Salt or sugar — pick your poison

Sugar has come in for a lot of criticism of late when it comes to health, being blamed for a range of issues. But now Canadian researchers are saying salt is the most demon of the demon trio of salt, fat and sugar.

Congress wants to keep American School children addicted to salt. Shame, shame shame on them. — Americans eat too much salt, period.

“[Sugar is] not of the same impact as salt and not associated with as many diseases. Salt is worse than sugar,” Dr. Norm Campbell with the University of Calgary’s Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta said in a recent CBC News item. “About one-third of hypertension around the world is caused by excess dietary salt, so about 300 million people in the world have hypertension due to excess salt and over two million in Canada,” Dr.Campbell said.

In addition to hypertension, salt also impacts:

Rheumatoid arthritis and MS
Migraines
Gastric Cancer
Obesity

Continue reading “Salt or sugar — pick your poison” →

December 17, 2015 1

Sugar is in the health crosshairs again

I’ve written about how sugar is being demonized as the real cause of heart disease and other health problems. I’ve also said sugar has been the most difficult on the evil triad of foodstuffs — fat, salt and sugar — for me to give up. I’m down to about 100 grams a day, with much of that coming from bananas (16 grams each, I eat two a day, so 32 grams of sugar there to start).

I've found two brands of low-sodium,low-sugar ketchup, Westbrae and LocalFolks Foods. — I’ve found two brands of low-sodium,low-sugar ketchup, Westbrae and LocalFolks Foods.

The anti-sugar movement got a big push forward this week with new Food and Drug Administration recommendations that we should eat no more than 50 grams of sugar a day. The recommendation, the first time the agency has put a cap on sugar consumption, got massive media play, including this New York Times piece.

Sugar, like salt and fat, is in most every processed food. Items “like low-fat yogurt, granola and wholegrain breads, as well as in ketchup, pasta sauce, canned fruit and prepared soups, salad dressings and marinades,” reports the Times. Continue reading “Sugar is in the health crosshairs again” →

November 10, 2015 1

Diet soda news — Pepsi dropping aspartame

Diet soda is the topic of much disparagement among the food police these days. I tend to think it’s all overblown, but diet soda consumption has been dropping because of the negative marks its getting. And so big soda companies are trying to figure out a way to revive sales of what they see as their healthier offering.

Diet pepsi is removing aspartame and using two other sweeteners instead. Will it help alleviate consumer concerns? — Diet Pepsi is removing aspartame and using two other sweeteners instead. Will the change help alleviate consumer concerns? Doubtful.

Pepsi is responding to concerns by taking the sweetener aspartame out of diet soda sold in stores. You can still get the aspartame variety online apparently. But the bulk of Diet Pepsi starting in August will contain the sweetener sucralose and a second, acesulfame potassium, known as ace K (K is the symbol for potassium) is the soda trade.

Pepsi says consumers told it aspartame was the main reason they weren’t buying diet soda. Will the switch help? Continue reading “Diet soda news — Pepsi dropping aspartame” →

July 13, 2015 2

Smuckers Fruit and Honey fruit spread — a tasty lower-sugar option

Low-sugar jams and jellies can be a tasty topping for the multigrain Thomas’s English muffins I’ve been enjoying lately. But I’m finding the world of jelly and jam can be a sugar mindfield. There’s regular jams and jellies, which have sugar added. Then there are no-sugar-added varieties and low-sugar varieties, meaning, as always, read the labels if you have concerns about eating sugar.

Nutrition information shows 8 grams of sugar per tablespoon.

Smuckers has a new variety out that further muddies the waters by using honey as a sweetener instead of sugar. Honey is in vogue these days but the reality is it’s all sugar to your body, nutritionists have told me. So even with Smuckers new Fruit and Honey spread, look at the nutrition label. The news there isn’t half bad. Continue reading “Smuckers Fruit and Honey fruit spread — a tasty lower-sugar option” →

May 6, 2015 0

The No salt, no fat, no sugar Journal reaches 30,000 views!!! Thank you

This website, the No salt, no fat, no sugar Journal, began in December 2012 with the goal of helping people on restricted diets find foods they could still enjoy, and even love the way they once loved the foods that they could no longer eat.

The site had only 57 views that first month. Building a following for a new site is a difficult endeavor, especially when there’s no money for marketing or online advertising to get the word out. But we kept plugging away through 2013 and into last year, when something amazing happened.

