Healthy Bytes

The tricks and treat of sweet

read time: about 4 minutes

Happy Halloween

Back to the sucrose form of sugar…

First let’s touch on “Raw” or “Natural” sugar.
It’s tan in color and crystal in form like white sugar. This sugar form is less processed than white sugar. Most notably it does not get bleached.
The process of turning sugar cane pulp into sugar involves a number of iterations of boiling the pulp to reduce the liquid to a heavy syrup. Then using vacuum pans to grow crystals from the syrup. The natural color of the sugar is tan.
Raw sugar goes through the crystalization, but is not bleached. So it’s a better form of “table sugar”.
Blackstrap molasses comes from syrup before it is crystalized.

Sucanat (Sue-Kah-naught) is close to the natural form of sugar cane but a little tougher to find in the marketplace. It’s often sold in health stores.
The sugar cane is crushed to extract the juice (refined white sugar).
Then, using a Swiss process, the juice is dehydrated - producing granules. That’s it. No preservatives, no additives.
It’s dark tan in color and the granuales are not shiny like crystals.
Sucanat is not as sweet as sugar. It also has a “stronger” taste so you definitely want to experiment with it a bit.

Rapadura is a traditional candy in a number of Latin American countries.
It’s also dried sugar cane juice, it’s found in brick form as well as granules.

Sugar alcohols - also known as polyols. They’re actually neither sugar nor alcohol, but resemble the chemical structure of both. They are in fact carbohydrates that do not completely absorb and metabolize in the body. Thus, fewer calories - about 1/2 to 1/3 fewer. Additionally, they convert to glucose more slowly requiring little to no insulin and no spike in blood sugar.

Another difference is that sugar alcohols don’t contribute to tooth decay as bacteria in the mouth does not act on them.

The common sugar alcohols out there are:
mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, lactitol, isomalt, maltitol and hydrogenated starch hydrolysates (HSH).

Mannitol - naturally found in pineapples, olives, asparagus, sweet potatoes and carrots. 50-70% the sweetness of sugar. Can cause bloating and diarrhea as it lingers in the intestines.

Sorbitol - naturally found in fruits and veggies; generally manufactured from corn syrup. 50% sweetness of sugar. Typically used in sugar-free gum.

Xylitol (zeye-la-tall) - naturally found in straw, corncobs, fruit, vegetables, cereals, mushrooms and some cereals; generally mannufactured from birch cellulose. Same sweetness as sugar. Has been shown to: inhibit plaque formation on teeth, reduce tooth decay and kill germs that cause bad breath. Typically found in chewing gum, toothpaste, mouthwash. Can cause bloating and diarrhea in some individuals.
Lactitol - Resembles sugar in taste and solubility with 30-40% of the sweetness. Typically found in sugar-free ice cream, chocolate, hard and soft candies, baked goods, sugar-reduced preserves and chewing gums.

Isomalt - Holds up well in heat and is typically used for hard candies, toffee, cough drops and lollipops. 45-65% as sweet as sugar.

Maltitol - Gives a creamy texture and is typically used in sugar-free hard candies, chewing gum, chocolate-flavored desserts, baked goods and ice cream. 75% the sweetness of sugar.

Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates (HSH) - Does not crstallize and is used in confections, baked goods and mouthwashes. 40-90% as sweet as sugar.

Ok, we’ll finish this sweet journey tomorrow with a sweet herb.

Maybe food product labels should scream BOO! before listing the ingredients.

How sweet it is

read time: about two minutes

There are quite a many sweet alternatives to sugar. We’re going to take a brief look at the more common ones. We’ll start with a few that have been readily available at the grocery store for quite awhile.

Honey - about 25% sweeter than sugar and nearly 30% more calories, it’s one of the oldest foods in existence. Honey is created by bees by mixing plant nectar with their own enzymes. It actually never spoils… at least at room temperature.
The good:
honey contains small amounts of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and amino acids. The particular content varies by color and floral source.
Honey is also anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and stimulates tissue regrowth. It’s been used to dress wounds as it speeds healing and reduces scarring.
Honey can also reduce pollen allergies. It’s important to use local honey as allergies occur with continuous over-exposure to the same allergen. So - logically - that allergen is nearby you. The honeybees use pollen from these plant sources and that honey acts as an immune booster. It works best when you take a couple of teaspoons a day for a few months ahead of pollen season.

