Hidden Sugars: The Saboteur of Good Nutrition
- Friday, 26 August 2011 18:45
When it comes to nutrition, the main aim of the game is to make sure that you don’t over-consume high glycaemic carbs without balancing against fat and protein sources. This is sometimes difficult to understand given the misleading or semi-informative food labelling available. We've broken down the ingredients list of a very popular chocolate bar to give you an insight into what you're really putting into your mouth and what that's going to do in your body:
Ingredients
Ingredients
Milk Chocolate (Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Skim Milk, Lactose, Milkfat, Soy Lecithin, Artificial Flavor) This list alone should make you want to turn and run in the opposite direction! With a mixture of refined sugar, chocolate, Skim Milk which has very little to no nutritional value, Lactose (read milk sugar …. ose = sugar, Soy = pure evil and strongly linked to cancer, testicular and prostate problems due to the estrogenic imbalances high levels of consumption courses and autoimmune dysfunction, and then the lovely term ‘artificial flavor’ means that this contains so many chemical names in such small quantities that they don’t legally have to list them)
Peanuts, this is the only real nutritional value of the product until roasted, when then unstable fat omega 3 fat content of the nut turns rancid, and carcinogenic
Corn Syrup, a very sneaky way of including more sugar into the equation, but the really nasty kind that is causing a mass epidemic of obesity, diabetes and heart disease
Corn Syrup, a very sneaky way of including more sugar into the equation, but the really nasty kind that is causing a mass epidemic of obesity, diabetes and heart disease
Milkfat, Skim Milk, Vegetable Oil (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil) trans fat, cheap nasty, soy=estrogenic, I would recommend there is no safe level of consumption, leads directly to inflammation of the arteries, increased production of cholesterol, blood pressure and arterial blockages
Salt, a biochemical accumulator, meaning that your body will struggle to process and eliminate this from the system, linked to high levels of inflammation leading the high blood pressure and arterial blockages
Lactose, read milk sugar …. ose = sugar
Egg Whites, not too bad, but the real benefit is in the yolk, this bit is just sugar
Chocolate, see above
Artificial Flavor. means that this contains so many chemical names in such small quantities that they don’t legally have to list them.
As you can see from the above, your popular chocolate bar contains more sugar than originally appears, just cleverly hidden under different aliases. This will cause a rush of blood sugar followed by a rapid fall, putting a strain on your internal organs such as your liver and your pancreas as they release glucose and insulin into the system to restore the balance. If you are looking for a healthier snack option then it is hard to go passed mother nature’s own brand. A banana will give you plenty of blood sugar rapidly should you feel you need a real hit, but an apple will give you a perfectly balanced mixture of fructose sugars and real
nutrients. Balanced against a handful of mixed real nuts (Organic Walnuts, Pecan Nuts, Almonds are by far superior) for fat and you have a perfect snack. We strongly recommend soaking the nuts in filtered water the night before, but if this is a step too far then straight from the packet will still be far better than anything that comes of out that chocolate bar wrapper!
Balancing your breakfast the morning is also key, but this is a time to be eating a higher proportion of healthy fats and proteins compared to carbohydrates. The average morning breakfast is nearly all sugar, so learning how to balance is important. An easy start would be to include something like scrambled eggs (preferably from free-range organic sources) or smoked salmon as most people find this is simple to prepare, and helps them get into the habit of including meat sources early morning, and healthy fats like avocado or Coconoil.
When it comes to food, there is a lot to understand to be really good at it, but if you want to learn how to balance food more effectively (in terms of protein sources, carb sources and healthy fats) we're here to help you start eating more healthy.
If nothing else, if you can eat SOMETHING every four hours then you will help feed the body and limit the damage of blood sugar imbalances. If this can be natural then great, if not then a sandwich with some meat or fat in it would be ideal.
We hope this stimulates more conversation....
