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Healthy sugar substitutes?

As we are now fully launched into the Holiday season, we should be looking to find ways to consume our delicious sweets while still bypassing the damaging effects regular refined sugar and artificial sweeteners offer. A great way to do this is by using healthy sugar substitutes. There are quite a few healthy sugar substitutes available in most stores now which means that making the switch has never been easier. 

What’s wrong with sugar?

The problem with sugar is that it is addictive, just like a drug. And consuming excessive amounts of sugar can trigger numerous health issues. In her book, Feeding You Lies: How to Unravel the Food Industry’s Playbook and Reclaim Your Health, Vani Hari lists some of the health issues consuming too much sugar can lead to:

  • Weight gain
  • Aging
  • Inflammation
  • Liver problems
  • Tooth decay
  • Fatigue and irritability
  • Brain dangers
  • Poor immunity
  • Heart troubles

Healthy sugar substitutes to buy

Healthy sugar substitutes are not to be consumed in excess either. But they do have the advantage to satisfy your sweet tooth without the side effects refined sugar, artificial sweeteners (and high fructose corn syrup) can trigger. On his website, Dr. Axe lists 11 natural sweeteners that can be used as sugar substitutes:

  • Raw honey
  • Stevia
  • Dates
  • Coconut sugar
  • Maple syrup
  • Blackstrap molasses
  • Balsamic glaze
  • Banana puree
  • Brown rice syrup
  • Real fruit jam
  • Monk fruit

The sugar substitutes I use

Being now that I’m fifty and have a high carbohydrate sensitivity (as mentioned in my first blog post), I have to constantly watch my carbohydrate intake. I am doing this very rigorously by eating a low-carb diet (almost borderline keto diet) and as a result my hemoglobin A1C (a measure of blood sugar levels of three straight months) is 5.1 (the range being 4.8 – 5.6). I bought a blood glucose monitor to help me see which foods tend to raise blood sugar too much. This is really helpful to get a clear picture of what is okay to eat and no one has to wait to have diabetes in order to do that. I have monk fruit at home. Stevia is another option I would consume. When I eat something slightly sweet, right away it makes me want to eat more. So I really stay away from anything sugary at this point. Healthy fats can be way more satisfying anyway!

Are you consuming healthy sugar substitutes? What are your favorite ones?

References

Axe, Josh. “11 Best Sugar Substitutes (the Healthiest Natural Sweeteners).” Dr. Axe, 9 May 2019, draxe.com/nutrition/ sugar-substitutes. Accessed 28 Nov. 2019.

Vani Hari. FEEDING YOU LIES : How to Unravel the Food Industry’s Playbook and Reclaim Your Health. Carlsbad, California, Hay House, Inc., 2019, pp. 81–88.

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Nowadays

In today’s world, convenience foods are everywhere and cooking from scratch has become quite rare. Who has the time to prepare home-cooked meals on a daily basis? We are always on the go, and weekends can be just as busy as the rest of the week. What we don’t realize, though, is that when we reach for convenience foods and on-the-go meal options, we do not fuel ourselves with real food – with nutrient-dense food. We fuel ourselves with processed foods that are filled with toxic chemicals, labeled or not labeled. Only home-cooked meals made with whole foods can give us the right nutrients required for proper metabolic function. Home-cooked meals are the meals that sustain health and wellness.

What cooking at home can lead to

In a recent Bulletproof podcast, “What the heck should I cook, Dr. Hyman?”, Dr. Mark Hyman states, “If people just got off the crap and started eating real food, and literally unplugged from the industrial food system, their health would dramatically improve.” He adds, “We would reverse climate change. We would end social injustice and poverty. We’d have money enough for free education, and free healthcare for everybody, and can support the neediest among us with no effort, and have lots of money left over to do cool stuff and create new science, and solve all the world’s problems just by cooking at home.” These are strong statements and I encourage you to listen to this podcast which highlights so many truths we have become oblivious to.

