There have been a couple journal articles concerning sugar and salt and their role in cardiovascular disease that have come out in the past week. They have sparked government concern and now debates are emerging on the possible intervention by the government in order to reduce health care spending. Would government regulation and restriction of these 2 culprits actually do anything, what do you think?

-SethRx…enjoy!

Originally from: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/joybauernutrition/29699/the-dangerous-side-of-sugar/

By Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N. – Posted on Tue, Apr 20, 2010, 12:57 pm PDT

As if you needed another good reason to kick your soda habit, a new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that a diet heavy in added sugar is linked to elevated triglyceride levels and may increase your risk for a heart attack. 

Added sugars such as cane sugar, beet sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, glucose, fructose, evaporated cane juice, fruit juice concentrate, and honey are used to sweeten packaged foods like sodas and fruit drinks, cereal, candy, cookies, and baked goods.  In the study published this week, researchers at Emory University found that individuals who consume large amounts of added sugar have lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels and higher triglyceride levels than individuals who eat less of the sweet stuff.  Among women only, high added sugar intake was also linked to increased LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels.  All of these red-flag numbers-low HDL, high triglycerides, high LDL-are independent risk factors for heart disease, which means that guzzling sugary coffee drinks and chomping down cookies may be putting your ticker in harm’s way.

Research has already shown that regular consumption of foods high in added sugars is associated with weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and cavities, but this is the first study of its kind to link sugar intake to cholesterol levels in humans.  And that’s bad news for Americans, who now consume about 16% of their daily total calories as added sugar.  Soda is the number one source of added sugar, contributing about a third of all added sugar in the American diet.

Unfortunately, guidelines for added sugar intake are all over the map and hardly user-friendly.  Last year, the American Heart Association released new recommendations advising that women consume fewer than 100 calories from added sugar daily and men consume fewer than 150 calories.  While I’m glad the organization called attention to our population’s growing sugar problem, these guidelines are very difficult to put into practice, especially since “added sugars” aren’t specifically listed on nutrition labels.  (The Nutrition Facts Panel lists “Sugars” under “Total Carbohydrate”, but this refers to total sugar in the product.  Total sugar is a combination of added sugars and naturally-occurring sugars found primarily in fruit and dairy products.  While added sugars don’t provide anything but empty calories, the natural sugars in fruit and dairy products come packaged with healthful nutrients like fiber, vitamins, and minerals and don’t need to be strictly limited.)

Plus, in order to see if you’re staying below the American Heart Association calorie cutoffs, you need to know that every gram of added sugar contributes 4 calories, and then do a little arithmetic.  Complete hassle!

If you don’t feel like tabulating your exact added sugar intake each day, follow my 4 guidelines and you’ll automatically cut back on the added sugar in your diet.

1. Eliminate soda and sugary drinks (including sports drinks, sweetened waters, juice drinks, and caloric cocktails).  Choose plain water or naturally flavored seltzer instead.
2. Use sugar (and other sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, agave, and molasses) sparingly.  Add no more than 1 to 2 teaspoons in coffee, tea, or oatmeal.
3. Choose packaged foods with minimal added sugar.  For example, cereals should have no more than 8 grams of sugar per serving.
4. Be selective with sweet splurges.  Either allow yourself a daily sweet treat around 150 calories, or indulge in a more decadent dessert no more than once or twice a week. My favorite sweet treats are foods that balance sugar with something healthy, such as a scoop of ice cream or pudding-both high in calcium; 1 oz dark chocolate-has tons of antioxidants; or a dollop of whipped cream with berries-loaded with fiber and vitamin C.

For further reading specifically on sugar and the danger that is sucrose…if you can find the book: Pure, White, and Deadly By John Yudkin

Pure, White and Deadly was originally written in 1972 and is as close to a prophecy as it gets, considering the time in which it was written (around the time when all of the research on fat in the diet and the lipid hypothesis was being researched). Yudkin was one of the few (with Atkin) that was researching and writing about the dangers of sugar back THEN.

Frugal Challenge

If you’re like me, you may not consider using an ingredient in a recipe because it costs more than you’re willing to pay. But, if we learn how to make some of the foods we consider a “luxury”, we can possibly save enough money to give it a try!

One of the food items I have been really interested in using is almond flour. Many folks are using almond flour or almond meal as a substitute for wheat flour when possible. There are two reasons why I wanted to try this. One reason is that almonds naturally are rich in nutrients. The other reason is that almond flour is a low-glycemic food, as opposed to flour. These both were reasons enough for me to investigate making my own almond flour. Nutritious, delicious, and low glycemic. So, what is almond flour or almond meal?

Probably the most popular use for almond flour is in coatings for baked and fried fish and chicken. Think of it as cornmeal, basically. Almond flour can also be used like bread crumbs as a filler/binder in meatballs, and the like. Also, consider using almond flour or almond meal as a topping for your casseroles instead of the traditional breadcrumb and butter mix. Almond flour can be used to replace regular flour in quick breads and muffins, but not in a dough-type bread.

Now, if you go to a health food store or specialty shop, you can find almond flour and almond meal, but the price is a bit high, especially if you’re comparing it to wheat flour.

Almond flour or almond meal is made very simply by pulverizing almonds. The product produced by grinding up blanched almonds (the white kind) is almond flour. The product produced by grinding up raw almonds (the brown kind) is almond meal. Either way, the consistency is not powdery like regular white flour; it is similar to cornmeal but has a somewhat moister feeling due to the natural oil in almonds.

With that said, my friend and I experimented with creating our own almond meal. Once again, the trusty Magic Bullet was put to work.

Using raw almonds to produce almond meal, we started out filling the larger container of the Magic Bullet about 3/4 full, and quickly realized that was a mistake! The instruction booklet (which we read after starting, of course) clearly states that you should not try to grind more than 1/2 a cup of nuts at a time.

As you can see, once we dumped out the almonds that exceeded the 1/2 cup limit, the grinding worked fairly well. The fact is, a food processor or full-sized blender might have worked a little faster, but the convenience of the Magic Bullet was worth a try. It did make a racket as the blades tried hard to crunch up those almonds. Maybe a little pre-chopping would have helped, but in the end, the Magic Bullet did the job and the almonds were pulverized in 1/2 cup increments quite successfully.

One note, however, don’t blend the almonds too long or you’ll eventually end up with something like almond butter, which isn’t bad either, except if it’s not what you wanted.

Now, can you actually save money on almond flour or almond meal if you grind your own?

Yes, indeed. The yield was 1 to 1 – in other words, we started out with 1 1/2 cups of almonds and ended up with 1 1/2 cups of almond meal.  Since you will find that  1lb of Red Mill  Almond Flour in the organic section of Kroger is about $11-$15,  and you can buy a 1 lb bag of raw almonds for $4-$5…seems to me I’m saving a lot of money! Sometimes,  I’ve found 1lb of almonds for $2.99 at Kroger.  Just gotta look for the deals!

This is my challenge for you today – if you’re interested in cooking with almond flour or almond meal, give this method of producing your own a try. The price is right, the flavor is wonderful, and the nutritional value is worth the trouble!