used sparingly, can also be part of a healthy meal.
    • Healthier/Healthiest: Grilled, roasted, baked or lightly sautéed seafood; quinoa or other hearty whole grain; side salad dressed with olive oil and vinegar and raw, stir-fried or roasted vegetable.
  • Snack: Snacks are often necessary to avoid becoming hungry between meals.  Like meals they should contain protein, complex carbs and fats.
    • Unhealthy: Anything highly-processed and prepackaged.
    • Healthiest Examples: raw fruit or veggie with natural nut/seed butter or unprocessed cheese; glass of whole or 2% regular or chocolate milk; serving of Greek yogurt (see above) with fruit or granola; popcorn popped in extra-virgin coconut oil and dusted with fresh parmesan; whole grain toast with natural nut/seed butter; raw veggies with guacamole; whole grain pita with hummus. Always drink water throughout the day.

And eating like great-grandma and grandpa isn’t enough.  Remember, that generation did lots of manual labor, both at work and home, that most of us no longer do and they didn’t sit nearly as much as we do today.  They were slimmer not only because of what they ate but also because of what they did and didn’t do.  We need to move more and sit less to get the full benefits of subbing in healthier foods.

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How They’re Made: Cooking Oils

So much of what’s in processed food isn’t there because food manufacturers independently decided to use it but because food manufacturers reacted to pressure from government agencies.  In no circumstance is this more evident than with cooking oils.

Due to the misguided and scientifically unsubstantiated demonization of saturated fats over the last century, a myriad of plant-based polyunsaturated oils have been mass-produced and put into nearly every packaged food in existence.  But are these processed oils really more healthy than the fats and oils they replaced?

The Basics

Fats are a macronutrient vital to humans.  All omnivores derive fats from both animals and plants.  In animals, fatty acids are found naturally in the flesh of meats and fish, within egg yolks and in mammals’ milk.  Plants contain fats in the form of oils.  Oil in most plants is contained in the nut or seed but some plants have oils in the flesh of their fruit.

There are two types of fats: saturated and unsaturated.  Unsaturated fats are further categorized as either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated.  A fat’s classification is based on its chemical structure.  To simplify, saturated fats are the most stable and polyunsaturated fats are the most unstable.  What that means is stable fats have a naturally longer shelf life and can be used for cooking without burning.  Whereas unstable fats go rancid more quickly and can’t withstand heat.  They’re best consumed fresh.  Animal fats are predominantly saturated, with lesser amounts of unsaturated, while plant oils are mostly polyunsaturated with some monounsaturated and saturated exceptions.

Post World War II, some in the scientific community hypothesized that the growing rate of heart disease in Western cultures was due to consumption of animal fats and saturated plant fats.  Even though clinical studies didn’t bear this out, a few highly publicized epidemiological studies seemed to support the hypothesis.  (Decades later, these studies were discovered to have significant data flaws.)  The idea that saturated fats caused heart disease became an accepted fact and the push was on to extract and stabilize polyunsaturated plant oils to be used in packaged foods and bottled for home cooking.  Hello shortenings, margarines and corn oil and, eventually, soybean and canola oils.

Refined Oils

With the exception of soybean oil, plant oils can be extracted from the seed, nut or fruit by pressing it.  However, to speed up the process, manufacturers of mass-produced plant oils extract the oils by using a solvent, usually hexanes.  Though hexanes are considered non-toxic and evaporate during the refining process, one could hardly consider oils that have been through this process “natural” or minimally processed.

Regardless of whether the oil is extracted through pressing or applying solvents, the oil usually goes through some or all of the following refining processes: stabilizing, de-gumming, neutralizing and bleaching.  Remember, most of these oils are 50-100% polyunsaturated fats and, therefore, considered unstable.  The refining process must be done to prevent spoilage and withstand heat.  It also neutralizes odors, colors and off-tastes.  The refining process is diagrammed here:

Source: madehow.com

Hydrogenated Oils: The practice of adding hydrogen to stabilize oils was widespread until clinical studies suggested a link between them and disease.  In response, some manufacturers replaced the hydrogenation process with other refining processes (shown above) to achieve stabilization.  Though many packaged foods still contain hydrogenated oils and are considered unhealthy.  They’re listed as hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated in the ingredient list and as trans fats in the Nutrition Facts label on packages.

