Artificial Sweeteners: Sweet Poisons?

You’ve heard the expression “pick your poison”.

When it comes to sweet stuff, you need to do just that. Sugar, consumed to excess, can be toxic and lead to conditions such as diabetes. But what about artificial sweeteners?

Commonly consumed sources of artificial sweeteners include the packets and pills used in place of sugar to sweeten coffee and tea, soft drinks and chewing gum.

If you’ve read articles and posts on the importance of limiting your sugar intake, this advice might make you scratch your head:

It’s better to have real sugar than artificial sweeteners.

Here is the rationale:

Your body knows the difference between things that are truly sweet because of their sugar content and those that are artificially sweet. Artificial sweeteners can make sugar cravings worse because they don’t satisfy them. You would be better of drinking one can of soda with all its sugar, than 4 cans of artificially sweetened soda (unless you have a health condition that requires you to restrict carbohydrates).
Some artificial sweeteners can distort your body’s regulation of blood sugar. Blood sugar distortion can, over time, lead to conditions such as insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes.
Some artificial sweeteners convert to toxic compounds when your body metabolizes them. For example, aspartame is metabolized to formaldehyde (a carcinogen and neurotoxin).

If you drink multiple servings artificially sweetened drinks daily, your first step should be to set a goal for yourself to reduce your intake. Make it a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bounded). For example, if you were in the habit of drinking 4 sodas per day, your SMART goal might be:

I will reduce my consumption of sodas from 4 to 3 daily for seven days in a row by [date].

Once you achieve your goal, you set a new goal for further reduction.

If you are currently drinking artificially sweetened drinks, I recommend you convert to those that are sweetened with sugar and gradually reduce the amount of sugar you take in.

You could begin substituting sparkling water for servings of soda. If you prefer to drink something flavored, add slices of citrus or other fruits, cucumber or herbs like mint or basil to your water.

Gum chewers should work on reducing the frequency and duration of their chewing. For example, if you currently chew gum for several hours every day, set an initial SMART goal like:

I will reduce my gum chewing from 4 hours daily to 90 minutes daily for seven days in a row by [date].

If you learn to love the natural flavour of foods, including the sweet ones in moderation, you’ll benefit by improving your health through toxin avoidance.

References

9 Tips For Easier Dieting

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Some people find changing the way they eat incredibly difficult. They view it as a lifetime commitment to deprivation. It doesn’t have to be this way. These 9 tips for easier dieting can help.

Perspective matters. For example, if you have to stop eating foods that cause symptoms of disease, such as gluten, the “deprivation” will result in better health. If you are making changes to assist with weight management, the deprivation is likely to be temporary, and viewing how you eat as a long term lifestyle choice instead of a temporary change to deal with weight, for example, can make committing to the changes easier.

Drinking water when you feel hungry can reduce your caloric intake; some people have difficulty distinguishing between hunger and thirst. The feeling of fullness created by the water can be satiating. Studies show drinking 500 ml of water before a meal can increase metabolism[1] and reduce caloric intake by suppressing appetite[2].

Food journaling can make easier dieting a snap by being mindful of portion sizes and calorie intakes. There are apps, such as Cara and Samsung Health, that can track food, mood, exercise, sleep and other factors in your health[3].

Learn what a portion is[4]. It’s easy for portion sizes to become distorted, resulting in a greater than needed caloric intake. As little as an extra 100 calories per day can amount to a 10 pound weight gain in a year. Use your hand to estimate an appropriate portion size, as illustrated below.

Think about what you can eat, instead of focusing on foods you want to avoid, to mitigate feelings of deprivation. If your eating plan includes foods that are not familiar or favorites, saying “I get to eat [unfamiliar food]” instead of “I have to eat [unfamiliar food]” makes the attitudinal shift easier to manage.