What to use in simple home-cooked meals

Home-cooked meals imply cooking with whole foods, which means using nutrient-dense ingredients that have not been tampered with. To find out what to buy to prepare home-cooked meals, you can check several of my previous blog posts: What to Buy Organic, Which Fish are Okay to Buy, How to Source Beef, Why Eating the Egg Yolk is Perfectly Fine. In What are Ketones? I list several healthy fat options that can be consumed as snacks, as well as which oils to use for cooking. My article on The Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid sums up this list of nutrient-dense foods to use in home-cooked meals.

Strategies

You don’t have to cook every single day in order to obtain an optimal level of health and wellness. Most of us have busy schedules and aren’t able to set that time aside each day. Instead, you can implement a few different strategies into your weekly routine in order to obtain the same goal. One strategy you can implement is to set some time aside on the weekend to prep several dishes for the week. You can store these in the fridge or freezer, as required. Also, something that I was doing a lot when my children were growing up, is to cook a meal big enough to cover at least two dinners. Like that, when there are after school activities to attend, dinner doesn’t have to be an end-of-the-day ordeal.

In summary

It may seem impossible at first to change the way we have approached cooking in our day-to-day life. But if we take it one step at a time, we can enjoy home-cooked meals every day. As Dr. Hyman highlights, not only are home-cooked meals made with whole foods better for our health, but they are also better for a host of other issues we are dealing with in today’s world. Home-cooked meals sustain health and wellness in so many ways!

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The importance of herbs and spices

Herbs and spices can not only bring up any dish with wonderful aromas and colors, but they contain a host of health benefits. That is the very reason why they have been used for centuries in food and medicine. Chinese herbal medicine is a prime example of how herbs and spices can be used in a very powerful way to help alleviate and cure various ailments. The spice trade highlights what important merchandise spices were between continents in the past centuries. I am not going to list the array of health benefits you get from consuming herbs and spices as they are so numerous beyond the primary fact that most have strong antioxidant properties – suffice to say that herbs and spices are not to be bypassed. 

Basic herbs and spices

Here’s a short list (as mentioned in the Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation) of basic herbs and spices that can easily be used in any meal you prepare:

  • Basil
  • Black pepper
  • Cayenne pepper
  • Chili pepper
  • Cilantro
  • Coriander seeds
  • Cinnamon
  • Cloves
  • Cumin seeds
  • Dill
  • Ginger
  • Mint
  • Mustard seeds
  • Nutmeg
  • Oregano
  • Paprika
  • Parsley
  • Peppermint
  • Rosemary
  • Sage
  • Tarragon
  • Thyme
  • Turmeric

I would like to add to this list horseradish powder, leek powder, and sea vegetable powder which I like to sprinkle on most of my meals. When buying herbs and spices, you want to make sure they are well-sourced, that is, organic (and mold-free). Growing your own herbs is a plus and helps to guarantee that your herbs and spices won’t be tampered with!

Salt

You want to avoid the conventionally processed table salt as it has fillers, anticaking agents, and very few nutrients. One more good reason to give up processed foods as this traditional salt abounds in them. Sea salt is what to pick. I like to use Celtic sea salt. Himalayan sea salt is another great option.

A word about garlic

Garlic, an allium, was a favorite of hunter-gatherers. American Indian tribes used wild alliums “to treat infected wounds, restore appetites, boost energy, repel scorpions, soothe bee stings, relieve colic and croup, lower fevers, and as a general tonic for colds, sore throat, and earaches,” as explained by Jo Robinson in Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health. Some of garlic’s benefits can be destroyed by heat, so if you are going to cook with garlic, Robinson explains that after chopping or slicing the garlic, you want to let it sit for ten minutes before incorporating it to your recipe. That way, a specific chemical reaction needed to obtain garlic’s healing attributes has the time to occur before exposing the garlic to heat. Nice tip!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

References

Asprey, Dave. The Bulletproof Diet : Lose up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, and Upgrade Your Life. New York, Rodale Books, 2014, p. 210

Robinson, Jo, and Andie Styner. Eating on the Wild Side: the Missing Link to Optimum Health. New York Little, Brown, 2013, pp. 47–8, 51.

Sisson, Mark. The New Primal Blueprint : Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy. Oxnard, Ca, Primal Blueprint Publishing, 2017, pp. 233–34.

