Health OK Desserts & Snacks....
Today's post: Tuesday, 1-27-2009
As those of you know who have read this blog for awhile, almost all desserts and snacks now sold in grocery stores are totally unsafe to eat more than once a year if that. It’s pretty simple. The “stuff’ such desserts and snacks are made out of will make you fat and sick if you eat it at all often.
So, since many people in the United States and in those other places where they have started eating like us, eat such desserts and snacks multiple times a week or even several times a day, after years of this, many of us are fat and sick from doing so.
But if you actually LIKE desserts and snacks, you have company. So do I. I even like several kinds a lot.
So if you want to indulge in desserts and snacks because you enjoy them; and you want to stay healthy and trim too, what can you do?
1. One way is to simply lower the frequency a LOT.
In French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano, now available in paperback on Amazon, she explains the reason why is in part that the French eat fewer desserts and virtually none of the bad for you snack foods that people in the United States do.
For some such foods the French also serve smaller portions and rarely get seconds as well.
Where an American might have 7 snack foods and 7 dessert foods in a week, in France, people tend to get no snack foods and perhaps 5 dessert foods a week.
If you go a step further and get no bad for you snack foods and only three or four of your most favorite desserts a month, you are much more likely to do so without harming your health.
2. Increase your body’s ability to process the desserts you do eat.
Several of the reviews of French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano pointed out that people in France walk everywhere in addition to eating fewer snack foods and dessert foods than we do.
For over 50 years research and the experience of health professionals has shown that walking, strength training, and interval cardio enable your body to digest and use fats and sugars more easily and more safely than the bodies of people who are sedentary are able to do.
(For example, see our post from yesterday on how exercise lowers high blood sugar and prevents insulin resistance.)
Be careful though, if you want to keep fat off, Weight Watchers has found you have to do about five times the exercise most people think they need to do to compensate for one dessert.
And, since most people in the United States cannot exercise and walk for 2 or 3 hours every single day, that’s why I suggest going a bit easier on regular desserts even than the French do.
3. Have health OK snacks and desserts.
If you aren’t allergic, nuts are actually good for you. For example, walnuts, pecans, and dry roasted almonds – all unsalted-- taste great. People who can eat them and do so regularly live significantly longer and have less heart disease than people who don’t. Nuts rate zero on the glycemic index too.
And, people who are restricting their food intake otherwise to keep their weight and excess fat down but who snack on nuts or include them in their meals tend to be able to continue restricting their food intake and sustain it, while people who get virtually no health OK oils drop out and stop restricting their food intake otherwise.
Avocados and guacamole have similarly health OK oils to nuts and also can make a good snack. You can also have guacamole with raw vegetables instead of crackers or chips.
You can also do well with fresh fruit as a snack or dessert. Half an apple with a small bit of cheese or chilled strawberries with the leaves and stems removed with a glass of red wine can be very nice desserts that are far better for you than other desserts with refined grain and added sugar and less health OK fats.
Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, not taken with milk, can actually be good for you.
A large cup of hot cocoa made with lots of unsweetened cocoa and no sugar can give you a chocolate fix and gets great health results.
The amount of dark chocolate with sugar that works the best for health is quite small. Hershey’s Special Dark small candy bar can be divided into sixths or quarters. Eating one at a time of those sixths or quarters once a day over a week actually gives you far more health benefits than eating the whole candy bar in one sitting.
Another food that can be enjoyable to eat with other health OK desserts is coconut.
Try a couple of tablespoons of shredded coconut, and some dry roasted almonds, and some raisins as a dessert for example.
Even better, just today, I got some substantial indication that coconut is actually good for you. And, that information came with a recipe for a dark chocolate plus coconut dessert that can be eaten as a “cookie” or small candy.
Here are those two articles from today’s Total Health Breakthroughs email.:
"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com ."
"Healthy Nutrition:
Coconuts -- Health Food or Foe?
