Food Police Cites Sugar!!!

[Big Daddy's House]

The friggen food police are at it again!!!

This time, they're badmouthing sugar - claiming that it is linked to heart disease!


We've been eating things sweetened with sugar since we were kids. Now, all of a friggen sudden, it supposedly causes heart disease? Give me a break!!!

I'm going to KEEP ON using it! :mad:

[LuvsToCook]

It's sad to know. Why all of a sudden they advice us to stop using it.

[Big Daddy's House]

They claim that it might cause heart disease, but that STILL has yet to be proven, which I don't think it will.

[Kimchee]

The research, which was supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, analyzed dietary intake and blood pressure of 810 adults measured at baseline, 6 and 18 months. After known risk factors of high blood pressure were controlled for, a reduction in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption of one serving per day was associated with a drop of 1.8 mm Hg in systolic pressure and 1.1 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure over 18 months.

After additional adjustment for weight change over the same period, a reduction in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was still significantly associated with blood pressure reduction.

I had my Phd scientist of a wife peek at this.. she says the science behind the study is sound.....

[Big Daddy's House]

The thing is, though, that they are forever trying to lay the bad mouth on foods that we've eating all this time and they just seem to be linking everything to heart diease & cancer!!

[Roberta Wennik]

I don't think anyone is saying "stop using sugar entirely". Just use it in moderation. A lot of Americans aren't eating sugar in moderation, which is contributing to our rise in obesity (among other things). Sugar is just calories with absolutely no nutritional value. There's not a vitamin or mineral in it. If you want something sweet, even honey has more going for it. The connection with heart disease may not only be via blood pressure alteration but also because of increased obesity. Now that is a risk factor for heart disease.

Hey, you should be happy that dark chocolate is no longer on the forbidden list. It's now touted for its antioxidant properties. But that doesn't mean eat a pound of chocolate at a sitting. Just make sure you're eating the darkest chocolate with the highest % of cocoa. And then learn to truly enjoy the pleasure of chocolate by eating it in as slow a process as you can. Smell the chocolate. Take a small bite and let it melt on your tongue. Let it glide all over the inside of your mouth, touching you cheeks, as well. Don't you dare chew it. If it's good chocolate, your body heat will melt it to a sensually smooth liquid. Once you have a real sense of the taste of the chocolate, swallow it. Then let the aroma of the chocolate perpetuate in your mouth before taking another bite.

So, have I got you hungry enough to immediately go out and get yourself a fabulously decadent piece of chocolate?

[Big Daddy's House]

I realize that pretty much everything must be used or eaten in moderation.

The body makes use of starch anyway and turns it into sugar. Which is why Type 2 diabetics like myself have to have some starch because the pancreas isn't producing enough insulin to supply the blood stream with the neccesary amount of sugar to safe levels.

But it IS a known fact that sugar does help to contribute to obesity, as does other things.

[Roberta]

I have decided the food police and other police in the country will not be happy or satisfied until we are all living in retro caves and eating like cave men and women.

I have said it before here, and I will say it again. I eat pretty much what I darn well want, I just eat smaller portions and add some more fruits and veggies.

I just got a report from the kidney foundation screening that said I was over weight. What constitutes over weight for them? 4 pounds. Ideal weightfor my age and height is 145. I weigh 149. I deal BMI is 25.9. I am 26. For this they label me over weight. :mad:

If people like me are what the food police use to claim Americnas are over weight well then there is nothing I can say or write that would not be censored here on CF.

First it was fat. Then salt. And now sugar. Give me a break. :eek:

[Big Daddy's House]

I have decided the food police and other police in the country will not be happy or satisfied until we are all living in retro caves and eating like cave men and women.

I have said it before here, and I will say it again. I eat pretty much what I darn well want, I just eat smaller portions and add some more fruits and veggies.

I just got a report from the kidney foundation screening that said I was over weight. What constitutes over weight for them? 4 pounds. Ideal weightfor my age and height is 145. I weigh 149. I deal BMI is 25.9. I am 26. For this they label me over weight. :mad:

If people like me are what the food police use to claim Americnas are over weight well then there is nothing I can say or write that would not be censored here on CF.

First it was fat. Then salt. And now sugar. Give me a break. :eek:



Don't forget smoked meat and BBQ'd meat, along with cold cuts, fruits and veggies when they were supposedly laced with E-coli.

Smoked and BBQ'd meat were supposed to have caused cancer. I can't think of anything that they DIDN'T lay the bad mouth on!

[Roberta Wennik]

I really can't blame the consumers for throwing their hands up and giving up trying to "eat healthy". In the 1970s, lowfat eating was in fashion. Fat was considered the villain in heart disease, the number one killer in the U.S. The problem is the food manufacturers replaced fat with sugar. So while the fat was reduced, the calories weren't. People felt that if it said "fat-free", they were free to eat as much as they wanted.

That, along with lack of exercise and possibly the inclusion of high-fructose corn syrup in our food supply, has led to increased obesity in the U.S. Also, as the "other Roberta" was saying, her couple of extra pounds put her in the overweight category. The more we have learned about obesity and health risks, the more defined the weight charts have become. The goal BMI set by the government has dropped over the years, encompassing more people as being overweight. But even with that, no one can deny we have a problem, a problem that we seem to have exported to many countries in the world.

The more research that is done, the more we're going to find out that the further we stray from eating "real" food, the higher our risk of certain diseases. With so many people eating processed foods that are very high in salt, it's no wonder that the government is pushing for food manufacturers to lower the sodium content to avoid the possible result: high blood pressure. Let's face it - our taste buds get acclimated to a certain level of sodium and anything less than that becomes tasteless. There is some retraining people will have to do if they take their health seriously.

Have you noticed that eating fat isn't frowned on the way it was in the '70s? However, with that said, the type of fat you're eating still makes a difference. Now we're pushing the healthy fats - monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, omega-3 fatty acids from fish, flaxseed oil. But even these can't be eaten with reckless abandon. Too much fat is bad for you no matter how healthy the fat.

May I suggest you visit www.spinarecipe.com where you'll find tasty and delicious recipes (that just happen to be healthy too!). As a culinary nutritionist, I want people to "have their cake and eat it too" as long as it fits in their overall intake for the day. I'm not against butter or sugar. We just need to learn to use fats, sugars, and sodium more judiciously. When using butter, use it where it makes a difference, where you can really taste it. For example, when cooking an omelet I use butter because I can taste that in the finished product. However, you can make a roux with margarine (same amount of calories but less saturated fat than butter) if the seasonings you're adding will end up overpowering whatever fat you use anyway. And then there are recipes that require the cooking properties of butter, such as thickening a sauce right before serving it. So, then you go a little easier on the fat in some other part of the meal or in whatever else you eat during the day.

People are smart but I think they feign ignorance in order to avoid making the healthy changes they know would be best for them. Are you one of those?

[Roberta Wennik]

So, Big Daddy, when you eat sources of starch, make them high fiber sources. That slows the process of absorption and doesn't try kicking your pancreas into high gear to put out insulin. The biggest problem for someone with Type 2 is that the cells are resistant to insulin - they don't want to open up their doors and let the glucose in. So, yes, people with diabetes must eat less simple sugars. But when you eat carbs with a protein source, it, as with fiber, slows the absorption of the carbs and allows your pancreas and cells to keep up with the necessary processing to get the glucose into your cells in a timely fashion.