Oils: Most Processed to Least Processed

Soybean Oil: Because these seeds are small and contain very little oil, the oil can’t be extracted through pressing.  Therefore, all soybean oil is extracted through the use of solvents and goes through the entire refining process.  Because of soybean abundance and government subsidies, this highly processed polyunsaturated oil is ubiquitous.  Unless one makes all her food from scratch and avoids all chain restaurants, it’s nearly impossible to rid one’s diet of soybean oil.

Seed Oils: Oils from most seeds can be extracted through pressing to avoid chemical extraction.  But chemical extraction produces a higher yield per seed as compared to pressing.  Therefore, most mass-produced seed oils go through the entire refining process, including the solvent phase.  It’s possible to find bottled oils and packaged products that use pressed seed oils.  They would be listed as expeller-pressed or cold-pressed oil on the ingredient list.  One should assume, however, that unless it’s also listed as unrefined, the oil has been put through the stabilization, neutralization and bleaching processes to extend shelf life, withstand heat and remove odor, color and bitterness.  Common seed oils (>50% polyunsaturated, unless otherwise specified):

  • Sesame (50:50 mono to polyunsaturated)
  • Safflower
  • Sunflower
  • Cotton
  • Palm Kernel (palm tree seed)
  • Grapeseed
  • Corn (extracted from corn kernel germ)
  • Canola (extracted from a variety of rapeseed plants such as turnip & cabbage; rapeseed is >50% monounsaturated)

Nut Oils: Like seed oils, nut oils can be extracted via pressing or solvent treatment.  But because they tend to be larger than seeds and contain more yield compared to seeds, it’s easier to find pressed nut oils for the home.  But most industrial nut oils used in packaged products and in restaurants are solvent extracted.  Again, even if they’re pressed, unless they’re listed as unrefined, they likely have gone through stabilization, neutralization and bleaching.  Common nut oils:

  • Peanut (>50% monounsaturated)
  • Walnut (>50% polyunsaturated)
  • Almond (>50% monounsaturated)

Fruit Flesh Oils: These are easily extracted through pressing and are the least processed plant oils.  Because they’re either monounsaturated or saturated oils, they don’t need to be stabilized.  Be sure to choose virgin, extra-virgin or unrefined versions to ensure they haven’t been neutralized or bleached.  Common fruit flesh oils:

  • Olive (monounsaturated)
  • Avocado (saturated)
  • Coconut (saturated)
  • Palm (saturated)

And, of course, there’s animal-derived butter (saturated fat) which contains churned cream with or without salt – no chemicals, no refining process.

Now that you know how cooking fats and oils are made, I’ll let you decide which you think are healthiest for you and your family.

Sources: WiseGeek.com, Madehow.com, Kitchn.com, Wikipedia.com

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Fit Tip of the Month: Smart Swaps

Last week, I introduced this month’s Small Step – Substitutions.  This is really about making smart choices with our food.  Which seems like it should be easy.  But, as we are all too aware, the health and nutrition media is full of contradictions about what foods are and aren’t healthy choices.  What common sense was telling us all along, science is finally confirming in the latest clinical studies.

My Plate

Back to the Basics

Forget the convoluted rules of the past few decades.  Think about eating like your great-grandparents, when obesity and lifestyle diseases were rare, and you’ll be making the right food choices.  In the case of proteins – consume them whole, with nothing removed and very little added.  For complex carbohydrates – consume in the closest to raw as you can with nothing removed and very little added.  Fats – keep them in whole food products like carbs and proteins and keep them natural, not manufactured.

Healthy Swaps 101

All well and good, right?  But healthy eating can sometimes be time consuming and more expensive than unhealthy eating.  Below you’ll find examples of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks starting with unhealthy and progressing to healthy, healthier and healthiest.  You want to avoid the unhealthy example more than 80% of the time.  But, the rest of the time, choose the healthiest of the healthy options that you can afford in cost and time.

