Lincs Nutrition - Blog

Even as little as fifty years ago, obesity was virtually unheard of; people were rarely fat. Now, about one fifth of people are considered obese in the UK and a further 30-40% considered overweight. The difference in these numbers can be explained by differences in diet and lifestyle.

For the majority of the population, jobs required high activity levels – think of miners, farmworkers and many other jobs involving manual labour. We don’t see many people engaging in these jobs any more. These jobs meant that people could eat a huge number of calories every day and not gain any weight.

Now, jobs are a lot more sedentary – frequent computer use, and the mechanisation of many tasks means that people are physically expending the energy. Even getting to work is much easier – cars and public transport means that people don’t walk or cycle so far.

At the same time, people haven’t cut their calorie intake to keep their body in a state of balance energy-wise. And to make things harder, food has become more energy-dense – weight for weight, food generally contains more calories today. Fewer people prepare food from fresh and pre-packaged convenience foods , fast food and larger portion sizes all contribute towards obesity.

But why does this matter?

The more obese a person is, the higher the risk of various diseases and impairment in quality of life. In addition, the greater the amount of fat held centrally or abdominally (round the waist area), again, the higher the health risks.

So what are the increased risks?

Obesity brings a higher risk of early death, heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, cancer (endometrial, colon, gall bladder, prostate, kidney, and post-menopausal breast cancer), fatty liver disease, gallbladder disease, breathing problems, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), varicose veins, arthritis, pregnancy complications. Psychologically, there are issues such as lack of confidence, depression e.g. when not able to ‘keep up with the kids’ and pressure to be slim by the media.

In short, to lose or maintain weight, eat less, eat healthier and exercise more!

Although this guest article was written some time ago, according to Food.gov.uk, Stevia and stevioside are still not permitted for sale as food or food ingredients in the UK or elsewhere within the EU. This is a real shame, but typical of an outdated system which supports the pharmaceutical and chemical industries over healing naturally through diet and food.

A natural alternative to sugar – Stevia

If you’re looking to get away from sugar for health or environmental reasons; Stevia might be a great no-calorie, more earth-friendly alternative for you.

The demand for cane sugar has seen vast swathes of land degraded over centuries. According to the WWF, sugar cultivation has been responsible for considerable soil erosion, habitat destruction, pesticide and herbicide poisoning of water and eutrophication caused by nutrient and waste runoff. Refining of sugar also presents environmental issues – see my article on white sugar vs. raw sugar.

For most people, it’s health and dieting issues that lead them to use sugar alternatives; and the products most often turned to are aspartame and saccharin. Aspartame is the chemical most widely used now, present in large quantities in diet soda and many other processed foods.

In regards to saccharin; one of its components is phthalic acid. Aside from being a sweetener ingredient, phthalic acid is used in plasticizers and for surface coatings. It’s a substance that has created considerable water pollution in China. Saccharin has already been banned in some countries.

Aspartame doesn’t appear to directly create environmental problems; but when ingested; it breaks down into aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. Phenylalanine can cause problems for some sensitive people, but methanol is the bigger concern. The methanol breaks down further into formaldehyde and formic acid, both known carcinogens. It poisons us and what we excrete poisons the environment.

The major problem with aspartame is the scale of its use. The EPA recommend a limit of consumption of under 8 milligrams a day. A litre, or quart, of aspartame-sweetened soda contains over 50 grams of methanol. If you take a close look at the ingredients in many of the food items in your cupboards, and not just sweet items, you may be surprised to see how many contain aspartame.

The health problems associated with aspartame are currently being hotly debated. Aspartame is big business and there are many powerful players keen to see that it remains that way.

There are many more natural alternatives to cane sugar including Brazzein, Curculin, Erythritol, Fructose, Glycyrrhizin, Glycerol, Isomalt, Lactitol, Mabinlin, Maltitol, Mannitol, Miraculin, Monellin , Pentadin, Sorbitol, Stevia, Tagatose, Thaumatin and Xylitol. Most of the names of those sound fairly frightening and many are derived from fruit, but one particular sugar alternative has really caught my interest – Stevia.