Deal with any tendency to eat for emotional reasons, such as stress. Your food journal can include notes about your mood or stressors. Externalizing how you feel by writing it down can make the feelings and the need for comfort less intense. Deep breathing exercises can be powerfully stress-reducing. Exercise, even if it’s in the form of going for a gentle walk, can ease stress[5] and temporarily suppress appetite[6].

Alter the content of your food to make your diet work for you. Healthy fats[7]and fiber suppress appetite[8]. An avocado might be labelled as fattening, but if you account for its calories in your daily limit, what you get in exchange is heart-healthy mono-unsaturated fat and 7 grams of fiber per 100 grams (about a quarter of your daily intake), plus vitamin C, vitamin B6, magnesium and iron[9]. Nutrient dense foods with a low impact on blood sugar like this should be your focus.

Use caffeine in moderation to control appetite. Caffeine sources such as coffee and green tea can boost metabolism[10] and promote fat burning[11]. A moderate intake is considered to be 2 – 3 cups (500 – 750 ml) per day. Remember to include substances such as cream and sugar used in your drink in your calorie count for the day.

Chew slowly and thoroughly. The way you chew can make a difference to your metabolism[12] and caloric intake[13].

Make sure you get enough sleep. The amount and quality of your sleep have significant impacts on hormone regulation and metabolic effects with respect to body weight[14].

Demystifying Popular Diets

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Dietary advice can be confusing.

The internet is a great source of information but unfortunately not all of the information is of good quality, and this is especially true regarding diets, nutrition and health. As a result, many people are confused about diets: low carb, low fat, high protein, Keto, Paleo and so on. Here are some typical questions:

What is the difference between the Paleo and a Keto diet?

A key difference is whether the diet causes ketosis or not. The Paleo diet is not necessarily ketogenic while the Keto diet is necessarily ketogenic.

Ketone bodies are chemicals that are created when your metabolism shifts from using carbohydrate as its immediate source of fuel to using fat for that purpose. The Keto diet takes its name from its propensity to generate ketone bodies, or to induce ketosis, the process of creating ketones. It is intended to cause ketosis. The Paleo diet restricts the intake of starchy foods but doesn’t obligate you to skew your caloric intake towards foods that are high in protein and/or fat. As a result, it doesn’t have to cause ketosis.

Most of the early research on ketogenic diets was done in connection with their use as a treatment for people with neurological illnesses such as epilepsy[1]. In the 1970’s, Dr. Robert Atkin’s popularized the ketogenic approach as a treatment for obesity and heart disease[2].

The Paleo diet is mostly what people who are not anthropologists imagine paleolithic people ate. In my opinion, the theory (propaganda) behind it is mostly BS. According to National Geographic,

“There’s been a consistent story about hunting defining us and that meat made us human,” says Amanda Henry, a paleobiologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. “Frankly, I think that misses half of the story. They want meat, sure. But what they actually live on is plant foods.” What’s more, she found starch granules from plants on fossil teeth and stone tools, which suggests humans may have been eating grains, as well as tubers, for at least 100,000 years—long enough to have evolved the ability to tolerate them.

The notion that we stopped evolving in the Paleolithic period simply isn’t true. Our teeth, jaws, and faces have gotten smaller, and our DNA has changed since the invention of agriculture. “Are humans still evolving? Yes!” says geneticist Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania.[3]

That said, the Paleo diet can be a healthy option for many people. I just think it’s unfortunate and unnecessary to eliminate entire food groups (dairy, legumes, grains) based on an imagined impression of how our ancestors ate.

What kind of diet should I follow?

If you are in good health, you do not need to follow any particular kind of diet. Most people thrive on a varied approach to eating that emphasizes vegetables. This does not mean you need to become a vegetarian or a vegan. It does mean you should consider Michael Pollan’s advice to

Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much. [4]

Pollan has also recommended that we not eat anything our grandmothers would not recognize as food. Since this recommendation has a shelf-life by virtue of the speed at which food products are developed, I think we should interpret this to mean we should focus on food in a natural or near-natural state. Visually, this translates into an intake that looks something like this:

What you see illustrated is balanced portions of proteins and starches served with an abundance of non-starchy vegetables as a reminder to pay attention to portions as well food content. This approach typifies the advice given in programs such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig but it works for people who want to maintain a healthy weight as well as those who want to lose a few pounds.

