Isn't it amazing how little interest we show into the food we eat? Except that we care how it tastes like. Having our daily bread is a privilege most of us take for granted. But how much do we know about carbohydrates or 'starches' and how they affect our bodies? For those of us who have heard the Bible story, food was the Devil's first weapon to tempt us into self-destruction. And if we don't learn to understand carbohydrates, this staple food can be deadly for your figure. Handle with care!
I love bread. I always have. Especially the fragrant, home-baked, whole-wheat bread with a golden crust that my mom would bake. When I lived in Germany, first as an Au Pair and again later as a trainee journalist, the bakers on every main street would tempt me with a huge variety of rolls, each with a different name: Lausbub, Milchbrötle, Vollkorn, Dreikorn, Roggenbrötchen, Salzpretzel. Absolutely delicious. But I soon paid the price: my normally slender body started picking up weight at the speed of bite!
When I came back home, no one recognized me. And I had nothing to wear! This is when my quest for knowledge about food started. Now I am a fervent proponent of teaching nutrition in Kindergarten. Because it looks like modern mom's don't really have the knowledge they need to teach good eating habits to their babies and toddlers - especially not the most modern, scientific information. This is such a pity: every human child should know what food is good for its body and which food isn't - regardless of taste.
How much our culture influences our choice of food is something I learnt especially since I've become involved in a charity that operates two boarding schools for teenagers, mainly from deep rural South Africa. The kids that attend these schools - one for boys, one for girls - come from homes where they have been taught that a meal without meat is no meal, just a 'snack'. And that you have to stuff yourself with maize porridge (known here as 'phutu') in order to say that you are 'full', before you stop eating!
If I look at the rest of the parts of the world where I have been travelling to - the cultural paradigms are different, but the end result is the same: far too much carbohydrates and fat! In the USA, kids grow up on cereal with milk and MacDonald Burgers. In Europe, far too many are now also resorting to similar eating habits. Just a few weeks ago, in July, when I visited my godchild in Germany, his father was lamenting the fact that mothers in his daughter's swimming class would come to him and sternly admonish him that his daughter was too skinny! He remembers from his childhood that all kids were wiry and athletic. Now the majority of primary school children is already showing signs of obesity!
Yes, we certainly need carbohydrates in our diet. This is the fuel for our muscles. So, especially if we are highly active, physically, we do need a lot of this type of food, in all its different forms: bread, cereals, pasta, and so on.
Children have much more energy than we do, because their bodies are not yet burdened with the bad eating habits that we as adults have adopted, usually from our own parents. Looking at the history of food, and just understanding my own ancestor's eating habits, over-eating was simply not on the order of the day. Something happened after World War II, when it comes to our diets. Suddenly, all kinds of new artificial foodstuffs entered the mainstream: colouring, flavouring, preservatives. And television brought all of this 'wonderful' new food and these new tastes into our homes. So, of course, our diets changed!
Having white bread from the bakery in town became a special treat for us farm kids, who were used to the whole wheat bread baked by mom at home. If it had stayed a special treat, that would have been OK. But with urbanization and becoming further and further removed from the source of our food, white bread - wheat - has become the staple food of far too many human beings across the world.
There is nothing wrong with wheat - if you eat it in moderation. Like with most other things: if you don't overeat, you're generally fine, health- and weight-wise.
But when it comes to wheat, especially white wheat flour, there is a BIG 'However'.
White wheat flour - like any other type of 'refined' grain where the healthy fibre, vitamins and minerals has been practically 'surgically removed' - is actually nothing but a slightly different form of sugar. Now imagine eating solid pieces of sugar, like we eat slices of white bread or rolls...
I didn't know this, until I started researching the impact of the different food types on our bodies, mind and emotions. And yes, even on our spirit. Drugs affect our spirit. But that is a story for another day...
Today I just want you to become very aware of the fact that 'refined' wheat has the same effect of 'refined' sugar, if not treated in moderation. It makes the blood sugar levels shoot up high, resulting in more and more Insulin being released from our Pancreas (remember this organ from Biology class?) and in this way over time affects our bodies ability to regulate its sugar levels, too often resulting in adult-onset diabetes!
If you are a labourer who needs to do heavy manual labour, or if you are an athlete or go to gym every day, you can eat quite a lot of carbohydrates each day, because your body burns this 'sugar' as fuel to keep your muscles going.