  • Breakfast: After an overnight “fast” it’s important to restore your energy supply with plenty of complex carbohydrates.  To keep you satisfied until lunch, it should also contain a healthy dose of protein, fiber and fat.
    • Unhealthy: Corn flakes with skim milk.  Corn flakes are stripped down carbs, which basically amounts to a bowl full of sugar.  Adding skim milk gives you a little protein but with no fat, you’ll be starving before you make it to work.  Worse, the fat-soluble vitamins A, E and K added to the cereal and D to the milk will literally get flushed away.
    • Healthy: High protein, high fiber, whole grain, low added sweetener cereal (cold, such as Kashi or hot, such as oatmeal) with whole or 2% milk.  Add to it fresh or unsweetened dried fruit.  This gives you a heaping amount of all the macro and micronutrients you need.  The only down side is that even the healthiest cold cereals and quick-making hot cereal packets contain some unwanted ingredients such as industrial oils, added sweeteners and simple carbohydrates.  Select brands carefully to find the ones with the least amounts of these ingredients.
    • Healthier: Whole milk Greek plain yogurt with unsweetened granola and fresh or unsweetened dried fruit added.  Greek yogurt has more protein than traditional yogurt.  In addition to the protein and healthy fats, yogurt contains pro-biotics to keep the gastrointestinal system healthy.  If plain yogurt is too tart for your taste, opt for vanilla flavored Greek yogurt with the least amount of added sugars.
    • Healthiest: Whole egg – cooked how you like – served with a slice of whole grain toast, topped with a smear of butter or nut butter.  Be sure to also have some whole fruit.  And, we all need hydration in the morning – pick your preference of water, coffee, tea or milk.  Don’t have juice.  And, if you like tea or coffee but can’t tolerate it black, add an ample amount of whole milk, full-fat half and half or cream so you can keep added sweetener to a minimum.

Avocado

I think you get the idea, here’s how the rest of the day might look:

  • Lunch: Have water, milk or unsweetened ice tea with lunch instead of a soft drink.
    • Unhealthy: Sandwich made with large slices of white bread and tons of dressing with a side of potato chips.
    • Healthy: Half sandwich made with one slice of whole grain bread, unprocessed meat, fish, cheese or cooked egg, avocado slices, lettuce and tomato.  If you need “crunch” to satisfy you, opt for a small serving of veggie chips (such as the Terra brand) or whole grain corn chips.
    • Healthier: Tossed salad with at least one animal protein.  Add seeds or nuts instead of croutons for crunch.  Select a vinegar and oil-based dressing.
    • Healthiest: Broth based soup and side salad.  Be sure the soup or salad has at least one animal protein.  Add seeds or nuts to salad to satisfy the “crunch” craving.  Dress the salad with oil and vinegar.
  • Dinner: Drink water or milk with dinner
    • Unhealthy: Processed or breaded meats or bean products; processed grains or starches.
    • Healthy: Grilled, roasted, baked or lightly sautéed beef, pork or poultry; brown rice, baked or roasted potatoes or whole grain pastas; raw, stir-fried or roasted vegetable.  You can do a meatless version of this meal with egg or cheese as the base protein.  Tomato, broth and olive oil based sauces are part of a healthy meal.  Cream based sauces, when used sparingly, can also be part of a healthy meal.
    • Healthier/Healthiest: Grilled, roasted, baked or lightly sautéed seafood; quinoa or other hearty whole grain; side salad dressed with oil and vinegar and raw, stir-fried or roasted vegetable.
  • Snack: Snacks are often necessary.  Like meals they should have protein, complex carbs and fats.
    • Unhealthy: Anything highly-processed and prepackaged.
    • Healthiest Examples: fruit with nut/seed butter; fruit with unprocessed cheese; glass of whole or 2% milk or chocolate milk; serving of Greek yogurt (see above) with fruit or granola; popcorn popped in coconut oil and dusted with fresh parmesan; whole grain toast with nut/seed butter; raw veggies with guacamole; whole grain pita with hummus. Always have water throughout the day.

Jumping Rope

 

Remember to stay true to serving sizes.  And eating like great-grandma and grandpa isn’t enough.  Remember, that generation did lots of manual labor, both at work and at home, that most of us no longer do and they didn’t sit nearly as much as we do now.  They were slimmer not only because of what they ate but also because of what they did and didn’t do.  We need to move more to get the full benefits of subbing in healthier foods.

