SALT Central Coast Issue 2 | Page 35

FOOD AS MEDICINE SWEET POISON ? Most of us have heard the good advice that we need to eat less sugar - and rightly so. However, despite the numerous warnings by health authorities of the ill effects of sugar, the majority of the population is still consuming copious quantities of sugar on a daily basis in some form or other. My Quick Muesli Bar slice 4 Cups Muesli (you may add extra Shredded coconut, pepitas, sunflowers and Goji berries) ‘Sweetness is Joy, its happiness, its in our DNA to be drawn to sweet fruit but the massive part of the problem is there is sugar hidden in everything, whether its flavoured milk or bread’ says Chef and health campaigner, Jamie Oliver We do not have to consume white, refined sugar to be consuming sugar. Sugar includes glucose, fructose (as in fruit sugar), lactose (as in milk), sucrose (as in table sugar), maltose or malts (as in rice malt and honey), jam (contains concentrated juice, which is high in fruit sugar), maple syrup, corn syrup, palm sugar (traditionally used in macrobiotic cooking), and the very deceiving organic brown sugar, which is not all that different from white sugar. Even alcohol is a sugar. Most of these sugars are problematic in many different ways. How is it that Fat has had such a caning, and yet sugar has had a free pass? Check out a Youtube called Sweet Poison where Peter Fitzsimmons loses 20kg in 8weeks just dropping sugar (but continuing to eat fat) Did you know? • Sugar is the number 1 enemy to your immune system – Many studies show as little as 6 tsp of sugar will take the immune system off line for 8hrs. • The average Westerner consumes over 32 tsp’s a day = 3040kgs of it a year. • Hidden Sugars are in everything! Cereal, Sauces, Soft drinks (along with phosphoric acid), Canned cooked fruit, Salad Dressings, Sauces & Fruit Juice. Then there’s refined grains/carbs which break down to sugar, Alcohol as mentioned, and dried fruit has highly concentrated sugars. • It’s not fat that makes us f