THE term ‘clean eating’ is popping up here, there and everywhere at the moment, but do people understand what it really is?
A lot of people automatically assume these days that fruit, anything green and anything raw must be good for you.
All kinds of healthy eating, diets and lifestyles are being plastered across websites and social media.
But
according to the founder of the I Quit Sugar programme, Australian
journalist and television presenter Sarah Wilson, people are forgetting
these “influencers” might not understand the “nuances of science” with
what we eat.
A non-believer of diets or making eating
miserable, Sarah has engaged closely in the science behind sugar-free,
and as a result is pro-meat, pro-grains and anti-juicing.
She
explains that foods people are being led to believe are healthy, such as
dates, green juices and raw desserts, are some of the worst things you
can be eating.
She said: “It’s
primarily because of the sugar. Dates are 60 per cent sugar. Raw
desserts contain huge quantities, along with so-called ‘natural’ sugar,
such as agave, maple syrup, coconut sugar.
“In
some cases, I’ve seen very popular ‘healthy’ raw brownies available
here in the UK that contain up to 15 teaspoons of added sugar.
“We
need to bear in mind our bodies don’t distinguish where the sugar came
from - whether it’s sugar cane or an agave palm - it’s the same stuff
once it gets into our body. And the issue with this, once it’s deemed
healthy, a lot of people feel comfortable eating way too much of it
(nobody eats one date at a time!)”
As for juices, Sarah says a glass of fruit juice contains as much sugar as a glass of coke.
She
said: “It is pretty much all added sugar and the WHO (World Health
Organisation) as of late last year, has deemed fruit juice added sugar.
“When
you remove the fibre from fruit, you’re pretty much left with liquid
sugar, which is the worst kind because it travels incredibly quickly to
the over which stores it as instant fat and causes metabolic
derangement.
“Green juices generally contain a small amount
of kale and a hell of a lot of apple and other sugary fruits.
Additionally, juicing removes some of the most nutritious parts of the
fruit and veg - a waste of ingredients and money at the minimum.”
Sarah
believes bloggers are big influencers of food and drinks like these as
well as ‘clean eating’ fads, and is urging them to be more responsible.
She said: “I think everyone’s got a serious case of ‘wellness wash’ and is wondering what the hell we’re meant to eat now.
“Low
fat is in one day, full fat the next. And I think that seeing carefully
curated pictures on Instagram of - more often than not - young women in
their early twenties, with great skin and figures, and food that looks
colourful and ostensibly ‘healthy’ seems an easy message to digest.
“Because
everything has become so confused, many of us don’t stop to look into
whether the beautiful Instagrammer or blogger has researched their
dietary theory, has experience in parlaying information responsibly,
etc.”
And Sarah insists the sugar free diet she lives by is not a healthy eating fad.
She
said: “We were simply not designed to eat sugar. We don’t have the
requisite hormones and enzymes to metabolise. Our bodies regard it as a
poison and store it as such - a lot of fat.
“The
science shows sugar (fructose) causes incredible harm and is the only
food molecule not required by our bodies. And basically, going sugar
free is about not eating processed foods. Which could never be
classified as a fad.”
The ex-MasterChef Australia host
revealed the two port of calls to lose weight or eat more healthy is to
avoid low fat foods - as they’re full of added sugar - and learn to cook
- as it’s hard to exceed recommended sugar quantitie
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