The Primal Blueprint : 21-Day Total Body Transformation. Oxnard, Ca, Primal Blueprint Publishing, 2016, pp. 121-22.

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Overview

In my blog post on how to source beef, I briefly mentioned the Primal Blueprint food pyramid. The Primal Blueprint food pyramid outlines which types of foods someone should consider eating when wanting to eat according to the ancestral template. The bulk of any meal is vegetables. In smaller quantities then comes meat, fish, fowl, and eggs. The middle of the pyramid highlights the importance of consuming healthy fats, followed by certain foods you can eat in small amounts. Lastly, herbs, spices, extracts, and supplements top the pyramid of primal-approved foods.

Vegetables

Vegetables should be diverse and of many different colors. You want to “eat the rainbow,” as they say. It is better to buy locally grown fresh produce and organic. To know exactly how to pick vegetables and fruits, please see my blog post on what to buy organic. Also, an awesome book to read on how to select and prepare vegetables and fruits is Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health, by Jo Robinson.

Meat, fish, fowl, and eggs

Protein intake comes in second, as opposed to what many assume regarding the paleo/primal diet. Good-quality meat and fish is essential. It’s all about quality, not quantity. Here again, local (and pasture-raised) is the best pick, then buying organic is the next best choice. You can learn more about how to source beef, fish, and eggs by checking out my previous articles on these topics.

Healthy fats

Consuming healthy fats and only healthy fats is non-negotiable. This includes the fats used in cooking which should be solid at room temperature (coconut oil, butter, ghee, animal fats), except for avocado oil. Extra-virgin olive oil would be used more for drizzling over food and for dressings. Healthy fats also include foods like avocados, nuts, seeds, nut butters, coconut products, etc. My blog post What are ketones? outlines the benefits we get out of consuming healthy fats.

Moderation foods

The foods to eat in moderation are most fruits because they can bring up your blood sugar quite a bit (except for certain berries) and “nutritious carbs” like sweet potatoes, squash, quinoa, and wild rice. High-fat dairy (raw, fermented, and unpasteurized) is also okay in small quantities provided it is well-sourced (from pasture-raised and grass-fed/grass-finished animals). That means none of the conventional dairy products we find in supermarkets. Dark chocolate is an okay treat too, but it has to be 75% or above, cacao content-wise.

Herbs, spices, extracts, and supplements

Herbs and spices are a great addition to any dish and they offer a host of benefits. They say it’s like having a small medicine cabinet in your kitchen. Of course, organic and mold-free is highly recommended for these. Certain supplements are usually fine to add too as even the best quality foods we can find nowadays offer fewer nutrients compared to centuries ago (or simply decades ago). To find out which supplements might be beneficial to you, you must consult a licensed professional that can help you figure this out after carefully studying your lab work results. 

In summary

This sums up the types of primal-approved foods you want to focus on when eating according to the Primal Blueprint template. Keep in mind that even these primal-approved foods may not work well for everyone. It is up to you to experiment and see how your body responds to each food you consume. To be more attuned to your body and how foods make you feel on a daily basis is part of becoming more knowledgeable about your health and overall wellness.

Reference
Sisson, Mark. The Primal Blueprint : 21-Day Total Body Transformation. Oxnard, Ca, Primal Blueprint Publishing, 2016, pp. 101-122. 


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Why everyday movement is a must

We live in a world that is far from the hunter-gatherer life our bodies are designed to experience. That is why everyday movement is non-negotiable if we want to adjust our bodies to the mostly sedentary life that we live. In Move Your DNA, biomechanist Katy Bowman states, “Your body is never ‘out of shape’; it is always in a shape created by how you have moved up to this very moment. It is constantly responding and shifting to a continuous stream of input provided by your external and internal environments, even if that input consists only of sitting still, for hours on end.” Enough movement throughout the day is necessary for proper blood flow to be delivered to the different muscles used, which means more oxygen and nutrients, along with “waste removal.” Enough movement throughout the day (along with other variables) is necessary to ensure proper cellular health.

