| Well, we made it through week one. It wasn’t bad at all. I find that even after a week, I’m not craving sugar as much as I used to. Also, I’ve not had any sodas for several weeks, so maybe that helps. Research proves that diet soda makes you crave sweets….and I could really knock back the diet soda y’all. BUT, I was nervous to get my next email. I was afraid it was going to be something super drastic and my family would call the looney bin to get me admitted. They have threatened it in the past. Of course week two continues eliminating the High Fructose Corn Syrup, but it also adds that now I should eliminate Corn Syrup as well. Good thing I did that right along with the HFCS. They are different. Who knew? Better safe than sorry. |
| I was pleasantly surprised at the next challenge in the Sugar Detox Challenge – eliminate white flour and refined grains from your diet. Well, that was easy! J Since we already grind our own wheat, I don’t have any white bread in the house. I looked through everything anyway. I did have some white breadcrumbs in the freezer, so out they went. I smelled them first, and when I realized they were freezer burnt I felt a little bit better about that. 🙂 Ha, ha! I did have a few boxes of white pasta. Into the box they went! Do you know that box is still sitting in my basement. I guess it knew that something else was coming. We’re ridding ourselves of white flour because the body digests it just like it does refined sugar – messing up your insulin production. I like whole grains better anyway. I hate bread that gets clumped up in the roof of your mouth while you’re eating it. BLECH! |
| The Sugar Detoxgoes on to explain that when you eliminate the white flours from your diet, you should replace them with whole grains. For me that means hard white wheat and oats. We barrel through both of those. Donielle gives the run down on why you should choose whole grains – not a big switch for us because that’s what we eat already. Just an FYI – check the labels of the bread you buy at the store. Make sure you’re buying 100% Whole Wheat. A package that just says “wheat” likely has wheat as an ingredient instead of just using whole wheat period.
**ETA: I’m talking about the products that you see at the store that say “Wheat Bread.” Yes, they might have wheat in them, but some of those breads just have wheat as an ingredient with the rest of the flour being made up of white flour. See Sandi’s comment below for a great explanation.** |
| As part of the second week, Donielle started to talk about natural sweeteners, focusing on honey this week. I’m already a huge fan of honey and we use it a lot in our cooking now. The benefits of honey are amazing! If you have seasonal allergies, it’s likely that ingesting LOCAL honey could help you control those. Local honey is the key. I’m tickled pink that I’ve found a local raw honey supplier not too far from my house. 🙂 Raw honey should be eaten without being heated. At a bit over 100 degrees, it starts to lose its minerals. So, use local honey for eating on something that doesn’t require heating to get the most benefit. |
| Donielle also gives a few more reasons why sugar is bad for ya. The one that stuck out the most to me was “it contributes to weight gain.” Yikes. When we started the Whole Foods diet, I was really concerned that eating butter and cream would make me gain weight – but so far I’m just fine. I was hoping that being on this detox would help me lose the last five pounds of baby weight from Annie (that I’ve been hanging on to for TWO YEARS)……but so far, no dice. Almost everything I read says that you gain your weight when you ingest sugar – so if you can eliminate sugar from your diet (refined sugars and limit natural ones) then you’re likely to also eliminate some pounds…..I hope that works for me too – although so far, no dice. Did I already say that?So, are you doing this challenge with me? How are you doing with it so far? If you’ve not done so yet, sign up for The Sugar Detox Challenge so you can follow along with me, then follow me on Facebook to keep up as well!
Come back next week for week three! Read week one HERE. |
| This post is linked up at Healthy 2Day Wednesdays on Day2Day Joys and at Fresh Bites Friday on Real Food Whole Health. |
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Oh, bless you, this is a tough one. :0
I found you via the Healthy 2day Link up and wanted you to see a resource we’re putting together on Facebook to help like-minded blog carnival participants find each other and get notices when the carnivals go live:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Healthy-Foods-Healthy-Lives-Blog-Carnivals/148426998572837
Amanda
Thanks Amanda! 🙂 I “liked” the page. I appreciate the heads up.
“A package that just says “whole grains” likely has wheat as an ingredient instead of just using whole wheat period.”
I do think the above statement is a little misleading. “Whole grains” simply means there are multiple grains in the product, all of them whole. There should be nothing wrong w/eating other whole grains besides wheat. In fact, eating a variety of whole grains is much more interesting than just eating whole wheat. Below is the official definition of “whole grains” by the Whole Grain Council.
Whole grains or foods made from them contain all the essential parts and naturally-occurring nutrients of the entire grain seed. If the grain has been processed (e.g., cracked, crushed, rolled, extruded, and/or cooked), the food product should deliver approximately the same rich balance of nutrients that are found in the original grain seed.
List of whole grains
The following, when consumed in a form including the bran, germ and endosperm, are examples* of generally accepted whole grain foods and flours. Click here to learn more about each one.
Amaranth
Barley
Buckwheat
Corn, including whole cornmeal and popcorn
Millet
Oats, including oatmeal
Quinoa
Rice, both brown rice and colored rice
Rye
Sorghum (also called milo)
Teff
Triticale
Wheat, including varieties such as spelt, emmer, farro, einkorn, Kamut®, durum and forms such as bulgur, cracked wheat and wheatberries
Wild rice
Good point Sandi. I think I didn’t convey exactly what I meant. I’m talking about those packages of bread you buy at the store that say “Wheat” but they really just have a small amount of wheat in them, with the rest being white flour. Thanks for the great explanation. 🙂 Sometimes I have a hard time getting out in type what I’m thinking in my head. I appreciate you calling me on that. I’ll edit the statement above.
Oh man… I’m in trouble now (you should have totally given me the heads up last week!”) –
Sorry! 🙂 Just warning you…..but this is 8 weeks, so you can sorta guess what else is coming. 😉
I know – that’s why I panicked – I’m up for a challenge, but I kinda like to have a bit of a road-map for these sort of things (and I am typically a spontaneous kind of gal — look who’s swapping places here?!)It’s okay… I think I can live on just water for a few weeks, lol. — Being the NICE person that you are you should e-mail me and give me a sneak peak at week #3 since I’m only on week #2, pretty please?
We don’t eat a lot of white bread — but I never really thought about how the body processed it in regards to my son. I am thankful for this information and I hope that this helps him. I can always find something healthy to eat, but it’s more difficult for my kids. Thank goodness for Trader Joe’s and a supportive husband… I think we can totally make it another week.
Dianne, I get my emails on Saturday and then I don’t start the challenge until Monday. 🙂 It gives me a bit of time to digest it. So, I would still be on the prior week while preparing myself for the next week that starts on Monday. I’ll shoot you an email since I start Week 3 tomorrow. 🙂
I am not doing the sugar detox challenge, but I am enjoying reading your updates. I also have a mill and grind my own wheat…yum…but I had to ease into the whole wheat thing…otherwise it clogs up things 😉
Keep up the great work.
🙂 We’ve always had a diet HIGH in fiber, even before the mill. For us, it gives the “not clogged” effect. 😉 Do you have a Nutrimill too?
I told Jerm that I’m going to stop buying foods with HFCS, and I think I only found 2 things in the cupboard that had it in them, and that was 2 jars of spaghetti sauce. Who knew? I make so much from scratch that I guess I don’t buy too much junk anymore, except for a few bags of chips. *cough
So you really are giving up your beloved M&M’s? Oh my…….
For now. 🙂 Who doesn’t need a treat a few times a year? 😉