The bad (maybe): it’s been reported than honey decays teeth more than sugar. But according to Dr. Molan of the University of Waikato Honey Research Unit in New Zealand, the opposite is true. Dr. Molan reports that honey reduces acid which stops bacteria that causes dental plaque.

Maple syrup - has about 1/2 the calories of sugar and is strong on the sweet taste factor.
It’s an excellent source of manganese and a good souurce of zinc… so it will give you an anti-oxidant boost.

Blackstrap molasses - is actually a by-product of sugar refining. It’s not refined but is a liquid resulting from boiling the sugar cane pulp.
It has fewer calories than refined sugar and is a source of iron, calcium and magnesium.

Rice syrup - it’s made by fermenting brown rice with enzymes that break down the natural starch content. It has about 1/2 the sweetness of sugar and is absorbed more slowly - thus avoiding rapid spikes in blood glucose.

We’ll continue on with sweeteners in the next post.

Splendid… nope, not really

read time: about 3 minutes

Spah len dah. It just rolls right off your tongue.
And those commercials with all the magic fairy dust, who can resist.
After all it tastes like sugar.

Splenda has risen to the #1 selling artificial sweetener is a very short time.
In 2000, 3% of US households were using Splenda products.
In 2004 - 20% were.

Let’s look at the advertised claim:
“It’s made from sugar”.

Semantically speaking, and looking only at step one of the manufacturing process, that’s correct…
Splenda (sucralose) starts off as a sugar molecule.
However, the transformed finished product is way beyond what you might see on Nip / Tuck.

The chemical composition of the sugar molecule is converted to a “fructo-galactose” molecule. So?
Well such a molecule does not occur in nature; therefore, your body can’t digest it.

If that’s all there were to it, it would be like a kid “eating” a plastic toy. It would “come out” (assuming it didn’t get lodged along the way). But it’s more like the kid eating lead paint chips.

Sucrolose is produced by chlorinating sucrose (sugar).
Chlorinated molecules are also used as the basis for D.D.T. and other fine pesticides. The molecules are carcinogenic and since they accumulate in fat tissue, there’s a toxic buildup.

Symptoms displayed in research animals given sucralose were:
shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage), enlarged liver and
kidneys, atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus,
reduced growth rate, decreased red blood cell count, hyperplasia
of the pelvis, extension of the pregnancy period, aborted pregnancy,
decreased fetal body weights and placental weights, and chronic
diarrhea.

As far as human trials. Well there were only two published before the FDA approved sucralose. The two studies involved ONLY 36 people of which only 23 were given sucralose. The studies only looked at tooth decay. And here’s the kicker… the LONGEST trial was FOUR DAYS. Not terribly far removed from “divine faith”, eh?

Keep in mind that it accumulates in your fat cells.

You can check out the Sucralose Toxicity Information Center for more fun to know things about the current #1 artificial sweetener Splenda.

The menu of symptoms reported by humans (who probably didn’t think they were part of an experiment) are:

Flushing or redness of the skin
Burning feeling of the skin
Rash
Itching
A panicky or shaky feeling
Swelling
Blisters on the skin
Welts
Nausea
Stomach cramps
Dry heaves
Becoming withdrawn
Loss of interest in usual activities
Feeling forgetful
Moodiness
Dulled senses
Unexplained crying
Acne or acne-like rash
Anxiety
Panic attacks
Feelings of food poisoning
Headache
Seeing spots
Mental or emotional breakdown
Altered emotional state, i.e. feeling irate, impatient, hypersensitive
Pain (body, chest)
Bloated abdomen
Diarrhea
Trouble concentrating/staying in focus
Feeling depressed
Vomiting
Seizures
Shaking
Feeling faint

Next up we’ll look at the better sugar substitutes.