By Laura LaValle, RD, LD
Remember the old song "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts?" (It still lives on You Tube, if you don't remember.) Coconut and coconut oil are becoming such increasingly popular foods, I think this silly song from the 1940s may make a comeback.
There are many claimed health benefits of coconuts and the oil made from them, but traditional medical advice is to avoid coconut oil because it is so high in saturated fat.
This fat is a blend of medium chain and long chain fats, and is very tolerant to high heats, meaning it won't promote free radical activity in your body. So coconut oil is great for cooking, but is it bad for cholesterol?
Medium chain fats seem to lower cholesterol while long chain fats seem to raise it, so studies on coconut oil not surprisingly are a mixed bag; some have shown that it lowers cholesterol, some that it raises it and some that it has no effect.1
The confusion may have arisen because some of the older studies on coconut oil used hydrogenated coconut oil. (Hydrogenation destroys essential fatty acids in the oil and produces harmful trans fats in their place.)
In newer studies that have used virgin coconut oil, the results have been favorable, finding extremely beneficial effects on lipids like lowering total cholesterol, triglycerides, and oxidized LDL, while increasing beneficial HDL.2 Newer studies have also shown virgin coconut oil can lower other heart disease risk factors like lipoprotein (a) levels and plasminogen activating factor, a substance in the blood that promotes clotting.3 These benefits are being observed despite coconut oil's saturated fat content.
Another claimed benefit of coconut oil is that it may aid weight loss, and indeed several studies using a purified form of the medium chain fats from coconut oil, called MCT oil, have found that it helped subjects lose fat weight specifically, while improving blood sugar and cholesterol levels.4,5
In one of these studies, not only did the MCT group lose more body fat compared to a group who used olive oil in their diet, there was a lowering of cholesterol and blood pressure, and three subjects had complete reversal of metabolic syndrome, compared to two in the olive oil group.6
Another claim that is strongly supported by numerous studies is that coconuts are good for immunity. The primary fatty acid in coconuts, lauric acid, converts to a substance called monolaurin that has antifungal properties and is so effective against the yeast Candida that it is being evaluated as an alternative to the antifungal medication, fluconazole.7
In addition, monolaurin has been shown to have potent antiviral and antibacterial properties.8 Studies have shown that it is effective against viruses like the one that causes Epstein Barr and bacteria including H. pylori,9 the cause of ulcers and heart burn. Monolaurin is now available in supplement form. At LMI we use it with great results in our patients whose immune systems need a boost.
Overall, I believe the new evidence shows that coconuts and coconut oil can be eaten safely and in fact seem to have numerous health benefits. I know I have been making an effort to include more coconut products in my diet, plus I really enjoy them.
But as for that lovely bunch of coconuts, I buy the products that are already packaged and ready to go. Coconut oil is great for cooking and even for frying, but make sure to look for virgin oil, which is processed in such a way that the oil retains the healthy components.
Shredded coconut makes a great salad topping and can be used in trail mix blends; I just avoid the sweetened ones. And coconut milk can be used as a milk substitute in almost any application from baking to using it in your coffee for a different flavor twist.
References
1. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FDN/is_/ai_94159012?tag=artBody;col1 .
2. Nevin KG and Rajamohan T. Clin Biochem. 2004 Sep;37(9):830-5.
3. Muller H, et al. J Nutr. 2003 Nov;133(11):3422-7.
4. http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/5/547 .
5. St.-Onge MP, et al. Obes Res. 2003 Mar;11(3):395-402.
6. http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/5/547 .
7. Ogbolu Do, et al. J Med Food. 2007 Jun;10(2):384-87.
8. Arch Virol. 2001;146(4):777-90.
9. Preuss HG. et al. Mol Cell Biochem. 2005 Apr;272(1-2):29-34.
[Ed. Note: Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD is presently the director of dietetics nutrition at LaValle Metabolic Institute. Laura and her husband, Jim LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND have developed the powerful and life-changing Metabolic Code Diet - containing step-by-step, easy to follow recommendations for harnessing optimal metabolic energy and turning your body's chemical make up into a fat-burning furnace…..]"
