Finding Sweetness in a Sugar Free Life, Chapter 2
Jan 31 '06
The Bottom Line The next breathtakingly exciting episode in our quest for the Holy Grail...of health food. Oh, who am I kidding? The breathholdingly boring lecture on...what???
In our last episode, we learned about how to avoid slowly killing ourselves with what we were eating. But now we were faced with figuring out exactly how, then, to eat. Avoiding sugar and refined carbohydrates is like trying to hide from the sun—we began to feel sympathetic toward vampires…
(If you haven’t read the first episode, click here to find out what on earth I’m talking about.)
But really, when you love pasta and bread as much as I do, how do you start to switch over to healthier alternatives? No more French bread? What about that Italian Restaurant whose food is to die for? Where can you eat??? What can you eat???
My problem was unique in that I am an incurable foodie. It would be presumptuous to call myself a gourmet cook, but I like to cook and I’m pretty good at it. Of course, many of my recipes—nearly all of them—included some sort of refined carbohydrates. I was not prepared to give them up.
Then, with four children and all the sugar-binging occasions they demand (birthdays, Halloween, Easter, getting the right answer at school…), I had a task of Herculean proportion staring me in the face. At least my husband believed strongly in what we were doing, because this was not going to be fun.
I’ll be honest. It hasn’t been fun at all. Despite begging and pleading, I cannot manage to convince my children’s school to forbid sweets at school. Animal cookies unfortunately pass for “healthy” snacks nowadays, and birthday cake and ice cream are present for every birthday. (Oh, not just at the parties…they have to celebrate at school, too.) Why they have to have snacks at school in the first place, I can’t say.
My daughter’s birthday party was particularly embarrassing, despite my best efforts and trial runs. I liked the cake, but when you’re used to soft, sugary (toxic) fluff, it’s hard to adjust at first. To her credit, she tried, but even my daughter wouldn’t eat it. To add insult to injury, I didn’t put it in the refrigerator right away, and by the next morning, it was already beginning to go bad…apparently, when your food isn’t embalmed with sugar, it doesn’t keep as long.
But since then, I’ve learned a lot more about how and where to find some good recipes. It does take a lot of work, but I’ve also found that I’m not alone (though it may sometimes seem like it!). And most importantly, every bit of sacrifice has paid off. I no longer suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Repetitive Strain Injury, Mild Depression, Chronic back pain, Brain drain, The Afternoon Food Coma Syndrome, The Get-These-Kids-Out-Of-Here-Before-I-Go-Crazy Syndrome…the list goes on and on. (That sounded vaguely like Gilda Radner’s Rosanne Rosannadanna…) My kids have calmed down considerably and can even be downright tranquil. “Oh, great, a walking infomercial,” you say, “she’s probably one of those people that’s so happy she makes you wanna puke!” Not quite, but anything’s better than feeling like crap, eh?
So in the spirit of being annoyingly helpful, I’d like to share some of my findings with you so that if you, too, want to give this wild ride a try, you will have a leg up!
First, I read the book Potatoes, not Prozac by Kathleeen Des Maisons. With a Doctorate in Addictive Nutrition (did you know there was such a thing?), Des Maisons presents a fascinating analysis of how sugar and refined carbohydrates affect the brain and its ability to effectively communicate with the rest of your nervous system. As you may deduce from the title, she talks a great deal about depression and how diet can both cause and cure it; however, that is only part of what is covered. The most important thing about this book is the fact that she uses her experience with beating addiction to formulate a program that helps you gradually eliminate the offenders from your diet—lessening the shock to your system and ensuring the most successful transition. If you are serious about taking this step, but have any hesitation at all about your ability to do so (and even if you don’t), I highly recommend that you at least skim this book.
Next, I got a copy of Ann Louise Gittleman’s Get the Sugar Out, which is part treatise on which sweeteners are good to use (and which to avoid), and part recipe book. While I feel that her book ought to have a much better layout in order to be more user-friendly, many of her recipes are excellent (especially the one for chocolate cake…). What’s more, she rates each recipe with one to three “sweet teeth” to indicate the amount of sweetener used. This is less for taste reasons than for reasons of being able to see which recipes will give you a bit of a “glycemic effect” and which are better for the purists. Unfortunately, there are precious few (if any) sweeteners that can give you the taste and texture of sugar without giving you at least a degree of the same effect that sugar does—at least, in dishes that are heated. Even honey and fruit, when cooked, become simple sugars.
As I learned more, I found the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. This cookbook also contains a great breadth and depth of information on healthy eating, based on the research of Weston A. Price in the 㢸s, expanded and kept up to date. Much of the information available in this book is also available on the Weston A. Price Foundation website, which can be found at:
www.westonaprice.org
The Foundation has chapters all over the world, with members who are normal, intelligent people who are trying, just like you, to improve their health through diet. (In the future, I will add more information about this group and some of its rather unique but tried-and-tested dietary guidelines. For now, let’s stick to our main job of reducing sugars in our diets.)
So what can I eat???