Artificially sweet

read time: about 5 minutes

There are three main artificial sweeteners:

Saccharin sold as Sweet’n Low
Aspartame sold as Equal and NutraSweet
Sucralose sold as Splenda

According to the Calorie Control Council, 180 million Americans were buying “Sugar free” products by 2004 (up from 109 million in 1991)

One study which applies to all artificial sweeteners was done in 2004 by psychologists at Purdue University. When rats were given artificially sweetened liquids for 10 days, they were no longer able to guage the calorie content of foods containing sugar.

In nature, typically the sweeter the food, the greater the calories. Thus, “sweetness” is used as a signal for how caloric the food is and therefore, how much to eat.

Saccharin is the oldest of the artificial sweeteners. Monsanto began selling it in 1901.

It was originally derived from the root of a plant in China.

There have been allegations that saccharin causes cancer, but to date there hasn’t been any scientific study to prove it.

It doesn’t completely digest in the body.
It also has a distinctive taste that makes it not suitable in many products.

Aspartame (Equal and Nutrasweet) - formerly on the Pentagon list of biowarfare chemicals… hmmm.
Aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than sugar and consumed by 200 million Americans. Aspartame was originally brought to the market by G. D. Searle Company

It’s made from two amino acids (L-phenylalanine and L-aspartic acid) and methanol.

If you really want to know the gory details of how that blue packet took it’s place on the tables of America (and around the world), there’s a lot of info out there including partial and full books.
It’s rife with scandal and political drama staring numerous FDA heads and scientists, G. D. Searle Company, Donald Rumsfeld, the soft drink industry lobbyist and more.

The Department of Defense knew aspartame to be a neurotoxic… ya know, a chemical weapon.
In 1984, the Arizona Department of Health showed that soft drinks containing aspartame stored at elevated temperatures produced poisonous methyl alcohol (methanol).
The methanol further breaks down into formaldehyde (a known carcinogen) and a brain tumor agent - diketopiperazine (DKP).
Medical World News had reported six years earlier that the methanol content of aspartame is 1,000 times greater than most foods under the FDA purview.
Also in 1984, CBS Nightly News featured the FDA chief scientist for the task force investigating rather serious allegations of fraud and by Searle. The FDA scientist stated that Searle company officials made “deliberate decisions” to cloak aspartame’s toxic effects.

The FDA approved aspartame as a “food additive”. This removes the legal requirement to report adverse effects or to monitor the safety. Nonetheless, the FDA has received over 6,000 complaints - 80% of all food related complaints registered with the FDA. Nope, nothing to worry yourself over.

Here are most of the known symptoms of aspartame intoxication:
severe headaches, nausea, vertigo, dizziness, insomina, loss of control of limbs, blurred vision, blindness, memory loss, slurred speech, mild to severe depression often reaching suicidal levels, hyperactivity, gastrointestinal disorders, seizures, convulsions, skin lesions, rashes, anxiety attacks, muscle and joint pain, numbness, mood changes, loss of energy, menstrual cramps out of cycle, hearing loss or ringing in the ears, loss or change of taste, and symptoms similar to those in a heart attack. Additionally, aspartic acid chelates (combines) with chromium - used proper functioning of the thyroid gland.

What’s the best use of aspartame?
According to a June 2006 article in the Idaho Observer -
it’s great for killing ants.
I tried it - it works.

Tomorrow will discuss the most popular artificial sweetener - Splenda… more scandal and deceit, more scary side effects.

More on sugar - sucrose versus fructose

read time: about three minutes

Sucrose (table sugar) is made from cane or beet sugar. Fructose is made from corn. Well fructose is found naturally in fruits, but the fructose used in food products is generally from corn.
Corn is a lot cheaper than cane. Additionally, fructose is about twice as “sweet” as sucrose, absorbs only 40% as quickly and causes a lower increase in blood sugar.

Cheaper and more efficient. Sounds good so far.

