sugar Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Respect Food Roles

Yet Another Sugar Screed

December 21, 2017February 1, 2017 by Debi Simons

That Sugar Film, 2015, written and directed by Damon Gameau, who also stars. Streaming is available for free through Amazon Prime, or you can rent to stream or buy the DVD if you’re not a Prime member. Also available through Netflix.

I don’t want to wear out my welcome here, so if you’re kind of weary of the whole “sugar is evil” hoopty-doo feel free to skip this. However, Jim and I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and it’s a pretty painless way (except for the tooth-extraction scene) to find out a little more about the silent white killer. (Cue ominous music. And full disclosure: I just caved in and ate three smallish peanut-butter cookies that my husband made this weekend. They were calling out to me from the freezer. But I won’t say that I couldn’t resist. I could. I just didn’t. So sue me!)

Gameau is an actor who decided to make a documentary about what would happen to him if, after about three years of eating a very healthful, low-to-no-sugar diet, he deliberately ate 40 teaspoons of sugar every day for 60 days, yet another one of those “stunt journalism” stunts, akin to “Supersize Me,” the 2004 film in which Morgan Spurlock, an American filmmaker, ate nothing but McDonald’s food for a month.

The Ongoing Sugar Struggle

December 18, 2017January 26, 2017 by Debi Simons

wonderful pear pie I write periodically about the dangers of sugar consumption and my own efforts to control if not banish this substance from my life. Right now I’m working on re-doing my recipes over on the hospitality blog, and for every dessert I’m including information on how many grams of sugar each serving contains. The typical amount is around 25 grams, or about 6 teaspoons, which, coincidentally, is the limit given by most researchers for the daily maximum we should have for added sugar.

The Low-Sugar Lifestyle–Rules of the Game

December 18, 2017January 5, 2017 by Debi Simons

cupcake with frosting on the frosting I’ve written quite a bit about my periodic attempts to cut out sugar from my diet and have also posted reviews of several books about the dangers of sugar. The most recent material I posted was of an interview that Gretchen Rubin did with Gary Taubes, who has now written yet a third book on this dangerous aspect of the Western diet, The Case Against Sugar. I’m including the link again here; be advised that you have to give up your e-mail address in order to gain access to the PDF. It’s about 23 pages and very worthwhile reading.

Other than the annual chocolate tasting that my sister-in-law leads each year (well, this was the second year), a few sips of pink eggnog and some cookies,, mostly barely-sweet biscotti, I stayed off sweets for the holidays. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I’ll go in and get my A1C checked—a reading that gives a three-month average of your blood sugar load.

Circles Around a Problem

December 18, 2017December 1, 2016 by Debi Simons

concentric blue circles

Yet another post in which I borrow shamelessly from the Gretchen Rubin and Liz Craft podcast. You really, really, really should listen to it every single week. I don’t actually subscribe to it but just remember, “Oh, it’s Wednesday! Time for Gretch and Liz!”

Anyway, yesterday they were discussing the issue of how to deal with people who are very upset about your problems and so aren’t helpful. A woman had written in earlier saying that she had cancer, and her mother was so devastated about it that it was draining and upsetting for the daughter to be around her. Instead of her mother comforting her, she was having to comfort her mother. So the woman just didn’t want to be around a person who should have been a great help and support.

Build that Wall!

December 21, 2017September 2, 2016 by Debi Simons

Castle wall

Walls seem to be in the political news a lot, don’t they? Well, my purpose on this page isn’t to discuss that issue. But yesterday was the first day of September, and I decided that it was time, once again, to build the wall of abstaining from sugar.

The Fragility of Good Habits

December 21, 2017March 17, 2016 by Debi Simons

I wrote a post recently about Michael Caulfield’s book on health and fitness and mentioned that his ideas on physical fitness, particularly on the need to push yourself, had changed my own exercise routine. Instead of going on my 3 1/2-mile walk, which I really enjoy, I switched over to do more intense sessions on our exercise bike. After a week or so of this routine I realized that my knees were killing me. I was going up the stairs like an old lady. (Nothing against old ladies–I’m going to be one myself someday!)

Common Sense Is the Key

June 3, 2019February 23, 2016 by Debi Simons

book cover for The Cure For Everything, showing an apple

The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness by Timothy Caulfield, Beacon Press, 2012, available in several formats.

If you have time to read only one book on health this year, I would strongly suggest that it be this one. Were you to be prone to spend money on dietary supplements, cleanses, homeopathy, or acupuncture (to name a few currently popular fad items), you’d make back the money you spend on this book with all the money you’d save by cutting out your expenses on those totally needless items.

A dear friend from a number of years ago (and in a different state from where we live now) said to me about some nostrum or other, “It totally changes the way your body works.” Whoa! Do we actually want to do that? Sounds pretty dangerous to me. (She was safe in taking whatever-it-was, of course, as it did nothing of the kind. Cleaned out her wallet, but that’s about it.) Caulfield actually tries out every item he criticizes, so he puts his money where his mouth is. There’s a hilarious section

A Sobering Book that May Make You Happier

January 1, 2018December 18, 2015 by Debi Simons

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss, Random House, 2013. Available through Amazon in several formats. See the author’s website for more information.

One of the ways we can live a happier life is to live a healthier one. Bad health can be a constant drain, a chronic darkener of mood. Good health doesn’t necessarily make us happier, but it removes the drain. Does that make sense? Having good health is like having enough money: You’re freed to think about something else.

Readers of this blog will be seeing regular posts from now on about healthy eating. (It really should be “healthful eating,” but I just can’t bring myself to use that term. It sounds so pretentious.) I have cut out sweets from my diet pretty much completely, as I talked about in this post about personality types.

So What Am I Going to Eat?

January 4, 2019November 19, 2015 by Debi Simons

Well, I had a very spiritual book picked out for this week, and I definitely plan to write about it soon. But . . . have you heard the saying “When the student is ready, the teacher appears”? (I think that’s a koan, but I’m not sure.) So there I was at the library a few days ago, looking at the new books display at the top of the stairs as I always do, and here was this one. I love books about chefs. (Although I found Blood, Bones and Butter to be supremely put-down-able.) The organic part doesn’t interest me all that much, I’m not too sorry to say, but I was intrigued by the author because we used to live right outside Washington D.C. and I’d heard of her restaurant there. Not that we ever went–it’s pretty pricey. But I thought it might be fun to read at least some of it. Well, I was hooked right away. It says that she has a “with” author, so I guess Nora herself can’t take all the credit for the beautiful vivid writing, but it’s really a great read.

What’s Your Type?

May 3, 2018November 18, 2015 by Debi Simons

flooded roadway Here’s the list of (some of) my types:

1. Obliger.

2. Abstainer.

3. Type 1.5 Diabetic. (Probable.)

I’ve discussed #1 a number of times, most recently in A Flash of Insight. . .

Because I know that I’m this personality type, I also know that it does very little good for me to just make resolutions; some kind of exterior accountability almost always needs to be put in place or I won’t do what I resolved.