In a world of misinformation and extreme propaganda in the food industry, it is important to educate yourself on what is ‘good for your food’.
The big food companies spend many millions on advertising and gaining support from the medical industry.
Placing ‘Heart healthy’ stamps on boxed cereal and margarine, advertising high-sugar cereals to children, and placing toys in them, are examples.
Did you know that common brand name food items are different in North America, versus Europe; where food regulations are far stricter?
Heinz Ketchup is one example to look up.
Here’s another:
Sugar is addictive. Studies show that it is more addictive than cocaine.
This is why it is found in abundance in processed food. It tastes better. Your brain feels an endorphin-like rush, like it had a cocaine hit, and wants more.
Sugar is added to salad dressings, processed meat, and even beef jerky!
Sugar is added to fruit juice and canned fruit.
Sugar and fruit juice are added to ‘vegetable juice’.
When thinking about food, think about it as feeding your body versus fuelling disease.
Almost all chronic diseases are affected by what you eat. Eg.
High blood pressure
Heart disease and heart attacks
Cancer
Diabetes
Strokes
Dementia
Osteoporosis
Autoimmune disease
Sugar and carbohydrate intake are the main causes and contributors to the diseases mentioned above.
All carbohydrates break down into sugar:
Pasta
Bread
Rice: brown, wild
Cereal
Porridge
Whole grain (bread/ pasta)
Ancient grain breads and porridge
Quinoa/ millet/ buckwheat
These are examples of processed or high-carbohydrate foods that are often considered part of a healthy diet.
Rice is rice. It raises your blood sugar levels and it breaks down into sugar molecules. It naturally has a long shelf life of years. Even decades.
The ‘healthy’ looking (green) sign highlighting no artificial colors or preservatives or flavors is simply there to entice you to buy it (or choose over a competing brand). It doesn’t make it any ‘healthier’.
Healthy snacks like protein bars, fruit, and nut bars, 100-calorie packages of cookies or chips, sweet potato fries (instead of regular fries), and gluten-free snacks are all high in sugar and carbohydrates.
Why are sugars and carbohydrates bad?
We live in a world of obesity, and a population that is getting sicker, dying earlier, or, even worse, living longer but in a care facility dependent on others to be fed and changed, and toileted.
Sugar and carbohydrates are the biggest contributors to this epidemic of sickness and disease.
Ultra-processed food is the ‘hot topic’ in mainstream media at the moment. Filled with sugar and carbohydrates.
Recent studies linking ultra-processed food to poor mental health gained media hype and now, people are paying attention.
This is not NEW news. You are what you eat.
When you eat things that are not natural, you will get ‘not natural’ results.
All sugar and carbohydrates raise blood sugar and insulin levels.
Insulin is a hormone that regulates your blood sugar levels by taking sugar from the bloodstream and storing it as fat, for the most part. Some of the blood sugar is stored as glycogen in muscle and liver, the rest becomes triglycerides, a fat.
When you eat sugar or carbohydrates, your blood sugar levels rise. Your pancreas releases insulin. Insulin takes the sugar and stored it as fat. Mostly belly fat. Your blood sugar levels drop. You feel hungry, or crave sugar. You eat more snacks.
Blood sugar rises -> insulin rises-> fat stores
increase-> blood sugar falls-> crave more sugar-> eat more sugar/carbs -> blood sugar rises.
It’s a vicious cycle.
You gain weight. You are addicted to sugar.
You are inflamed. You feed chronic diseases.
It is scientifically proven that sugar increases the growth of cancer cells. Sugar increases dementia.
Diabetics know to not eat sugar.
Yet it is everywhere. All around you.
HOW TO LOWER YOUR SUGAR INTAKE
Start by making small changes.
Replace fruit juice and soda (even diet soda) with infused water. Very often, thirst is mistaken for hunger.
Eat real fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Real fruit has fiber and less impact on your blood sugar than juice which is purely concentrated fruit sugar.
Eat more home-cooked meals instead of eating out.
Restaurant meals and fast food all have added sugar and flavor enhancers. A lower quality of ingredients is used in mass production compared to buying and preparing your own food.
Stop snacking. Focus on eating 3 meals a day and staying hydrated.
Be prepared. Carry nuts and an apple with you in case you run late and can’t eat your next meal on time. Hunger makes you make bad decisions when it comes to food.
Dr. Natasha Iyer, MD