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Fit Tip of the Month: Making Good Food Choices

If you’re following my Small Steps series, you know this month’s task is to manipulate our environments to make healthy food and exercise choices easier and unhealthy choices harder.

Reading a food labelThis week, I’m honing in on the first suggestion of the task: purge your life of junk foods and stock up on accessible, high quality foods.  It seems simple but I understand when one’s in a grocery aisle, rushed and exhausted, studying nutrition labels can be mystifying, if not daunting.  It’d be great if we all could make every item from scratch and eat only whole, fresh foods.  But, most of us can’t do that.  Often, we need to purchase processed foods – it’s a fact of life.  Yet, not all processed foods are equal.

What is Processed Food?

Technically, homemade bread is processed food.  Even using 100% whole grain flour doesn’t change this.  Mixing ingredients and baking it transforms it into something else.  There’s nothing unhealthy about this type of processed food.  If you’re reading an ingredient list on packaged food and could realistically duplicate that product in your kitchen, it’s probably a good choice.

What should be off-limits is what I call highly processed foods.  Highly processed foods are packaged goods made up a (long) list of mostly unrecognizable, industrially-made ingredients you couldn’t possibly duplicate in your kitchen.  They’re a poor choice.

In other words, low-processed foods are made up of mostly low-processed or whole ingredients.  While highly processed foods are made up of highly processed ingredients.  The most common highly processed ingredients in packaged foods are flours, sweeteners and fats.

Low Processed vs Highly Processed Ingredients

Flour: The most common flour used in packaged foods is wheat.  Think all purpose flour in your pantry.  But, nearly any grain and many legumes (beans) can be made into flour.  Enriched wheat flour is stripped down wheat with nutrients added back in.  An important component that’s removed in the processing of non-whole flours is fiber, which is why whole grains are better than processed grains.

  • Good Choices: Ingredient lists that use the term “100% Whole” for most or all of the grains in the product are good choices.  Besides wheat, other good choices in their whole forms are oats, barley, brown rice, triticale, rye, corn and buckwheat.  Seeds such as flax, chia and sesame are also healthy ingredients.
  • Okay Choices: It’s not the end of the world to have non-whole grains in your food.  It should be expected in baked items where a more delicate texture is desired such as cakes, cookies and muffins.  These are treats and are fine for an occasional splurge if consumed within proper portions.  An item with a mix of whole and non-whole grains, can be an acceptable choice in moderation.
  • Poor Choices: If the item isn’t considered dessert food and consists of only non-whole grains, particularly if they’re the main ingredients, pass it by.  I also stay away from products that use legume flours such as soy and chickpea.  Legume flours are more processed than grain flours.  Legumes should be consumed in their whole forms.

Sweeteners: Unlike flours, sweeteners rarely have nutritional value.  But, they do serve a purpose in the palatability of foods.  Take care to keep added sweeteners to a minimum but I don’t subscribe to the notion they should be eliminated altogether.  When comparing two similar food items with added sweeteners, I prefer the item with the most protein and fiber and the least processed sweeteners.

  • Lower-Processed Sweeteners: Raw honey, 100% real maple syrup, molasses, raw sugar
  • Moderately Processed Sweeteners: Brown sugar, honey, cane/table sugar, raw nectars/syrups
  • Highly Processed Sweeteners: High fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, non-raw syrups

Fats: Fats are a necessary macronutrient but not all fats are created equal.  There’s growing clinical evidence that saturated fats aren’t as unhealthy for the heart as once believed.  Simultaneously, there’s growing clinical evidence that highly-processed plant-based polyunsaturated fats may be harmful.  Polyunsaturated fats are found in abundance in highly processed, industrial oils – oils you won’t find at your local grocer.  Yet, they’re rampant in processed foods.

  • Healthy Saturated & Monounsaturated Fats: Butter from grass-fed cows, extra virgin coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil
  • Acceptable Saturated & Monounsaturated Fats: All other dairy butter, coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil, avocado oil, canola oil
  • Highly Processed/Polyunsaturated Fats: Soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil and all hydrogenated oils, no matter their source.

Other considerations: Processed foods can contain other additives such as preservatives to extend shelf life, plant-extracted gums and lecithins as thickeners and emulsifiers, and artificial colors for aesthetics.  It’s a matter of personal preference how much weight you give these ingredients when comparing products.

