FOHAC News Snack Foods #245

Published: Sun, 04/13/14

Fair Oaks Health News

Welcome

April 13, 2014

Snack Foods

Hi ,

Sugary, salty, and savory all at once - we Americans love our snack foods. Who among us does not love chips, crackers, cookies, cakes, and all that goes with them? I know I do and sometimes I let myself indulge in these goodies.

The challenge is finding (or making) snacks that are not quite so toxic to the human system. Any snack is not going to be really healthy for the system simply because it amounts to unnecessary calories and replaces actual healthy foods we could be eating. Never the less, snack foods are here to stay. So let's try to find snacks that won't try to kill us outright.

What are the main killer ingredients in snacks that make them so bad for us and can we find products without those ingredients? The killer ingredients are:

Sugar
Vegetable oils that have been heated
Chemicals not naturally found in foods

A recent study found that Americans eat an average of 40 teaspoons of sugar every day and that sugar alone was responsible for 30 to 40% of all health problems in America. The body can only tolerate 6 to 8 teaspoons of sugar per day - beyond that it becomes a toxin to the body. The problem is that it is a hidden ingredient in almost every commercial food product, not to mention the main ingredient in most drinks and snack foods.

Vegetable oils that have been heated turn rancid and form trans-fats within seconds. Vegetable oils are omega 6 oils to begin with which promote inflammation in the body, but once they have been heated they become really dangerous. Deep frying foods in vegetable oils are a guarantee of future health problems. The only safe deep-frying is in saturated fats like lard or palm oil or monounsaturated fats like olive or avocado oil.

Trans-fats have finally been recognized as evil, but beware - there is a big scam in how foods with fats in them are being marketed to you. Manufacturers will say in big bold letters on the label "Trans-Fat Free" even though the product is loaded with trans-fats. The perfect example is all those "health food" potato chip and other chip foods. The

instant a vegetable oil is heated in the presence of carbohydrates it forms trans-fats. The oil they start with may have no trans-fats in it but as soon as they fry their potato slices in that oil, trans-fats are formed in the cooking process.

There is a separate concern for the long-recognized toxicity of rancid (oxidized) oils. Rancid oils used to taste bad so we knew to avoid them. Restaurants had to change the oil in their deep fryers regularly because of the bad taste. But now the industry has invented deodorizers that they can add to the frying oils to mask the offensive odors and tastes. The toxins can now build up week after week without us smelling or tasting them.

Chemicals - my rule is that if I can't find a particular ingredient on a label sold separately as a food in the store, then I don't want it in my body. Some chemicals are fine like ascorbic acid - that is just vitamin C and citric acid is just sour salt found in the canning section of the store. Glycerin is sold at the health food store and is used to help hydrate the body. In fact a lot of the scary sounding chemicals on labels are really just vitamins.

On the other hand are all the chemicals used as preservatives which try to fool us into thinking that what they are selling us is fresh. Conditioners, artificial flavors and colors, and artificial sweeteners are in the food so that we will like the taste and feel of food that we would otherwise throw out as disgusting. Stimulants, the dozen forms of MSG, and the two dozen forms of chemically created sugar are added to make us addicted to the food. All of these are toxic - some more than others, but all are poisons. Some people are very reactive to them while others are less so, but nobody's health is benefited by these additions to our food supply.

So what snack foods are not so toxic? The classic reply is to snack on fruit, but fruit is full of sugar too. Thus the old adage of eating 1 - 2 pieces a day is not a good choice. "But it is natural fruit sugar!" I hear people say. Sugar is sugar - it is all toxic past the 6 to 8 teaspoons a day we can tolerate. Snacking on cut up vegetables is a good choice, but not really hitting the sweet/salty/savory spot I want to hit. Nuts are a good choice - even the roasted ones are not so bad by comparison - though raw is better.

Healthy snack bars are popular, but most of them are full of a lot of sugar. Thus, they are off my list; they are not healthy at all. There are a few protein bars that try to reduce the sugar, but check the label carefully. If they have more than 5 to 10 grams of sugar, toss them.

What about our love of chips? The health food isle in the store has dozens of so called "healthy" bags of chips. So far I have found only two potato chips that qualify as less toxic enough to eat. Both are made by Boulder Canyon Natural Foods. One is cooked in olive oil and the other is cooked in avocado oil. All the other "health" chips use the usual toxic vegetable oils to fry their chips. Another much better alternative I found recently at Costco was Veggie Chips made by Mrs. May's. These vegetable pieces are cooked in palm oil in a vacuum chamber. This makes the vegetable slices really light and crispy and reduces the amount of oil the chips absorb.

What about salt? If you have high blood pressure, then you need to stay away from salt. If you don't have high blood pressure, then it is not such a concern. Sea salt is somewhat less of a problem, but I doubt manufactures actually use the real sea salt that has all the other natural minerals in it that table salt has had removed. Most products labeled sea salt has also had those minerals removed as they make the salt absorb moisture from the air and therefore clog up their manufacturing equipment.

