Eating For Health

Do food manufacturers have secrets they don’t want you to know?   My sister recommended an MSN article on a number of things food manufacturers want to keep secret as outlined in   the article 50 Secrets Food Manufacturers Don’t Tell You That Could Change the Way You Eat.   Some of the changes food manufacturers are making are good for our health.   More manufacturers are cutting back on the added sugar in foods.  Also, manufacturers are reducing the artificial flavors and artificial colors in foods.   For example, Kraft has removed the artificial color in their macaroni and cheese.   Even fast food chains are focusing on healthier options by getting rid of the antibiotics in chicken.    What are some things you should be aware of?      1.  Crackers – are you being fooled by crackers?   Are crackers healthy?   Most crackers are made from refined flour (white flour) and sugar and salt.   Add some p...

Enjoy that pasta and cover it with some spaghetti sauce.   How healthy is spaghetti sauce?   Are some brands healthier than others?   What should you look for when buying spaghetti sauce? Is spaghetti sauce healthy? Yes.   Spaghetti sauce provides vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants.   All good for your health.   Vitamins :     Spaghetti sauce is full of a number of vitamins like vitamins A, C and K.   A half cup serving of spaghetti sauce supplies about 10 mg of vitamin C.   An important vitamin for collagen formation and our immune system.   A half cup supplies about 100 skin.   Vitamin K – lots of it in spaghetti sauce.   A half of cup also supplies about 20% of w 0 IU of vitamin A or about 20% of what you need each day.   Vitamin A helps us see at night and for our skin as it builds the connective tissue under our skin.   I always tell my students to eat carrots for healthier skin but I...

The World Health Organization created quite a stir recently when they announced we should cut our added sugar intake to only 5% of our daily calories ( WHO | Draft Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children ).     Sounds easy?   Not really as manufacturers sneak added sugar into almost every food we eat.   The WHO focused on all sugars, but in this blog I will focus on ADDED sugar, what manufacturers add in processing.   Added sugars are n ot sugars naturally present in foods like fructose in an apple or lactose in milk.    So what did the WHO propose and why?   Currently, WHO recommends added sugars should make up less than 10% of our daily calories. WHO Draft guidelines:   Sugar should be less than 10% of our total calories with even more health benefits if we reduce sugars to less than 5% of our daily calories. What is 5%?    This means reducing our sugars to about 25 grams a day or 6 teaspoons for adul...