Category Archives: Healthy Food Essentials

Carbohydrates, Healthy Food Essentials

Grains & Starch – How Much?

Excess carbohydrates from our starch and sugar-loaded diet is greatly contributing to creating epidemics of modern diseases like obesity, cancer, diabetes 2 and similar.

How Much Carbohydrates Controversy

For millions of years, human’s diet was based only on meat/plants. It was only 10,000 years ago when we began introducing sugar, starch and grains (carbohydrates) into our diets.

Consuming far too much bread, cereal, pasta, corn, potatoes, cakes, rice etc. is very common in Western world, yet it has serious consequences to our health. Starchy and sugary foods create addiction.  The body’s storage capacity for carbohydrates is quite limited, and excess is converted to fat and stored in the fatty tissue.

Excess carbohydrates contributes to excess weight, fatigue and sleepiness, depression, bloating, allergies, digestive disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes 2, cancer etc.

Contrary to popular belief that the fat is making people obese and unhealthy, in fact the excess carbohydrates from our starch and sugar-loaded diet is greatly contributing to creating epidemics of diseases such as diabetes 2, obesity and many other diseases.

That being said, we do need a certain amount of carbohydrates, but not as much as we typically consume (in excess of 50%).

How Much of Carbohydrates?Food-Plate PerfectHealtDiet

The amount of carbohydrates one should consume for optimal health is a widely controversial topic.

My conclusion is that there is a certain minimum carbohydrate threshold most likely in the range of 25 to 30 percent or approximately 200-250 calories per day for the average person.

Most of those calories can come from non-starchy vegetables, but you’ll need some starchy carbs, such as potatoes, rice, tapioca and starchy vegetables like carrots and squash.

Use of wholegrain sorts like oatmeal, kamut, rice, barley, rye, buckwheat, quinoa etc. is also controversial, but many consider them as healthy alternatives. White rice appears to be safe as well.

Sweet potato, although high in sugar but high in vitamins/nutrients is a good alternative to “regular” potato.

Tapioca made from the root of the cassava plant, is high in carbohydrates and contains NO gluten.

Key Things to Consider

  • Reduce the intake of grains/starch (especially wheat/gluten) to 25-30% of your total food intake.
  • Replace the excess carbs with healthy fats such as avocados, coconut oil, egg yolks, healthy butter (from raw, organic milk), olives and nuts.

Whatever the guidance is you should always listen to your body, as it will give you feedback about whether or not the approach you’ve chosen is right for your unique needs, biochemistry and genetics.  Do what feels right for yourself. Experiment. As soon as something doesn’t feel right or doesn’t make sense to you, you should tweak it.

References and Credits

http://www.mercola.com/article/insulin.htm

Perfect Health Diet, by Paul & Chou-Ching Jaminet

 

Carbohydrates, Healthy Food Essentials

Refined Sugar Is Far More Addictive Than Cocaine – Find Out About Healthy Alternatives

Sugar – Bittersweet Symphony

Refined Sugar Is Far More Addictive Than Cocaine - Find Out About Healthy AlternativesSince 18th century the sugar consumption per average person increased more than 40 times and going up.

Sugar takes a devastating toll on your health. Excessive sugar consumption may be the largest factor underlying obesity and modern diseases.  Any sugar that the body doesn’t need is converted to fat.

The research shows that refined sugar is far more addictive than cocaine. From a health perspective, drinking any soft drink poses a serious health risk. Just one can of soda, for example, contains up to 40 grams of sugar.

Processed food is loaded with sugar. Fructose derived from corn (corn syrup) has become very cheap and now widely used in the majority of processed foods.

Grain-based foods such as bread, pancakes, cereals made from refined flours are also quickly turned into sugar in our bodies.

Dr Robert Lustig in his book Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar says that it doesn’t matter whether the sugars come from fruit juice, smoothies or fizzy drinks; the fructose is dangerous for our health, irrespective of the source.

The burden of metabolizing fructose falls on liver, where excess fructose is quickly converted into fat, which explains the weight gain and obesity. Fructose is the primary cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver, contributes to raising the blood pressure and leads to the chronic inflammation that is at the core of most chronic diseases. To make things worse, fructose can promote cancer proliferation and growth.

Fruits contain fructose, although it is important to note that fruits also contain vitamins and other antioxidants that reduce the dangerous effects of fructose. Fruit juice in particular is loaded with fructose, whilst a lot of the antioxidants and fibre are lost by juicing fruits. Dr Mercola suggests limiting the daily fructose to less than 25 grams especially if you are overweight, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol. An apple or pear for example each contain around 10 grams of fructose.

Aspartame, often advertised as safe high-quality alternative to sugar, is extremely dangerous. There are hundreds of studies demonstrating its harmful effects including causing leukemia, lymphoma, and other tumors in lab animals.