Stevia, which is also known as sweetleaf, honeyleaf or sugarleaf is a herb from South America that is said to be a couple of hundred times sweeter weight for weight compared with cane sugar. To put that into context, a teaspoon of refined Stevia powder is about the same as a cup of sugar in terms of sweetening ability. It contains no calories and refined Stevia products have no bitter after-taste.

Stevia is not a new discovery, it’s been in use by the Guarini Indians of Paraguay for medicinal and sweetening purposes for 1500 years and has been used extensively for decades in Japan.

Stevia has been approved for use in many countries, but in the USA and Australia, Stevia still hasn’t been approved as a sweetening agent and it’s not permitted for sale in UK or EU.

Some say the reason for this is due to the influence of powerful aspartame industry who finance studies to show Stevia to be possibly being harmful and applying pressure to governments to prevent it from being more readily available as unlike artificial sweeteners, it cannot be patented. Still, as with any supplement or food; exercise caution and due diligence before consumption.

It can be found in many health food stores and in some supermarkets as a dietary supplement – but in the USA at this point, it won’t mention anything about its sweetening properties on the label due to FDA constraints.

Stevia is available as whole leaf, ground leaf, powders or a liquid extract; but in regards to the powder/liquid form; check the ingredients – sometimes other nasty chemicals can accompany it and to create liquid extract I understand to be quite an energy intensive process. The liquid and powder forms are the most potent, but even whole Stevia leaves are 20 to 30 times sweeter than cane sugar (but these may have somewhat of a licorice or slightly bitter after-taste)

Unlike aspartame, Stevia is stable when heated, so it can be used in a wide range of recipes requiring cooking.

Stevia is a member of the chrysanthemum family and a herb that can grow in poor soils. Stevia is a subtropical perennial and is a little water intensive, but given its potency it may be a plant that could be well suited to your own garden. Imagine having your “sugar” hit growing out in your back yard! Stevia plants have also been observed to have insect repelling tendencies – so it could be a perfect plant for an organic garden.

So there you have it – a seemingly healthier and more environmentally friendly solution for your sweet tooth that can also assist with pest control in your garden!

Michael Bloch
Green Living Tips.com
Green Living Tips is an online resource powered by renewable energy offering a wide variety of earth friendly tips, green guides, advice and environment related news to help consumers and business reduce costs, consumption and environmental impact.

• Tags: known carcinogens • pollution in china • soil erosion • diet soda • phenylaline • sugar cultivation • sugar alternatives • water pollution • saccharin • environmental reasons • aspartame • raw sugar • plasticizers • surface coatings • cane sugar • white sugar • phenylalanine • habitat destruction • methanol • processed foods •

We expect a quick fix to everything these days – fast food outlets, the Internet…whatever we want we can get straight away. And thanks to technology and science, more and more solutions and cures are appearing everyday.

We have an attitude of tablets for everything – whether paracetamol for headache, antibiotics to blitz any bug under the sun (even though they won’t work on viruses, and much of the time you can naturally recover from the bug without extra pills and have a much stronger immune system for it!), and we expect a quick fix for health too.

However, quick fixes for diet and fitness are not possible, but because we expect and want them, the multi-billion pound diet industry has appeared, to fulfill that need.

Consider the hundreds of adverts you see – in print, on the television and on the Internet – all promising fast weight loss – you see before and after pictures, and a claim of “I lost 50 pounds in three weeks with (insert product name) and you can too!”. The before and after images sometimes even look fake, either having been airbrushed, or with the ‘before’ picture taken in unflattering light with the subject of the image looking hunched and miserable yet the ‘after’ picture in good lighting with the subject standing tall and smiling! However, the idea of a quick fix is still planted in our minds.

Even if the product does work, no side effects are ever mentioned or the problems of too fast weight loss. And after the product is not needed any more, the cause of the problem still remains so the weight will return.

Yo yo dieting by the way, actually leads to higher weight gain – slow and steady weight loss is the only way to safely and effectively lose weight and, as long as the cause of the problem is addressed, the weight should not return.

