I Quit Sugar

I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson
Published by Macmillan UK, 2014

The author began her research in an effort to address her own health issues, in the process finding much recent scientific research that fructose, a form of sugar, has many damaging effects on the human body. [See post on Fructose Facts] Having weaned herself off sugar, with benefits to her health, in this book she sets out the facts about fructose and how you can follow her example with an eight week programme. Sarah advises quitting all sugar for the first two weeks to allow your body to recalibrate, with fruit and 'safe sugar alternatives' being re-introduced later on. Do read the whole book, which comes with lots of tips and recipes, but here's a quick overview.

• Week 1: Experiment with paring back sugar. Become more aware of which products and foods contain sugar, and cut down where you can (half a teaspoon or none in coffee where you had a whole teaspoon before).
• Week 2: Replace sugar with fat (e.g. unprocessed fats and quality protein, like eggs, cheese, nuts and coconuts - your natural 'fat full' hormones will tell you when you have had enough - but you'll need to start listening to your body saying'I'm full'. Many fats are vital and needed for immune health, digestion and metabolism, act as antioxidants and get rid of heavy metals and toxins in our systesms. [The 1950s study that lead to 'fat is bad' was flawed; it reported results from only the 7 of 22 countries that suggested a link and ignored results from the other 15 that disproved it.]
• Week 3: Quit all sugar to allow your body to readjust. Eat products with less than 3g to 6g of sugar per 100g or 100ml. With dairy products the first 4.7g of sugar will be lactose, so subtract that from the amount stated. A standard drink is 350ml, so the per 100 g/ml figure must be multiplied by 3.5. Avoid Thai food as it is heavy in sugar. Wine, beer and spirits contain minimal fructose (it has largely been converted to alcohol). Tonic water is high in sugar, so use soda water as a mixer. Useful foods for 'pick-me-ups' are: cacao, chia seeds, cheese, chicken, cinnamon, coconut oil (very sweet) - coconut water (sweet but negligible fructose), and coffee.
• Week 4: Face the demons - others may try to sabotage your efforts and you may be finding it difficult. Remember that 1 glass of apple juice or cola contains 10-12 teaspoons of sugar, 1 apple is 2-3 teaspoons, 1 banana 4 teaspoons. Low fat products (e.g. yoghurts) are usually higher in sugar.
• Week 5: Get creative and experiment with meals. If you do lapse, tomorrow is a new day to start again. Avoid the negative (I must quit chocolate) and find a positive (I must eat more healthy foods).
• Week 6. Add some sweetness back in with small amounts of low sugar vegetables and fruits, safe sugar substitutes and other spices and flavours.
• Week 7: Accept any lapses and start again the next day.
• Week 8: Moving forward. You have broken the cycle. Go easy on the fat, but by week 8 your body should be telling you what it needs.

Sarah now tries to keep to foods with less than 3g to 6g per 100 g/ml of sugar where possible. She eats 1 or 2 pieces of fruits a day (mostly berries). She has the occasional treat of 85% chocolate.

Check out Sarah's website iquitsugar.com

Ginger

Ginger is a useful spice, which will keep for a week at room temperature and about a month in the fridge.

• Use a teaspoon to peel fresh ginger - it removes the skin and leaves the flesh intact.
• Alternatively, freeze ginger whole and grate it straight from frozen (no need to peel first).

It is also useful in a healthy diet.

• Use it to pep up drinks, savoury dishes and desserts.
• Drink 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger dissolved in a cup of hot water. Over the next 6 hours you will burn 43 more calories than usual; you are also likely to feel less hungry and eat less during the rest of the day.

Did you know? In the 14th century, 1 lb of fresh ginger cost as much as a whole sheep.

Various sources

Avoid Identity Theft

Experian recommends taking these five key steps to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft.

• Always use secure, unique passwords for as many online accounts as possible, and ideally all of them. At the very least have a unique password for each type of service provider such as financial services, retails services and email.
• Don’t be tempted to open emails and links or attachments received from people you don’t know. If an email seems suspicious, contact the relevant organisation and don’t give out personal details.
• Don’t store account names and passwords on your smartphone, either in e-mail, as a note, or to ‘autocomplete’ when you open a website or app.  It will be goldmine for fraudsters if your device is lost or stolen.
• Be cautious and don’t add people you don’t know on social media websites like Facebook. Remember what you might consider to be unimportant information like your birthday, email address or dog’s name could all be misused by criminals.
• Monitor your bank and card statements and your credit report regularly – it will help you spot any suspicious activity as early as possible and avoid financial loss.