What everyday movement means

When we have to sit for long periods of time, such as when working at a computer, every 30 minutes or so, we want to get up, stretch, and walk a little bit. The same goes if we are at a standing workstation. We want to incorporate movement throughout the day to nourish our cells. A few squats or other simple exercises can be nice little breaks throughout the day. That way, going to the gym after work can be optional. As a matter of fact, if you think that going to the gym for one hour can make up for a long day of sitting for hours, that is not the case. We want to shape our daily life so that it is as similar as possible to how it was during hunter-gatherer times. And when it comes to movement, it has to be varied motion throughout the day. Taking short walks in the morning, at lunch, or after dinner, whenever you have a few minutes can be a great addition to your daily movement regimen. Whatever fits your schedule best and only implement one change at a time to ensure adherence to it.

My daily stretches

Each day, I make sure I do a certain amount of stretches. I start with the upper cat back in the morning and then, throughout the day, I do various stretches whenever I have a minute: the upper cervical rotation self-mobilization, chin tucks, psoas stretch, piriformis stretch, quad stretch, calf stretch, standing calf raises, tricep dips, pec stretch, and a couple of shoulder exercises. I also add the good morning exercise (a Foundation training exercise). At lunch, I usually do several eye drills to fully work the six eye muscles, followed by a couple of Tai Chi exercises for relaxation. Once home, I like to do the side-bridge and regular plank for the core, and on certain days, some squats, kettlebell swings, and balance exercises. At the end of each day, I stretch the hamstrings and stay in the half-lotus position for a bit. Lastly, I do the cat/cow yoga pose for the lower back. Some days I skip some of the stretches, but this is my usual routine for now. I truly believe discipline allows us to stay grounded whatever we have to face each day. And again, everyday movement is non-negotiable!

References

Katy Ann Bowman. Move Your DNA : Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement. Carlsborg, Wa, Propriometrics Press, 2014, pp. 21, 25, 36–37.

Sisson, Mark. The Primal Blueprint : 21-Day Total Body Transformation. Oxnard, Ca, Primal Blueprint Publishing, 2016, p. 125.

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The egg yolk and cholesterol

When I was little, I didn’t like the texture of the hard-boiled egg yolks, so I only ate the egg white. As I got older I believed that egg yolk consumption should be limited due to its cholesterol content. It turns out, as neurologist David Perlmutter states in Grain Brain, “Eating high-cholesterol foods has no impact on our actual cholesterol levels, and the alleged correlation between higher cholesterol and higher cardiac risk is an absolute fallacy.” Perlmutter adds that “dietary cholesterol actually reduces the body’s production of cholesterol, and more than 80 percent of the cholesterol in your blood that is measured on your cholesterol test is actually produced in your own liver.” Now knowing this, I eat eggs every day!

Egg yolk contains:

  • Omega-3 fats
  • Saturated fats
  • Vitamins A, E, K2, and B complex
  • Choline
  • Healthy cholesterol
  • A complete amino acid profile
  • Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents

In order to get the full array of nutrients, animals have to eat what they are meant to eat. When it comes to chickens, they should be eating things such as bugs, lizards, worms, and grass. So if you buy eggs from pasture-raised chickens, the yolk is going to have a deep-yellow/slight orange color. This color is a sign of a nutrient-rich egg. If you buy eggs of mostly grain-fed chickens, the yolk is going to have a pale-yellow color. 

The best options

It is best to avoid eggs from CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) chickens, just like CAFO meat. Organic eggs are the next best option if you can’t find eggs from pasture-raised chickens, but most organic eggs are from chickens that have been fed grains too. Also, eggs found in a store can be four to five weeks old. I like to buy eggs at local farmers’ markets, and I am also happy to find Pete and Gerry’s organic eggs at a nearby store.

We can prepare eggs in many different ways and even have them as a snack. As we now know that the yolk is perfectly fine to eat and that it brings us important nutrients, there is no reason to avoid such affordable healthy food.

References

Perlmutter, David, and Kristin Loberg. Grain Brain : The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar–Your Brain’s Silent Killers. New York, Ny, Little, Brown And Co, 2013, pp. 72, 228-29.