Making the Decision

When deciding which product to get, make note of the grains, sweeteners and fats in it.  Anything from the most processed category should get a strike.  Select the item with the least amount of strikes.  If they’re equal in strikes, select the product with the most protein or fiber.  This can be assessed quickly with a simple scan of the nutrition label.  For a practical example, see the cracker comparison below.

Now you’re armed with all the information you need to replace your purged junk food with healthier choices.  Happy shopping!

Cracker Comparison

Consider these three cracker options:

Back to Nature Grahams

Back to Nature Grahams

These graham crackers have mostly non-whole grains, three types of sweeteners and industrial grade oil.  Not in the picture is the less than 1g of fiber per serving.  Not the best choice.

Nabisco Wheat Thins

Nabisco Wheat Thins

Whole grain flour and 3g of fiber (not pictured) is a plus.  Two types of sweeteners isn’t too bad.  Soybean oil is a strike.  But the color is extracted from plants, not dyes, and the preservative is added to the packaging as opposed to the food product.  All in all, not a bad choice for mass produced crackers.

Carr's Whole Wheat Crackers

Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers

The best of the bunch with whole grain, small amount of table sugar and palm oil.  And it has more than twice the fiber per serving compared to the graham crackers.

 

 

 

 

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Laugh, and the World Laughs with You

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone.

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth

But has trouble enough of its own

Ella Wheeler Wilcox submitted her “Solitude” poem to The New York Sun in 1883.  What a valuable life lesson in four, short lines.  It earned her $5 for being selected for print.  According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, that’s $114 in 2015.  Not bad.

I thought about the wisdom and necessity of laughing at oneself after laughing myself to tears reading a post by blogger Geraldine DeRuiter, and picked up by POPSUGAR Fitness, who chronicles her experimentation with the Paleo diet.

Yes, health is serious business.  But, sometimes, we can get caught up in the quick fixes, scams, fads, extremes and general absurdities in the diet and exercise realms that we lose sight of the ultimate goal.  And, when we come to the realization that we’ve been had by the latest infomercial, book or, in Geraldine’s case, “the hot guy at the gym” who told her she “ate too many carbs,” we should whack ourselves upside the head and say, “What the hell was I thinking?”  We should also share our antics with a friend and have a good, solid belly laugh to celebrate our newly found wisdom.

The moral of Geraldine’s story is extreme, sudden, huge changes in diet (or exercise, for that matter) don’t help us lose weight or get fit and healthy because they are unsustainable for 99.99 percent of us.  Particularly in the case of food elimination diets.  Most of us don’t want to and simply can’t give up fill-in-the-blank food for the rest of our lives.  Nor should we.  The truth is there are billions of people who have lived and are living long lives at healthy body weights who ate gluten, dairy, meat, fish, eggs, fruit and even (God forbid!) refined sugar all their lives.

Here’s something else I firmly believe.  Fitness is a state of mind as much as a lifestyle.  Depriving ourselves, obsessing over every morsel of food or every minute of a workout is really unhealthy.  It creates an aura of negativity around things that are life sustaining and should be enjoyed.  That kind of negativity strips humor and joy from our lives.  Geraldine chronicles that as well.

In fact, Geraldine says all of this much more hilariously and poignantly than I ever could.  Enjoy her post here and I promise to laugh with you.

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A Peek Into the Fit&Happier Pantry

We all know that the U.S. has a weight problem.  Most understand that the problem stems primarily from two things: eating too much and moving too little.  As the owner of a personal training business, my work revolves around the latter.  But all of us in the fitness industry know that, without controlling the former, all the exercise in the world isn’t going to solve this problem.  In fact, for the obese, the latest research is bearing out that controlling diet is more important than exercising when it comes to weight loss.  It makes sense – it takes about an hour of jogging to burn 500 calories, yet a person can shave 410 calories from her daily diet by simply cutting out a super-sized soft drink.  It’s no surprise, then, that family, friends and clients often ask me for tips on eating healthy.

I have two simple rules:

Rule #1: Prepare what you eat the vast majority of the time.  It is extremely difficult to control what is going into your food and how much food ends up on your plate (or in your cup) if someone else is preparing it and portioning it out.  This includes not only meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner) but everything else you consume, like coffee and snacks.

