Sugar="public enemy number 1"

"I know sugar can lead to weight gain, but is it really all that bad for me?"

Yes, it really is, sugar can be considered "public enemy number 1." Sugar is a simple carbohydrate found naturally in many foods, including fruits and grains. I know some might be thinking, "but I thought natural sugars were good," and they are. But the average American diet is full of refined, nutrient-depleted foods and contains an average of 20 teaspoons of added, refined sugar every day, yes that is tsp, not grams. That's twice the amount recommended by the USDA, and in an alternative world it is 3-4 times what we "should" be consuming.

So what's wrong with refined sugar? Many things. First, sugar compromises immune function. Two cans of soda (which contain 24 teaspoons of sugar, count them out into a glass some day to see what it really looks like) reduce the efficiency of white blood cells by 92 percent-an effect that lasts up to five hours, according to Kenneth Bock, M.D., an expert in nutritional and environmental health. Since white blood cells are an integral part of your immune system, if you happen to meet a nasty virus or bacteria within five hours of drinking a few colas, your immune system may be unable to fight off the invader.

Refined sugar also overworks the pancreas and adrenal glands as they struggle to keep the blood sugar levels in balance. The pancreas reacts first to reduce the sugar effect, and then the adrenal gland kicks in to help regulate the system. A constantly high intake of simple dietary sugar keeps the roller coaster going and eventually overworks or "burns out" normal pancreas and adrenal function leading to early menopause, adult-onset diabetes, hypoglycemia, and chronic fatigue.

The purpose of eating is to provide your body with nutrients. But since sugar is devoid of nutrients, the body must actually draw from its nutrient reserves to process it. When these storehouses are depleted, the body becomes unable to properly metabolize fatty acids and cholesterol, leading to higher cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Drawing on the body's nutrient reserves can also lead to chronic mineral deficits, especially in magnesium (a mineral required for more than 300 different enzyme activities) and chromium (a trace element that regulates hormones such as insulin), putting you at risk for dozens of diseases, from depression to attention deficit disorder to asthma.

A recent study, for example, found that kids who eat significant amounts of junk food are much more likely to develop asthma than kids who don't eat junk food. And that study was just in the "short-term" effects of sugar intake, think about their disposition to diseases over the span of their life. In fact, children are the biggest consumers of nutritionally void junk food at a time when their brains and bodies are growing rapidly and in need of a nutrient-dense diet for proper development, both physically and mentally.

To find out how much sugar you're actually taking in, try keeping a food diary for one week. Check the labels of the foods you eat and make note of their sugar content. The reality of the numbers may not hit home because most of us don't think in grams-4.2 g of sugar is equivalent to 1 teaspoon of sugar. At the end of the week, take the total number of sugar grams and divide it by 4.2 to get your weekly sugar intake in teaspoons. Then divide that number by 7 to get your daily sugar consumption. This might be a great activity to do with kids...math lesson anyone?? :)

Unfortunately, the way the FDA's labeling rules are set up, manufacturers don't have to separate added sugars from naturally occurring ones on labels. But your total sugar intake will give you a very good idea of how much added sugar you're eating. Naturally sweet foods, such as fruit, don't really contain that much sugar. A cup of strawberries, for example, contains 1/6th the sugar of a can of cola.

So to help you all out a little, and I know this post is long, I am going to give you a list of all the ways food manufacturers can "hide" sugar in your food, if you are buying processed stuff. Here are the names sugar hides under. Some of these are "natural whole foods" (I will talk about that in another post), but most aren't.
* Amasake
* Apple sugar
* Barbados sugar
* Bark sugar
* Barley malt
* Barley malt syrup
* Beet sugar
* Brown rice syrup
* Brown sugar
* Cane juice
* Cane sugar
* Caramelized foods
* Carbitol
* Carmel coloring
* Carmel sugars
* Concentrated fruit juice
* Corn sweetener
* Corn syrup
* Date sugar
* Dextrin
* Dextrose
* Diglycerides
* Disaccharides
* D-tagalose
* Evaporated cane juice
* Florida crystals
* Fructooligosaccharides (FOS)
* Fructose
* Fruit juice concentrate
* Galactose
* Glucitol
* Glucoamine
* Gluconolactone
* Glucose
* Glucose polymers
* Glucose syrup
* Glycerides
* Glycerine
* Glycerol
* Glycol
* Hexitol
* High-fructose corn syrup
* Honey
* Inversol
* Invert sugar
* Isomalt
* Karo syrups
* Lactose
* Levulose
* "Light" sugar
* "Lite" sugar
* Malitol
* Malt dextrin
* Malted barley
* Maltodextrins
* Maltodextrose
* Maltose
* Malts
* Mannitol
* Mannose
* Maple syrup
* Microcrystalline cellulose
* Molasses
* Monoglycerides
* Monosaccarides
* Nectars
* Pentose
* Polydextrose
* Polyglycerides
* Powdered sugar
* Raisin juice
* Raisin syrup
* Raw sugar
* Ribose rice syrup
* Rice malt
* Rice sugar
* Rice sweeteners
* Rice syrup solids
* Saccharides
* Sorbitol
* Sorghum
* Sucanat
* Sucanet
* Sucrose
* Sugar cane
* Trisaccharides
* Turbinado sugar
* Unrefined sugar
* White sugar
* Xylitol
* Zylose

Now that I have properly fried everyone's brains, I think I will stop here, and don't worry, fried brains don't contain any sugar! There is so much more that needs to be said...but it will have to wait until next time. For those of you who simply can't wait, check out
"Sugar Blues" by Willaim Duffy for more information.

sources: Carolyn Dean, MD, ND

Purple Chicken Soup

So, this probably sounds a little weird...I know. I think it does too, but it is a wonderful way of getting red cabbage into the diet. Some red cabbages are more fragrant than others...so be warned, you may need to adjust the amount used. The Chicken/giblet gravy once cooled in the refrigerator congeals. It can be used like a chicken bouillon to flavor chicken stock based dishes. I use it in this recipe. It isn't necessary, but it does help hide the "mustard" hints from the red cabbage.
This will make a dinner for 6.