Since fructose absorbs more slowly and causes less rise in blood sugar, Doctors reasoned that it would be good for diabetics.
The food industry was delighted to come out with a plethora of fructose products (after all, it’s a lower cost ingredient).

Do you see where this is going?
Yep, sometime AFTER we fell madly in love with fructose, “we” decided to look a little more closely at it. And low and behold, there are some warts under that mask…

- Fructose has no enzymes, vitamins, and minerals… so it takes micronutrients from your body to assimilate itself.
- Fructose is not converted to useable glucose, but instead is removed by the liver.
- Fructose converts to fat more than other sugars leading to greater weight gain.
- Fructose raises serum triglycerides.
- Fructose increases total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.
- Fructose reduces insulin sensitivity.
- Fructose interferes with the metabolism of minerals and chelates minerals out of the body including iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc and copper.
- Fructose browns food more easily which decreases protein quality.
- Fructose increase lactic acid in the blood.
- Fructose can cause bloating, gas and diarrhea.

In 1980 sugar consumption per year for the average person was 84 lbs. of sucrose and 39 lbs. of fructose.
1994 it was 66 lbs. of sucrose and 83 lbs. of fructose. That’s a 113% increase in fructose.

Try this…
next time you go to the grocery store, randomly pick out any five food products and flip them over. Do the ingredients include “corn syrup”, “high fructose corn syrup”… how close to the top are those ingredients?

check this out:

Looking at that bowl of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes from a different perspective.

What’s on sale this week

read time: about one minutes

With halloween coming up what’s on sale everywhere is candy.
And when you think of candy, you think of…
sugar.

Americans are currently consuming sugar at a rate of 2-3 lbs a week.
In the last 20 years, the per person yearly consumption has gone from 26 lbs. to 135 lbs. (compared to 5 lbs. in 1890).

When I was a kid the only two results of consuming sugar I was told about were weight gain and tooth decay.
True and true, but sugar is associated with a whole lot more…
depressing the immune system
heart disease
cancer
stroke
diabetes
obesity
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
arthritis
food allergies
decresed insulin sensitivity
digestive problems
cholesterol - lower HDL and raise LDL
elevated systolic blood pressure
kidney damage
fatty liver
overstressed pancreas
cholitis
increased free radicals
headaches and migraines
hormonal imbalance
fluid retention
speeding up aging

in the next few posts will talk about sugar alternatives - the good and the bad, as well as some food label decoding.

1 Billion served… TOO MUCH

read time: about three minutes

A couple weeks ago there was a four-day conference on the treatment and prevention of obesity. The shindig was put on by the North American Society for the Study of Obesity (NAASO).

Ponder this:
According to the World Health Organization - worldwide 1 billion people are overweight, 300 million are clinically obese.
Yup, for every four adults in the world who are malnourished, five more are overweight.

Not only are these number astonishingly frightening, but the rate of increase is dizzying. And those numbers and increases are even worse among kids.

The number of overweight kids (6-19 year olds) in the US tripled between 1980 and 2002.

Oh, of course the US racks up the big numbers, but don’t think we own the wide seat accolades alone…
Somoa - 75% in some urban zone are overweight;
China - 20% in some cities are overweight;
Across all of the EU - 45% are overweight.

So what - what’s a “few” extra pounds…
Well in the US according to a University of Pennsylvania researcher, it costs $90.7 billion extra health care dollars… 5.04% of all US health care costs.

Obesity isn’t a self contained issue either because it tends to lead to other conditions such as arthritis, asthma, breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes and heart disease. These conditions in and of themselves create other complications and on and on it goes.

In fact 90% of folks with type-2 diabetes are either overweight or obese.

And for over 9,500 Americans surveyed, obesity was associated with more chronic health problems and a poorer quality of life than alcohol abuse, smoking or poverty.

A lot of folks may read these kinds of numbers and just be numbed by them or perhaps feel helpless in the face of them.

We’re hounded by “shoulds” in a life that some times has us holding our bladder too long because we don’t have enough time to “go”. True. But part of that is by choice… or lack of thoughful choice. And part is from lack of knowledge.

