Over 8,000 people have joined us for a month without sugar, is it your turn this year?

Season of Sugar

It is that time of year again: The Season of Sugar.

As the weather turns colder, and the sun dips lower in the sky (except for readers south of the equator), the days get shorter and with shorter days come incredible sugar cravings. Our collective lust for sugar is only fueled by the multiple invitations to gather with friends and family and the tendency of office workers around the world to bring plates of tasty treats to share with everyone. Too many holiday parties, too many advertisers highlighting tasty foods, too little time outside, too many temptations; it is no wonder we all wake these days feeling like we have a hangover and notice that our clothes don’t fit as well as they did the day before.

New Years

New Years is coming quicker than you might think and it is a good time to start thinking about New Year’s Resolution. The best resolution you can choose is a resolution of health and the best thing you can do for your health is to kick sugar and foods that act like sugar out of your life.

Why don’t you join us this January for 30 Sugar Free Days 2012 and give sugar the kick it deserves?

Sugar Harm

The question I always get is: Why kick sugar out of your diet?

The reason is actually pretty simple: Concentrated, pure, processed sugar is not a natural thing to put in your body. Our bodies are simply not meant to handle such a pure and addicting substance.

Take a look at what eating sugar does to you and your health:

• Sugar adds Weight: Added sugar means added weight. This happens because your body has to do something with the extra sugar that enters your blood stream. Maybe you know this, but your body is great at storing sugar as fat. This ability to store fat is unique to sugar and doesn’t happen with non-purified foods. Added weight means you are more likely to live a shorter life, get diabetes, heart disease, stroke and have certain cancers.

• Diabetes: Despite what most medical associations and your doctor might say, there is a connection between sugar and diabetes. Consistently high blood sugar develops into insulin insensitivity and eventually diabetes.

• Toxic: Sugar is toxic to blood vessels in a similar way that cigarette smoke is toxic to lungs. Sugar destroys blood vessels. The results of sugar damage are easy to see in diabetics (who have very high blood sugar) that have a much higher risk for heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, eye disease and other conditions.

Take the 30 Day Challenge

Kicking sugar means that you will not only lose weight (if you want to), but that you are taking the first big step toward living a longer and healthier life. When you kick sugar out of your life, you decrease the chance of getting diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.

Breaking the sugar habit is not easy; at every step you are going to run into your addiction. The effort to stop sugar, however, is well worth the results: you will live a longer, healthier life with sugar out of your diet.

Joining us for the 30 Sugar Free Days Challenge is a great step towards your better health. The program is free and provides you with the support you need to succeed. So many weight loss programs help you shed pounds (for a little while), but often do nothing to address your health.

Why not have both good health and weight loss?

Click the links in this page, or use the navigation on the top of the page and join us for the adventure of a lifetime!

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You have been diagnosed with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance (also called sprue, gluten enteropathy or gluten-sensitive enteropathy), now what?

If you think your baking life is all over now that you can’t use traditional flours, think again. While gluten free flours certainly do take some time to learn to work with they are every bit as versatile as the gluten flours and usually come packed with extra nutrition to boot.

This gluten free flour guide can help you navigate the world of gluten free flours. I’ve included a brief description of the gluten free flours and a recipe or two to get you started.

Many of the following recipes contain sugars (and you may know I’m not a big fan of sugar), but I’m also not a big fan of grains (especially the gluten grains). Consider kicking the gluten grains as a first step and then moving on to kick sugar out of your life (see my 30 Sugar Free Days Program).

Almond Flour

Almond flour is made from almonds (I know, it’s obvious) and is a great way to get extra protein and good fats into a meal. The flour itself is denser than grain flowers and adds a lot of stability and “meatiness” to a recipe. Almond flour is perfect for baked goods and the cherry-like flavor means less need for added sugars. Almond Flour Recipes (Elana wrote the book on almond flour) Almond Flour and Rice Pie Crust Gluten Free Almond Flour Pizza Crust

Amaranth Flour

Amaranth is a beautiful plant that produces millions of tiny seeds. These seeds can be ground up and used as a flour; the leaves of the amaranth plant are also used as food. While there are over 60 different kinds of amaranth only a few are found in our stores. Amaranth seeds and flour are very high in protein and they have a distinct nutty flavor. You can bake with the flour or add the cooked or uncooked seed to most recipes. Amaranth Flour Granola Recipe Amaranth Bread Recipe Gluten-Free Lemon Poppy Seed cake