While there is no one-size-fits-all dietary solution, this approach will work for most people, especially those that do not have metabolic issues, such as type 2 diabetes, for example. If you have problems with your blood sugar, you might need to reduce the proportion of starchy foods and sweets (including fruits) further. In this instance, discuss your needs with your MD, and ND or a dietician.

Footnotes

[1] Ketonemia and Seizures: Metabolic and Anticonvulsant Effects of Two Ketogenic Diets in Childhood Epilepsy

[2] Atkins Diet | Encyclopedia.com

[3] The Evolution of Diet

[4] 7 Rules for Eating

Parts of this article originally appeared on Quora.

Dealing With Stress-Eating

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Image result for adrenal glands actions — Image source: https://slideplayer.com/slide/9713487/

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How to stop stress eating

The silver lining in this cloudy situation is the fact that you recognize you are stress-eating. This gives you more power over your behaviour than you might think.

While the question targets eating as the source of concern, the underlying problem is stress. If you deal with the stress, the binge eating will become easier to resolve and may subside on its own.

The Effects of Stress

The adrenal glands are significantly involved in the physiological experience of stress which is mediated by hormones, adrenaline (also called epinephrine) and cortisol in particular.

Adrenal hormones:

help regulate your body’s stores of salt and water,
influence the physiology of stress, metabolism and inflammation, and
contribute to sex hormone levels for androgens such as DHEA and testosterone.

Chronic and/or recurrent levels of high stress cause your adrenals to work hard and they can eventually begin to underperform. Naturopaths call this “adrenal fatigue”.

Adrenal fatigue can be characterized by abnormal patterns of cortisol secretion that contribute to cravings for sugar, salt and comfort foods. The alteration in the pattern of cortisol secretion can result in chronic low energy or low energy in the morning and a high energy “wired” state at night.

Dealing with Stress Eating

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a fantastic tool for managing perceptions that promote stress. Support from a therapist or counsellor can be very helpful too.

There are, however, two very simple things you could begin to do RIGHT NOW that would make an immediate difference:

Substitute water for soda – even diet soda. Cortisol can distort your blood sugar level, as can the caffeine and aspartame in diet soft drinks – you need to stabilize your blood sugar. Moreover, there are several studies that show aspartame can affect cognitive function and mood.
Until you feel ready to get regular exercise, do deep breathing exercises. Your body’s response to stress is largely controlled by the part of your nervous system called the Sympathetic Nervous System. It’s partner, the Parasympathetic Nervous System, is the main controller of the relaxation response. Deep (diaphragmatic) breathing triggers parasympathetic activity. This page on marksdailyapple.com provides details on the how’s and why’s.

Parts of this article originally appeared on Quora.

Strategies for Managing Dietary Protein

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What are some strategies to sneak more protein into one’s diet?

It’s not difficult to get enough protein. Adults require a 0.8 – 1 gram per kilogram of body weight.

Once you work out what your target intake is, familiarize yourself with the protein content of your favourites. If you can’t tolerate a lot of meat, try more easily digested protein sources, such as poultry, fish, eggs and tofu or tempeh. Chicken breast is 31% protein by weight; tuna is 30%; eggs are 12% and tofu is 8%.

For example, if you weigh 150 lbs or 68 kilograms, you need about 54 – 68 grams of protein per day, depending on your level of physical activity. If you have a 3 egg omelet for breakfast (18 grams), lentil soup with swiss cheese on soda crackers for lunch (23 grams) and a chicken caesar salad for dinner (29 grams), you will have consumed 70 grams of protein. This total does not include protein from beverages or other foods you would probably consume in a day.