We’re here for the knowledge part - to dispense often times quick and practical strategies, actions and tidbits that you can absorb and apply in your life.

If it’s not obvious yet, our strongest belief is we need to eat food close to dirt rather than petroleum. i.e., eat the apple from the tree not the “Apple Jacks” highly processed, chemicals added and packaged for a long shelf life.

Read more about the NAASO conference.

Japan - what’s on the plate?

read time: about two minutes

The CBS Sunday Morning show this past week also featured a segment on Japan. Japan holds the distinction of the highest life expectancy in the world for both men and women.

Since we’re always looking for that metaphorical magic pill, a lot of attention over the past few years has been given to soy. We now have soy everything… and most of the soy in the US is genetically modified.

Soy is one thing the Japanese were eating that Americans weren’t.
But the Japanese weren’t/aren’t eating huge amounts of soy. And that certainly isn’t the only difference in diets.

The diet in Japan is primarily fresh and local veggies, small to moderate amount of animal protein - generally fish, less often poultry and meat - and whole grains. What does this diet lack?… processing.

As pointed out in the CBS Sunday Morning show segment most kitchens in Japan don’t have an oven… they don’t consume a lot of grains.
Things are changing with younger Japanese. Those golden arches are all over the world. And now disease is on the rise in Japan - obesity, diabetes, heart disease.

Currently about 24% of Japanese 15 years and older are overweight… compared to 65% in the US.

“Westernize” the diet… pack on the pounds.

Again (and again), it’s better to eat the diet of your ancestors (and “seniors” in Japan), than the diet advocated by the food conglomerates and fast food industry.

Pop a Pill - Cure an Ill???

The theme of this weeks CBS Sunday Morning was Health. There were a few interesting segments.
The lead segment was “A Nation of Pill takers”.
With 5% of the world population, the US accounts for 42% of world spending on prescription drugs… over $250 billion last year.

Dr. Marcus Reidenberg of Weill Cornell Medical College commented:

“If the individual is troubled enough by the problem, knows what the risks are of the medicine, (including the fact that these new medicines - we don’t know what all the risks are), and still feels that the benefit is worthwhile - I don’t have a problem with it.”

Well I almost agree… I would add… ‘and knows about non-pharmaceutical remedy options.’
Additionally, I would emphasize: “knows what the risks are“…
I strongly believe folks don’t know what the risks are. Sometimes the risks are not known (think thalidimide); sometimes the risks aren’t fully disclosed by the pharmaceutical company (think Vioxx and sheesh quite a many more); frequently the known risks are not fully discussed with the potential prescription consumer.

And another point which was also made during the segment by York University clinical psychologist Leonore Tiefer was:

“There is no drug trial in the world where anyone is taking five drugs simultaneously and they are looking at the interactions.”

Disease rarely happens quickly. It’s the result of a break down over time. And organs in the body don’t function independent of each other. They all interact. So it’s difficult at best to chemically effect one result without also effected another.

What do you believe?

Better to teach good eating habits than break bad eating habits

read time: about one minute.

CNN Health this morning featured a story on the “HealthBarn USA” - a program created by dietician Stacey Antine. After observing obese kids in a New York hospital, she thought it better to teach kids how to eat BEFORE they wind up in a clinic. Veggies, fruits and whole grains.

It’s a 12 week program for parents and kids. The kids learn how to plant seeds, cultivate and harvest crops. They learn about nutrition as they turn the harvest into meals. They also learn how to read food labels.

An interesting comment from a parent in the program who is also an Orthopedic surgeon… She didn’t get any nutrition education in medical school. Yup. None.

In 2003 the Princeton Review surveyed every US accredited medical school (122) and accredited osteopathic school (19) about nutrition education in their curriculum.
40% (4 in 10) of the schools had a nutrition requirement. The average amount of nutritional training at the schools that required any was 2.5 credit units - about 38 hours.

So 6 in 10 schools have no nutrition requirement at all.
Medical school is about 6,000 lecture hours.

The 2:15 video is worth a watch.
CNN.com/Health click on “Healthy Eating and Kids”