Buckwheat Flour

Buckwheat has a strong flavor that could be described as nutty or dark. It is a good idea to mix it with other grains such as corn or rice flour to buffer the taste. Like amaranth and quinoa, this grain is packed full of amino acids; it is also high in fiber. Brown Rice & Buckwheat Sandwich Bread Gluten-Free Rosemary-Thyme Dinner Rolls Buckwheat Waffles Buckwheat Sweet Potato Quick Bread

Carob Flour

Carob seed pods come from a tree and the pods are ground to create a flour. The taste can best be described as “chocolate like,” but carob has a natural sweetness that cocoa (baking chocolate) doesn’t Carob Chip Mint Cookies Amaranth Carob Brownies

Coconut Flour

The amazing coconut has so many uses and coconut flour adds a delightful taste to almost any baked food. While you might think that coconut flour would have a strong coconutty flavor, it doesn’t and that is why you can use it in foods such as pizza crust. Herbed Gluten Free Coconut Flour Pizza Crust Gluten Free Dinner Rolls Gluten-Free Pasta Recipe (check out the substitutions part of this recipe)

Corn Flour

Corn is so versatile and is used in so many dishes that it hardly needs an introduction. I would caution anyone with Celiac disease to watch out for corn because it is another common food allergy. Gluten Free Tortillas Corn Waffles Gluten-Free Pasta

Garbanzo Bean Flour

The garbanzo bean (otherwise known as chickpea) is a great source of vitamins and minerals. When the bean is ground it creates a flour that is similar to almond flour (a little more dense than regular flours). Garbanzo beans do have a distinct flavor but I find they mix in well with other flours and add a slightly nutty flavor. Pizza Crust Blueberry Muffins Garbanzo Bean Pancakes

Millet Flour

Millet has been known for a long time as a bird feed. These tiny yellow seeds make a flour that is light and airy. There is a slight taste to millet but nothing you have to work around (like buckwheat). Millet flour does not stick together well so you need to use a binder (see below). Amy’s Gluten-Free Rice Flour Mix Bajra Roti Millet Flatbread Thanksgiving Dinner Rolls

Potato Flour

I like to add potato flour to a number of dishes; it is great as a thickener in soups. As a baking flour it adds a smooth taste to most dishes. Gluten Free Gnocchi Gluten Free Potato Bread

Quinoa Flour

Quinoa has a distinct flavor but one that most people find enjoyable. Like millet flour, you need to use some binder (see below) to help it stay together when you are baking with it. Quinoa is one of the healthiest of the non-grain grains and you should experiment and use it often. Orange Quinoa Muffins Quinoa Pancakes Quinoa Crackers

Rice Flour

You can buy rice flour or you can use the whole cooked grain in many baked foods. When I make waffles I use whole cooked rice as part of the recipe and the grains just disappear in the waffle maker, leaving a slightly chewy texture. Rice flour is light and can be added to almost any baked good. Gluten Free Dinner Rolls Gluten Free Pancakes

Sorghum Flour

Sorghum flour is another flour with a distinctive flavor. I think it is best used when combined with other flours. Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies Thanksgiving Dinner Rolls Irish Soda Bread

Soy (soya) Flour

Similar to garbanzo flour, soy flour is a light flour that adds a high amount of protein to any meal. It works well with many other non-gluten grains. Gluten Free Tortillas Macadamia Pie Crust

Sweet Chestnut Flour

I haven’t used chestnut flour, but many people use it in baked goods such as cookies and pancakes. Amy’s Gluten-Free Chestnut Flour Mix for making cookies and other baked goods. Sweet Chestnut Pancakes

Teff Flour

Teff is the tiniest grain that is used for food. The word Teff means “lost” – supposedly because it is so easy to lose these tiny grains. Teff is so small that it can be added to many baked goods without even grinding it. The taste of Teff can best be described as malty, try mixing a small amount into your next baked food to make it an adventure. Gluten Free Bread Banana Bread Ethiopian Injera (flatbread)

Thickeners and binders

If you are going to use grains without gluten, then you often need something to hold them together (gluten means “glue”). The following are good replacements for gluten:

• Tapioca (cassava)
• Arrowroot
• Xanthan gum
• Taro flour
• Guar gum

Feel Better

Most people who start eating a non-gluten diet feel much better than they have in years. This is a big transition, but once you learn the tricks it gets much easier.