However, if you are someone who spends much of your time sitting or just do moderate physical activity, you need to be careful with the amount of fuel you put in your body. Because every little gram of carbohydrates that you do not use on that day is turned by your body into sugar and from there into fat. Fat on our bodies is nothing but a 'storage area' - a 'larder' - for those days when we may need to fall back on this reserve. However, with our current blessed lifestyles, the chances that we will not have food tomorrow, has really shrunk to a minimum, so we also don't need to store huge reserves of fat on our bodies. The problem with fat is that it causes excessive weight on our bone structure, pulling us down even further than gravity normally would, and also placing a lot of strain on the heart, which now suddenly has to feed a whole new layer of bodymass (pure fat) with blood. Fat sits directly below our skin, so if the heart is not able to work properly any longer, the blood struggles to reach our skin, and this has all kinds of effects on the well-being of our bodies. Just do some of your own research on this on the Internet and you will be amazed at how important it is to keep the fat layer under our skin at a lower range.
The other thing that we should become aware of is that wheat contains a material called 'gluten'. Gluten is a form of protein, that is easily digestible for most people, but over the last couple of years - probably because of humans over-eating wheat - an increasing number of people are becoming intolerant to this food, with a variety of symptoms ranging from chronic diarrhea and ongoing tiredness. The biggest problem is that in these instances, the gluten prevents the digestive system from properly absorbing nutrients, like vitamins and minerals, resulting in malnutrition.
I'm not suggesting that you rush off to get a Gluten allergy test. I am, however, encouraging you to learn more about carbohydrates and how you can ensure that you and the people you prepare food for, can enjoy the benefits of carbohydrates, without suffering from the disaster of over-eating them.
Also, I am recommending that we all shift away from a wheat-dominated carbohydrate diet to including more different types of carbohydrates, because in this way we can have the benefit of different types of minerals and vitamins.
Let carbohydrates form the 'backbone' of your weekly menu for your family, then choose suitable vegetables and proteins to serve together with carbohydrates at lunch and dinner.
Here is my suggested 'Menu Plan'. Except for sticking to the 'Fruit First' rule, you can change the order as you wish. I am just adding a few 'variations' for each type of carbohydrate, so that you can start thinking about this. The basic menu plan is always the same:
Breakfast - Fruit only until 12h00
Lunch - Preferably 12h00. Ideally, eat only the daily carbohydrate with vegetables or vegetable protein. Soups in winter with bread and salad in summer, using bread or grains in the soup. If you're not working from home, make something the night before, pack it for all your family members and take it with to work. Lunch packs for kids can always include sandwiches and cut vegetable slices, like tomatoes, celery, carrots, etc.
Late afternoon - Around 15h00. Any form of carbohydrate (e.g. cookie or biscuit) with any type of caffeine-free hot drink or water.
Dinner - Around 18h00. Preferably protein with vegetables or a vegetable protein with a carbohydrate. Eat protein in moderation and a large portion of salad with your dinner, to fill you up. Over time, you will notice that you need less and less food.
Late evening snack - Around 20h00, not later than 21h00. Any type of snack - e.g. nuts or cookies, but just a tiny portion to satisfy your tastebuds. Even better is to just drink your favourite herbal tea at this time, before you go to sleep.
Now you can make your life a lot easier and healthier by choosing your daily carbohydrate for lunch from among the following:
Mondays - Wheat
This includes any type of wheat bread, pastry, pasta, and couscous.
Tuesdays - Sorghum/Spelt or any other 'exotic' grain
Visit your local health-store section in the supermarket to see what's available and try out new recipes.
Thursdays - Potatoes
This is such a versatile food: mashed, boiled then fried, boiled, baked, chips, potato soup, croquettes
Wednesdays - Oats
Porridge, muffins, crunchy granola biscuits, sautéed oat flakes in salad or as a topping on soup
Fridays - Rye
Rye is known best as bread, but look for recipes for other interesting things to do with rye. There are different types of rye bread too!
Saturday - Corn/Maize
This is ideal for family gatherings. Corn-on-the-cob, nachos, maize bread and other traditional ways of using maize. Combine with beans, like the Mexicans do, avoid meat.
Sunday - Rice
There are lots of different types of rice, so there is already some variety. But then, of course, you can use rice as is, rice cakes, rice dishes, rice-and-soy milk soup with cinnamon and steamed dried fruit. Let your imagination fly!
The main secret that all of us living in the 21st Century need to know is that it is very easy to over-eat on carbohydrates, because they are a form of sugar and sugar is addictive. So learn more about how you can rid yourself of this addiction and start on a fresh page. Your body will be grateful!
Cinnamon And Diabetes:Take Control of Your Energy - Know Your Daily Bread!
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