At this time of year people are usually regretting the sugar they ate over the holidays beginning with the Halloween candy and continuing through the pumpkin pie and the cookies and fruitcake.  (Okay maybe not fruitcake, but admit to a few extra cookies.)

Cutting back to the pre-holiday levels is a start but be aware of just how much sugar you’re consuming.  If you’re reading labels you may be surprised at the places where sugar is lurking.  You’ll find it in breads, tomato sauces, and many other products that don’t need to be sweet.

Retrain your palate by eliminating white sugar and replacing it with natural, whole food, sweeteners such as molasses, agave, rice syrup and  Sucanat, a form of sugar cane that has NOT been processed and bleached beyond recognition the way your table sugar has been.

Artificial sweeteners carry their own health risks and are also to be avoided.  And brown sugar…that’s just white sugar with a dye job. 

Being aware of how much sugar is lurking in your meals is a great start towards decreasing your daily intake.

There’s a lot of sugar coming at you these days.  It’s often hidden in the products you buy, places where you least expect it.  At this time of year it’s also putting in a bolder appearance in cookies and cakes and that candy bowl at work. 

 There are a lot of good reasons for avoiding the sugar overload and your weight is only one of them.  Check out this article for a reminder on why we count sugar as one of the health robbers.

http://fitbie.msn.com/eat-right/tips/6-scary-side-effects-sugar

Sugar is everywhere…even in places where you don’t want, or NEED, it.  When you’re reaching for a snack or meal remember that you might be getting something you didn’t bargain for.  A can of fruit  may seem like a smart, healthy snack.  After all it’s only 100 calories and isn’t that what manufacturer’s keep flashing as the magic number? (“Only 100 Calories” practically screams at you from half the packages in the snack aisle.) 

And it’s FRUIT for Pete’s sake. 

But if it’s packed in syrup it can contain up to 23 grams of sugar.  The same holds true for some whole grain muffins.  They can contain up to 29 grams of sugar.  Granola can pack a wallop when it come sto sugar content so be sure to read the labels.  They aren’t all unhealthy but there are plenty of granola and cereal products out there that are basically junk food masquerading as a healthy choice. 

It’s not just sugar that lurks where you least expect it.  Watch for things such as dairy, additives, food dyes.  There are a lot of good reasons to be more aware of what you’re spending your money on.

Read your labels.  You may not be as crunchy as you think you are !

Source: Term Life Insurance

Because we want you to be able to read this… here’s what it says. (more…)

And we’re not even including quitting smoking or using sunscreen daily. Check out nine more ways you can fight aging.

1. Not enough sleep * If you’re up watching late night television, you’re probably not getting the 7-8 hours of sleep you need each night to help fight high blood pressure, diabetes, weight gain, and looking and feeling old.
2. Too many sweets * Sugar not only adds pounds, it also makes your skin dull and wrinkled. Here’s the biology: There’s a natural process known as glycation, in which the sugar in your bloodstream attaches to proteins to form harmful new molecules called advanced glycation end products (AGEs, for short). The more sugar you eat, the more AGEs you develop; these damage surrounding proteins like collagen and elastin, which keep skin firm and elastic. Once damaged, springy and resilient collagen and elastin become dry and brittle, leading to wrinkles and sagging. These aging effects start at about age 35 and increase rapidly after that (British Journal of Dermatology), so limit your sugar intake.
3. Stress! * Stress increases the concentration of the hormones cortisol and norepinephrine in the bloodstream, kicking up blood pressure and suppressing immunity. Over time, stress that doesn’t go away can delay healing, harden your arteries, and possibly shrink areas of your brain involved in learning, memory, and mood. Try deep breathing or meditation to relax consciously.
4. Sporadic exercise * It’s not just for losing weight. Research shows that vigorous exercisers have longer telomeres—cellular biomarkers that shorten as we age—compared with healthy adults who rarely work out. Being active consistently can help fight brain fog, reduce inflammation, and prevent type 2 diabetes and other chronic conditions that crop up over time. Get moving for at least 20-25 minutes a day.
5. Big sound * Hearing loss usually develops gradually, but the more you play that iPod at full volume, the more quickly you’ll need a hearing aid. Keep the volume as low as possible, and use noise-cancelling headphones so you’re not using the volume to fight ambient noise. Use earplugs when you’re around other loud noises, like the lawn mower.
6. Setting friendships aside * Satisfying friendships predict longevity better than even close family ties, and they can protect against obesity, depression, and heart disease, among other health problems. Your friends keep you young—simple as that. Make time for friendships.
7. Skipping fruits and veggies * You’ve likely heard that antioxidant-packed fruits and veggies can help you stay young. These powerful compounds fight free radicals that would otherwise wreak havoc on your body and skin, damaging cells that can lead to cancer and make you look older. Antioxidants remain active for only a few hours and need to be continually replenished, so it’s a daily deal – even better at every meal.
8. Cutting the fat * Don’t cut out the fat; choose the smart fats. Stopping the artery-clogging saturated and trans fats is a heart-healthy move, and keeping the unsaturated fats, like those found in fish, nuts, and olive oil, is wise. Omega-3 fatty acids are the ultimate anti-aging fat, essential for protecting your brain, heart, bones, joints, skin, and more. Monounsaturated fats can lower bad LDL cholesterol, raise cardio-protective HDL cholesterol, and decrease your risk of atherosclerosis.
9. Not enough sex * It’s not just fun, sex is great for your health. People with active sex lives have stronger immune systems, less pain, a lower cancer risk, healthier hearts, and less stress. The best news: It can even make you look younger—up to 12 years, a study shows. So rekindle the romance between you and your partner.

