Wednesday, November 17, 2010

More on the best way enjoy sweetness in your diet

People often ask which sweetner is best to consume when the answer is that all are fine in moderation - too much of anything is bad. I think we know when we are consuming too much because we are often looking for permission or the maximum amount that won't hurt us rather than focusing on how to keep the sugar we consume to a minimum. 

Most sweetners are not markedly different in terms of their impact to your body. They are all rapidly converted to blood glucose. This process begins from the moment you put the food in your mouth. Think about how quickly you feel energy from eating a candy bar or sweetened beverage. The timeframe is roughly the same if you eat table sugar or agave - both are rapidly converted to blood glucose.

The real issue is that we consume too much. A general guideline is for your total sugar intake to be less than 10% of your daily calorie intake - 24 grams or no more than 6 teaspoons. Another way to think about your consumption is to keep sugars to 100 calories for women and 150 calories for men.

When you reduce your sugar intake very gradually, it's not as difficult as you would think because your taste buds will slowly become more sensitive to sweetness.  Fruits and veggies will begin to satisfy your sweet tooth most of the time.

What about artificial sweetners? If you just replace the sugar sweetness with sugar substitutes, would   your consumption would be excessive? Probably, especially if your all of the beverages you consume are artificially sweetened. The key is to think about how to increase your sensitivity to sweetness rather than numbing your taste buds with excessive sweetness. It's a different mindset, aiming to heighten your sensitivity to sweetness.

Challenge for the week: Check the nutrition label for the line that says sugars under carbohydrates. Try to purchase most grocery items with no more than 2-3 grams of sugar per serving. Also try to reduce the level of sugar you consume gradually until the sweetness in the veggies you eat is more pronounced.
For more on this topic, including a list of sweetners that will be counted on your nutrion facts label as sugar, see the following link

Friday, November 5, 2010

Where do you get your nutrition advice?



Gluten free or not


Often only those diagnosed with Celiac disease are told to be on a gluten free diet but many of us react to gluten, or are either not diagnosed with the disease or the disease is not sufficiently progressed for this diagnosis. If you are one of those that are suffering, listen to your body even if the test for Celiac disease is not positive.

Should you decide to try a gluten free diet, consider supplementing your diet with the nutritients you may be eliminating such and B vitamins and fiber. Beloved broccoli and many green vegetables are a better source of these nutrients than most gluten based products.

If you are currently relying on bread and other gluten based products for your B vitamins and fiber, you need to check nutritional labels to see if you are really getting enough of what you need in terms of nutrients.  Whenever you are eliminating types of foods from your diet, always consider what nutrients you are eliminating and how you might need to supplement you diet accordingly.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Is the food you eat a good enough friend?


Usually, we pick friends that we think are going to be nice to us, inspire us and help us along in life. We even choose some "spicy" friends and ones that are adventurous in ways we are not. Sometimes, we choose a few partners in crime but we try not to surround ourselves with too many of these because we know that we will become like our friends over time.

When we eat food that is physically nourishing and good for us we feel better. When we eat foods that weigh us down or are too indulgent, we are just that - weighed down paying the price of excess and extremes. We feel good in the moment and then crash down.


Getting "enough" from fruits and vegetable

Aiming for 5 fruit and vegetable servings is great but what we consume matters.

Let's take an orange for example. It's a delicious fruit and provides vitamin C and fiber, aids in fat digestion and is a great antioxidant. It's only 50-60 calories for a medium orange and takes you at least 3/4 of the way towards meeting your Vitamin C need for the day and has more fiber than most prepackaged bread servings. It's contains about 4 ounces of water so it's very thirst quenching and only 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Now let's say you don't want to peel the orange and you opt for juice. It's faster and works well with your meal. Did you know that 8 ounces of juice is a one serving? Most Americans will drink from a 12 or 16 oz. glass not a little 8 oz. one. If you want 12 or 16 oz., just add water or also have a glass of water flavored as suggested in my earlier post. Drinking from little prepackaged pre-measured containers will show you how much one real serving is. Play along for a moment. Let's say, you don't like veggies much and just went for OJ for your 5 fruits and vegetable servings. Is this a good idea? If you drank 5 glasses of Minute Maid orange juice, you would get the vitamin C, D potassium and calcium you need for the day. That is really terrific and important. But you'd also get nearly half of your daily carbohydrate most of which is in the form of sugar (about 2 tablespoons or one grams worth) and a third of your calorie requirement for the day based on a 2000 calorie diet. I can tell you that most women will gain weight on a 2000 calorie diet. A 1300 - 1500 calorie diet would be more appropriate so now you are drinking almost half of your daily calorie requirements to get the nutrition you wanted from fruits and vegetables.

Now what about when you are out and go to a place like a Jamba Juice franchise for fresh squeezed orange juice ? It's one of the lowest calorie juice items on their menu. You can't purchase one 8 ounce serving from their menu but if you had a twelve ounce serving (just a little more) you would get much of the fiber you need for the day (not in the store bought juice unless you buy it with pulp) and 300% of the vitamin C. But you'd miss the Vitamin D since it is added to store bought orange juice but not necessarily added otherwise. Did you know that 80% of Americans are Vitamin D deficient? We have to fix that if we want to have strong bones and lower the chance of getting many illnesses.

I hope you now realize that even when considering a serving of a single type of fruit - an orange or orange juice and where you buy it can impact your nutritional intake drastically. 

Simple Takeaway 1: Stick to serving sizes. The easiest way to do this is to buy the right size glass or container. Clear plates and glasses are preferred so you can see what you are consuming and many studies show you will eat less. If you don't know how much a serving size is, just look on any container in the supermarket for items you eat commonly. Or go to or

Simple Takeaway 2: An easy rule of thumb is to know that 10% of the daily value on a package for carbohydrates translates to about 2 tablespoons of sugar. 100% of the Daily Value for a 2000 calorie diet is then 20 tablespoons. Take a look at 20 tablespoons of sugar in a glass. Look at it again so you have a picture in your mind.  If you are adding sugar to your coffee or tea, are drinking lots of sugared soda or juice, etc. you won't be able to eat real food with nutrients for you calories. More often than not sugars or carbohydrates that break down in your body to sugar account for much of the carbohydrates in food and you need to watch out so you don't go overboard. Too much sugar is excess energy that the body will store as fat and will cause premature aging if you are past your growing years. Sugar helps all things grow so if you are not growing taller you are growing wider or growing what shouldn't be growing inside you.  Sugar and other carbohydrates are less expensive ingredients to use, tend to increase taste appeal so it will find it's way into many products that you buy. If you don't like that then buy product that you do like, it's election time and remember to vote if you want to find the foods that you like and are good for you.

Simple Takeaway 3: If you slowly decrease the amount of sugar and carbs that you eat, you will easily get used to lower levels and foods you previously thought were not sweet will taste sweeter.  It works. You just have to make a committment to look at what you are eating and take baby steps.

Simple Takeaway 4: Eating less sugar if you are eating too much is being good to yourself. Because we like sugar as children, we have an emotional attachment to it as a reward.  If you eat too much sugar or too much of anything that puts on the pounds you are not being good to yourself, if you are overweight. You want to be good to yourself and do what is in your best interest, don't you? Our emotions are powerful and we need to respect them in ways that benefit rather than harm us. Words to remember.

Simple Takeaway 5: Variety is the spice of life! Always vary your fruits and vegetables as well as the rest of your diet.  Seasonal variation help us do this naturally and cost effectively. There is no perfect set of foods because you need to eat different foods to get all of the nutrition you need. It's all about eating lots of different foods in the right quantities.


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