I suppose the best way to start here is to list some things that you should strongly consider phasing out of your diet. (And again, I recommend consulting Des Maison’s book for help with this—we quit “cold turkey” but you don’t have to.)
First and foremost, avoid soda like the plague.
If you wish, replace it for now with diet soda; however, be aware that there are many studies that show that artificial sweeteners like aspartame are not much better for you. Sadly, even Gatorade is a big offender in the sugar category. (How sad and annoying it is that they can promote something that is guaranteed to sink your weight loss efforts as a “sports drink”…)
Start limiting your consumption of desserts and other sweets. Have someone help you eat that ice cream sundae so you’re not tempted to eat the whole thing. Put one less scoop of sugar (or other sweetener) in your coffee. Choose one or two days a week to go without sweets and gradually work your way up (just don’t let the day off be an excuse to go hog wild the following day…). You don’t have to be perfect, just cut down for starters.
Learn to read labels. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but you’d be amazed at how many different ways sugar lurks in our food. Even salt usually has dextrose added, to help keep it from clumping. Plus, if a manufacturer uses more than one type of sweetener in a product, each is a lower percentage of the total, so they don’t have to list “sugar” first in the list of ingredients. Instead, they can list (all sweeteners in bold): whole wheat, sugar, tricalcium and dicalcium, salt, malt extract, corn syrup, vitamin C, etc. That’s the ingredients in Total “whole grain” breakfast cereal! Each ¾ cup serving has 5 grams of sugar, which is a heaping teaspoonful. And personally, I don’t know of anyone who really eats only ¾ cup of the stuff, do you?
So here are some “hidden sugars” to look for in that ingredient list: anything that ends in “-ose” (dextrose, maltose, fructose, lactose), any kind of syrup (brown rice syrup, maple syrup, corn syrup), concentrated fruit juice, honey, molasses, corn sweetners or any variation of these names.
[I hear you saying, “Concentrated fruit juice? What’s wrong with that?” Well, if given a choice between that and sugar, fruit juice is a bit better. Unfortunately, there are two drawbacks to juice when you’re trying to cut down on sugars. First, because juice does not contain the pulp and skin of the fruit, you’re missing essential vitamins and minerals that help with the metabolism of it, just like sugar. Second, unless you own a juicer and are making your own juice, anything you buy has been pasteurized. Heating the juice destroys essential enzymes needed by your body and concentrates the sugars, making them easier for your body to absorb very quickly into the bloodstream. This is exactly what you don’t want. The same thing happens with honey, except that it has a much higher percentage of sugar—that’s why the supermarket stuff is so sickly sweet.]
However, if you have a choice between a product sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup and one sweetened with one of the above, take the latter. HFCS is evil incarnate—you can read more about why here.
Try to avoid snacking. Each time you eat, your blood sugar balance is affected and your body must work to restore this balance, so try to keep it to 3 squares. If you can’t make it through the day without snacks, try to at least make sure that your snacks are not sugary or packed with refined flour. Carrots and other veggies, or even some whole wheat crackers with sugar-free peanut butter are great. (Whole Foods has sugar-free peanut butter in both crunchy and creamy that is delicious and isn’t expensive.)
Make breakfast a priority, but also make certain that you’re not starting the day with refined carbs, which will set you up for a cycle that is nearly impossible to break. We get the good-old-fashioned rolled Quaker Oats and have oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon. Not the sugary instant stuff! (Besides, that’s more expensive anyway!) Does it take too long to cook oatmeal in the morning? Here’s a tip that requires just a minute of planning the night before: get a bowl and fill it with half oatmeal and half water—just enough to barely cover the oats. Let it soak overnight, and in the morning, all you have to do is warm it in the microwave for a minute (or eat it cold if it doesn’t bother you!) and add whatever you like. If you can’t live without a little something to sweeten it, try unheated raw honey--just make sure you let the oatmeal cool a little before adding it, so that the heat doesn’t turn it to sugar. (The guideline is that if it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot for honey.) Which brings us to…
What sweeteners can I use???
Unheated raw honey can be used to sweeten most things, as long as you don’t heat them (so for tea or baking, it won’t work very well). You can find it at most health food stores, or they should be able to order some for you. You can also order it through the internet, if you prefer. Raw honey will not only satisfy your sweet tooth, it’s actually good for you: it’s full of enzymes and nutrients. Keep in mind that bees live on the stuff (but they don’t heat it either). Avoid the supermarket stuff that’s nice and clear; real unheated honey is thick and whitish. (As most people will caution you, however, don’t give it to children under 1 year old.)
Stevia and Xylitol also seem to be pretty good sugar substitutes, though they don’t always work quite like sugar. Stevia extract can only be used in minuscule quantities and has a slight licorice flavor. Xylitol, however, has bulk like sugar and can be used in things like cookies. Made from birch sap, it is a refined product and while it doesn’t appear to cause a glycemic effect, I don’t know that it’s especially good for your health in large amounts. (Besides, it’s a mild laxative…)
I’ve recently had some success with a product called Rapadura, which is supposed to be unprocessed, dried sugar cane that still contains a high proportion of vitamins and minerals.. However, my husband seems to be a bit sensitive to it and tends to get sleepy when he eats food made with it. I usually save it for special occasions like when sweetening cranberry sauce for the holidays or making birthday cakes.
