There is a lot of
mixed information about
sugar and sugar substitutes. If you are diabetic or pre-diabetic you are told to use sugar substitutes if you wish to have "sweets" or sweet baked goods and the like. There is mounting evidence that
artificial sweeteners are deleterious to health too.
This is not really surprising. It seems that anything that is a processed food is not good for our health and no matter how you sweeten it, our bodies are not designed to eat such things. (The same can be said for all other species. In fact, studies have been done with cats. Those kept on unnatural diets had increasing health problems with each subsequent generation. Each generation was given the same diet. It only took three generations for the cats to become sterile, amongst other problems. Do you see similarities with humans? We are far more adaptive, but eventually we suffer similar difficulties. )
If you can, I strongly recommend you read
Sugar Blues by William Dufty. Unfortunately, it is out of print.
You may be wondering why I've chosen this topic. Well, it's due to, amongst other reasons (like being passionate about your health), an article in the current issue of
Nexus (see
http://www.nexusmagazine.com.au/ ) about high fructose corn and agave syrups. (One of the most frightening claims in this article is the ability of agave syrup to cause miscarraige.)
It is interesting that, in Japan, one of the most popular sugar substitutes is banned - aspartame. Diabetic products tend to use Stevia or Xylitol over there.
Beware of foods advertised as "low fat" as they often are loaded with sugar. Sugar will put weight on you more easily than fat (you've heard of "carb loading" haven't you? - increasing simple & complex carb food intake in order to gain body fat, usually for some sort of endurance physical activity - note that an endurance athlete doesn't "fat load" in order to put on weight).
Many fats are actually healthy to consume and some are
essential fatty acids because our bodies cannot manufacture them. You probably have seen articles or tv reports on them - Omega 3 fatty acids. How do you get them? Wild fish, wild game, and Oganically/Biodynamically reared animals are your best sources. Some seeds are good sources too - hemp (in Australia, you cannot get the unprocessed seeds but the oil is widely available), flax, and chia are your best options.
Make certain not to consume trans fatty acids. This, togeher with genetically modified foods, is probably the worst thing to ask your body to process. If you are concerned about GMOs or want information, contact Gene-ethics and/or see
http://www.madge.org.au/.
ALWAYS READ LABELS ON PROCESSED FOODS AND PERSONAL AND HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE PRODUCTS. If you can't understand the words, it's a good bet, it may not be good for your health. Also, beware of the "greenwash" tactics that are widely used to market products as "natural" or "organic" or "degradeable" (as opposed to biodegradeable).
Firstly, look for organic certification on anything claiming to be organic - no certification number = not organic. (Some certifying bodies have much better criteria than others - OCA and BFA and NASAA are some of the better ones.) Also beware of organic junk food - it's not any better than other junk food in the long run. But in the short run, it doesn't have certain chemicals for preservation or pesticides.
Raw food, minimally processed foods, organic foods, wild/wildcrafted foods, simple personal care and household hygiene products are the best options for
you, me, our families and the planet.
That's our specialty at
Between Father Sky and Mother Earth - we care about you.On a closing note, I'd like to recommend the film
Dirt! the movie.
KISS for life,
Peace to all,
Miriam.