If you need to, you can increase your protein intake by having a protein drink once per day as a snack. You can purchase prepared products (e.g. Glucerna, Boost or Ensure) or make your own using Greek yogurt, milk or soy milk as the protein source.

This article originally appeared as an answer on Quora.

Eating Well with Stealth Vegetables

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Children of all ages (and some adults, too) can be finicky about food.

Ensuring a healthy variety of vegetables in the diet can be difficult. If this is your challenge, you’ll find some strategies in this article for getting vegetables into your picky eater. Here are some ideas to consider for making vegetables more palatable:

You can hide almost any cooked vegetable in tomato/spaghetti sauce. If you’re pressed for time, buy pre-made sauces that include multiple vegetables like Catelli’s Garden Select line of sauces.
A number of companies make fruit juices that also contain vegetable juices: V8, Bolthouse, Arthurs.
It’s easy to “hide” mashed sweet potato and grated carrot or zucchini in sandwich fillings like egg salad or tuna salad.
Vegetables can easily be added to meat loaf – try sweet potato, zucchini, carrot, or cabbage. The key is to mash or grate the vegetable finely so it doesn’t make an obvious change to the texture of the meatloaf. None of these vegetables will alter the flavour significantly. Serve the meatloaf with tomato sauce instead of ketchup for added nutrition.
Kids will often eat vegetables in a soup that they won’t eat when served as a side dish. As a time saver, fold left-over or frozen vegetables into a pre-prepared soup. If you’re buying canned soups, look for ones that are lower in sodium.
It’s easy to serve fruits and vegetables in baked goods. Substitute apple sauce for up to 1/3 the amount of oil called for in muffin or cake recipes. Chocolate zucchini cake and carrot cake are favourites in many families.
Sometimes renaming a dish makes a difference. For example, kids who won’t go near Vegetarian Chilli will try Spicy Mexican Casserole, particularly if they don’t know what the ingredients are.

For more on these and other ideas, check out the following resources:

Stealth Health by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD

Michael Smith’s Hidden Vegetable Tomato Sauce

Mary Ann Gratton’s What’s for dinner? I’ll never tell

Dr. Briffa: ‘Stealth vegetables’ and other tactics for getting healthy food into our kids

Diane’s Kitchen: Semi-Stealth Veggies

Parenting tips: how to sneak vegetables into your child’s diet

Sneaky Vegetables: Learn how to sneak healthy foods into your family’s meals

The Eat-A-Rainbow Game

Advanced Diet Information For Managing Chronic Pain

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“Invisible illnesses” and conditions of chronic pain tend to be characterized by other symptoms too, such as intense fatigue and brain fog.

Pain, fatigue and cognitive difficulties can have their roots in inflammation, and diet can be a driver of this, as explained in the basic diet information article. Other drivers of these symptoms include blood sugar dysregulation, gluten and food intolerances and nutrient deficits.

The brain is very sensitive to changes in blood sugar (glucose). Research has shown low glucose can alter the perception of pain [1]. Low glucose can also contribute to fatigue [2]. Dietary strategies that reduce wide blood sugar fluctuations can improve symptoms of pain and fatigue in chronic pain conditions.

What About Gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in grains such as barley, rye, wheat and oats. Gluten sensitivity can result in a wide variety of symptoms, including pain, fatigue and brain fog.

Sensitivity to gluten can range from mild to extreme, with the extreme form being known as celiac disease or sprue. Blood tests and biopsies are usually performed to confirm a celiac disease diagnosis, and blood tests are also available to test for milder forms of sensitivity, such as non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS).

If you are gluten-sensitive, eliminating gluten from your diet may result in symptomatic improvement. If you are not gluten-sensitive, eliminating gluten is unlikely to produce any symptomatic improvement aside from placebo effect.

