Tuesday, Sept 8

I have had so many people ask me how I have lost weight. I wonder if many of them secretly hoped that I had the stomach staple surgery so they don't feel guilty that it came from good old fashioned hard work. And, maybe I speculate too much on that, and they are just really curious. Anyway, one of the things I always tell people is that I cut out "white products" from my diet and eat food as close to the natural source as possible. Here is an article I received in my email today that I thought explained it very well.

It's great that you have listed all the healthiest foods we should eat. Can you also share with us the "unhealthiest foods," those that we should avoid?

The "unhealthiest" foods tend to be those that least resemble their original natural ingredients and those that have the most added refined and artificial additives. Prime examples are the so-called "white foods"-white sugar, white flour, and white fat, and the gamut of foods in which they are the principal ingredients. It's not that these foods are white in color-many of them are actually not. It's that these foods have had many of their natural components-including their natural colors-processed away. "White foods" is simply the shorthand label that we are using when we refer to these heavily processed, nutrient-depleted foods.

* "White sugar" includes refined sugar cane or sugar beets having virtually all B vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other essential nutrients removed. Corn syrup is also a "white sugar," made from processed cornstarch and essentially devoid of other nutrients.
* "White flour," analogously, is whole wheat flour minus its nutrient-packed wheat germ and fibrous bran. Nutritionally speaking, white flour is a ghost-like shadow of its original whole grain.
* "White fat" can include rendered animal lard, vegetable oils "hydrogenated" to make them hard at room temperature, and refined fats such as cottonseed oil. Hydrogenation is a chemical process that transforms natural fats into more saturated trans-fatty acids that do not occur naturally and which are strongly associated with cardiovascular disease.

Foods having "whites" as their primary ingredients are frighteningly ubiquitous! Examples include soft drinks, breads, hamburger and hotdog buns, crackers, pasta, pastries and pastry fillings, pies, cakes, frostings, margarine and bread spreads, jellies, sweets and candies, frozen dinners, pizzas, snack foods, doughnuts, candy bars, and cookies-all of which are common snack and convenience foods. Indeed, many of these combine all three whites together-white sugar, flour, and fat! Furthermore, these foods frequently contain artificial colors, artificial flavors, preservatives, texturizing and processing agents, and other additives that further detract from their nutritional stature and your health. These are among the foods that I would consider to be the unhealthiest and the ones that I would avoid.

Here is a link to their website. I highly recommend signing up for their daily newsletter. They always give a recipe and have a question with a detailed answer. It is very informative and has helped me stay on track with my healthy way of eating. I believe one of the biggest keys to getting healthy (and loosing weight) is to be informed about what is good for us, and WHY!!!