Adapted from Prevention magazine on MSN Health

• Summer smoothie-shake * Blend your favorite fruit with Soy Delicious ice cream or Coconut Bliss ice cream or Rice Dream ice cream. Add fresh fruit garnish.
• Fresh juice * Freshly squeezed oranges or grapefruits make a great beverage, or make your own lemonade by adding agave nectar and water to freshly squeezed lemons.
• Sizzle-buster spritzers * Mix those freshly squeezed juices or pomegranate juice with sparkling mineral water for a natural spritzer bursting with flavor. Crush some ice and add fresh fruit for a slushy thirst-quenching summer taste.
• Floating dreams * Make your own natural floats using sarsaparilla or fruit-juice sweetened root beer with vanilla Soy Delicious or Rice Dream ice cream.
• Apple cider crush * Mix apple juice, apple cider, and crushed ice to make a mock (and rum-free) colonial beverage. Add some grated nutmeg and a fresh cinnamon stick for extra flavor.
• Knudsen natural spritzers * Garnish with real fruit.
• Spring water, natural or carbonated * Garnish with fresh fruits, especially raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries for a patriotic flair.
• Patriotic soy shake * Mix raspberries, blueberries, and vanilla soy ice cream (or use rice or coconut ice cream) with crushed ice in a blender and whip it up. Add some fresh fruit – and maybe a little flag on the Fourth of July or Bastille Day – to garnish.

Sugar has been blamed for conditions such as hyperactivity, diabetes, hypoglycemia, bad moods, yeast infections, obesity, and tooth decay. Sugar depletes your body of all the B vitamins. It leaches calcium from your hair, blood, bones, and teeth. It interferes with the absorption of calcium, protein, and other minerals in your body and retards the growth of valuable intestinal bacteria.

~ Marilu Henner, Healthy Life Kitchen

It goes by a lot of names, but it’s all still sugar. If these ingredients are on the label, think twice before you buy (some of these are worse than others, but in the end they’re all sugar, and should be avoided as much as possible).

Brown sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup
Corn syrup solids
Dextrose
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Maltose
Malt
Malt syrup
Maple sugar
Maple syrup
Molasses
Raw sugar
Sucrose (table sugar, white sugar)
Sweetened carob powder
Turbinado

We found this great list of words used on food labels and what they mean. Here’s the beginning of the article to explain it more – we encourage you to click the link and read the whole thing, plus the comments.

These days, grocery shopping involves a lot of reading. Food is rarely content to just be, and instead, must include dozens of labels designating it as CAGE-FREE, HIGH IN ANTIOXIDANTS, or the dreaded ORGANIC. And even if you know your PASTURED from your HUMANELY-RAISED chickens, odds are you still need a PhD to decode most of the other language.

So, to make navigating your supermarket a tad easier, here are 26 food labels, defined and explained in terms understandable to humans. I have to be honest – 36 hours ago, I couldn’t tell the difference between LOW-FAT, LITE and REDUCED-FAT. Now, I can. And I have this guide to consult when I forget.

~ Cheap, Healthy, Good blog

Well, we think so, and we’re in the minority. But there’s some evidence that sugar (including high-fructose corn syrup) is more toxic than most people want to know.

This article from The New York Times Magazine is worth a read. We’re including a rather lengthy teaser, in the hopes that it gets you to read the whole article. What we’ve shared here is the tip of the iceberg – if you read to the end, you’ll find out what the research is showing and why the researchers have stopped consuming sugar.

On May 26, 2009, Robert Lustig gave a lecture called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” which was posted on YouTube the following July. Since then, it has been viewed well over 800,000 times, gaining new viewers at a rate of about 50,000 per month, fairly remarkable numbers for a 90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human physiology.

The viral success of his lecture, though, has little to do with Lustig’s impressive credentials and far more with the persuasive case he makes that sugar is a “toxin” or a “poison….”

Lustig’s argument, however, is not about the consumption of empty calories — and biochemists have made the same case previously, though not so publicly. It is that sugar has unique characteristics, specifically in the way the human body metabolizes the fructose in it, that may make it singularly harmful, at least if consumed in sufficient quantities.

The phrase Lustig uses when he describes this concept is “isocaloric but not isometabolic.” This means we can eat 100 calories of glucose (from a potato or bread or other starch) or 100 calories of sugar (half glucose and half fructose), and they will be metabolized differently and have a different effect on the body. The calories are the same, but the metabolic consequences are quite different.

The fructose component of sugar and H.F.C.S. is metabolized primarily by the liver, while the glucose from sugar and starches is metabolized by every cell in the body. Consuming sugar (fructose and glucose) means more work for the liver than if you consumed the same number of calories of starch (glucose). And if you take that sugar in liquid form — soda or fruit juices — the fructose and glucose will hit the liver more quickly than if you consume them, say, in an apple (or several apples, to get what researchers would call the equivalent dose of sugar). The speed with which the liver has to do its work will also affect how it metabolizes the fructose and glucose.

In animals, or at least in laboratory rats and mice, it’s clear that if the fructose hits the liver in sufficient quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver will convert much of it to fat. This apparently induces a condition known as insulin resistance, which is now considered the fundamental problem in obesity, and the underlying defect in heart disease and in the type of diabetes, type 2, that is common to obese and overweight individuals. It might also be the underlying defect in many cancers.

If what happens in laboratory rodents also happens in humans, and if we are eating enough sugar to make it happen, then we are in trouble.

~ Gary Taubes in The New York Times Magazine, April 17, 2011