You ate what yesterday?
So yesterday was Halloween – and I am sure many a mom, dad, kid… well every one of us ate way too many treats this weekend. So now you’re on sugar overload. You are rundown, cranky… and just looking for your next fix. You’ll take anything… a pop tart, a kit kat bar, you’d even lick the leftovers if you had any. You probably have no idea how many tablespoons of sugar you had yesterday. Was it 10? Was it 20? Was it more?
Twenty teaspoons may sound like a lot of sugar to get through in one day. But consider the following:
A 12 ounce Pepsi contains 10 teaspoons of sugar
A 2 ounce package of candy contains 11 teaspoons of sugar
8 ounces of lemonade has nearly 7 teaspoons of sugar
A cup of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes cereal provides more than 4 teaspoons of sugar.
So now what do you do to get yourself back on track? First you want to make sure you have a breakfast with some good proteins in it and a bit of the good fats. When you eat proteins and fats with anything sugary you will have a slower digestion – which should help keep you from craving more sugar immediately. Add some good starchy foods to your lunch menu. You may try some whole wheat pasta, red potatoes or a sandwich on a good whole-grain bread. Good starchy foods are rich in glucose, which stimulates insulin release and will be a helpful and necessary part of your return to a healthy diet.
Another helpful suggestion is to get some good Vitamin B Complex rich foods into your diet right off the bat. Deficiencies of B vitamins were described in Chinese texts dating as early as 2600 BC… and after all of that sugar you’ll have a good deficiency in your Vitamin B department. However – I choose to have you eat real foods rather than just adding more vitamins to your diet. Why? Your bodies do not recognize vitamins as nutrients, because they don’t work the same way as our whole foods for this simple reason, foods contain not just vitamins, but they contain the synergist that allow them to work with your body. Great complex Vitamin B rich foods include bananas, potatoes, tempeh, lentils, other whole grains, chili peppers, green vegetables, eggs, dairy products, and meats including turkey, tuna, and liver.
Another thing I want you to consider is what sugar does to your body, that is just like what alcohol does. New research links consumption of high-fructose corn syrup (or Corn Sugar as they like to call it these days), the extremely popular sweetener that shows up in food products from ketchup to jelly, and of course all of that Halloween candy; to liver damage in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. NAFLD is is a term used to describe the accumulation of fat in the liver of people who drink little or no alcohol.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is common and, for most people, causes no signs and symptoms and no complications. But in some people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, the fat that accumulates can cause inflammation and scarring in the liver. This more serious form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is sometimes called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. At its most severe, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease can progress to liver failure. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is present in 30 percent of adults in the United States. So today you’ll want to make sure you are helping your liver to detoxify from all of that sugar you gave it over the weekend. The top liver detoxifying foods include:
Garlic and Onions
Cruciferous Vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage)
Whole Grains
Turmeric
Berries
Green Tea
Yogurt
Legumes (beans), nuts and seeds
Soy
Red Grapes
All of these tips are yummy, and I’m sure you can come up with some great ideas to start your week out right and get the “sugar monkey” off your back. Maybe next year, you’ll just eat less sugar.
November 1, 2010 No Comments
Sourdough Doughnuts
So, the days are getting colder. So what would you love to have for breakfast this Halloween? How about some yummy Sourdough Doughnuts  with some hot cocoa? It’s a little chilly here in our area, so this is the perfect trick before the treats. I love Nourished Kitchen, and they were making some the other day. They shared a great Sprouted Grain doughnut… but I had to have my husband make some Sourdough Doughnuts for me because just the thought made me salivate.
Ingredients:
2 cups sourdough starter
1/2 – 1 cup lukewarm milk (you’ll stir it in slowly until you get the batter that you like)
1 1/2 C sprouted flour
2 free-range eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1 t sea salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 cup flour (for board)
Mix starter, milk and flour until smooth. Add eggs and oil and beat well. Blend in small bowl the honey, salt, soda and flour. Mix well into dough. Turn out onto 1 C flour and knead lightly until most of flour is worked in (dough is soft.) Place in greased bowl and turn to grease too. Cover with wax paper and let rise until doubled. Then turn onto 1/2 C flour on board. Pat to 1/2″ thick. Cut and put on well floured sheet and let rise until doubled. (Don’t cover!) Fry only 3-4 in hot fat at once and fry raised side (top) first turning only once. Drain.
October 29, 2010 No Comments
