Is sugar evil, soil depletion & weight loss blunders
Posted by kathryn in Miscellanea
Today I want to point you to three really good articles I’ve read recently. I have already posted them on Twitter (@KathrynElliott), but wanted to include here as well.
1. Weight loss struggles
An excellent article from Leslie Beck on Common Diet Blunders. I regularly see people who are frustrated at their inability to lose weight, and confused about what’s not working. As Leslie says:
People often wonder if their inability to lose weight is the result of a sluggish metabolism, an underactive thyroid or simply bad genes. Almost always the answer is no. Instead, diet blunders are to blame – oversights that can quietly add hundreds of calories to your day and keep those excess pounds on.
These are topics I regularly discuss with clients, especially point number one. The full article is here and I found this via @RDCorinne.
2. Sugar may be an empty nutrient, but is it poisonous?
Lots and lots of stuff in the media at the moment about sugar being the thoroughly bad for you and possibly the root of all health problems. So I liked this balanced summary of what we do and don’t know about the health effects of sugar.
As a nutrient, sugar is pretty lame, delivering calories but none of the vitamins, minerals, fiber and other good stuff bundled in sweet foods like apples, oranges and kiwis. But the new anti-sugar brigade blames the sweet stuff not just for making people fat, but for causing cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure.
It’s a short piece, but well worth a look click here. Found via @TaraDiversi.
3. Dirt Poor: have fruits and vegetables become less nutritious?
A question I get asked a lot and this is a great answer from Scientific American, with a conclusion I heartily agree with:
Davis warns that just because fruits and vegetables aren’t as healthy as they used to be doesn’t mean we should avoid them. "Vegetables are extraordinarily rich in nutrients and beneficial phytochemicals,” he reported. “They are still there, and vegetables and fruits are our best sources for these.”
It’s a good, not too technical summary and you can find it here. Found via @LizMunn
Also, just to let you know I have put some food and cookery books on ebay. We are moving soon, which has finally pushed me into going through my shelves of food books and doing some serious culling. Most have gone to Vinnies, but I’ve also put a select few on ebay. You can see the full list here. It includes Michelle Cranston’s Fresh and Fast, the Malouf’s Turquoise, a couple of gluten-free books, including one of Sue Shepherd’s, and Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros.
28 April, 2011
Comments
Thank you for this collection — small in number but valuable & timely in content. I always appreciate your “quick links” — they are great guides to practical ways to eat & live more healthfully.
You’ve pulled some key messages from each article – succinct take-away messages for nutrition professionals to provide during counseling. I will be “borrowing” them, if you don’t mind :-).
Oops, I didn’t mean to strike out or delete any part of my comment.
Why thank you Elaine. And of course I don’t mind you using these, in fact I’d be honoured.
Oh yes, and I’ve fixed up that deleting thing in your message . . . did look like you’d changed your mind!
Thanks for sharing these articles, Kathryn. Because I have a life-science background, I like to here about any research on such topics, as it’s usually limited. Thanks again, Lesh
The article on soil depletion is particularly nice to see. I’m always looking for arguments that food is better than vitamin pills, and it’s hard to find ammunition against the soil depletion story.
If I’d seen this earlier, I would have bought Falling Cloudberries. Oh well!
How did I miss such an informative and lovely site! Thanks Ganga for introducing me to this awesome site on health and healthy eating. Need to come here often for info on eating right and foods that heal. Glad to meet you Kathryn :)
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