October 12, 2010

“Sugar is good for you!” – and for the people who sell sugar (via The Ethical Nag)

Posted in cooking, food, health, life tagged body weight, cooking, dental caries, eating, food, Food as Medicine, healthy eating, obesity, pleasure, shopping, sugar, sweet tooth, vegetables, weight management, wellness at 10:51 am by Margi Macdonald

Do we imagine things are different here in Australia?
I think not.

Do you have a sweet tooth? Do you chew your food quickly, eat while watching TV or checking your emails, or constantly snack while on-the-run?

Many foods, including a number of vegetables and most meats, are naturally sweet. We don’t appreciate their naturally sweet appeal unless we take a bit of time to chew thoroughly, mindfully paying attention to our food and the pleasurable ritual of eating.

The benefits are that an enzyme in saliva which breaks down the natural sugars in these foods does its best work when food spends an adequate period of time in our mouths. We can enjoy the sweet flavour without ever needing to ingest added sugars and sweeteners. We simply need to chew thoroughly.

The other benefit of mindfully enjoying naturally sweet foods – indeed all foods – is that we consume less.

Yes, you read it correctly! There’s a satiety centre in our brains which signals to us when we’ve had sufficient. Unfortunately, the distractions of all our screens, and fast-food-gulping ensure that many of us keep wolfing it down, well after the brain has reminded us we need to stop.

Your sweet challenge for the week?

See how many common vegetables are really quite sweet, when cooked simply and eaten slowly.

Yum yum!

I just love this. Guess what the Sugar Association recommends in its publication called “Pleasing Picky Eaters’ Taste Buds”? Apparently, “youngsters may find vegetables sprinkled with sugar more enjoyable to eat”. Of course they will. Personally, I’d find corrugated cardboard sprinkled with sugar more enjoyable to eat, too. That does not make it good for me. And under the “Don’t Worry, Mom” section, the Sugar Association reassures us: “The good … Read More