"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com ."
“Healthy Recipes:
No Bake Chocolate Coconut Cookies
By Laura LaValle, RD, LD
These simple but delicious cookies are reminiscent of the no-bake cookies you may have eaten as a child, but without the oatmeal. They're sure to satisfy your sweet tooth while providing some of the health benefits of both cocoa and coconuts, as long as you're sure to choose a low-sugar dark chocolate and unsweetened coconut.
Time to table: 30 minutes
Serves: 16
Healing Nutrient Spotlight: Source of iron and fiber
Ingredients*
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
* Choose organic ingredients for optimal nutrition.
Preparation
Place chocolate chips in top of double boiler or in a stainless steel or glass bowl that will fit on top of a saucepan of water. Heat the water to a slow simmer then place the chocolate chips in the container on top of the hot water. As the chips begin to melt, stir them rapidly to prevent the chocolate from burning. Lift the bowl off the pot of water and stir the coconut into the melted chocolate. Drop the mixture by tablespoonfuls onto an oiled cookie sheet and place into the refrigerator to set up. Makes 32 cookies, 2 per serving.
Nutrition
108 calories, 2 g protein, 8 g carbohydrates, 9 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 5 g sugar, 2 g fiber, .18 mg iron, 3 mg sodium.”
X* X* X* X* X* X*
Try one of these with some walnuts or some fresh strawberries.
4. How to eat traditional desserts in a more health OK way.
a) Only eat your favorite part or the health OK part.
I love the old fashioned heavily glazed sugar or chocolate donuts. I know better than to eat the donut since it has refined grain, salt, and junky oil, possibly hydrogenated vegetable oil with transfats. But if such donuts are served at an event, sometimes I get half a donut and just eat the glazed part. That way, I get the taste treat I actually like. But I do NOT get the refined grain, salt, and junky oil, possibly hydrogenated vegetable oil with transfats in a whole donut. I simply don’t eat that part. I don’t really like it anyway.
Similarly, if I go to an event where store bought pies are served, the least health OK part of the pie is the crust. Same deal, it’s likely made with refined grain, salt, and junky oil, possibly hydrogenated vegetable oil with transfats. So I just eat the cherry or blueberry or pumpkin pie filling. And, if real ice cream with only natural quality ingredients is available, I have some ice cream with the pie filling.
Lastly, I don’t do this often. Five times a year total perhaps.
b) Make or get usually home-made desserts made with only natural ingredients of good quality or with health OK substitutes. And then don’t eat such desserts often.
If I wanted a pie where I could eat the crust, I’d have it made with whole wheat flour and virgin coconut oil with a bit of butter added just after the crust was baked. I would NOT use hydrogenated vegetable oil.
And, instead of just sugar in the filling, I’d try brown sugar or honey or real maple syrup where you get the flavor AND the sugar. Plus I’d try using ¾ sweetening as much as the recipe normally suggests or half as much while using half that much erythritol or other health safe & natural zero glycemic sweetener. (I would NOT use the erythritol or other health safe & natural zero glycemic sweetener ONLY with no real sugar because I think that might cause my body to crave the missing sugar based on the research I’ve read. And I would NOT use artificial sweeteners. The FDA so far says they are safe. The research I’ve seen says they will make you fat and sick if you eat them. And the analyses I’ve read suggest the FDA is similarly wrong that artificial sweeteners are otherwise safe to consume.)
Similarly, if I was making fudge, I’d use good quality chocolate; sweeten it similarly; and use real butter or half butter and half mild flavored extra virgin olive oil to see if the recipe turned out. I would NOT use hydrogenated vegetable oil.
So eat health OK desserts and snacks; get abundant exercise; eat the less OK desserts and snacks much less often; & make those the most health OK or least health damaging as possible.
And, FOR SURE, stop eating the really bad for you desserts and snacks a lot – or at all if you can manage it.
That way you can enjoy desserts enough to add some sparkle to your life without harming your health and waist size.
