Today we will be looking at the difference between foods that are high in carbohydrates and food with added sugar. We will also be looking at the negative health effects of diets with too much added sugar. I am going to define for you what a whole grain is. Show you some of the benefits of having whole grains in your diet. I’ll show you some examples of these different foods as well. Then i’ll identify the added sugar in these foods. After that I’ll show you a personal recipe using whole grains.

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So, what is the difference between foods that are high in carbohydrates and foods with added sugar. Well lets first define these 2 terms. Carbohydrates are sugars, starches and fibers found in food (Szalay, 2017). It is a nutrient we need to function. We get our energy from it. It is what makes us get up and go. Harvard school of public health says, ” Carbohydrates provide the body with glucose, which is converted to energy used to support bodily functions and physical activity” (Harvard, 2019). Glucose is a type of simple sugar. These sugars get stored in our body and are used when called upon for energy. Added sugars are simple sugars that are added to processed food to sweeten them. Both carbohydrates and sugar are received the same way by the body but one occurs naturally within food while the other is added as extra to highly processed food. Foods like bananas, quinoa, and sweet potato are high in carbs which is good for you because your body can take those natural sugars and convert them into energy. Foods like soft drinks, breakfast cereal, and fruit juices are high in added sugar that the body processes and uses for energy. There is just one issue, foods with added sugar usually have too much sugar and the body ends up having to store the excess sugar. That is how we add extra fat ourselves because are body has to store all this extra sugar not being converted into energy. Foods with added sugar are highly processed and make up a huge chunk of the North American diet. This is part of the reason there are so many health issues on North America.

Having too much added sugar in your diet can pose as an unwanted health risk. Too much of anything in a diet is no good for you but too much sugar puts an extra strain on your body. In an article by Jillian Kubala, 11 Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You, Kubala discusses the added health risks associated with a diet that has too much added sugar. Kubala says, added sugar can cause weight gain, increase your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer (Kubala, 2018). She also says added sugar has been linked to acne, depression, skin aging, a fatty liver, and drained energy levels (Kubala, 2018). The last point she made is interesting. Drained energy levels. We usually you sugar to increase out energy levels but if you have to much it could actually lower them. That is because too much added sugar will cause a spike in your blood sugar which will quickly be followed by a crash (Kubala, 2018). A person looking to have a healthy diet should get their sugars from natural sources like fruits and vegetables and not high processed foods.

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In the above image is an example of a food with added sugar. It is breakfast cereal. There are 2 types of sugar added to this food, regular sugar and corn and barely malt extract. There is 10 grams of sugar for every half cup of cereal. That is equivalent to 10 sugar cubes. That is way too much sugar for that serving size.

Whole grains are a key component to any healthy diet. But what is a whole grain. A whole grain is an untouched grain in either in whole or flour form (Mayo Clinic, 2017). That means that the bran, germ, and endosperm are all included. Some examples of whole grains are barley, brown rice, buckwheat, oatmeal, popcorn, whole-wheat bread and pasta. Below I have 2 examples of whole grains, oatmeal cookies and brown rice, both of which were found in the pantry and can be found at any grocery store. There are benefits to including whole grains in your diet. Whole grains have a higher source of fiber and nutrients, such as B vitamins, iron, folate, selenium, potassium and magnesium (Mayo Clinic, 2017). Whole grains have also been known to lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes (Jennings, 2019). Making the switch to whole-grains should be easy. Start with replacing the toast, then move on to to cereals. This way you start adding whole grains into your diet.

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Irish Soda Bread

• bread flour 155g
• whole wheat flour 125g
• wheat bran 20g
• baking soda 9g
• salt 2g
• cold butter 60g
• buttermilk 305g

1. add all dry ingredients to a bowl
2. add butter and rub in till butter is size of peas
3. add buttermilk and mix by hand
4. knead for 1 minute on a floured surface
5. make dough into size of ball you desire, usually into 3 equal pieces
6. sprinkle with flour and score an “X” on top
7. bake at 220C for 20 minutes

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This is a really fun, fast and easy recipe to make. The ingredients are all things you can easily find at your local grocery store for pretty cheap. One of the only challenges I had while making my bread is getting my oven to work properly and cook the bread at an even temperature. I would definitely make this again, it is great for a quick bread to home.

Bibliography

• Szalay, J. (2017, July 15). What Are Carbohydrates? Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/51976-carbohydrates.html.
• Harvard School of Public Health. (2019, May 22). Carbohydrates. Retrieved from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/.
• Images retrieved from personal photos and pixabay.com
• Kubala, J. (2018, June 3). 11 Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad for You. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/too-much-sugar.
• Mayo Clinic. (2017, July 18). The whole truth about whole grains. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/whole-grains/art-20047826.