Bare Naked Fruits are Apple Chips I found at Costco. I like the ingredient list on the bag: organic apples. That is it! How many products on the shelf have that simple an ingredient list? Because these are full of fruit sugar, I have to limit my consumption, but they seriously do fill that need for a crunchy sweet snack.

Have I found any cookies or cakes that are non-toxic on the store shelves? Unfortunately the answer is no. The favorite sweetener in the health food section for such things is Agave syrup. This stuff is twice as toxic as regular sugar. It is a waste product of the tequila industry and should have remained a waste. It is terrible stuff for you - stay away from it.

The best option for healthy cookies, cakes, muffins, brownies and the like is still to make your own from almond flour or coconut flour using my Dr Dave Double Sugar or Sugar Blend. Although honey and maple syrup are better than plain sugar in that they have some nutrition in them, the toxic sugar effects on the liver and rest of the body are the same. All the "healthy" mixes and products are still sweetened with sugar of various types or artificial sweeteners. The only way to get around this is by making your own.

Are there any sodas or sweet drinks that are safe? Everyone grabs for the fruit drinks as the healthy choice - wrong! Fruit juice is just a concentrated sugar source. Artificial sweeteners are just plain bad for you. Most people use them thinking that they will help them lose weight. The studies have shown just the opposite. The artificial sweeteners actually make you gain weight. The only non-caloric sweeteners that are really safe are stevia, erythritol, and lo han. Some of the other sugar alcohols are ok as far as toxicity goes, but they tend to create diarrhea and gas. There is a stevia sweetened soft drink out there named Zevia. Personally I like to make my own safe soda with club soda, my Supersweet Drops, and Root Beer flavoring. Herb teas, hot or cold, sweetened with stevia are also a good option.

Candy is candy - what can you say? There are some diabetic candies made with sorbitol or maltitol that are ok in small doses, and I enjoy xylitol gum occasionally, but commercial candy is pretty much a nutritional wasteland. One new exception in the health food stores is a stevia sweetened chocolate bar. This is an excellent if rather expensive choice.

Homemade jerky is still a great snack but commercial jerky is full of sugar and or chemicals. Similarly there are lots of great snacks that you can make in your food dehydrator with vegetables, including kale chips which are available commercially and quite tasty and good for you.

The big picture goal here is to embrace our desire for snack foods and find options that leave out the sugar, vegetable oils, and chemicals. My review is not at all exhaustive so if you have found an excellent snack food that does not have the poisons in it we want to avoid please email me at david@fairoakshealth.com. I can compose a list of further snacks and post it in a future newsletter.

Take care,

David

Ultrasound Physical Therapy

Now available in the office

Tuesday afternoons and Fridays

On the Wire

Sugar Kills

Heart disease, diabetes, stroke, fatty liver disease, and cancer are directly linked to excess sugar consumption. Worldwide the average sugar consumption per day is 17 teaspoons, but in the US that number is 40 teaspoons with over 40% of that sugar appearing in sweet beverages. The maximum sugar your body can tolerate on average is 6 teaspoons for women and 9 for men. As you can see we are way over the limit. Some countries are considering treating sugar just like tobacco with special sugar tax on sugar containing foods and warning labels on those foods. By 2020 the healthcare costs caused by sugar are expected to exceed 900 billion dollars per year.

Sugar

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"Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast."

~ Epictetus

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The Full-Fat Paradox

For years the assumption was that low fat milk would keep you slimmer than full fat milk. However the actual studies have shown the exact opposite - low fat makes you fatter than high fat. Science is now starting to consider that the conclusions of Weston A. Price DDS almost 80 years ago were right - that there are nutrients in milk fat that support our metabolism and are lost in low fat milk. Whole milk also fills us up better so we actually end up eating less.

Full Fat

"Food is an important part of a balanced diet."

~ Fran Lebowitz

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Pups Poop Along North-South Magnetic Lines

LEGAL way out of Obamacare

Not everyone is welcoming Obamacare with open arms. When I checked on the costs for an Obamacare plan for myself the costs were much higher for far less coverage than I have right now with my present plan. Everyone is being told that you will be penalized if you do not get a plan but this is a bit of a lie. In order to get the plan passed through congress an escape clause had to be written in. This link describes that way out and how to use it if you wish.

Obamacare

"What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease."

~ George Dennison Prentice

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Our address is 9725 Fair Oaks Blvd.

Finding the new location is very easy. Coming from highway 50 up Sunrise Blvd, you turn left and go up a block. We are on the right hand side - the building just past the Subway Sandwich shop. If you are coming down Sunrise from the Mall area then just turn right on Fair Oaks Blvd and up a block on the right.

If you are coming from the Roseville area you could come down Sunrise Blvd, but that is a long trek. It is probably shorter time wise to come down Auburn Blvd - San Juan Ave like you have been for the Sunset office, but instead of turning left at Sunset, keep going straight 3 more lights to Fair Oaks Blvd and turn left. Go down 2 lights to New York Ave, go through the intersection, and immediately turn into the turn lane once the center divider ends. We are on the left.

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About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years. He began experimenting with medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis. In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education. Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic. He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice.
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health.
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities.
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth. The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework. Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

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