Food intolerances to substances other than gluten can also contribute to the development of pain, fatigue and brain fog. Talk to your healthcare provider about the risks and benefits of an elimination diet for identifying food sensitivities.

Other Nutritional Considerations

Pain, fatigue and financial limitations may underlie decisions that result in a sub-optimal diet and nutrient inadequacies. Food intolerances and digestive system conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome may also contribute to the development of nutrient deficiencies. Fibromyalgia and CFS, for example, seem to create nutrient deficiencies and/or higher than normal requirements for certain nutrients. If you are concerned you may be low in a specific nutrient, please contact your healthcare practitioner for assessment prior to experimenting with supplements because some can induce toxicity symptoms and/or interact with medications.

Managing Blood Sugar

People who live with chronic pain can be limited in their capacities for activity, including exercise. When dietary intakes are not balanced with physical activity, metabolic changes leading to obesity and type 2 diabetes can occur.

Blood sugar management involves moderating your total caloric intake according to your level of physical activity, as well as the frequency of meals and their content. Dietary approaches, such as the Dysglycemia Diet, that focus on whole foods, lots of fiber, and food sources of probiotics promote better blood sugar stability.

How To Make Dietary Changes

With the exception of food avoidance due to intolerance or allergy, most people get better results when they make incremental dietary change over time than when they implement drastic change suddenly. Human bodies like consistency and have many regulatory processes (homeostatic mechanisms) that promote it. Abrupt change interferes with this preferred state.

When you implement The Dysglycemia Diet, you may begin to eat more pulses (beans and lentils) and other sources of fiber than you are used to. Increasing your fiber intake or introducing foods you don’t consume regularly can result in digestive upset.

The key to avoiding this is to start low and go slow. Start with small amounts, eaten once per day. As you adapt to the change, try increasing the amount or frequency but not both at the same time.

Remember the basics too: choose whole (unprocessed) foods, avoid CRAP, spread your calories through the day, and maintain your hydration level.

References

[1] Gibbons, Christopher H., et al. “Experimental hypoglycemia is a human model of stress-induced hyperalgesia.” PAIN® 153.11 (2012): 2204-2209. http://pfizerpro.com.co/sites/g/files/g10012911/f/publicaciones/2012_153_11_Experimental-hypoglycemia-is-a-human-model-of-stress-induced-hyperalgesia_2204_2209.pdf

[2] Cryer, Philip E. “Symptoms of hypoglycemia, thresholds for their occurrence, and hypoglycemia unawareness.” Endocrinology and metabolism clinics of North America 28.3 (1999): 495-500. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10500927

Basic Diet Information

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“You are what you eat.”

It is literally true. Pain often results from inflammation, and inflammation can result from too many pro-inflammatory foods and not enough ant-inflammatory ones. Following the tips on this info sheet will help you maintain the right balance.

What’s your strategy?

To make the most of your energy peaks and minimize the limitations of the valleys, you will need to be strategic about how you eat. This article presents the dietary strategies you’ll want to use: self-assessment, implementing the basics of good nutrition and avoiding CRAP.

Three Important Questions for Self-Assessment

Do you have at least one bowel movement daily?
Is passing gas a rare thing for you?
Is your breath inoffensive? (Maybe you should ask someone…)

The Basics of Good Nutrition

Eat a variety of fresh, whole foods most of the time.
Foods provide the greatest nutrient value when they are fresh. Canned and processed foods provide fewer nutrients, along with other undesirable ingredients. Frozen foods provide a nutrient level that is midway between fresh and processed. The healthiest foods will always be fresh items that you prepare for yourself.

Eat plant-based foods more than anything else.
Nutrition is chemically complex. While we have identified many biologically active and health-supporting chemicals in food, we haven’t found them all nor do we understand how they work together to influence health. Plants provide vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and a host of other nutritionally important components in ratios that are perfect for our health. These nutrient packages cannot be replicated with supplements.

