Would You Like Some Sugar to Help Make You Sicker?

sugar

The impact sugar has on our health is huge but is given very little thought towards. We talk mostly about diet sugar and the impact that can have on health and forget about white sugar and its impact on our health.

We use it in everything from our morning coffee to our dessert after supper. It is listed as an ingredient in food we would not expect to have sugar. It is almost a hidden ingredient that we just do not think about but if you start to look around at how much you are eating you would be surprised.

We consume a lot of sugar.

Obviously are ancestors did not need to sugar to survive except for the sugar that came naturally from fruits and berries the gathered. It is now a staple. It's one of those things you always have stocked up in your cupboard and it's one of the most commonly used ingredients to sweeten and balance out flavour.

All of your calories that you get from sugar are empty calories which mean they contain pretty much none of the nutrients you need to keep your cells healthy.

Raw sugarcane contains various nutrients that our white sugar is lacking. These nutrients help you metabolize the sugar that you consume. If you are eating white sugar then your body must acquire these nutrients from somewhere so they end up stealing it from your own tissues.

Sugar is a factor in tooth decay, obesity, diabetes, yeast infections, heart disease, osteoporosis and immune dysfunction.

Since it can affect your immune system try eliminating it from your diet if you feel a cold coming on and see what happens.

Sugar is an antinutrient. Antinutrients are compounds, that are either natural or artificial, and they interfere with the proper absorption of nutrients.

This means that among other things calcium is lost in the urine from sugar which then forces the body to remove calcium from the bones in order to keep calcium levels normal. So if you are concerned about osteoporosis you can see where eliminating sugar comes in.

Other minerals that become deficient are chromium, magnesium, and zinc. With a lack of minerals your body has a hard time producing digestive enzymes need for good digestion. Undigested food particles can get into your bloodstream with can cause problems like allergies and immune deficiency diseases. So you can see why food that is commonly put together with sugar can cause allergens.

These are just a few of the things that sugar does to our health. To find out more about sugars negative health effects visit The Healthy Vegetarian.

Fad Diets and Calorie Restriction Can End With Our Children

When you think of weight loss you think of dieting. No question about it. In fact, everywhere we turn we see another ad, commercial, or person that refers to dieting and weight loss. New diets pop out at us and they seem to make a whole lot of sense while we are reading about them and learning what they consist of.

Weight reducing products are taking up a lot of the market with their remarkable stories of weight loss in just a few weeks or months. I don't deny the fact that it is possible to lose that weight and and that quickly; I just think that it's not as easy to keep it off without gaining it back.

You can lose weight with these diets and watch the pounds come off, start fitting into your skinny jeans, and watch everyone look at you in amazement at how quickly you are doing it, but without exercise and proper eating you will probably be doomed to one day be back up to your starting weight again or even more when it's all said and done.

In fad diets, where you eliminate a lot of food from your diet, you have to remember that chances are you will eat those foods again. And once you eat those foods again you risk gaining the weight back and losing the 'benefits' of the fad diet.

When you decrease calories by a huge amount you can cause the body to slow its metabolic rate to conserve energy. So essentially by starving yourself you burn less fat and have less energy and it may hinder your weight loss no matter how much you think eating nothing should work.

Add exercise into the equation though and you may have a different story. Regular exercise will change how your body produces energy and increase its ability to burn stored fat and lose weight.

I think instead of letting the next generation grow up to have the same problems we are having, we need to teach them right now that exercise is crucial to maintaining a healthy body and weight along with eating a healthy and well balanced diet.

No, I'm not saying we want to tell them that they will grow up fat if they don't start working on it now but I am saying that we need to make sure they know we don't want them to be obsessed with their weight like we are, but rather we want them to know that taking care of their bodies and health is important to ward off disease and obesity.

Think of everything you learned as a child and you'll know that it had a strong influence about the way you look at things now. I see more teens asking questions such as if they look fat in their pictures, and will they lose weight if they only eat one grapefruit a day and run 2 miles afterwards, and other ridiculous questions that not even my generation seemed fixated on. What will the next set of teens be like if we don't stop this craziness?