64 oz chicken stock
1/2 head red cabbage shredded (I use my food processor)
1 bulb fennel shredded (food processor)
1/2 bulb elephant garlic (put through a garlic press)
1 lb carrots peeled and sliced (food processor)
1 med-large onion sliced
2 Tbsp Butter
1/4 cup chicken/giblet gravy (this softens the flavor of the red cabbage, optional)
salt and pepper

melt 2 Tbsp butter in an 8 quart soup pot. Add in the chopped onions, fennel, and cabbage. Sautee until fragrant. Add in the carrots. Saute a little longer and then add the stock. Skim any scum that rises to the top. Press the clove of garlic into the pot. Add in the 1/4 cup giblet gravy and stir. Simmer for 20 minutes to blend flavor and enjoy. I added chicken left over from making stock.

Versitile Carrot Soup

I don't know about you all, but I love a basic soup recipe that can be spiced up of toned down depending on taste and preference. This is one of my favorites. Granted I love carrots and so does N, but it just makes you feel all warm and tingly. The following is for a main dish for about 6 people. I would recommend serving with a salad and bread option. We used the millet muffins, and a mescalin mix salad with Balsamic vinegar dressing...homemade. Yummy!

4 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced (i use my food processor..I'm obsessed)
2 med onions, chopped. (food processor again)
4 Tbsp Coconut oil (you could use butter, but I like the sweetness of coconut)
2 inches freshly grated ginger.
1 tbsp curry (or less if you don't like curry or spicy. or none)
Salt and pepper to taste
64 oz of chicken stock (homemade preferable, or store purchased broth)
2 tbsp congealed chicken/giblet gravy (optional)

In an 8 quart pot, over med heat melt the coconut oil. Add the carrots and onions. Saute until soft about 45 minutes. Add in the curry and mix well. Add the stock, bring to a boil, and skim. Add in the ginger, salt and pepper, and giblet gravy (if you have it) Allow to boil for 30 minutes until all carrots and onions are soft.
Use your immersion blender or hand held blender and blend until smooth. Top with Cream Fraiche, cultured cream or yogurt! N, loves it with yogurt and I do too! If you aren't a spicy person, the "dairy" really calms down the spiciness. Enjoy with th millet muffins and salad. You can also throw in some chicken if you have it left over from making stock!

The Great Sugar Debate

You are in the sugar aisle you look at your list and see that you need sugar. Little did you know you would have 50 to choose from. Is there a difference? Yes, there is! I'm not going to cover all of them here, I am going to cover one, in hopes of getting to others soon.

Turbinado Sugar, Sugar in the Raw, or lightly "processed" sugar. It looks so natural, so healthy, so wonderfully sweet sitting in that nice packaging on the shelf. It just says, grab me, eat me, enjoy me....but should you?

Contrary to what some might think, Turbinado is still considered a processed sugar. Granted it isn't as processed as refined white sugar, but it does have minerals removed. It is placed in a centrifuge and moistened to remove the gritty layer of the cane, and also a large percentage of the molasses. This diminishes the minerals available, and it can no longer be considered a whole food. Pretty much it is just sucrose with a light hint of golden color to the crystal.

Yes, this is misleading, especially since it is marketed as Sugar in the Raw, and I don't know about you, but when I think raw, that means not messed with. In this case, it is messed with!

If you want the only packaged sugar from sugar cane that isn't messed with you need to buy Sucanant.

Sucanant retains all the original properties of the sugar cane, making it a whole food, granted it is still a simple sugar, but it is the best simple sugar you can purchase from the sugar cane plant.

Starting the Soy Story

Soy has become the health food rage of the past decade. The push began with the "Dow Chemical" company. (if that doesn't make you suspicious about the "healthiness of soy" I don't know what would.) It has been pushed as the "Ecological choice protein" by the vegetarians and animal right activists. They have made claims that it is the only vegetable protein that is "complete," that will help fight off cancer, that will help you loss weight, and so on and so on.

The longer the claims have been made, the more those of us weary of the claims have had time to research and refute them. Let's get one this straight, I DO NOT PROMOTE EATING SOY PRODUCTS UNLESS THEY ARE NATURALLY FERMENTED. Ahh, I feel so much better now.

Soy is not a health food! Even though most of the food manufacturing industry would like you to think that it is. Why? Because if you are buying pre-packaged foods, you are eating tons and tons of this stuff...then if you buy soy-milk you are getting even more...

There is no evidence that consuming soy products can improve health, reduce environmental degradation or slow global warming. In fact, the evidence suggests quite the opposite.

I know lots you won't believe me, so I am going to just give you tons of links in this post that link to credible sources for you to do some of your own reading. All the below links are to Pub-med research.

Overall risks and benefits of soy assessed

Latest review by American Heart Association

Soy inhibits iron absorption

Poor iron bioavailability

Poor calcium bioavailability

Calcium and zinc absorbed better from milk than from soy -- even without phytates

Soy provides no benefits with respect to heart disease risk

Soy causes bladder cancer

Soy isoflavones during pregnancy increase breast cancer risk in female offspring

High levels of cadmium in soy formula

Soy linked to peanut allergy and increased risk for asthma

Whole milk vs. soy beverage -- asthma risk

Persistent sexual arousal syndrome associated with increased soy intake

Genistein: Does it prevent or promote breast cancer?

Don't worry, I will post much more on soy. This is just to get you all started.