Sisson, Mark. The Primal Blueprint : 21-Day Total Body Transformation. Oxnard, Ca, Primal Blueprint Publishing, 2016, p. 109.


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Bacon seems to be an unlikely “healthy food” to eat when in fact it can be healthy depending on the source (if sugar-free and with no additives). How to source pork is the same as how to source beef, the topic of my previous post. Since pigs consume pretty much anything, sourcing pork is very important, especially because pigs are highly reactive to mold toxins in food.

That being said, well-sourced pork is perfectly fine to eat when eating primal/paleo and even keto diets. In the book Keto Answers, written by Anthony Gustin and Chris Irvin, they give a list of keto-approved pork products as listed below:

  • Bacon   
  • Ground pork
  • Sausage
  • Bratwurst
  • Pork rinds
  • Tenderloin
  • Pork loin
  • Pork shoulder
  • Ham
  • Pork chops
  • Prosciutto                    

Bacon doesn’t contain a whole lot of nutrients but is fine to eat every now and then, which I happily do without feeling guilty anymore. If you want to have pork rinds as a snack, the brand EPIC is a great option. And the links I shared in my previous post to find good-quality beef are valid for pork too. How about a nice bacon and eggs?          
             

References

Asprey, Dave. The Bulletproof Diet : Lose up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, and Upgrade Your Life. New York, Rodale Books, 2014, p. 172-73.

Gustin, Anthony, and Chris Irvin. Keto Answers : Simplifying Everything You Need to Know about the World’s Most Confusing Diet. Middletown, De, Four Pillar Health, 2019, pp. 151-52.


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Vegetables are at the base of the Primal Blueprint food pyramid and meat comes in second, along with fish, fowl, and eggs. As a complete protein, meat from animals that are raised similarly to how they live in the wild is going to be healthy meat to consume and give us an array of nutrients that animals from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) are deficient in. Just like humans, if animals are not given a diet that works along with their ancestral roots, they are going to be sick and filled with systemic inflammation.

Cows are ruminants that should be eating things like grass, clovers, and shrubs. Cows in most CAFOs (the beef found in supermarkets) are fed grains, corn, soy-based products, garbage, plastic, stale junk food, candy, and bits of dead CAFO sick animals. As you know, you are what you eat, but also, “You are what what you eat eats too,” as Michael Pollan puts it in In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. CAFO cows are also given antibiotics (so that they don’t die before slaughter due to their horrendous living environment) and growth hormones (to increase their weight).

So what are the other options?

With the understanding that it is always better to buy local, pastured and 100 percent grass-fed (also called grass-fed and grass-finished, as opposed to grass-fed and grain-finished) is the way to go. Next would be making sure it is USDA-certified organic. The extra cost is worth bypassing CAFO meat, and if you have to eat the latter avoid consuming any fat on it as this is where some of the meat toxins are stored, not in the liver. 

As a side note regarding the liver, which I really enjoy eating and is full of nutrients (organ meats should never be thrown away!), the liver is not a filter that holds on to the toxins. In a May 2019 newsletter, nutrition expert Chris Masterjohn, Ph.D., explains that “The liver does not filter toxins. Instead, the liver modifies them to make them less toxic, and to make them easier to excrete. This leads to their elimination in the feces and urine, not their retention in the liver.” This is what makes the liver a great nutritious meat to consume rather than being something to avoid!

Even with pastured and 100 percent grass-fed meat, certified organic or not, always ask exactly how the animals have been treated. To find local farms, two sites can be helpful: EatWild.com and LocalHarvest.com.

I also enjoy buying meat online at ButcherBox.com and US Wellness Meats, and there are more sites to check out such as Grass Roots Farmers’ Cooperative and Thrive Market.

As we vote with our dollars, buying better quality meat is definitively at the top of the list for improving our own health, improving the health and wellbeing of the animals we consume, and helping to promote sustainable practices that will better our environment.

References

Asprey, Dave. The Bulletproof Diet : Lose up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, and Upgrade Your Life. New York, Rodale Books, 2014, p. 174.