Here’s some more handy weight loss / credit crunch food tips:

1. Join the local cash-and-carry or co-operative – you can either buy in larger quantities which brings the unit cost of food down (e.g. rice), or by sharing the cost between a few people the same larger quantities can be bought but you don’t have to buy the whole amount yourself, just your share but at the lower rate.
2. Serve smaller portions – have a look at your dinner plates – are they really the right size? Why not find some smaller plates and use them instead. You may be surprised at how hungry you DON’T feel. Any leftovers can be used for lunches.
3. If you are cooking, make double the amount you need, then freeze the other half. It’s cost-effective cooking and will save you some time on the second occasion when all you have to do is defrost and reheat.
4. Put a handful of cous cous or lentils into sauces – it will add another texture, but depending on the amount you use, very little taste. It will make your sauces go further, which brings the cost down.
5. Be shopper savvy – look at prices on food and shelf labels – bigger isn’t always cheaper or if there’s only a few pence difference effectively between sizes, do you really need the bigger size?
6. Plan meals in advance and check your cupboards, fridge and freezer for ingredients first – that way you won’t buy food unneccessarily.
7. Look at all the shelves in the supermarket – premium brands tend to be placed at eye level, so look on the shelf above and below to see if there’s a cheaper alternative.
8. If you do like your bread, cakes and biscuits, take control and bake them! Kneading bread is a physical activity in itself! When you do your own baking, it’s cheaper and there are fewer preservatives. Flapjack can be a healthy option too – see here for example.
9. If you buy fresh herbs and can’t use them all up before they go off, freeze them. If they’re in a pot, cut the herbs off at soil level and put them in the freezer in a small bag, otherwise, you can freeze them in the packaging they came in. Now, just tear off what you want and add it straight in to your cooking – no need to defrost.
10. Buy frozen veg – it can be just as healthy as fresh bought in the supermarket, if not more so, as the nutrients are locked in at the point of freezing. It means you can add a greater variety of veg to your diet without having to worry about getting it eaten before it goes off. It’s also really handy to throw a handful of frozen veg into a casserole or stew again, no need to defrost.

One of the biggest pieces of advice I give to clients is about portion control – get that right and you’ll find that weight loss is easier. After a meal you should feel that you’ve had enough to eat, but shouldn’t feel stuffed.

Unfortunately, portion sizes have increased in size over the last 20-30 years and so have our waistlines, and expectation. If you buy a fast-food meal, you expect it to be a certain size or you feel that you’ve not got value for money.

So, where do you start? Firstly, at home try using side plates or children’s plates instead of your normal plates. If you are still genuinely hungry after the plate is finished, then have some more. If you’re not convinced you’re eating less, try transferring the contents of the smaller plate onto your normal dinner plate and see the difference in portion size – it makes a big difference – 100 extra calories per day translates into 5kg (over 10 pounds) per year in extra weight.

Secondly, read what manufacturers state is a portion size. Do you really stick to this? Next time you cook pasta, compare your portion size with the manufacturer’s portion size in dry weight, you may be surprised!

Thirdly, you don’t have to finish everything on your plate. This is one of the hardest issues to overcome and derives from times of hardship when food was far more scarce. Luckily today, people reading this blog won’t have these food issues. It does create a psychological block though – we were all told as children to eat everything up.

Ask youself whether you really need those last few mouthfuls, or whether you’re eating for the sake of it. And if you’re eating out, simply don’t go for the larger option. Even something as innocuous as a cup of coffee can pile on the pounds if bought in one of the high street coffee shops. A cup of coffee with milk and sugar 20 years ago contained about 45 calories, today buy a coffee with steamed milk, mocha syrup and firstly the cup size will be much bigger, and secondly it will contain about 350 calories – nearly eight times more. Just two of those a week rather than the coffee 20 years ago is an extra 4kg in weight gain a year, or 9 pounds – ouch!

Finally, find out how much you really know about what you’re eating at “Portion Distortion“. Coffee anyone?