Rule #2: Purchase food in as close to whole form as possible.  This means avoiding boxes and cans as much as possible.  And, when you do purchase a box or can, the ingredient list contains very few items.

Both rules are much easier for the average family to follow if meals can be assembled relatively quickly and easily and the items that go into the meals are affordable and readily available.  So, a well-stocked pantry and fridge are essential for the fit family.  This week, I’ll provide a peek into the staples in my pantry and fridge.  Next week, I’ll share with you some of my favorite, family-friendly, original recipes using these items.

The idea is to always have the items listed below on-hand.  Then, each week, you’ll purchase your highly perishable items like lean unprocessed meats, fish, whole grain breads, low-fat dairy and fresh fruit and vegetables.  The fresh items paired with the pantry items can be used to create a large variety of healthy meals in a short amount of time.  When it comes to fresh produce, purchase what’s in season.  This will ensure that the produce is flavorful and reasonably priced.  There are times throughout the year when in-season, fresh produce is very limited.  During those times, it is perfectly acceptable to utilize frozen and, in some cases, canned produce.  Therefore, you’ll find some frozen and canned produce listed.  These were selected because they freeze or can well with very little or no salt, sugars or fats added.

Essential Pantry Items

  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil: get good quality oil and use it for dressing salads and vegetable dishes
  • Canola Oil: great for cooking because it has a high smoking point, neutral flavor, inexpensive & almost as much heart-healthy monounsaturated fats as olive oil
  • Non Stick Cooking Spray: canola/olive oil based
  • Dijon Mustard & Canola Oil Mayonnaise
  • Vinegars: inexpensive acids to marinate meats and make your own dressings; good choices are red & white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar & rice wine vinegar
  • Balsamic Vinegar: invest as much money as you can in a bottle of good quality, aged balsamic; a little goes a long way
  • Worcestershire Sauce & Low-sodium Soy Sauce: lots of bold flavor (umami) packed into a mere tablespoon
  • Nut Butters: healthy nut butters should have only two ingredients – nuts & salt
  • Low-sodium, Low-fat Broths (chicken, beef and/or vegetable)
  • Panko Bread Crumbs
  • Jarred Roasted Peppers, Sun-dried Tomatoes and/or Artichoke Hearts
  • Canned Tomatoes (low salt)
  • Canned Beans – Examples: cannellini, black, kidney, garbanzo/chickpeas; get low or no salt and always rinse beans before adding them to your recipe
  • Canned Pineapple & Mandarin Oranges: packed in their own juice, not in syrup
  • Dried Fruits: Cranberries, Figs, Plums & Raisins: can be tossed into salads, baked goods and oatmeal to boost micronutrients and fiber
  • Brown Rice
  • Whole Grain Pasta
  • Other Whole Grains: Faro, Barley, Oats, Quinoa
  • For Baking: Semi-sweet Mini Chocolate Chips, Whole Wheat Flour, Raw Nuts/Seeds (store in fridge to keep fresh)
  • Seasonings, Spices & Dried Herbs: my most-used list includes Salt (Sea or Kosher), Black Pepper, Curry Powder, Garlic Powder, Smoked Paprika, Cumin, Chili Powder, Red Pepper Flakes, Ground Mustard, Bay Leaves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and a few sodium-free herb blends (such has Mrs Dash)
  • Fresh Onions & Garlic: store in a cool, dry place
  • Bananas: yes, these go bad quickly – but overripe bananas have a myriad of great uses

In Fridge

  • Plain Yogurt
  • Lemons & Limes
  • Eggs
  • Carrots & Celery
  • Real Butter: a little butter adds so much creaminess and flavor in cooking (salted) and baking (unsalted) and much better than margarines & spreads that have ingredient lists in paragraph form

In Freezer

  • Edamame
  • Peas
  • Corn
  • Berries (blue, rasp, black & straw), Cherries, Mangos, Peaches
  • Fresh Ginger (just take out, peel and grate as needed)

So your homework assignment is to get stocked up.  Tune in next week for some easy, yummy, healthy recipes sure to make everyone in your house fit and happier.