With health and nutrition becoming a major topic within the culinary industry, I thought it would be appropriate to take a look at some nutrition trends and what to look for when researching trends to follow. For me, a very interesting trend to look into would be the vegan trend. Every day you hear someone you know has gone vegan or that your favourite athlete is vegan. But what does it mean to be vegan? A vegan is someone who does not consume or use animal products. In theory that’s pretty easy, just don’t eat or use anything that comes from an animal. But a lot of people tend to have an issue with following the diet and lifestyle. That’s because in western culture we have so much processed food containing animals or animal products that it is almost impossible to hold a vegan lifestyle. There are many benefits from the vegan lifestyle if you are able to follow it though. In the article, 6 Science-Based Health Benefits of Eating Vegan by Alina Petre, she lists the factual benefits of going vegan. Petre lists, the diet is rich in nutrients, it helps with weight loss, lowers blood sugar and improves kidney function, may protect against cancer, lowers risk of heart disease, and reduces arthritis pain (Petre, 2016). So, if you are able to actually follow such a strict diet then it may be in your benefit to have a vegan diet. I for sure am going to look into some tasty vegan recipes now.

Along with the benefits of going vegan, I also want to explore the nutrition idea of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting has become extremely popular over the last few years in the weight loss community for its accelerated weight loss results. It is the idea of only consuming calories during specific hours of the day and then fasting for the rest of them. An example of this would be allowing yourself to consume calories between the hours of 7am and 3pm. That would give you 8 hours of calorie consumption and 16 hours of fasting. The theory is that if you fast for prolonged periods you will start burning fat for energy which will help you loose weight faster. There are other benefits besides weight loss associated with this diet. In an article by Kris Gunnars, 10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting, he provides us with more information about why this diet may be good for us. Gunnars said, intermittent fasting can help you loose weight and belly fat, reduce insulin resistance, reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, help prevent cancer and alzheimers, and it may extend your life span (Gunnars, 2016). This is all very interesting information. No where does it say you have to eat healthy when intermittent fasting, you can technically eat anything you want. So maybe we are not so unhealthy because of what we eat, maybe its when we eat and how much of it we eat.

As we progress as a society and learn more about health and nutrition we tend to care more about what we are putting in our bodies. I feel that currently and in the future nutrition will play a major role in the culinary industry when it comes to setting trends and creating a new norm. Even now we have more people reading labels and looking for a healthy option on the menu when going out to eat. As we learn more we will see an even greater shift in the culinary world towards healthy eating and creating a healthy sustainable lifestyle. Changes like this are important to the next generation because if we want our planet and resources to last we need to look for healthy, responsibly sourced food that is sustainable.

Now with all this new information and all these new trends to follow in nutrition, there are many people blogging and pretending to be experts but really have no proven information to present. You have to be careful when looking for information online, many websites might look legit and make claims to be healthy but really aren’t giving you accurate information. Luckily there are a few ways to make sure the information you’re getting is correct. One is to look at only credible websites. Gouvernment websites or university websites are a great place to start but even organizations like Heart & Stroke or Eat Right Ontario can be amazing sources for credible information on nutrition trends. Next look at the author. If they have any credible background in nutrition a quick internet search should show information about them and their work. Lastly but definitely not least you should always look at the references at the bottom of the websites. If none of the information is cited, then it shouldn’t be used. Let’s look at a quick comparison so you can see the difference. Here we have a posting by CTV news (CTV News Story ), a very reputable source for information. If you click on the link you will see the author, Ryan Flanagan a reputable author with a background in nutrition. Lastly, the sources he uses, a  university study, gives even more credibility to this article. Now compare that to a posting from this random blog (Are modern plant-based diets and foods actually sustainable?). The website is not very known and shows no credibility in having properly sourced information. The author, Helen Breewood, has no scientific background when it comes to nutrition. Finally, the blog is not cited. There is no way of being able to tell if any of the information provided is factually correct. Getting information on nutrition from a website like this should be avoided at all costs.
I hope this first entry was insightful and look forward to sharing new and exciting information with you on the nutrition world. 

Bibliography

• Images by: https://pixabay.com/
• Petre, A. (2016, September 23). 6 Science-Based Health Benefits of Eating Vegan. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vegan-diet-benefits.
• Gunnars, K. (2016, August 16). 10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting.
• Breewood, H. (2018, April 15). Are modern plant-based diets and foods actually sustainable? Retrieved from https://www.fcrn.org.uk/fcrn-blogs/helen-breewood/are-modern-plant-based-diets-and-foods-actually-sustainable.
• Flanagan, R. (2018, July 25). More than 3 million Canadians vegetarian or vegan: study. Retrieved from https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/more-than-3-million-canadians-vegetarian-or-vegan-study-1.4027606.

Hi, my name is Gianluca Florio. I am a 22 year old baking and pastry arts student at George Brown College in Toronto, ON, Canada. I’ve worked in the food industry for several years before attending. I focus mainly on Italian baked goods and pastries. I currently work at Lazio Bakery and Delicatessen as a bread baker. I love this industry and the joy it brings to everyone. I can’t wait to share with you.