Do you have some great recipes of your own? Leave them in the comment section below (or provide us with a link to the recipe).

I also have a guide to cooking with non-gluten grains, check it out here: Cooking With Non-Gluten Grains.

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Unfortunately, most of what you hear about artificial sweeteners comes from the companies themselves and what you don’t hear about is the downside of these artificial sweeteners.

Generally, you reach for artificial sweeteners for one of two reasons:  you either want to lose weight, or you think that using artificial sweetener will suppress your sugar addiction, or both. But guess what? Artificial sweeteners do neither: they don’t help you lose weight and they can make your cravings worse. Artificial sweeteners also deal a health-blow to your body by introducing chemicals that either shouldn’t be in your body, or that you body has a hard time getting rid of.

The health problems associated with saccharine, aspartame, sucralose and other artificial sweeteners are numerous and you should avoid them whenever possible.

But let’s stop here and take a look at what these crazy chemicals are and what they do inside your body.

Guide to Artificial Sweeteners:

• Saccharin: Most people think that saccharin has been banned by the FDA, but this is not true. While saccharin was banned in other countries, it is still available in the United States and is making a comeback. Saccharin was shown to cause bladder cancer in very large doses in animals and was pulled from the shelves because of a public outcry. It also has a metallic after-taste that makes it not so palatable. Companies who manufacture saccharine will tell you that it passes through your body undigested (if this is true, it makes one wonder how it gets from the intestinal tract to the bladder to cause cancer?). Saccharin is again showing up in a lot of artificially sweetened foods because it is super sweet and is now blended with other sweeteners to mask the metallic taste.
• Aspartame: (This is also called Nutrasweet or Equal). Aspartame breaks down into aspartate, phenylalanine and methanol in the body. The first two (aspartate and phenylalanine) are amino acids and fine for most people to take in, but no amount of methanol is good for your body. Manufacturers maintain that the amount of methanol is so small that you don’t have to worry about it, but others think differently. Aspartame has been shown to increase cancers ¹  and has been associated with headache, dizziness, mood shifts, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and cramps, joint pain, vision changes, slurred speech, diarrhea, seizures, memory loss, numbness and cramping in arms and legs, and fatigue.²
• Sucralose (this is also known as Splenda) What a great name for a product! I’m almost tempted to try it, but since sucralose is an organochloride, I think I’ll stay away. Organochlorides are some of the most toxic substances on the earth (many pesticides are organochlorides and are toxic in small doses). Just because Splenda is an organochloride doesn’t mean it is toxic, but it should raise some eyebrows. Splenda has been shown to increase migraine headaches³ and needs more long-term studies to determine its safety.
• Acesulfame K: This artificial sweetener has been associated with breast, thymus, and lung tumors.

The Bottom Line

If you turn to artificial sweeteners to help you with cravings and weight loss, you might as well not use them at all. This is because artificial sweetener actually cause you to gain weight and continue your addiction to super-sweet tasting foods.

Most of these sweet chemicals cause your insulin to rise. When insulin rise, your blood sugar is lowered. Low blood sugar causes you to crave and eat more. Studies have shown that people who consume artificial sweeteners eat more calories than people who don’t.⁴

The bottom line is that there are no good reasons to put these chemicals in your body, you are better off avoiding all sweet-tasting foods and artificial sweeteners.

1. Soffritti M, Belpoggi F, Tibaldi E, et al: Life-span exposure to low doses of aspartame beginning during prenatal life increases cancer effects in rats. Environ Health Perspect. 2007 Sep;115(9):1293-7.
2. Aspartame (NutraSweet): Is it Safe? (Nutrasweet : Is It Safe?)
   H, J Roberts, The Charles Press, 1990
3. Patel RM, Sarma R, Grimsley E: Popular sweetener sucralose as a migraine trigger. Headache. 2006 Sep;46(8):1303-4.
4. Swithers SE, Davidson TL. A role for sweet taste: calorie predictive relations in energy regulation by rats. Behav Neurosci. 2008 Feb;122(1):161-73.

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Let’s take a look at both natural and artificial sweeteners and see what they do for our health for a complete guide to sugars.

What is a sugar?