Gustin, Anthony, and Chris Irvin. Keto Answers : Simplifying Everything You Need to Know about the World’s Most Confusing Diet. Middletown, De, Four Pillar Health, 2019, pp. 145–50.

Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food : An Eater’s Manifesto. The Penguin Press, 2008, p. 167.

Sisson, Mark. The Primal Blueprint : 21-Day Total Body Transformation. Oxnard, Ca, Primal Blueprint Publishing, 2016, pp. 106–7.

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In order to step into the primal/paleo lifestyle (if going cold turkey is not your thing), progressively eliminating one unwanted food after another is perfectly fine. It’s all about taking one small step at a time to not feel overwhelmed by something that could otherwise seem too big of a challenge to tackle. As you know, the primal/paleo lifestyle comprises more than just choosing better quality foods, but after making sure you get adequate sleep, food is probably what matters most.

For example, maybe the first thing to eliminate can be drinking soda and only soda. After a few days or a few weeks of adjusting to that, then not buying fast food at all can be the second thing to implement.

After another few days or weeks, maybe the next step can be stopping the use of the traditional vegetable oils (like the high polyunsaturated ones and partially hydrogenated trans fats) and switching instead to using healthy fats like the ones mentioned in my blog post, What are Ketones? As explained by Dr. Dinicolantonio and Dr. Mercola in Super Fuel, our cell membranes are mostly made out of fats and that is one main reason why choosing the types of fat we consume is so critical. If we choose fats that can easily be oxidized then they are not going to give us healthy cell membranes. And of course, our whole body is made out of cells. Switching the types of fats we buy is actually an easy switch to make as cooking with new fats is not going to drastically alter the taste of what we are eating. It might go fairly unnoticed. Also, the brand Primal Kitchen, which I get regularly, offers an array of healthy condiments that can make things even easier.

One more thing to get rid of, as a start on your primal journey, are refined sugars such as: all the traditional sweets, processed or not, sugary drinks and juices, and bars of all sorts filled with a high amount of sugar. Here again, not everything has to be cut off at once. Always implement the step by step approach. There are a lot of paleo/primal-approved dessert recipes online now that can be made by simply picking better-quality ingredients.

These are the steps that I think are best to tackle first, even if you don’t want to go primal/paleo all the way (by getting rid of the grains, legumes, and certain dairy products). The order of these steps can be rearranged. It’s all about whatever you think is the best next step for you!

Reference

Dinicolantonio, James, and Joseph Mercola. Super Fuel: Ketogenic Keys to Unlock the Secrets of Good Fats, Bad Fats, and Great Health. Carlsbad, California, Hay House Inc, 2018, pp. 117-9.

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The Hip Hinge entails making sure, whenever we sit down and/or get up, as well as whenever we need to pick up and lift something, that we bend at the level of the hips, keeping the back super straight. This might seem like common sense, but if we don’t pay attention to how we’re moving, the back can easily be taxed. It is also important, especially if we lift something, to engage the abs and other core muscles before lifting the item. 

Sitting down and getting up is pretty much like doing a small squat (the squat is one of the 4 Primal Essential Movements, along with pushups, pullups, and plank). You want to slightly activate the core muscles, keep your weight on your heels, but still be able to grip with the toes. Also be sure that you engage the glutes especially when you get up. The hardest part in the beginning of this transition is just to remind ourselves of this technique, whenever we have to sit or lift things. 

Of course, the more we practice something, the more it gets ingrained as a habit, as explained in my first blog post. After a while, practicing the hip hinge will become second nature and it will not feel like a chore.

There are also exercises we can do to help us integrate the hip hinge in daily life and strengthen our backs at the same time. Two books I have read that outline the importance of the hip hinge are Foundation: Redefine Your Core, Conquer Back Pain, and Move with Confidence and True to Form: How to Use Foundation Training for Sustained Pain Relief and Everyday Fitness both by Dr. Eric Goodman. If you wonder what “Foundation Training” is about, this simple video highlights how this training can help correct the poor movement patterns we unconsciously execute on a daily basis.

Practicing the hip hinge can lead to better wellness all around.

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