My wife sent me an email yesterday. We were sitting side by side but sometimes we communicate via email. I think she does this to have a proof that she told me so...
Her email was about an interesting article:
“The drastic results of eating 'healthy foods,' with added sugar”. Link to CTV.
This was a documentary done by Australian actor Damon Gameau. It's
worth reading, take a few minutes to go to the link above, I'll wait
here.
What he’s talking about is what we were doing when our daughters were little. They had granola bars, cereals and juice daily. We didn't know better. When you think you are providing your kids with healthy food and later find out it was not the case you realize something has seriously gone wrong.
Why would the industries lace their product with sugar? a good chance it's because it's addictive. They want us to buy their products because it tastes good and the more you eat the more you want. THEY WIN! We also win, we win a bigger waistline; pounds on the scale; all kinds
of deceases; and a diminishing quality of life. This last one might not
be that important because you also win a shorter life span.
The cynic in me think that the sugar industries target kids. If you are to get people addicted to your products, kids are the perfect target as they will be lifetime customers. Doesn't matter to them if those kids’ lives happen to be shortened as they will have their own kids who will be raised in the same sweet environment as their parent provided and it will create more customers.
Maybe as with cigarettes, there should be a big warning on every bag of sugar and any product which contains sugar. However, even with the cigarette warnings kids do start smoking anyway.
Has anyone been successful at losing weight while still eating refined sugar?
You can get out of the sugar wagon, we did it.
Before going on our trip in June, I thought about buying a treat. I looked at cakes and looked at the ingredient labels but there was just too much sugar.
So I thought I’d buy some muffins, when I looked at the labels it was as bad as buying cake. I looked at the smallest muffins available, they were almost bite size, but still contained too much sugar. I was not able to rationalize buying “comfort food” which would impair my health.
At
some point, for some “special” occasions, we will have a piece of cake,
pie or a cookie, but my definition of “special” is not an open door to
eat the shit every time I want; My wife and I had our birthday while on
the sugar wagon, we didn't have cake, but we gained one more year of wisdom!
Hahahaha, I drank NO WATER as a kid. I couldn`t stand it. It was all juice all the time! But...now I drink pretty much only water. I`ll occasionally have a glass of milk, and juice or pop are special treats I have maybe 4-5 times a year. It was a super easy transition to make too, so it`s never too late to change your habits.
ReplyDeleteI already knew that cereals and granola bars [which are basically candy bars with a good reputation] have a lot of sugar, so I tell myself I`m having a treat when I`m eating any...works for me. I get to eat some from time to time but they`re in no way a regular part of my diet.
-WWE
Good for you... we must have done one thing right... My cereal is really healthy, it's Cheerios (no sugar added)
DeleteThat was a big eye opener for my family, too. Once we stopped listening to the marketing companies telling us that this 'Low Fat!' product was indeed 'Full of Sugar!' and even worse, we rid our kitchen of this trash. The hard part was convincing my kids that fruit juice was almost as bad for them as a can of soda, but they're on board completely now.
ReplyDeleteWelcome Rachel, I read some of your posts and enjoyed it so much I'm going to add you to my Gym list.
DeleteYes it's hard to fight big marketing agency, we have to be really careful about the choices we made and sometimes we still do the wrong choice. Finding from each other is the best way to get to our goal.
Because of some issues last year, I was told to get my son (then 7) to drink a lot more by whatever means possible - by buying juice and cordial and making milkshakes (I still never bought fizzy drink for home) and giving food and non food rewards. Lollies if he had two drinks before school! I was uncomfortable with it but sometimes a bad choice is the best choice under the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteNow things are much better. We haven't had food treats for a while but both my children and husband are now used to drinking juice and cordial all the time instead of water. I'm not sure how to wean them off it without dropping my son's fluid levels. I personally drink water with a squeeze of lemon, or tea with milk and sugar. Do I make them go cold turkey? If I say "only one glass of juice per day" does that mean it's all they will have? You can't force someone to drink, and I don't want to make a glass of water some kind of torture.
I know what you mean! I did the same with my kids when I didn't know better. How awful. It wasn't until years later that I discovered (by researching on my own) all the crap we consume. Well, better late than never!
ReplyDeleteThe sugar-laced cereal here is all kid eye-level. Amazing. Personally though, I don't eat any of that stuff. Nothing pre-made. It's all crap on so many levels.
ReplyDelete