The word about this site started getting out in 2014 and views climbed steadily throughout the early part of the year. By December, we had topped 30,000 views since our inception, a major milestone. Our 12 days of Christmas low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar meals were a major viewer hit, sending our weekly traffic above 1,000 twice to record weekly views.

Thank you to all our viewers, I can promise you the best is yet to come. Watch for an expanded recipe page this year. No salt, no sugar recipes have become the major draw to the site, so we will be experimenting with new recipes this year and invite our readers to send us theirs.

Other changes will come along as well, all to make the site easier to navigate and more helpful for everyone trying to watch their salt, fat and sugar intake.
John

January 9, 2015 2

Zevia: a Stevia-sweetened soda that left me longing for a Diet Coke

Traditional soda is getting all sorts of bad press these days so die-hard soda drinkers like myself are constantly searching for alternatives. I recently tried one I bought at Whole Foods, Zevia, which is sweetened with Stevia, a sweetener positioning itself as natural.

I bought some Zevia cream soda, hoping it might invoke the carmel-flavored cream sodas of my youth but no such luck., Instead it has what seemed an odd taste to me, especially when it wasn’t super-cold after having sat in a glass for a while. Continue reading “Zevia: a Stevia-sweetened soda that left me longing for a Diet Coke” →

January 7, 2015 4

Low-salt ketchup: Westbrae vs. LocalFolks

Ketchup (or do you say catsup) is one condiment that I initially found it extremely difficult to live without after being put on a low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar diet following my angioplasty in 2012. Regular varieties are high in salt and sugar.

But I’ve since found several alternatives and thought I’d post a product comparison here, much in the spirit of my low-salt teriyaki sauce review last September.

The first brand, Westbrae unsweetened, vegetarian ketchup, I found online and subsequently at Whole Foods and Sunset Foods in the northern suburbs of Chicago. A tablespoon of it has 70 mgs of sodium and less than 1 gram of sugar. Continue reading “Low-salt ketchup: Westbrae vs. LocalFolks” →

June 30, 2014 12

Powdered drink mixes: always read their labels too

My search for sweetness on a low-sugar diet has led me recently to powdered drink mixes, flavored powder that’s added to water to give it some taste other than that of bland old water.

Boxes of these individually wrapped, portion-sized mixes can run close to three dollars for a 10-packet at regular stores, so I buy mien at the dollar store for $1 per package of 10. I tend to sue two packets per one liter bottle of water instead of one and look forward to having them at work now.

Wyler's Light drink mix — Wyler’s Light drink mix comes with 10 individual packets in a box.

But before you rush out to buy them remember to read the nutrition panels on these. Like any other processed food, there are things to be aware of and, for some, reasons not to buy these. Continue reading “Powdered drink mixes: always read their labels too” →

May 14, 2014 1

Sugar-free candy: it’s not worth the pain

Easter, and especially the day after Easter, was always a big candy day for me. I’d be first in line at places like Chicago’s Fannie Mae candy stores, waiting for the after-Easter sale to start.

But since my angioplasty and my new low-fat diet, chocolate, especially my favorite milk chocolate, has been largely forbidden to me. So this post-Easter time I went looking for some low-fat, sugar-free candies instead.

Sugar free twizzlers -- not worth the stomach pain. — Sugar free twizzlers — not worth the stomach pain.

Continue reading “Sugar-free candy: it’s not worth the pain” →

May 7, 2014 4

Fat free chocolate pudding or sugar free: which should you pick?

Chocolate pudding is something I’ve enjoyed since I was a young child but of course it now has all the things I can’t eat, namely fat and sugar. So I’ve been searching through pre-made pudding alternatives to see what’s out there.

Oddly enough, there are fat-free chocolate puddings and sugar-free chocolate puddings but no fat-free, sugar-free varieties that I can find. So if I want chocolate pudding these days, it becomes a matter of which do I fear more, eating a lot of sugar or a lot fat?

Fat free pudding or sugar-free pudding? Which would you pick?

My answer has been to mix and match what I eat of this snack. Snack Pack brand’s sugar free pudding has 70 calories a cup with no sugar but 3 grams of fat. So two cups a serving is 6 grams of fat and 3 grams of saturated fat, not bad in my total daily allowance of 40 and 10 of each. This pudding also has 95 mgs of sodium a cup, or 190 mgs for the two, again not bad toward my daily allowance of 1,200. Continue reading “Fat free chocolate pudding or sugar free: which should you pick?” →

March 24, 2014 0

Tag: sugar