Beyond Sweets…The Nitty Gritty
Being on a whole grain diet doesn’t have to be gritty.
Of course, there are the obvious changes: you’ll want to replace white rice with brown; make mashed potatoes with the skins on; pie crusts and gravy thickeners with whole wheat flour; white bread will need to be supplanted by whole wheat bread. Though I did not care for these at first, I have found that over time, I have come to strongly prefer the taste and texture of these whole grains.
But also try experimenting with some different grains: try a barley risotto (whole, not pearl) or a quinoa pilaf. Buckwheat (also known as kasha) can be delicious with Beef Stroganoff in the place of noodles.
However, be aware that just because something says “whole grain” on it, that doesn’t mean that it is made from 100% whole grain. What on earth does that mean? It means that if a bread has both white flour and whole wheat flour (as most do), they can still say it is “whole grain”, because, in part, it is. Never mind that it also happens to have mostly non-whole-grain flour and high fructose corn syrup too. (It’s true: we found a delicious, moist 7 grain bread and it had something like 8 grams (or 2 teaspoons) of sugar in the form of HFCS in each slice!!!)
Pasta is tricky this way too. Most “whole wheat” pastas are a blend of whole wheat and white flour; and some only have enough whole wheat to stain them brownish. I have had some success with pasta that says it is 100% whole wheat, but they can be spotty. I had high hopes for Barilla’s new PLUS line of pasta, but it just didn’t work for us. The best I’ve had so far, surprisingly, is a Japanese buckwheat noodle, called Soba. They may sound unappetizing, but you’d be surprised! While I haven’t tried them with Spaghetti sauce, they’re quite tasty and even quick and easy to make. Check for them at your local health food store or oriental market.
And speaking of Japanese food, that brings up the other big question:
Where can I eat???
This is a somewhat disheartening one, because there really are very few restaurants that have sugar and refined-carb-free items on the menu. However, with some planning ahead, it can be done.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, you can eat a burger without the bun. It can be sloppy, but I’ve become an expert at holding the contraption together with the bun and just biting what’s inside. Nearly any sandwich can be eaten this way. Avoid the ketchup (it’s mostly HFCS) and go with tomatoes instead. Chicken nuggets aren’t too bad, but the breading can get pretty bad sometimes, and the sauces are so heavily sweetened, they ought to be dessert. Check the salad dressings for the same reason. Fries…well, I’ve found that the nice big thick ones at the better places don’t give me too much trouble.
Chinese and Japanese restaurants can be good but you have to beware any dishes that are obviously sweet (sweet and sour chicken, teriyaki, etc.)—ask your server for help in choosing dishes and specifically ask for no sugar in whatever items you choose. I’ve never had anything but cheerful compliance with this request. Avoid the white rice, noodles, dumplings, wontons, etc.; if you’re very lucky, your local Chinese or Japanese restaurant just might serve brown rice. Ask for it.
Steakhouses are fine, but if you get the baked potato, try to eat the skin.
There are a number of places where you can get good kebabs, and hummus is great—just avoid the pitas.
I suppose the possibilities are nearly endless if you are willing to be vigilant. I’d be happy to post any suggestions you may have here, if there’s anything I’ve forgotten.
So I’ll leave you with my favorite recipe—I invented it myself, and it was the perfect thing to take the place of brownies when I had cravings. (If, like me, you were subjected to carob when you were young and think it is awful, try Chatfield’s roasted carob powder—it’s available at Whole Foods. In my own humble opinion, it’s quite good and nearly indistinguishable from cocoa, except that it isn’t as bitter and therefore needs less sweetening.)
No-bake Peanut-free cookies
2 sticks butter, softened or melted.
½ cup dates soaked in warm water at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.
4 tbsp. Carob powder
1 tsp. Vanilla extract (check to make sure it doesn’t contain sugar!)
3 cups rolled oats (approximately)
Drain the water from the dates until it just covers them; then process in a blender until a smooth paste is formed. Add this paste to the softened butter, vanilla and carob powder and stir well. Add the oats slowly, stirring occasionally until the mixture is becoming firm but still quite moist (you want the oats to soften by absorbing the butter). Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper and allow to dry for a few hours or overnight. They can stay out of the fridge for a day or two (if they last that long), but then they should go in to avoid spoilage.
Variations: Add raisins or chopped dried (unsweetened) cherries.
Mmmm…
Thanks again for reading…I think I’m going to have to go make a batch of these.
I will be fleshing this out with full reviews of the books listed above and more recipes in future episodes, so keep checking back! Also, please see the first episode here. My reviews of the movie Supersize Me and the book Sugar Blues are also helpful in understanding what the big deal is.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mothra3
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Location: oblivion, awaiting a heroic rescue
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
Loss of mind now complete. I am, however, feeling much better...
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.