Today's post: Tuesday, 1-27-2009
As those of you know who have read this blog for awhile, almost all desserts and snacks now sold in grocery stores are totally unsafe to eat more than once a year if that. It’s pretty simple. The “stuff’ such desserts and snacks are made out of will make you fat and sick if you eat it at all often.
So, since many people in the United States and in those other places where they have started eating like us, eat such desserts and snacks multiple times a week or even several times a day, after years of this, many of us are fat and sick from doing so.
But if you actually LIKE desserts and snacks, you have company. So do I. I even like several kinds a lot.
So if you want to indulge in desserts and snacks because you enjoy them; and you want to stay healthy and trim too, what can you do?
1. One way is to simply lower the frequency a LOT.
In French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano, now available in paperback on Amazon, she explains the reason why is in part that the French eat fewer desserts and virtually none of the bad for you snack foods that people in the United States do.
For some such foods the French also serve smaller portions and rarely get seconds as well.
Where an American might have 7 snack foods and 7 dessert foods in a week, in France, people tend to get no snack foods and perhaps 5 dessert foods a week.
If you go a step further and get no bad for you snack foods and only three or four of your most favorite desserts a month, you are much more likely to do so without harming your health.
2. Increase your body’s ability to process the desserts you do eat.
Several of the reviews of French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano pointed out that people in France walk everywhere in addition to eating fewer snack foods and dessert foods than we do.
For over 50 years research and the experience of health professionals has shown that walking, strength training, and interval cardio enable your body to digest and use fats and sugars more easily and more safely than the bodies of people who are sedentary are able to do.
(For example, see our post from yesterday on how exercise lowers high blood sugar and prevents insulin resistance.)
Be careful though, if you want to keep fat off, Weight Watchers has found you have to do about five times the exercise most people think they need to do to compensate for one dessert.
And, since most people in the United States cannot exercise and walk for 2 or 3 hours every single day, that’s why I suggest going a bit easier on regular desserts even than the French do.
3. Have health OK snacks and desserts.
If you aren’t allergic, nuts are actually good for you. For example, walnuts, pecans, and dry roasted almonds – all unsalted-- taste great. People who can eat them and do so regularly live significantly longer and have less heart disease than people who don’t. Nuts rate zero on the glycemic index too.
And, people who are restricting their food intake otherwise to keep their weight and excess fat down but who snack on nuts or include them in their meals tend to be able to continue restricting their food intake and sustain it, while people who get virtually no health OK oils drop out and stop restricting their food intake otherwise.
Avocados and guacamole have similarly health OK oils to nuts and also can make a good snack. You can also have guacamole with raw vegetables instead of crackers or chips.
You can also do well with fresh fruit as a snack or dessert. Half an apple with a small bit of cheese or chilled strawberries with the leaves and stems removed with a glass of red wine can be very nice desserts that are far better for you than other desserts with refined grain and added sugar and less health OK fats.
Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, not taken with milk, can actually be good for you.
A large cup of hot cocoa made with lots of unsweetened cocoa and no sugar can give you a chocolate fix and gets great health results.
The amount of dark chocolate with sugar that works the best for health is quite small. Hershey’s Special Dark small candy bar can be divided into sixths or quarters. Eating one at a time of those sixths or quarters once a day over a week actually gives you far more health benefits than eating the whole candy bar in one sitting.
Another food that can be enjoyable to eat with other health OK desserts is coconut.
Try a couple of tablespoons of shredded coconut, and some dry roasted almonds, and some raisins as a dessert for example.
Even better, just today, I got some substantial indication that coconut is actually good for you. And, that information came with a recipe for a dark chocolate plus coconut dessert that can be eaten as a “cookie” or small candy.
Here are those two articles from today’s Total Health Breakthroughs email.:
"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com ."
"Healthy Nutrition:
Coconuts -- Health Food or Foe?
By Laura LaValle, RD, LD
Remember the old song "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts?" (It still lives on You Tube, if you don't remember.) Coconut and coconut oil are becoming such increasingly popular foods, I think this silly song from the 1940s may make a comeback.
