February is Heart Month

New studies have shown that sugar can impact heart health, regardless of other health concerns like obesity or diabetes. When sugar is ingested, your body reacts by releasing insulin. This spike in insulin when occurring continuously, starts to take a toll on the lining of your blood vessels and arterial walls, leaving them inflamed. Daily consumption of sugar which can hover at a high level all day will cause your heart health to plummet.
According to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, people who consumed more than 21% of their daily calories from added sugar were at double the risk of death from heart disease than those who consumed less than 10% of calories from added sugars. That means something as simple as an extra shake from the drive-thru—containing 50 grams of sugar, on average— is enough to double your daily intake. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, approximately 37% of the added sugar in Americans’ diets comes from sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas and juices. (You would think drinking a glass of orange juice would be healthy but it is not at 24 grams of sugar in an 8 ounce bottle.)
It’s important to note that the findings were consistent across age groups, sex, physical-activity levels, weights and other dietary habits. This is significant because it is unlike other health threats whose probability can be based on things like genetics and gender.

Sugar pseudonyms are more common than you might think, so when reading a label watch for: barley malt, beet sugar, brown sugar, cane or date sugar, cane-juice crystals, pure sugar cane juice, evaporated cane juice, dried cane juice, caramel, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), dextran, diastaste, fruit juice or concentrate, golden sugar or syrup, raw sugar, refiner’s syrup, sorghum, turbinado sugar, yellow sugar, invert sugar, malt syrup, rice syrup, maltodextrin, and all ingredients ending in “-ose” such as sucrose, dextrose, glucose, maltose, lactose, ethyl maltose, fructose, and levulose.  Oh, and that also means agave. Agave, which is naturally sweeter than sugar, has also recently been linked to cardiovascular disease, as well as diabetes and miscarriage during pregnancy.

There is also a problem with the fructose found in honey and maple syrup. These sweeteners should be used with caution especially those people following a Paleo diet. They are not a free pass. Watch the youtube video by Dr. Robert Lustig "Sugar The Bitter Truth"

One thing most people don’t realize about sugar is that it begs the old “the chicken or the egg” question: Which came first, the craving or the consumption? Too much sugar in your system can cause Candida to grow out of control, and this normally harmless yeast can easily become an invasive resident. Candida needs sugar to reproduce, so the more sugar (and carbohydrates) you eat, the more you will crave. While everybody knows your waistline suffers, the new study illuminates the fact that your heart will too.

Sugar has snuck in the backdoor and is robbing our health blind. With our attention averted elsewhere, sugar has ravaged our physical well-being in the form of obesity, diabetes, poor dental health, digestive challenges, and now the threat to heart health has officially been added to the list—and in serious fashion. The safest way to dodge added sugar is to enjoy whole foods with as little processing as possible.

Healthy life,
Suzanne

Stevia - Beat Sugar Addiction NOW!

Why Is Sugar Addictive?

For thousands of years, humans ate sugar found naturally in their food. Sugar was not a problem; it was a treat. But now more than one-third of the calories we consume come from sugar and white flour added by food processing. Our bodies simply were not designed to handle this massive load.
Many of you have already noticed that although sugar gives you an initial high, you crash several hours later, and this leaves you wanting more sugar. In fact, sugar acts as an energy loan shark, taking away more energy than it gives. Eventually, your "credit line" runs out and you find yourself exhausted, anxious, and moody.
The Long-Term Consequences of Sugar Addiction
In addition to the immediate fatigue and emotional problems, sugar also causes many long-term health problems. For example, our consumption of high-fructose corn syrup has risen 250 percent in the past fifteen years--and our rate of diabetes has increased approximately 45 percent during the same time period. Although the sugar industry sometimes tries to confuse the public by claiming that corn syrup is not sugar, it is a form of sugar as far as your body is concerned--and more toxic than cane sugar. 

Some chronic medical problems associated with excess sugar in our diet include:

Fatigue and pain

Weight gain

Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia

Chronic sinusitis

Irritable bowel syndrome and spastic colon

Cancer

Metabolic syndrome with high cholesterol and hypertension

Heart disease

Hormonal problems

Candida and yeast infections

ADHD

Anxiety and depression 

 

Enter Stevia, it is a South American herb used as a natural sweetener for centuries. The leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant have a refreshing taste, zero glycemic index, zero calories and zero carbs. It is 25-30 times sweeter than sugar, and far more healthy!

