This Blog Is For Women

The first few days of resuming my sugar free, starch free diet are always the most difficult.

The secret is eating.  Eating lots.

When my sugar pump has been primed, all I can think of is eating sugar and starch. And I find myself hungry and craving carbs a lot.  To combat this craving I eat high fat, high protein foods with lots of flavour… and vegetables.  I also drink plenty of fluids and take my vitamin/mineral supplements.

Today I enjoyed

• Greek Yogurt with blueberries;
• mixed nuts with 85% dark chocolate;
• cheddar cheese and red peppers,
• kale chips,
• bacon bluecheese slider kabobs.

Along with salad, and chai tea.  I’m not done eating yet, since I’ve not met my protein requirement for the day,  I’ll likely fire off a western omelette before the day is out.

The secret is in the planning…and the pantry purging.  You can only eat the foods you have on hand, so make sure you do a good clean sweep of any left over holiday treats and pick up the appropriate groceries for successful transition to Primal Blueprint diet.

How do you reset your diet when you’ve had a period of slack eating?

There are three basic components in the food that we consume:  Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins.  We need all three in our diet.

Here are 8 reasons to make sure you’re eating enough protein to stay lean: Read the rest of this entry →

Have you seen the new slim Alec Baldwin?  He has embarked upon a sugar free diet, and he looks phenomenal. If Alec Baldwin can do it you can, too!  In an interview done earlier this month he reveals how he did it, and he also exposes the dangers of eating sugar  Hear him speak about healthy eating in this interview with Dr. Robert Lustig. Transcript here.

Do you think you should eat less?  Many of us would answer ‘yes’ to this question.

In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives we have lost touch with our body signals.  Are we eating to satisfy hunger?  Or are we eating out of habit or some emotional drive?

Food is delicious and enjoyable.  We eat to be social.  We eat at set times of the day.  How often do we eat because our body asks to be fed?

It is vital for us to become more connected to our body’s signals when dealing with hunger.  This takes only a few simple steps.  Before eating take a moment to consider the following:

• Why am I eating?
• How hungry am I?
• What are my emotions?
• Check your portion size and the nutrition of the food before you begin eating.

Sugar, it’s found its way into an alarming number of the foods that we consume on a daily basis.  We’re often completely unaware of how much sugar we’re eating.  If you’re eating food that is packaged, or prepared by someone else, you can bet that it’s high in sugar.

Recent changes to the recommended daily intake of sugar have resulted in a much lower upper limit for dietary “added sugars.” We’re not talking about the sugars found naturally occurring in most fruits and vegetables, we’re talking about the kind that are added to foods to make them sweeter, sugars like glucose, fructose,  sucrose — beet and cane sugar, whether white or brown — and high-fructose corn syrup.  It’s all sugar, and it’s all bad – if not consumed in moderation.

Moderation is the key.  But, it is also the problem.  As a society, we have lost the ability to gauge moderation in sugar consumption.

The American Heart Association recommended sugar intake for adult women is  20 grams of sugar per day, for adult men, it’s  36 grams daily, and for children 12 grams a day. Wow.   Let’s see how that might work.

• 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar:  4 grams of sugar
• Multigrain Bagel from Dunkin Donuts:  9 grams of sugar
• Newman’s Own Tomato & Basil spaghetti sauce, 1/2 cup = 12 grams of sugar
• Bull’s Eye Brown Sugar & Hickory BBQ sauce, 2 tablespoons: 14 grams of sugar
• Kellogg’s Smart Start Strong Heart Cereal, Toasted Oat: 17 grams of sugar
• Delmonte diced pears in light syrup, single serving cup: 17 grams of sugar
• Weight Watchers Blueberry Muffins: 18 grams of sugar
• 1 6oz serving of fruit on the bottom yogurt:  25 grams.  Oops!  That’s the whole day’s allotment!
• V8 Fusion Vegetable Fruit 100% juice, 8 ounces: 26 grams of sugar!
• Minute Maid lemonade, 8oz: 29 grams of sugar!
• 18 jelly beans:  32 grams of sugar!
• Glaceau Vitamin Water, 20 ounce bottle:32 grams of sugar
• 1 can of Barq’s Old Time Rootbeer: 39 grams of sugar
• A small Dairy Queen chocolate sundae:  41 grams of sugar

Some of the most surprising sources of added sugar are items like spaghetti sauce, and yogurt:  foods that we have come to think of as healthy.

Low sugar options

• plain or Greek style yogurt:  2-5 grams of sugar
• water:  0 grams of sugar
• home made spaghetti sauce: limited added sugar
• home juiced vegetables: 0 grams of sugar
• avoid muffins, ice cream, pop, bagels, and packaged fruit.

Eliminating added sugar from your diet really boils down to one thing:  Eat natural foods, in their whole state, prepared by yourself with little added sugar.  If it’s got a package, read the lable, chances are it also has more sugar than you’re willing to add to your diet.

Notice that we are not counting the naturally occurring sugar found in fruits and vegetables.  These bring fibre, minerals and vitamins into your diet that are essential for good health, and they also supply an adequate amount of sugar for healthy body function when eaten as part of a healty diet.  Fruits and vegetables are sweeter than they have ever been in history due to being selectively grown for taste appeal.  Consuming these natural foods will provide us with all the sugar we need to be healthy.

Want more information about sugar and it’s effects try the following:

Sugar- Are You Addicted?

60 minutes, Is Sugar Toxic?

Rodale:  Report Provides New Sugar Recommendations for Adults

FitWatch: Signs that you may be addicted to Sugar