How to Eat Cleaner - Day 10 of 31 - Sugars, Artificial Sweeteners & Glycemic Index

How to Eat Cleaner - Day 10 of 31 - Sugars, Artificial Sweeteners & Glycemic Index

Hello everyone. I'm so excited that you decided to join me in our 31 days to cleaner or healthier eating. Each one of these videos will have 1 simple concept for you to chew on. It's your choice what you do with it. Try it for a day, a week, a month or implement for your entire life. My hope is it helps you open your mind to learning more about fueling your body more healthily.

Part of cleaning up what we eat is getting educated and alot of these videos focus on awareness. Here is just a brief overview, please research for yourself if you want to dig deeper.

As usual a topic that I thought would be easy is riddled with controversy. So, here is just some food for thought and my personal opinion from what I've learned.

We eat far too much sugar. Unless you cook your own food from whole foods and are not adding that much in, most processed foods are guaranteed to have a plethora of 2 things: sugar and salt. It's a good idea to take a look at your food and get an idea of how much sugar are you consuming each day. If you are eating fruits and vegetables daily, you do not needed added sugar.

As far as what type of sugar to choose. That is highly debatable. But this is how I approach it. White sugar is highly processed and used chemicals to make it so pretty, white and devoid of nutrition. I don't use it. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is the Devil according to many folks. The corn industry runs the sugar is sugar ads, and that is correct. But most corn is genetically modified and HFCS is highly processed. The corn industry is trying very hard to change HFCS to corn sugar. Basically, if it says corn, I don't care what it is, I will avoid it, unless it has the word organic in front of it. I would love to see organic HFCS. Molasses, agave, maple syrup that are pure, not chemical laden, add sweetness and vitamins and minerals. So, I tend to choose them when I add sweetener. Check your labels, you would be surprised to know alot of maple syrup is not even close.

I don't use any artificial sweeteners at all. They are fake sweeteners. They are just chemicals made to taste sweet and are detrimental to the hormone balance in our bodies if used regularly. Cut them out of your diet.

So, what about Stevia? Stevia is a naturally sweet plant and has been harvested for that reason. It's a low carb and low cal option when you want to add sweetness. Since it is technically also processed, I use it very rarely.

They glycemic index is how certain foods sugars react in your blood. It's been found that people that follow a healthy low glycemic diet tend to be a healthier weight therefore have less health issues. It would make sense since alot of whole, healthy foods tend to have low glycemic rating. What does take into consideration is the quality of the food or the amount you are eating. So you might find that you could eat a little high glycemic food and have normal blood sugars or you could eat alot of low glycemic food and have abnormal blood sugar levels. Also, the ripeness, the preparation of the food and what you eat it with can also effect your blood sugars.

So, what to do? As we have seen a repeating theme in these videos, eat in balance, moderation and as close to real food as possible. What you should do is take a look at how much sugar are you consuming and are there opportunities to substitute for a healthier option?

Thanks for your time. This is Coach Lana and I would love for you to join me at http://facebook.com/coachlana so we can connect.