The http://www.sweetleaf.com/ is the only one I have found that I can tolerate.
 
I made this protein bar to take for work and school.



Chocolate Chip Coconut Banana Protein Bars
 Makes 16 small bars or 8 large bars
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/3 cup almond meal/flour
2 scoops chocolate protein powder (I used Garden of Life)
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 packets stevia (I used Sweet Leaf)
2 ripe banana, mashed
1 t. vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup coconut milk (from a can, not light)
2-3 T. mini chocolate chips
Optional: shredded coconut and extra chocolate chips for topping
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 pan with cooking spray or coconut oil. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, then add wet ingredients. Once everything is incorporated into a batter, stir in the chocolate chips. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.
***After the bars are finished baking, you can top with shredded coconut and more chocolate chips and toast in the toaster oven for a minute. Or, you can add the coconut towards the end of baking.

I do believe in moderation when it comes to stevia. We know it has been used for a long time in Japan.

http://healing.about.com/cs/uc_directory/a/uc_stevia_jones.htm

Healthy Life
Suzanne

Candida

If there is one book that you could have about Candida, that would be Ann Boroch's book "The Candida Cure". She also has a website that has a blog/newsletter. I have been reading her blog and going back a few years to read what she writes. http://www.annboroch.com/blog/
I liked her article:  http://www.annboroch.com/blog/february-2012-newsletter-8020-rule-of-moderation
Following her guide lines would help with all kinds of diseases.

Top Foods/Drinks That Are Most Damaging To The Body:

• Refined sugars (high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, dextrose, fructose, brown sugar, molasses) are found in candy, ice cream, donuts, fruit juices, snack bars, etc. Sugar creates inflammation in the body and strips it of essential vitamins and minerals needed for optimal functioning. Even unsweetened fruit juices have too much sugar. Consider instead: stevia, chicory root, coconut sugar, and small amounts of birch xylitol (Ultimate Sweetener).
• Cow’s dairy products (milk, cheeses, ice cream, and, yes, even yogurt!)  Milk is pasteurized, homogenized, and filled with antibiotics and hormones. Pasteurized and homogenized means that milk is heated to high temperatures to kill off bacteria. But this process also changes the mineral structure and makes milk acidic. Acidic foods do not add minerals to the body but actually leach them from the body. Calcium and other minerals come from eating dark leafy green vegetables. What other species drinks milk from another species? None. Switching to Lactaid milk, which removes the lactose (sugar) from milk, doesn’t solve the problem because most people are also allergic to the protein molecule in milk. Consider instead: Unsweetened almond, coconut or hemp milk.
• Gluten (barley, kamut, oats (unless gluten-free oats), rye, spelt, wheat, white flour) is found in cereals, breads, bagels, pastries, and snack bars. Gluten is a protein that creates inflammation in the body. I call it “goo and glue” in the gut. It strips the villi on the intestinal tract lining allowing antigens and food particles to pass through the intestinal wall and leak into the body.  Consider instead: quinoa, millet, buckwheat, wild rice, brown rice, teff, and amaranth.
• Alcohol - a neurotoxin. Yes, wine has resveratrol in it, but you can get the benefits of that by taking a supplement or eating grapes–not drinking it in a base of chemicals that negatively impact liver and brain function.
• Trans fats (partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oils) - are found in processed foods such as pizza, chips, breads, pastries, donuts, and french fries. Trans fats are vegetable oils heated to high temperatures for the sole purpose of increasing the shelf life of a food product. These denatured oils clog arteries, increases bad cholesterol, and contribute to heart disease and diabetes.
• Artificial sweeteners, caffeine, MSG -  many processed foods and drinks contain chemicals and stimulants. They have a direct impact on brain function and energy. High energy drinks such as Red Bull, Rockstar, Cocaine Energy drink, are loaded with sugar and caffeine, which over excite the brain. Caffeine, in particular, is acidic, an irritant to the central nervous system, and disrupts the endocrine system.

These are great suggestions and I will continue to follow these guide lines.
Healthy Life
Suzanne