Saturday, April 19, 2014

The Low Carb Diabetic

The Low Carb Diabetic

"The Alternative Five-a-Day"

Posted: 19 Apr 2014 03:06 AM PDT

As I write this, it's Friday night, and I'm thinking, so far it's been a good week. One for relaxing and taking time to just enjoy a slower pace. Eddie has even enjoyed some fishing…even better he caught some!


 
Whilst sitting in the garden of a lovely village pub, earlier this week, drinking a glass of water…well no of course it wasn't…one of our group bought a packet of 'Tyrells' FURROWS Hand Cooked Crisps, mature cheddar cheese & pickled onion flavour …someone said "Oh they're the posh crisps and taste great"
 
I had to make sure she was correct ! After a few I decided yes they did taste good. Now I'm not usually one to eat crisps so naughty me!!!!!
 
However, I do like their marketing team. I'm not sure how many of you do read what's on the back of packets, I know I do. On the back of the packet was this wording "The Tyrells Alternative Five-a-Day" and underneath:
 
"Steamed broccoli, herbal tea, sit ups; nothing terribly wrong with any of those (in moderation). But there is such a thing as taking it too far, you know.
 
Which is why we came up with our own lifestyle guide, an alternative five-a-day. It's a simple list of things to keep your spirits up. Well it works for us!
 
A hunk of farmhouse cheddar
A huge helping of pickle
A skip in the woods
A blow on a penny whistle
A bag of Furrows "
 
For those who check the carb content of what they eat these crisps are 21.5g for a 40g pack …. Now I didn't eat the whole pack, I had a handful …. I was looking forward to my dinner of salmon cooked in a lemon herb butter and served with a selection of green vegetables and buttery mashed swede.. and it was delicious.
 
Sometimes life just goes well ….and now if I can find the family penny whistle ….I think it's in the drawer …you may just hear me play a tuneful tune. LOL !
 
I hope you are having a really relaxing Easter weekend
 
All the best Jan
 

Joe Schwarcz: It looks like there is something to the Atkins diet after all

Posted: 18 Apr 2014 02:49 PM PDT

Who would have guessed that a song by the Guess Who would become a health anthem? "Silent footsteps crowding me, Sudden darkness but I can see, No sugar tonight in my coffee, No sugar tonight in my tea, No sugar to stand beside me, No sugar to run with me." Not exactly the most brilliant lyrics, but not a bad message.

"No sugar" may be impossible to achieve, but what about just six teaspoons a day? That, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is what we should be striving for if we are to achieve the recommendation of just 5 per cent of calories in our diet being attributed to sugar. We have a way to go, given that Canadians now consume a whopping 26 teaspoons a day.

That of course is an average: teenage boys wolf down about 41 teaspoons, while senior women only about 20.

Where is all this sugar coming from?

A can of sugar-sweetened soft drink has about 10 teaspoons, the same as an equivalent amount of "no sugar added" fruit juice. A smoothie can harbour more than 20 teaspoons, a serving of Fruit Loops about 11 (that's 100 times more than Shredded Wheat), a candy bar around seven and a doughnut four.
Then there is the hidden sugar, like four teaspoons in a serving of tomato soup, and half a teaspoon in a slice of bread.

It isn't hard to see that the sugar adds up. But so what? What's wrong with sugar? After all, it's natural isn't it? And natural substances are better for us than those chemically concocted sweeteners, aren't they? Actually, no. Sugar is a problem.

Of course this has nothing to do with whether sugar is natural or not. It has to do with what it can do as it cruises through our body. Weight gain is an obvious possibility. Extra calories translate into extra weight, and sugar can deliver a lot of extra calories. There are 160 calories in a can of pop. You would have to run at eight kilometres per hour for fifteen minutes to burn that off.

In everyday language, the term "sugar" normally refers to sucrose, the white crystals isolated from sugar cane or sugar beets. But to a chemist, "sugar" can mean any of a number of simple carbohydrates that have a sweet taste. Sucrose is actually composed of two sugars, glucose and fructose joined together. Lactose, the naturally occurring sugar in milk, is made of glucose and galactose. Upon digestion these are broken down into their components, which then enter the bloodstream.

Starch, a carbohydrate composed of many glucose units linked together, is also a source of glucose upon digestion. When it comes to weight gain, the source of the sugars doesn't much matter. Carbohydrates, be they starch or simple sugars, are a problem.

Now, for the first time, a national regulatory agency is poised to tackle the problem. An expert committee that advises the Swedish government has recommended that new guidelines focus on a low-carbohydrate diet as the most effective method for weight loss.

This is a huge turnaround, given that the scientific community has largely dismissed low-carbohydrate diets as fads. However, after taking two years to scrutinize about 16,000 published studies, the Swedish committee concluded that low-carbohydrate diets work, and that, surprisingly, in spite of being high in fat, such diets have no negative effects on blood cholesterol.


Graham
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