The first thing you need to know is what makes a food a sugar. While my book, Sugarettes, has a much more complete description, I will briefly describe what sugars are here.

Sugars are carbohydrates and are the simplest form of carbohydrates; you can think of the sugars as building blocks on which all other carbohydrates are built. Sugars are generally either monosaccharides (mono meaning “one” and saccharide meaning “sugar”) or disaccharides (di meaning “two”) and consist of either one or two molecules stuck together. You have probably heard of many of these sugars: fructose, glucose, maltose, sucrose… From the point of view of your body, these sugars all do the same thing: raise your blood sugar. Your body has a preference for glucose and will convert all the other sugars into glucose so that the cells of the body can use the energy stored in the glucose molecule.

Guide to Sugars

I’m going to break the sugars into two different categories: processed and natural. In truth, all sugars are processed because they don’t appear in nature in such a concentrated form (except for honey – which is processed by bees). You will, however, see many manufactures use the so-called natural sugars as a selling point for their products, so I thought it would be helpful to separate them for you.

PROCESSED SUGARS

• Glucose: when we talk about blood sugar, this is what we are measuring. While it would be nice to be able to measure all sugars in the blood stream, this is all we can currently measure. Glucose is easily taken up by the cells of the body and used as a fuel source for all energy production.
• Fructose: Fructose is the twin brother to glucose and is the so-called “fruit sugar” because it is found in many fruits. The chemical structure of fructose is identical to glucose, it just has a different shape. That small difference is actually a big deal. Fructose tastes much sweeter that glucose and is used by the body differently.
• Sucrose: Sucrose is white table sugar and is a glucose molecule and a fructose molecule stuck together to form a disaccharide.
• Maltose: is two glucose molecules stuck together. It usually forms in the gut when starches are digested and is an important step in the creation of alcohol. Manufactures do use maltose in foods, but it is about 1/3 as sweet as sucrose.
• Lactose: Lactose is the sugar found in milk and milk products.
• High fructose corn syrup: High fructose corn syrup is the sweetener of choice for many food manufactures. It is cheap and tastes sweeter than sucrose. There are many scientists who are starting to question the health hazards of high fructose corn syrup.
• Maltodextrin: Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide (larger than a disaccharide) that is easily broken down into glucose on digestion. It is generally used as a sort of “glue” when food manufactures are looking to hold a product together.
• Dextrose: This is the same as glucose.
• Dextrin: Dextrins are larger chains of glucose molecules stuck together, an example is maltodextrin.
• Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is either slightly unrefined white sugar or white sugar that has molasses added back into it.

NATURAL SUGARS

• Turbinado sugar:  Turbinado sugar is made by pressing sugar cane and then evaporating the water from the juice.
• Raw Sugar: There are many forms of raw sugar (including Turbinado) and they are all mostly the same: made from sugar cane and then evaporated.
• Honey:  Honey is the original processed sugar it is about 1/2 fructose and 1/2 glucose.
• Agave: Agave come from same plant that gives us tequila. It is said to not raise blood sugar, but what they mean is it does not raise blood glucose because agave is mostly fructose.
• Maple Syrup: Made from tree sap and is not a significant source of nutrients besides iron and zinc.
• Molasses: Molasses is byproduct of sugar manufacturing. It does contain iron in significant amounts, but much better to get iron from other sources.
• Evaporated Cane Sugar: The same as raw sugar or Turbinado sugar.
• Fruit juice concentrate: This sugar is mostly fructose made by concentrating different juices (usually grape).
• Xylitol: Xylitol is almost a fiber as it is derived from the fibrous portion of corn husks and peanuts. It is less sweet than sugar and can actually inhibit cavities. It shows up in a lot of natural chewing gums.

Which Should you be Eating?

Looking over all of the sugars above, which do you want to put into your diet? The answer is that, no matter the name, no matter the source, no matter if they are “natural” or not, they all behave the same in your body. So while food manufactures get a lot of mileage off of stating that they are using natural sugars, there is no health benefits to honey, Turbinado or other sugars.

If you are looking to avoid sugars, none of the above will work for you. If you are looking for a substitute, I suggest Stevia.  Stevia, an herb, and has actually been shown to improve insulin sensitivity.

There you go: a complete guide to sugars. I’m guessing that I have missed a few, feel free to add them to the comment section below.

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