Live Well Choose Quality Not Quantity - Always Read the Label
Live Well Choose Quality Not Quantity
Always Read the Label
I am confused. We have been told that eggs and fat were bad for us, now we are told they are actually good for us. We were told that carbohydrates in wholemeal bread and pasta were good, now it seems with sky rocketing levels of diabetes and pre –diabetes carbs are bad for us. Crisps were evil and now spuds are more evil than a very evil thing, while fruit juice is practically a mass murderer. Every time I take a bite of that lovely lean steak I am putting my head into the jaws of a lion.
Confused Again
Now it seems the scientists have got it wrong. People who ate higher fat diets in trials in the 1970s did not have higher death rates from heart disease instead in the drive to cut fat it let in the demon of SUGAR. Starchy stuff is full of carbohydrates and to eat less fat we were all encouraged to eat more starch. And if you opted for a low fat alternative and bought a factory made product they added in sugar to make it taste better. In improving the taste they primed a bomb, an obesity and diabetes bomb.
Our Parent’s Generation
Forty years ago the effects of smoking and high blood cholesterol had led to a wave of heart attacks and so we rebalanced what we eat to deal with those. In the short term it seems it fixed that terrible situation, but the reduction in smoking has done most to stop the epidemic of heart disease we faced. Life expectancy has risen and cardiovascular disease in the under 75s has more than halved.
However just concentrating on one nutrient or another is not useful. The best approach is to eat wholesome real food, such as a Mediterranean diet, which includes fruit and vegetables, fish, lean meat and olive oil. Eat as little factory made processed food as possible which hides many hidden ingredients, often which are sugar based. And read the label. It is boring but incredibly important.
If it says, sugar, dextrose, syrup, glucose, fructose Sugars are those ingredients ending in –ose no matter what the labels pretend to say. If it says Sucrose, Maltose, Dextrose, Fructose, Glucose, Galactose, Lactose, High fructose corn syrup, Glucose solids.It is sugar. Other hidden sugars are Cane juice, or anything with cane in it, anything with Dext in it, Barley malt, Beet sugar, Corn syrup or any variant, anything like Diatase, malt, Fruit juice, , Golden syrup, Turbinado or Ethyl maltol. Breath taking how much is hidden isn’t it?
To Booze or Not to Booze - That Is the Question
Surprisingly booze is much more straightforward in terms of labelling, but equally mystifying in what you can and can’t do. And now while we have been told that drinking a little is healthy, drinking even a bit more is dangerous. However, recently though it was revealed anti-drink lobbyists were involved in the setting of safe national drinking levels and where we had different levels for men and women, they are now the same. The suspicion is that do-gooders have infiltrated the Institute of Alcohol Studies and made it gender neutral, as they say south of the Border and not necessarily based on good science.
It has reached such a state that the drinks industry is threatening to boycott the guidelines and no longer put them on bottles. Drinkers fear that they are to be driven to the edge of respectability as even moderate drinking becomes frowned on. Most alcohol won’t affect your chances of diabetes I am told but being overweight will.
My Granny Was Right About Everything
What my old granny told me still rings true that not only will many a mickle will make a muckle, but also that moderation is for all things. And for me that moderation starts with drinking from a truly decent glass. The nicer the glass, the more I savour the drink and it slows me down and I either drink less, or I drink that amount over a longer period of time. I know the fine crystal in my hand deserves to be looked after and so it infuses my attitude to the booze too, especially wine and spirits. Royal Scot have some lovely ones on offer.
https://www.jamespirie.com/royal-scot-crystal.html
And a decent wine glass should have a high volume of air in it, because that ability to mix the wine with air prior to drinking improves even a moderate wine. So try the Scottish Thistle large wine glass. The secret is not to fill the glass as they do in the pub or restaurant, but leave lots of room for it to react with the air.