New item on BT Internet home page, 12 March 2015

Eating for Immunity

Your immune system helps your body get rid of bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi, as well as keeping potentially life-threatening cancer cells as bay. Overuse of antibiotics means that common infections and minor injuries could pose a threat to life. So what nutrients do you need to keep your immune system fighting fit?

Antioxidants: The best known is vitamin C, but vitamins A and E are also important. Eat more brightly coloured fruits and vegetables (e.g. kiwi fruit, citrus, green peppers).

Vitamin D: Manufactured in skin from sunlight; plentiful in the summer months, but the sun is too low in the sky between October and April in the UK for our skin to make it. Eat more oily fish (e.g wild salmon, herring, sardines, mackerel) and dairy products. For some people even this is not enough (pregnant and breast-feeding women, those who don't get enough sun at any time (e.g. because they are covered up) and those over 65) and supplements are advised. [See also these blog posts: ~ Vitamin D ~ More on Vitamin D ~]

Selenium: One of nature's most powerful immune boosters (immune cells need selenium to work properly) but the selenium content of soil in the UK is extremely low compared with countries like the US and Canada. Eat more tuna, beef, cod and turkey, and especially Brazil nuts.

Probiotics: It is thought that as well as helping keep harmful bacteria in check, they may also limit susceptibility to infection in the first place. It seems beneficial gut bacteria may have akey role in the development of white blood cells (immune cells that form part of the body's first line of defence). Eat more naturally fermented foods (e.g. tempeh, miso, soy sauce, fresh sauerkraut) and live or bio-yoghurts and cultured dairy products such as kefir (a fermented milk drink) and buttermilk. Supplements should contain Lactobacilli or Bifidobacteria in sufficient numbers - no less than 100 million.

Use Honey to sweeten drinks - just one teaspoon of sugar is enough to prevent vital macrophages and natural killer cells from doing their jobs for up to six hours.

Robert Hobson in Healthspan magazine, Autumn 2014

Fructose Facts

There are a number of 'sugars', which come from the plants we eat and cultivate for food - fructose is just one of them. The 'ose' in these names is a generic chemical suffix for sugars.

• Fructose: fruit sugar found in tree and vine fruits, flowers (and so in honey), berries and most root vegetables. Commercially it is derived from sugar cane, sugar beet and corn (maize). Our bodies don't produce it and in the past we only consumed it seasonally when fruit was ripe.
• Glucose: comes from starches like potatoes. Our bodies produce it from the food we eat, and every cell in every living organism on earth has glucose in it. It is vital to life.
• Lactose: a sugar derived from galactose and glucose that is found in milk (2% to 8% by weight).
• Sucrose (table sugar or sugar): a compound of glucose and fructose. Produced from sugar cane and sugar beet.
• High fructose corn syrup (glucose-fructose, fructose-glucose): This has double the sweetness of glucose. It is made from corn syrup - the glucose is processed to convert some of it to fructose.

In paleolithic times sugar was highly prized for providing instant energy (e.g for chasing prey) and extremely rare (a berry here and there). So humans evolved with no 'fructose full switch'. Now sugar is abundant, we have to make little effort to find it, and we eat too much of it.

Our bodies do not use fructose straight away as energy but in the liver (side-stepping the liver's fat-creation control mechanism) it is converted directly to fatty acids and then to body fat. When we drink fructose (e.g. in soft drinks and juices), the process is even more direct and faster. Glucose, on the other hand, is normally 'burned up' immediately after consumption as nearly every cell in our body uses glucose; the liver only breaks down around 20% of glucose.Recent research now shows that:

• Fructose inhibits our immune system.
• Fructose upsets the mineral balance in our bodies and interferes with mineral absorption.
• Fructose messes with fertility.
• Fructose speeds up the ageing process.
• Fructose has been connected with the development of various cancers.
• Fructose is linked to dementia.
• Fructose causes an acidic digestive tract, indigestion and malabsorption of nutrients.
• Fructose can cause a rapid rise in adrenaline, as well as hyper-activity, anxiety and a loss of concentration.

Facts quoted from I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson, Macmillan UK 2014. See the website https://iquitsugar.com/