Archives for sugar

Sugar Dense Food to Avoid

Whenever you restrict dense refined carbohydrates you are doing your health, weight and wellbeing a favour. The following are equivalent amounts of sugar in teaspoons in typical servings: pasta 180g serving = 8 tsp rice 150 g serving = 10 tsp potatoes 150 g = 6 tsp kumara 150 g = 6 tsp refined breakfast cereals 30 g = 7 tsp fruit juice 1 glass = 6 tsp banana = 6 tsp parsnip = 4 tsp sultanas 60 g = 8 tsp Instead of pasta, make zoodles with zucchini and a spiraliser. Make cauliflower rice instead of rice. Use new potatoes
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Sugar Tax

Could a Tax on Sugar Save Lives? Last month the UK introduced a sugar tax on soft drinks to come into effect in 2018. Our government has stood by its stance not to introduce the tax, despite a compelling open letter signed by 74 professors from universities around NZ urging NZ to follow the UK’s lead. There is suggestions the government should listen to the experts and start treating sugar-related diseases like smoking-related cancers. Osborne, a UK politician said: “I’m not prepared to look back at my time here in this Parliament doing this job and say to my children’s generation, ‘I’m
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Categories: Comments and Other.

Food-Star Rating System a Shambles

Dietary Guides are still not helpful Health authorities in NZ keep wringing their hands and admonishing us about our increasing obesity rates and the associated increase in the incidence of type 2 diabetes and other ills. I believe that these authorities themselves in their muddled confusion around the subject and the influence from self- interested corporates are actually contributors to the problem rather than helpful advisers. This was yet again borne out by an article about NZ’s foods star system in the 26 July 2015 Sunday Star Times. The system is intended to help shoppers make healthier choices about processed
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That Sugar Film

Everyone is talking about “That Sugar Film” and the book by Damon Gameau in Australia. For 2 months Damon changed his healthy diet to eating the same number of calories but from “healthy” alternatives.  He didn’t eat lollies and biscuits or drink fizzy drinks but he did eat low fat yogurt, drinks like Up & Go and other foods with lots of sugar in them in order to eat 40 teaspoons of sugar a day in his diet.  Fortunately he was closely monitored by doctors, blood tests and other advisors (who mostly told him not to do it at all!). The results
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“Healthy” Snack Bars

Consumer has tested and commented on 35 snack bars sold in New Zealand.  it quite rightly says that most are high in sugar and saturated fats and are unhealthy. Consumer used the new health star rating system which has been introduced by the government.  It is a label on the front of the pack which gives consumers an “at a glance” guide to the nutrition value of food with five stars being the healthiest and one star being the most unhealthy.  Nine of the 35 bars received 3 stars or more with only four bars gaining four stars or more.
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Categories: Comments, Products, and Science.

Fat is not the problem…

Handy Hint of the Week: It’s not fat that makes you fat but sugar that makes you fat.  That doesn’t mean you can eat any amounts of fat but fat stops you feeling hungry.  If you eat low fat food add the appropriate amount of good fats into your meal or snack.  Good fats include olives, olive oil, avocado and nuts, especially almonds. Olive Oil: New Zealand produces some of the best olive oils in the world and they are fresh whereas the imported ones from Italy, etc may be several years old by the time they get here.  Oils oxidise and
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Sugar – the Real Problem

The World is Waking Up to the Consequences of Sugar Addiction There have been several articles written over the summer about the obesity epidemic with it’s resulting damage to our health.  It is particularly interesting to see that the experts are starting to recognize that the main cause of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and the other conditions caused by underlying inflammation is caused by the amount of sugar in our diet.  One of my mantras is that “it isn’t fat that makes you fat, it’s sugar that makes you fat”.  I didn’t make that up of course, Dr Sears wrote
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Categories: Comments and Science.

New Heart Foundation Recommendations

The NZ Heart Foundation’s new revised healthy food choice advice has been released and published in the 7th November edition of the The Dominion Post. They have distanced themselves from their old failed model by scrapping the well known Pyramid completely and have replaced it with a stylized heart. The new advice recommends consuming food groups in what appears to be approximately the following proportions: 40% vegetables and fruit – eat most 25% breads, cereals, grains, starchy vegetables – eat some 15% fish, meat, chicken, legumes, eggs 12% milk, yoghurt, cheese 5% oils, nuts – use some 3% cut back on
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Categories: Announcements, Comments, and Science.