Fruit, Sugar, Soda... making healthy choices

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As I discover new information through research of modern and anthropological nutrition and diet, I am learning so much. It can be overwhelming to realize that much of what I was taught, via "osmosis", living in the culture I grew up with, was wrong. This is a process of discovery, as is all of life, and being a lover of real food I am constantly seeking new ideas and challenges to my previously held beliefs about food.

So I have come to a new knowledge about sugar. Sorry to be a kill-joy but sugar is really bad for us, in so many ways and on a number of levels. And it's highly addictive to our bodies and brains, even for non-human animals. In one french study, researchers found that rats chose sugar over cocaine! Yikes!

Take this comparison of the sugars in 100% fruit juice compared to Coca-cola. Guess what? Fruit juice usually has even more sugars then a can of coke! Most parents would not hesitate to pack a juice box in their child's lunch box, I used to do it myself without thinking twice. But I would never have packed up a soda (in fact some schools have rules against allowing soft drinks in lunches), when in fact either choice is truly not a healthy one for a growing young body.

The craziest thing to me is that our body really can only handle so much sugar in our blood streams, and even food that does not taste sweet, such as french fries, can elevate our blood sugar dangerously. Elevated blood sugar can lead to numerous problems, including the dreaded and now ubiquitous type 2 diabetes. This article references a study which found that consuming sweetened drinks, whether "diet" or not, and including fruit juice, increase your chance of liver damage.

Here's where the reality of sugar intake really hits home for me; fruit sugars, or fructose, even from whole fruit, aren't innocent either. This article gives a simple explanation as to how consuming fruit causes stress on the liver and does not help us feel full. According to Dr. Kurt Harris, a practicing radiologist, "fruit is just a candy bar from a tree". Fruits that have the lowest amounts of sugar include berries and kiwi, fruits with high amounts of sugar are apples, bananas, and watermelon. Dr. Davis, a cardiologist, writes here that fructose from fresh fruit, honey or corn syrup, is strongly linked to an increase in heart disease markers like high LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

Please remember, for your own health and the health of your children, that when something is sold on the shelves of a grocery store, even a natural foods place like my local co-op, this does not mean it is a real food, and does not mean it is safe to eat. Most things that are truly safe to eat do not have a label of any kind and do not come in a box.

What is safe to eat then? Basically I believe the following foods are what we should focus on in our diets: healthily reared (grass-fed, organic ect.) meats, fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese, whole-milk dairy foods like cream, unsweetened yogurt, and butter, all types of vegetables including starchy veggies like winter squash, roasted nuts and seeds, healthy vegetable fats ie. coconut oil, sesame oil, or olive oil, and lower-sugar fruit such as raspberries (in moderation, perhaps 1/2 cup per day). Not to say I don't love the taste of 77% dark chocolate, or even authentic custard-style ice cream, au contrair! I just try and keep these things as an occasional treat and in general, eat mostly from the list above.

Please note that I am a cook, a homemaker, and a mother, not a trained scientist, medical doctor or anything of the sort. Therefore, I would encourage you to do your own research and make your own healthy decisions based on what you believe to be true from consulting with health care professionals and your own thorough research.

This post is being shared at Kelly the kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday!