Saturday, February 16, 2008
Sugar and Spice those things aren’t so nice
Today’s post is not going to be easy for most people to read. Today, I am going to talk to you about sugar. Real and fake.
Sugar in it’s simplest form is the juice from a cane plant. A plant. That makes it ok right? In the pure form yes. but in the bleached out processed crap that we commonly know as sugar, no. When sugar is processed, all of the enzymes, fiber and vitamins are zapped right out of it. Leaving us with something that has absolutely no nutritional value what so ever. Yep, it sure makes those cupcakes taste good but wouldn’t you rather have those cupcakes sweetened with something that can actually do something decent for your body? That’s right, you have options that actually don’t taste like crap.
Lets start with the good options:
- Agave nectar. Its sweet and yummy and is in a pure form. Meaning that the vitamins and nutrients are still there. It absorbs slowly into the blood stream too so you won’t have those quick sugar highs and huge sugar crashes. Agave can be found in just about any health food store. It is a bit pricey in terms of purchasing sweeteners but you don’t use nearly as much to sweeten your recipes. The key to this one: Experimenting. It can be used in any baking or cooking recipe in place of sugar but its much sweeter than the white grainy garbage filled counterpart. So you will have to figure out the amounts to add when using it.
- Evaporated cane juice. Another good guy. I have yet to be able to find this one anywhere though.
- Molasses. If you decide to try this one, read the ingredient list. Sometimes lard is used to keep it from foaming when it is packaged for sale.
- Some other good guys - Turbinado sugar, raw sugar, Sucunant, maple syrup. Just figure out what will work for you and make the switch.
I don’t think it would be fair if I didn’t touch on the artificial sweeteners out there. Nutrasweet and Equal. They are worse than the devil!!!! They all contain aspartame. Aspartame was put before the FDA countless times for approval before they allowed it into foods. The process began back in 1973. At the time, it was shown by a neuroscientist involved in the FDA testing, that aspartame was the case for memory loss, nerve cell damage, migraines, reproductive disorders, brain lesions, blindness, Alzheimers, bloating and seizures. The testing that was contained in the original approval process for aspartame was later proven to be manipulated. Several objections to its approval had been filed and eventually through a lengthy legal battle, the statue of limitations on the grand jury proceedings won out and it was approved and added to foods.
Nutrasweet and Equal both contain aspartame. Aspartame contains methyl alcohol. When you ingest aspartame, this methyl alcohol converts to formaldehyde. The last time I checked, ingesting formaldehyde was not a good thing. Equal doesn’t just contain aspartame. It also contains phenylalanine. An amino acid that occurs naturally in the brain. If it occurs naturally, it can’t be bad, right? WRONG. Too much phenylalanine in your brain can contribute to seizures, schizophrenia, and depression. Lovely stuff isn’t it?
Let’s not forget Splenda. Spenda is made directly from sugar but does not contain the calories. On its label, it says that is it 98% pure. Do you want to know what that other 2% is? Heavy metal (and I am not talking music here folks), methanol and arsenic. You heard me correctly. Dive in. Enjoy. NOT.
So what do you do when you can no longer stomach ingesting the lovely sugar replacement products yet you want to drop those pounds? Simple, you consume sugar. Real sugar in its most natural form or you use one of natures other sweeteners. Say it with me ladies..."I will not eat processed sugar. I will not eat processed sugar. I will NOT eat processed sugar.”
Ciao.
That gives us enough time to whip you into shape!
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