You Are The Apple Of My Eye

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
-Martin Luther

Americans have been told to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day but we aren't listening. Only 56% of adults say that they eat five servings or more at least four days of every week. And to make matters worse the advice itself may be flawed or misapplied.

Most (all?) fruits are forbidden on low carb diets. Yes fruits come packed with vitamins and minerals which do the body more good when eaten naturally than when swallowed in pill form. But after thousands of years of cross-breeding, many fruits we eat are now loaded with fruit sugar (fructose). Sweeter fruit tastes "better"; personally I much prefer a sweet Gala apple to a tart Granny Smith. Fruits with a high fructose load include apple, pear, guava, honeydew melon, pawpaw, papaya, quince, star fruit, watermelon, grapes, raisins, figs, dates, and currants. Oranges (to my surprise) get a favorable rating with fructose equal to or less than the glucose.

According to ScienceDaily.com,

"There's a fair amount of evidence that starch-based foods don't cause weight gain like sugar-based foods and don't cause the metabolic syndrome like sugar-based foods," said Dr. Richard Johnson, the senior author of the report, which reviewed several recent studies on fructose and obesity. "Potatoes, pasta, rice may be relatively safe compared to table sugar. A fructose index may be a better way to assess the risk of carbohydrates related to obesity. ...  fructose may have the unique ability to induce insulin resistance and features of the metabolic syndrome that other foods don't do so easily"

Another factor to keep in mind is that fruit (in moderation) should be eaten, not drunk. A serving size of juice is 6 oz, the size of a martini glass or small wine glass. A large dixie cup is 5oz. Many people feel cheated when given such a small glass of juice and receive instead a 10oz or larger sized glass. A coffee mug holds 12-16 oz. It's way too easy to swallow the juice (and calories) of an entire orange in just a few swallows and still want more. Most fruit juice contains no pulp so instead of satisfying hunger, the sugar in the juice spikes hunger and does little to satisfy it. Beware also of "fruit drinks" which are mostly fruit flavored sugar water.

Bottom Line

Advertisers have been quite successful in selling fruit as healthy. But it turns out you can get higher concentrations of vitamins and minerals in vegetables with much less sugar load. Tomorrow I'll look at ways to encourage more vegetables in the diet.

P.S.
Here's an interesting article on a study about why sugar makes us fat (and sleepy)
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/why-sugar-makes-us-sleepy-and-protein-wakes-us-up/

Bad Habits

I don't believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates.- T.S. Eliot

Prevention magazine has published 9 "Harmless" Habits That Age You. These are:

1. Lack of Sleep
2. Too much sugar in the diet
3. Too much stress
4. Lack of regular exercise
5. Playing iPod too loud
6. Not socializing with friends
7. Not eating vegetables daily
8. Eating too little fat
9. Not enough sex

Bottom Line

As we age we need sleep and a good diet. The body is just not as tolerant of abuse as when we were young. We also need to stay active both physically and socially. In fact a recent study claims too much sitting can be deadly.

Added Sugars 2

“A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her.”- Helen Rowland

The Wall Street Journal reports that the American Heart Association is taking aim at the nation's sweet tooth. In a scientific statement issued Monday, the organization says most women should limit their added sugar intake to 100 calories, or about six teaspoons, a day; for men, the recommendation is 150 calories, or nine teaspoons. The national average is 22 teaspoons a day. Just one 12-ounce can of cola has about 130 calories, or eight teaspoons of added sugar.

These values are based upon the My Pyramid government guidelines. With “My Pyramid” people on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet have 267 discretionary calories. (512 for active young people, 200 for dieters) The AHA decided that allocating half of the discretionary calories for added sugar was a proper course. More than that risks displacing necessary nutrients sugar.

Most foods contain some natural sugar and this is already calculated in the My Pyramid plan. What the AHA is asking us to limit is the extra sugar added to soft drinks, fruit drinks, candy, and desserts like cake and cookies. Also found in sweetened dairy products like ice cream and yogurt. The sugar in alcoholic beverages also counts as added sugar. Consuming added sugar in drinks is particularly problematic because it doesn't make you feel as full as calories in solid food.

The AHA says added sugars "offer no nutritional value other than calories to the diet. … The majority of Americans could reduce their risk of heart disease by achieving healthy weight and the evidence is fairly clear that reducing the amount of sugars can help with that."

Note that the AHA is not banning sugar use. Instead they recommend using the added sugar allotment to make healthier foods more tasty, such as adding sugar to whole-grain cereal, instead of consuming it in candy.

Bottom Line

Trying to figure out how much added sugar is in foods and drinks is challenging. Current food labels don't list sugar content in calories or teaspoons and don't distinguish between natural and added sugars. See Added Sugars for more sugar facts.

Often added sugars are given different names to avoid being listed as the number one ingredient. Check product labels for added sweeteners under these names:

• Corn sweetener
• Corn syrup
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Dextrose
• Fructose
• Glucose
• Lactose
• Maltose
• Sucrose
• Honey
• Sugar
• Brown sugar
• Invert sugar
• Molasses
• Malt syrup
• Syrup

Added Sugars

“I seek constantly to improve my manners and graces, for they are the sugar to which all are attracted.” - Og Mandino (American Essayist)

MensHealth.com has published some frightening facts about the amount of sugar we eat, The 20 Most Sugar-Packed Foods. By “added sugar” they mean sweeteners added to foods we eat.

• The average American consumes at least 20 teaspoons of added sugars every day in addition to the natural sugars found in fruits, juices, and milk
• Added sugar sweeteners account for 15 percent of our daily caloric intake (460 extra calories every day for the average American)
• Over one year, added sugar equals 100 extra pounds of raw sugar
• A dollar will buy you about 75 calories' worth of fresh broccoli, but that same dollar can purchase 1,815 calories of sugar in processed foods
• Soft drinks are the No. 1 source of added sugar in the American diet. Fruit juices may sound healthy but are packed with natural and added sugars
• Many “healthy” yogurts are loaded with sugar to counter-act the natural bitterness of yogurt. For example “Au Bon Pain’s Large Low-Fat Blueberry Yogurt with Fruit” may be “Low-Fat” but it has the sugar of four Apple Strudels or 7.5 Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnuts or 11 scoops of ice cream
• While oats are healthy, most Granolas are laden with sweeteners. Quaker Natural Granola can have twice the sugar of Lucky Charms
• Beware of sweet sauces on chicken and ribs like Teriyaki, Sweet & Sour, Honey Mustard, BBQ, etc. Try plain mustard or hot sauces for less sugar
• Sugar makes everything taste better and can be found in surprising places. “Bob Evans’ Vegetable Stir-Fry” has the same sugar content as Quaker Natural Granola mentioned above. Uno Chicago Grill’s Spinach, Chicken and Gorgonzola Salad includes candied walnuts that add more sugar than a double-scoop cone of Ben & Jerry’s Butter Pecan ice cream
• Muffins are more cake than healthy. For example, Panera’s Pumpkin Muffin has the sugar of two ice cream sandwiches or two Apple Strudels
• I love oatmeal cookies and like to think of the oats and raisins as being healthy, but Dunkin’ Donut’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie has double the sugar of a glazed donut

Bottom Line
Added sugar spikes your blood glucose levels and tells your body to store fat. In addition to adding weight, “having consistently elevated blood sugar puts you at risk for developing Diabetes—a debilitating disease that can wreck your health, potentially causing blindness, limb loss, and death.”