Healthy Sugar Alternatives

  • Honey in its pure, raw form has myriad of health benefits. Please note that bees may be fed on sugar and make sure you buy the high quality pure honey from a trusted supplier.  Manuka Honey from New Zeeland is pricey but well-known for its quality.
  • Stevia is a sweet herb derived from the leaf of the South American stevia plant, which is completely safe in its natural form. When buying stevia, look for organic stevia extract that is 100% pure without ANY added ingredients (Organic Stevia and Zenulife have versions). Alternatively you can grow stevia plant in our garden.

Tips to Avoid the Sugar Addiction Trap

1. Avoid all artificial sweeteners

All artificial sweeteners have detrimental health effects and should be avoided: aspartame (Canderel and others), saccharin and sucralose (chlorinated artificial sweetener). Agave syrup is typically highly processed so it is also best to avoid it.

2. Read ingredients list and avoid HFCS.

Read ingredients list and avoid food that contains ‘corn syrup’, HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) or any variation

3. Avoid “no-“, “low-fat”, “low-sugar” processed food.

Avoid processed foods labeled as “no-“ or “low-fat” (usually means it’s loaded with fructose or sugar), or “no-“ or “low sugar” diet foods (which usually contain artificial sweeteners).

4. No soda drinks, they are all with no exceptions loaded with sugar or dangerous artificial sweeteners.

Filtered, pure water is our best bet.

Sources and Credits

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/28/soda-aspartame.aspx

http://www.sugarstacks.com/beverages.htm

Healthy Food Essentials, Water

Water – The Beginning and the End

Bottled Water Dangers And How To Go About It

An increasing number of studies report the presence of EDCs (endocrine disrupting chemicals) in bottled water.  A recent research Identification of Putative Steroid Receptor Antagonists in Bottled Water indicates there are more than 24000 of such chemicals in any given bottle of water – some of them causing serious hormone-disrupting effects.

The German researchers tested 18 different bottled water products out of which 13 had “significant” anti-estrogenic activity, and 16 out of 18 inhibited the body’s androgen receptors by 90%.

Bottled water has been found to contain estrogenic, antiestrogenic, as well as androgenic, progestagenic, and glucocorticoid-like chemicals.

Hormone disruption has the potential to cause serious effects on human life, from early maturation in children, to increased risk of cancer.

Bottled water that has been left in a car is especially dangerous. The heated chemicals in the plastic release dioxin into the water. Dioxin is a toxin increasingly found in breast cancer tissue.

Another consideration to have in mind is that just because a plastic container says it is “BPA Free” doesn’t mean it is free of harmful chemicals!

Fluoride IS Poison

More and more people are waking up to the health risks of fluoride in their water. Fluoride, added sometimes in water supplies, is a neurotoxin that has been linked to cancer and many other health issues.

The Lancet, one of the oldest and most prestigious medical journals,  published a report that has officially classified fluoride  as a neurotoxin, in the same category as arsenic, lead and mercury.

Many European countries have rejected water fluoridation in general, however a number of countries are still using this practice – check here the flouridation by country report.

If you live in one of these countries where fluoride is not added to the water supplies, instead of buying the bottled water, it may be a good start to have a water filter like Brita Maxtra that reduces chlorine, lead and other heavy metals.

This by itself is a huge saving comparing to bottled water as Britta Maxtra Water Filter Jug Annual Pack will cost you only about £35.

According to the newest research (August 2014) done by NaturalNews, Britta in fact did not perform well when it comes to heavy metals removal (Aluminum,  Copper,  Arsenic, Strontium,  Cadmium,  Cesium,  Mercury,  Lead and Uranium). Please note that the research did NOT measure fluoride, pesticides and chlorine  removal.

Based on this research only two water filters performed well enough: ZeroWater and Waterman.

Water/Fluids Intake – How Much Do We Really Need?

How much do we need stays a highly controversial topic, as hydration needs are individual and vary.  “8 glasses rule” that you no doubt have heard of is more and more questioned these days.

Using your thirst and the color of your urine (it should be light yellow) to understand your needs is one way to go about it.  This doesn’t work for me as I constantly need to remind myself to drink water. My 5 year old as well rarely is asking for water. So I take a big, half/liter mug and prepare my morning and evening tea. Along with the rest of the fluids that I normally drink during the day, this way I know I have likely taken enough.

Quick Checklist

  • Avoid bottled water.  24 000 chemicals seem like a pretty good reason to do so, plus it will save you money.
  • Glass bottled water is normally safe but pricey. Other alternatives include water filter systems like ZeroWater  Waterman or Brita Maxtra.  Otherwise, a little pricier alternative could be a reverse osmosis system.
  • Your complete fluids intake needs to be limited to
    • Filtered, pure water
    • Tea (no caffeine, green tea is the only exception)
    • Freshly pressed juices from vegetables and fruits
  • Use your thirst and the color of your urine (it should be light yellow) to judge your personal needs.

Sources and Credits

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0072472

A very informative video about bottled water you can watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0

Flouridation by country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoridation_by_country

http://authoritynutrition.com/how-much-water-should-you-drink-per-day/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/01/is-drinking-six-to-eight-cups-of-water-really-nonsense.aspx