While I dislike government regulations as much as the next guy, there is one industry that really needs to be harnessed, regulated, gagged or just plain legislated to be honest in what they say.
The food industry has taken the role of providing nutritional intake to the people. Actually – that’s not true at all. The food industry has taken the role of providing their stockholders with regular and growing returns on their investments (ROI) – nutrition be damned!.
My thoughts on this will be shared in future posts but as we see the end of summer looming I thought to comment on the phenomena of the frozen fruit drink that many of our popular fast food establishments have added to their “Healthy Choice” menus this summer.
In a conversation I had with a young employee at a McD’s recently, I asked her what exactly was in the fruit smoothies? She was quick to tell me how they recently discussed this at an employee meeting and she was excited to share the literature while she told me it was all natural fruit. Once she had the literature it was easy to point out to her the ingredient list which had sugar as the 2nd third and fourth ingredient in each of the fruit flavors. She was surprised to see that, especially as it was written clearly on the sheet the company used to promote the healthiness of the product.
Ingredients are listed in the order of quantity – the ingredient which is the largest volume comes first, second largest by volume second and so on.
I looked up the ingredients on line and found that a McD’s 12 oz Wild Berry Real Fruit Smoothie has 48 grams of Carbohydrates and 44 grams of Sugar. A quick look at a government Daily Recommended Intake chart (and I welcome corrections to my analysis) shows that an adult male or female should have about 130 grams of Carbohydrates for a whole day and that while sugars do not have a recommendation they should constitute no more than 25% of our energy intake.
My biggest motivation for not ordering from a fast food restaurant is usually the employees and the patrons. Look around and decide how you will choose to feed yourself. We need to be eating to provide nutrition and to enjoy the fellowship with others when we “break bread together”. Enjoy the conversation more and let the food maintain its place as a sustainer of life and a healthy constitution.
Browsing Posts tagged diet
Long-term consumption of high-glycemic foods may increase oxidative stress and the risk of chronic degenerative diseases.
Leading U.S. researchers recently concluded that a low-GI diet, not a low carbohydrate diet, appears to be beneficial in reducing the production of free radicals and oxidative stress.
Glycemic index (GI) is a measure of the rate that the carbohydrates in a food or meal are digested and appear in the blood as glucose (sugar). Glycemic load is a way of measuring the total carbohydrates in a meal or diet with a mathematical adjustment for GI. These measurements can be used to simultaneously describe the quality (glycemic index) and quantity of carbohydrate in a meal or diet.
Recent data suggest that the sudden rise in blood sugar associated with a high glycemic load may increase free radical production and the risk of oxidative damage. This increased production has been implicated in many disease processes including chronic heart disease, accelerated aging, and type 2 diabetes.
Investigators from several leading U.S. institutions recently investigated whether a diet with a high GI or GL is associated with greater oxidative stress by taking specific measurements in nearly 300 healthy adults.
Participants with a higher GI and GL diet were found to exhibit increases in oxidative stress when compared to those eating a diet lower in glycemic index and load.
Researchers concluded that chronic consumption of high-GI foods may lead to chronically high oxidative stress, increasing the risk for several degenerative diseases. A low-GI diet, not a low carbohydrate diet, appears to be beneficial in reducing oxidative stress.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 84, No. 1, 70-76, July 2006.