Let's raise are kids to be smarter and healthier than us and we'll never have to worry about fad diets again.



Grab a healthy kid cookbook and get them started on a healthy journey at The Cook Book Stop.

Click here to check out some great kids cookbooks that will get them going!

Is Soy Milk Healthy Or Not?

By Isabelle Ganevy


We have heard that it's extremely bad for you and we have heard that it's extremely good for you and I started this whole process of learning about it exactly in the middle of those thoughts now knowing which one was correct.

Long has soy been a part of different Asian countries such as China, Indonesia, Japan and so on. And we all know that they are healthier than their western counterparts by a long shot. I have heard that they don't go crazy on soy and use as much as it as we are beginning to do now though.

That is part of our problem. We take something that we deem healthy or have heard is healthy and we overindulge. We need to learn to stop overeating and start eating what we need and in moderation.

But getting back to soy milk, I found many pages of advantages and dis-advantages that said the same things over and over again. I did not find many studies on the subject to back up some of the claims while of course other points are obvious such as low calcium or high fiber.

Keep in mind that most of the benefits and negatives I found could be argued either way and while some did have studies to back it up, the studies that I found had factors that could change the reasoning for such conclusions, such as in one study that looked at older Japanese men and their lifetime diet of soy and it was found that the men who consumed more soy were at a higher risk of low cognitive skills than men who did not. Although it was not taken into factor other parts of their diet as well, and the study took place in Hawaii instead of in Japan where more soy is consumed and with different growing conditions and other variables.

There are benefits to soy milk such as:

• Soy milk is high in proteins and contains more fiber than cows milk due to the fact it's made from beans

• Soybeans have all of the essential amino acids our body requires which makes it a complete protein. They are the only plant food that can claim that.

• Soy milk is an aid in reducing high cholesterol.

• Soy milk can help to prevent and treat menopausal symptoms.

• Isoflavones are found in soy milk. They are quite similar to the hormone that we call estrogen. They are associated to the prevention of many cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis and more. They are also antioxidants which protect our cells and DNA against oxidation.

• Some studies have shown that cows milk can result in insulin dependent diabetes over time whereas consuming soy milk has not reflected this outcome.

• Only 0.5 percent of the children are allergic to soy milk, whereas 2.5 percent are allergic to cows milk.

The negatives of soy milk are:

• Calcium levels are not the greatest. Even though they do add calcium to soymilk it is still not as healthy as natural occurring calcium but calcium can be obtained from other sources like green leafy vegetables and almonds to name a couple.

• Soy food contains goitrogens. Goitrogens are compounds that interfere with thyroid function and in extreme cases can cause an enlarge thyroid. It is also contained in other foods as well. To rectify this eat a well balanced diet. If you are a vegan you should make an effort to include adequate sources of iodine in your diet.

• Estrogen is found is soy. Testosterone in males, including young boys, can be suppressed by ingesting soy products.

• Soy milk and infertility have been linked together and from the information I found, giving an baby soy formula is comparable to giving a baby up to five birth control pills per day but I also found that that research has been very limited in regards to the advantages and disadvantages to babies drinking soy formula.

• The increased level of estrogen can manipulate the menstrual cycle in women.

The other thing I want to state here is that most of the information that I have found about soy milk and soy products is not listed in benefits or cons but mostly as only one or the other. People seem very adamant about the way they feel about soy and because of their intensity I have started to question what is true and what is not true now.

For me, there is too little actual evidence that supports the health dangers to humans from soy; although, I don't think I would take a chance with the claims about giving babies soy milk. There needs to be more research done.

The best statement I found was that 'moderate amounts of soy foods have been eaten happily by entire civilizations for thousands of years'. And to me the key word is moderate. And what comes with moderate? Diversity. The two best things, I believe, you can do for your diet and health.


Isabelle is the owner of The Healthy Vegetarian. For all your vegetarian information, news, articles, and recipes visit us at http://www.thehealthyvegetarian.net.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Isabelle_Ganevy


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