The facts are in. White flours and white sugars WILL increase your blood pressure, add calories of no nutritional value, widen your waistline that leads to belly fat, and put extra weight on your frame.
Good Morning America is just one of the many news programs that regularly discusses ways to improve your health. In a recent segment, “How Much Sugar Should You Eat?”, Dr. Tim Johnson exposed the negative impact of white sugar (aka dextrose, corn syrup, cane sugar, etc.) in our diets. For example, did you know that the average person consumes 21 teaspoons of sugar a day? Or that one can of soda includes the equivalent of 14 teaspoons of sugar?
Dr. Oz, a frequent guest on GMA and the host of his own show, also begs Americans to eliminate white foods—anything that doesn’t come out of the ground white—from our diet because, among other things, it contributes to aging!
Unfortunately, this information leaves those whose current food intake includes a lot of white sugar and flour in serious need of change!
So I'm calling for a "white out" by encouraging you to implement one or all of the folowing ideas:
1. Reduce and eventually stop drinking soda – replace soda with ice water jazzed up with seltzer or a squirt of fresh fruit.
2. Use stevia (a natural, non-caloric organic sweetner) rather than sugar to sweeten your coffee or tea drinks.
3. Ask for whole grain or rye breads for sandwiches, dinner rolls, or toast at restaurants. Never accept white breads.
4. Snack on nuts and seeds and berries rather candy bars, muffins, or cookies.
Little changes in the types and amounts of white foods that you eat, will absolutely give you big results in your overall health such as weight loss, lowered blood pressure, thinner waistline, and less belly fat. Not so bad, eh?
Be encouraged,
Becky
In December, we purchased sugar to cook with over the holidays. After using it for a few weeks in my coffee, and on my french toast, I realized it was not cane sugar - it had a different taste and appearance. Just well 'different' -- I think my transition the past few years to locally processed honey and molasses has changed my pallet to raw sugar and healthier options. -- For those of you in transition from sugar, I will tell you that there is a fuller, richer flavor from raw cane sugar, and that locally process honey adds new elements of taste to that cup of java or tea! Several years ago I picked up a tip to cook oatmeal in apple cider and to only add a little butter and salt. I no longer need to add sugar to my oatmeal, the apple cider / juice, adds that sweetness that I need (Weight Watchers group tip!). I'm so excited to commonly see whole grain breads, fresh hormone free chicken, and range free & grain fed fresh eggs at the HEB grocery store! I started a new soft drink passion - half cranberry juice, half sparkling water! And on my 'to do list' is how to make Italian soda. -- We gain so much more FLAVOR and QUALITY when we give up white bread, white processed sugar, and feed lot beef. I discovered first hand that I'd developed a preference for the richer flavors these products have brought to my life!
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