There are many claimed health benefits of coconuts and the oil made from them, but traditional medical advice is to avoid coconut oil because it is so high in saturated fat.
This fat is a blend of medium chain and long chain fats, and is very tolerant to high heats, meaning it won't promote free radical activity in your body. So coconut oil is great for cooking, but is it bad for cholesterol?
Medium chain fats seem to lower cholesterol while long chain fats seem to raise it, so studies on coconut oil not surprisingly are a mixed bag; some have shown that it lowers cholesterol, some that it raises it and some that it has no effect.1
The confusion may have arisen because some of the older studies on coconut oil used hydrogenated coconut oil. (Hydrogenation destroys essential fatty acids in the oil and produces harmful trans fats in their place.)
In newer studies that have used virgin coconut oil, the results have been favorable, finding extremely beneficial effects on lipids like lowering total cholesterol, triglycerides, and oxidized LDL, while increasing beneficial HDL.2 Newer studies have also shown virgin coconut oil can lower other heart disease risk factors like lipoprotein (a) levels and plasminogen activating factor, a substance in the blood that promotes clotting.3 These benefits are being observed despite coconut oil's saturated fat content.
Another claimed benefit of coconut oil is that it may aid weight loss, and indeed several studies using a purified form of the medium chain fats from coconut oil, called MCT oil, have found that it helped subjects lose fat weight specifically, while improving blood sugar and cholesterol levels.4,5
In one of these studies, not only did the MCT group lose more body fat compared to a group who used olive oil in their diet, there was a lowering of cholesterol and blood pressure, and three subjects had complete reversal of metabolic syndrome, compared to two in the olive oil group.6
Another claim that is strongly supported by numerous studies is that coconuts are good for immunity. The primary fatty acid in coconuts, lauric acid, converts to a substance called monolaurin that has antifungal properties and is so effective against the yeast Candida that it is being evaluated as an alternative to the antifungal medication, fluconazole.7
In addition, monolaurin has been shown to have potent antiviral and antibacterial properties.8 Studies have shown that it is effective against viruses like the one that causes Epstein Barr and bacteria including H. pylori,9 the cause of ulcers and heart burn. Monolaurin is now available in supplement form. At LMI we use it with great results in our patients whose immune systems need a boost.
Overall, I believe the new evidence shows that coconuts and coconut oil can be eaten safely and in fact seem to have numerous health benefits. I know I have been making an effort to include more coconut products in my diet, plus I really enjoy them.
But as for that lovely bunch of coconuts, I buy the products that are already packaged and ready to go. Coconut oil is great for cooking and even for frying, but make sure to look for virgin oil, which is processed in such a way that the oil retains the healthy components.
Shredded coconut makes a great salad topping and can be used in trail mix blends; I just avoid the sweetened ones. And coconut milk can be used as a milk substitute in almost any application from baking to using it in your coffee for a different flavor twist.
References
1. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FDN/is_/ai_94159012?tag=artBody;col1 .
2. Nevin KG and Rajamohan T. Clin Biochem. 2004 Sep;37(9):830-5.
3. Muller H, et al. J Nutr. 2003 Nov;133(11):3422-7.
4. http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/5/547 .
5. St.-Onge MP, et al. Obes Res. 2003 Mar;11(3):395-402.
6. http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/5/547 .
7. Ogbolu Do, et al. J Med Food. 2007 Jun;10(2):384-87.
8. Arch Virol. 2001;146(4):777-90.
9. Preuss HG. et al. Mol Cell Biochem. 2005 Apr;272(1-2):29-34.
[Ed. Note: Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD is presently the director of dietetics nutrition at LaValle Metabolic Institute. Laura and her husband, Jim LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND have developed the powerful and life-changing Metabolic Code Diet - containing step-by-step, easy to follow recommendations for harnessing optimal metabolic energy and turning your body's chemical make up into a fat-burning furnace…..]"
"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com ."
