What types of toxins are excreted from the body?

How does one know how much toxins are in the body?

What objective methods of measuring toxicity levels currently exist out there?

How does one know how much toxins have been removed after a period of fasting or whatever detoxification method?

Overcoming the Craving for Unhealthy Carbs & Sugars (Sweet Foods)

What are carbohydrates and sugars?

Carbohydrates or carbs in short, are one of the three main classes of food. The three main classes of all the food we eat are as follows: 1) carbohydrates, 2) fats, and 3) protein.

Sugars are part of the “family” of carbohydrates. The carbohydrate family includes fiber, starches, sugar (sucrose), lactose, maltose, glucose, fructose, and so on. In this section the term sugars will be used to refer to all processed sweet foods and processed carbohydrate rich foods.

InteliHealth says, “Foods that are high in complex carbohydrates, such as grains and vegetables, usually supply a good-health bonus of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Meanwhile, simple carbohydrates from candy, cake, table sugar, syrups, sweetened cereals and other sources of concentrated sugar contribute ‘empty calories' that provide energy, but no nutrients,” (Aetna InteliHealth Inc., Nutrition, “Carbohydrates,” InteliHealth.com).

Reducing or eliminating consumption of unhealthy carbohydrates and sugars (sweet foods) can be a major method for self detoxification. This is particularly so for people that have a natural craving for carbohydrate types of processed foods. Many carbohydrate types of processed foods contain what is known as refined sugar. This is mostly sweet type of sugar that we normally associate with table sugar. It is the most basic form of simple carbohydrates which are nutritionally depleted.

Given the lack of nutritional value of refined sugar InteliHealth says, “The obvious way to cut back on refined sugar is to limit the amount of candy, cake, cookies, pies, ice cream and other sweets you eat and to avoid adding table sugar to foods and beverages…

“When it comes to overall health, all sugars are created equal. Honey, fructose, sucrose, corn syrup, maple syrup, and molasses are no better (or worse) for you than refined white sugar. Although they may be absorbed differently, all sugars eventually break down in the body and end up as glucose,” (Aetna InteliHealth Inc., Nutrition, “Carbohydrates,” InteliHealth.com).

I'd be the biggest hypocrite on living healthy if I'd not given up on sweet stuff. I've had a natural craving for all sweet “foods” until one bright day on October 7, 2007. I made a resolution to quit eating sweet processed foods and did just that.

To quit from being a sugarholic (addiction to sweet foods) was so easy it was hard to believe how easily the habit ended. When you reach your thirties it's assumed old habits die hard (i.e. it's hard to overcome bad habits kept for many years). Not quite with God's grace. It can take one conviction and God supplies the grace to fulfill the request. Sometimes it takes longer but this one was an instant one.

I now take green tea with no sugar, no sugar in cereal, and fruits in place of bread or cakes. I also take unflavored or plain oatmeal in place of the flavored one. Flavored oatmeal has many cheap artificial additives to give it flavor, color and so on. In USA it mostly comes in a little box with the oatmeal packs in it. Unflavored or plain oatmeal comes in a container. If you read the ingredients on the container it says 100% oats or 100% rolled oats. There is no long list of unpronounceable ingredients on unflavored oatmeal.

Unflavored oatmeal tastes awful but it does not have the additives that flavored oatmeal has. Oatmeal is also a healthier cereal than most standard cereals. This is because most standard cereals (grains) undergo some form of processing which alters their natural state to some level. Generally the more processing a cereal undergoes the more it loses its natural form.

For example flaked cereals, “are made directly from whole grain kernels or parts of kernels of corn, wheat, or rice and are processed in such a way as to obtain particles, called flaking grits, that form one flake each. The production of flaked cereals involves preprocessing, mixing, cooking, delumping, drying, cooling and tempering, flaking, toasting, and packaging,” (Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in USA, AP 42 (Air Pollutant Emission Factors), Volume I, Fifth Edition, Chapter 9 “Food and Agricultural Industries,” page 9.9.2-5).

Furthermore there are cheap artificial additives added to most cereal to give it a tasteful flavor, color, etc. This is done during the mixing stage. If you read food labels and check the ingredients on each cereal package you'll be able to estimate the amount artificial additives it has. Thus it's healthier to opt for cereal that has undergone less processing and has little or no artificial additives.

How does one know the level of processing a cereal has undergone?

What About Sugar Substitutes Called Artificial Sweeteners? Are they Healthy ?

Artificial sweeteners are actually a major component of food additives in many processed foods. Artificial sweeteners are also known as sugar-free substances. The question is, are they healthy?

Books that answer this question include, Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills , by Russell Blaylock, Ph.D, and Sweet Poison: How the World's Most Popular Artificial Sweetener Is Killing Us - My Story , by Janet Hull, Ph.D.

The response from many authors with no special interest connections, is that most artificial sweeteners are not healthy.

Mark D. Gold from the Aspartame (NutraSweet) Toxicity Information Center has a health guide table on both natural and artificial sweeteners. The table below is from Aspartame (NutraSweet) Toxicity Information Center.

Next Part Healthy Sweetener Use Guide