Enjoy your food but treat it as fuel.
The heightened availability of dietary information has fostered much anxiety and many misconceptions. People worry about eating too much of this and not enough of that. The bottom line is this: Food is meant to be enjoyed. Enjoy what you eat, eat a wide variety of foods, and eat modest portions. Viewing your food as fuel means that you make conscious decisions to select high quality foods in the amounts that you need. Learn to recognize and respect your body’s cues to hunger and satiety.

Have some protein at each meal.
Protein, like carbohydrates, provides 4 calories per gram. Unlike carbohydrates, it is digested slowly and helps to keep blood sugar stable. Blood sugar spikes and the corresponding insulin peaks they produce, contribute the development of metabolic dysfunction and inflammation in your body. Having some protein with each meal helps to keep your blood sugar level and your energy high throughout the day.

Eat regularly – do not skip meals.
This principle also addresses the concern about stabilizing blood sugar. When you skip meals, your metabolism slows to conserve energy. Your body “thinks” it’s starving. With the next meal comes a flood of blood sugar, which triggers an insulin spike. Frequent small meals keep your body supplied with a steady stream of fuel. It doesn’t go into starvation mode. If you must fast or skip a meal, make your first meal after your fast a small one that includes some protein to prevent sugar-flood/insulin-spike reaction from occurring.

Ensure your diet includes: sufficient water, probiotics and fiber.
Your body uses water in most of its millions of chemical reactions every day. Staying hydrated keeps your metabolism running smoothly. Even mild dehydration can cause fatigue.

Probiotics are bacterial that are normally found in our digestive systems. They are commensal organisms, meaning we provide them with a living environment and in return they help to keep us healthy. Make a mental note to include a source of probiotics, such as yogurt, kefir or sauerkraut, in your diet every day.

You’ve heard a lot about fiber in the news, in magazines and on TV. You know it’s important to get enough, but how much, exactly, is that? While most people need 25 – 30 grams per day, the good news is that if you eat a diet that is 75% plant-based, you will probably get enough without ever thinking about it.

Avoid CRAP

Carbonated drinks
Refined sugar
Artificial anything
Packaged/processed foods

I recommend minimizing your intake of these foods because they promote inflammation, often by interfering with insulin regulation, and because they tend to be high in calories and low in nutrients.

For additional guidance, check out the Advanced Diet Information .

Wild Rice Salad

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Wild Rice Salad

Recipe by Summit Natural Health Centre

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Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Ingredients

Salad
2 cups wild rice
1 carton (946 mL) of organic low sodium chicken broth
4 stalks celery, sliced
8 green onions, sliced
2 cups frozen peas, thawed
3/4 cup dried fruit such as cranberries or blueberries
salt and pepper to taste
Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp. organic coconut palm sugar
2 Tbsp sesame oil

Directions

Put the chicken broth in a medium sized saucepan and add the rice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover. Let cook for about 40 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Remove from heat and cool completely.
In a large bowl gently mix together the cooled cooked rice, chopped celery, green onions, peas and dried fruit.
Whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, coconut sugar and sesame oil.
Pour dressing over the salad and gently mix. Season with salt and pepper.

Watercress Soup

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Watercress Soup

Recipe by Summit Natural Health Centre

0.0 from 0 votes

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Ingredients

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
non-stick spray
1 onion, chopped
1 medium potato, chopped
nutmeg, to taste
1 clove crushed garlic, optional
3 cups watercress

Directions

In a soup pot sprayed with non-stick spray, gently sweat the chopped onion.
Add nutmeg, chopped garlic and chopped potato.
Cook for a couple of minutes. Add the stock and simmer until the vegetables are tender.
Remove any large stems from the watercress and roughly chop. Stir into the soup and allow to wilt.
Remove from heat to cool the soup slightly. Blend until smooth.
Return to heat to warm through. Add yogurt or sour cream, as well as salt and pepper, if desired, to garnish.