“Healthy Recipes:
No Bake Chocolate Coconut Cookies
By Laura LaValle, RD, LD
These simple but delicious cookies are reminiscent of the no-bake cookies you may have eaten as a child, but without the oatmeal. They're sure to satisfy your sweet tooth while providing some of the health benefits of both cocoa and coconuts, as long as you're sure to choose a low-sugar dark chocolate and unsweetened coconut.
Time to table: 30 minutes
Serves: 16
Healing Nutrient Spotlight: Source of iron and fiber
Ingredients*
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
* Choose organic ingredients for optimal nutrition.
Preparation
Place chocolate chips in top of double boiler or in a stainless steel or glass bowl that will fit on top of a saucepan of water. Heat the water to a slow simmer then place the chocolate chips in the container on top of the hot water. As the chips begin to melt, stir them rapidly to prevent the chocolate from burning. Lift the bowl off the pot of water and stir the coconut into the melted chocolate. Drop the mixture by tablespoonfuls onto an oiled cookie sheet and place into the refrigerator to set up. Makes 32 cookies, 2 per serving.
Nutrition
108 calories, 2 g protein, 8 g carbohydrates, 9 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 5 g sugar, 2 g fiber, .18 mg iron, 3 mg sodium.”
X* X* X* X* X* X*
Try one of these with some walnuts or some fresh strawberries.
4. How to eat traditional desserts in a more health OK way.
a) Only eat your favorite part or the health OK part.
I love the old fashioned heavily glazed sugar or chocolate donuts. I know better than to eat the donut since it has refined grain, salt, and junky oil, possibly hydrogenated vegetable oil with transfats. But if such donuts are served at an event, sometimes I get half a donut and just eat the glazed part. That way, I get the taste treat I actually like. But I do NOT get the refined grain, salt, and junky oil, possibly hydrogenated vegetable oil with transfats in a whole donut. I simply don’t eat that part. I don’t really like it anyway.
Similarly, if I go to an event where store bought pies are served, the least health OK part of the pie is the crust. Same deal, it’s likely made with refined grain, salt, and junky oil, possibly hydrogenated vegetable oil with transfats. So I just eat the cherry or blueberry or pumpkin pie filling. And, if real ice cream with only natural quality ingredients is available, I have some ice cream with the pie filling.
Lastly, I don’t do this often. Five times a year total perhaps.
b) Make or get usually home-made desserts made with only natural ingredients of good quality or with health OK substitutes. And then don’t eat such desserts often.
If I wanted a pie where I could eat the crust, I’d have it made with whole wheat flour and virgin coconut oil with a bit of butter added just after the crust was baked. I would NOT use hydrogenated vegetable oil.
And, instead of just sugar in the filling, I’d try brown sugar or honey or real maple syrup where you get the flavor AND the sugar. Plus I’d try using ¾ sweetening as much as the recipe normally suggests or half as much while using half that much erythritol or other health safe & natural zero glycemic sweetener. (I would NOT use the erythritol or other health safe & natural zero glycemic sweetener ONLY with no real sugar because I think that might cause my body to crave the missing sugar based on the research I’ve read. And I would NOT use artificial sweeteners. The FDA so far says they are safe. The research I’ve seen says they will make you fat and sick if you eat them. And the analyses I’ve read suggest the FDA is similarly wrong that artificial sweeteners are otherwise safe to consume.)
Similarly, if I was making fudge, I’d use good quality chocolate; sweeten it similarly; and use real butter or half butter and half mild flavored extra virgin olive oil to see if the recipe turned out. I would NOT use hydrogenated vegetable oil.
So eat health OK desserts and snacks; get abundant exercise; eat the less OK desserts and snacks much less often; & make those the most health OK or least health damaging as possible.
And, FOR SURE, stop eating the really bad for you desserts and snacks a lot – or at all if you can manage it.
That way you can enjoy desserts enough to add some sparkle to your life without harming your health and waist size.
Labels: coconut as a health food, dark chocolate as a health food, desserts, health damaging snacks, health OK desserts, health OK snacks
posted by David at 1:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home