Author’s Note: I am an exercise professional, not a nutrition professional.  My food recommendations are based on the most current science-backed information provided by nutrition professionals in the fitness industry publications I receive and my personal experience.  Mine are general recommendations that are in line with the guidelines published by the US Dept of Health and Human Services for apparently healthy individuals.  If you have a health condition that requires dietary restrictions, I recommend consulting a medical doctor or registered dietician before making any changes to your diet.

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Eat Your Vegetables!

Ahh, it’s that time of year again…Back to School!  After an extended vacation through most of August away from schedules, busy stores and household chores it’s a shock to the system to arrive back home just in time to receive new schedules and fight back-to-school shopping crowds all while needing to catch up on grocery shopping and laundry.  Still, I’ll gladly take this last hectic week of August because freedom is at the end of the tunnel – 6 blessed hours, 5 days a week!  I can be more creative with my clients’ workouts, get household chores done without constant interruptions, catch up on industry publications, fit in longer workouts, have some “me” time in between, and, yes, have more time to work on my weekly blog entries.

Which brings me to this week’s blog.  Until about 30 minutes ago, when I returned from Staples $150 poorer with three bags of school supplies, I was drawing a complete blank for a topic.  But, as I was pondering what to make for dinner tonight, the light bulb went on.  I have friends with children who often ask me how I get my kids to eat vegetables.  It’s a good time to share with you what I’ve learned thus far with a 12 and 7 year old in house.

Involve kids in the food you eat.  Yes, this means involve them in the preparation of meals.  But it also means involving them as much as possible in the other parts of the process.  Try to grow some of your own – even if it’s simply herbs on the window sill – it’s a valuable lesson for kids to learn where real food comes from.  Bring them to pick-your-own farms and orchards.  Out of season, bring kids with you to a local grocer that has good quality produce.  Have the kids select a new fruit or vegetable they want to try.  The more involved they are in the food that’s selected and prepared, the more likely they are to at least try it.

Model healthy eating.  We have a rule in our house that both adults and kids must obey – at least one serving of fruit or vegetable must be consumed at every meal.  I never forced my kids to eat anything they didn’t like.  I don’t believe in making a kid sit at the table until he finishes his peas.  As far as I’m concerned, all that does is guarantee that the kid will grow up to be an adult who doesn’t eat peas.  So, when my kids were younger and their palates more limited, it meant I needed to meet them half way by making sure I always had on hand fresh fruits and vegetables that are ready-to-eat and kid-friendly – apples, pears, carrots, bananas, grapes, snap peas, cucumbers, tomatoes.  We encouraged them to try what we were eating and gave them lots of praise when they did.  Sometimes they converted, sometimes not.  Many times conversions happened by trying a fruit or veggie several times over a long period of time.  But, when they tried and didn’t like, out came a fruit or vegetable they did like.  Everyone was happy and everyone consumed their mandatory fruit or veggie.

Have them sample new fruits and vegetables mixed in with food they already like.  Sautee a “new” vegetable and add it to pasta sauce or macaroni and cheese.  The key is to introduce only one new ingredient at a time.  If they will eat tomato sauce that has sautéed peppers in it, next time try adding mushrooms along with the peppers and so on.  With mac and cheese, you can cook and puree foods like sweet potato or butternut squash and add it into the cheese sauce.  Many people tell me their kids won’t eat salads.  Start off with greens that are mild and soft – bibb lettuce or green/red leaf lettuce – tear into bite size pieces and then add in items they already like.  I often put grapes, diced apple or pear, and mandarin oranges in my salads when my girls were younger.  Now they eat salads made with baby spinach, avocado and dried cranberries.

The funny thing is, since I put the emphasis on having my kids eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables, I eat more myself.  Give it a try, it’s not as difficult as you might think.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make dinner and daydream of September 3rd – the first day of school.

Author’s Note: I am an exercise professional, not a nutrition professional.  My food recommendations are based on the most current science-backed information provided by nutrition professionals in the fitness industry publications I receive and my personal experience.  Mine are general recommendations that are in line with the guidelines published by the US Dept of Health and Human Services for apparently healthy individuals.  If you have a health condition that requires dietary restrictions, I recommend consulting a medical doctor or registered dietician before making any changes to your diet.

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