Reduced Nutrient Density - Processed foods

Empty Calories: "calories from solid fats and added sugars in foods and beverages" (1)

Many people understand empty calorie foods (energy dense foods) and examples of them: Kit Kat, Grape Soda, Cookies.  Check out the nutrional value of canned pasta, or the lack of it. The amount of added sugar and solid fat in this food are low so technically it isn't considered an empty calorie food. When we look at this and other processed foods: Graham Crackers, Baked Fries, Nutri-grain bar, Whole-wheat crackers, Corn Flakes we see a lack of nutrient density. Aside from the artificial vitamins/minerals present in the cereal, all we find in these foods is calories and trace minerals.  Guess where these particular foods were listed?

Empty Calorie Foods according to the government

These foods are actually recommended to replace other processed foods.  Honestly we don't need to be eating any of these foods and if you are you might as well eat the most tasty one because the difference between their suggestion and the purported empty calorie food is negligible if not absent.

Frozen Fruit Bars (No Sugar added) http://ndb.nal.usda.gov

Frozen Yogurt (Chocolate) http://ndb.nal.usda.gov

This fruit bar has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  The chocolate yogurt has some added sugar but it also has calcium and some antioxidants from the chocolate.  My main point here is that foods don't need to be high in fat and sugar to still be an empty calorie food.  At the same time, foods with a lot of fat and sugar can still have beneficial nutrients.  A prime example of this is dark chocolate.

1 http://www.choosemyplate.gov

Amla (Emblica officinalis)

I'm really starting to like Nutrigold because they have high quality products with research and patents to back them up and their prices are not too outrageous. 

• Amla has more antioxidant capacity than turmeric extract (2)
• Whole-food vitamin c for enhanced iron absorption
• Helps fight against the oxidative effects of stress in the brain (4)
• May take up to 7 days to begin seeing effects (3)
• Not only nullifies free radicals but enhances enzymes that target free radicals (3)

1 Nutritional and Health Care Benefits of Amla
2 Free and bound phenolic antioxidants in amla (Emblica officinalis) and turmeric (Curcuma longa)
3 Antioxidant Activity of Active Tannoid Principles of Amla
4 Antioxidant activity of tannoid principles of amla in chronic stress induced changes in rat brain

My sugar addiction.

Here is a quick post about my experiences with sugar and bad fats and how they made me put on ~6 pounds of fat in 2 weeks.  I deliberately ate much more sugar and trans fats than I ever have before in my life.  The funny thing is that I didn't need to go out of my way to obtain the extra sugar and fat.  In my everyday life I constantly have these foods offered to me but usually I reject them.  I was curious to see how it feels to be in the same boat as the average American who consumes a large quantity of added sugars.  I also wanted to see how my body would react.  I have counseled others on their diets and I wanted to know how they feel eating so much sugar so that I could better help them.  For long-term health the process I went through is detrimental and I don't recommend it to anyone.  Added sugar is the absolute worst legal delicious food product you can put in your body.  I did this over winter break when I had minimal work/school responsibilities.

I increased my added sugar intake from ~40g per day(terrible already I know) to ~80g and sometimes more.  I consumed trans fats from donuts, pies, cakes, ice cream, cereal, and cookies.  Previously I rarely consumed these types of foods so my trans fat intake was negligible.

I still have sugar crashes but now they are worse.  Before I would feel lousy and drowsy but now I can barely keep my eyes open no matter what I do.  I feel more tired now after 8.5h of sleep than I did after 6.5 on a healthy diet.

I have been skinny my entire life and never gained fat in any significant quantities until now.  The one thing I always limited myself on was dessert.  I would occasionally have one or two nights of heavy sugar/fat but that would be the end of it.  Even for someone like me with a "fast metabolism" these kinds of foods can still cause deadly changes.

Sugar is addicting, more addicting than cocaine. (1)  It releases dopamine in a similar way to drugs. (2)  I completely understand why it is so hard to quit sugar and I am not looking forward to it.  I plan on going cold turkey tomorrow 12/29 so my body can regulate itself and get back down to a healthier body fat percentage.  After the first week of eating like this, I noticed how much I craved sugary foods and now if I don't eat them my body feels slight withdrawal symptoms.  I will update this post in a couple weeks to talk about how hard it was to quit and what methods I employed.  We'll also see how fast my body drops the fat pounds.

Update 1/15/15
Cold-turkey is a hard way to quit.  I ended up tapering down my sugar intake gradually and now I am back to a normal weight.

1 Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward
2 Reward system and addiction: what dopamine does and doesn’t do

Saponins

Solanine

Saponins are a class of organic molecules with many different forms.  They are characterized by their foaming ability and structurally by their glycoside portion and triterpene portion.

• Found in many foods
• Quillaia Extract in root beer
• Solanine from potatoes (2)
• Quinoa
• Have a foaming attribute
• Cytostatic to cancer cells (3)
• Potential to help with obesity and cholesterol (3)
• Antiprotozoal and Antifungal effects (3)
• Molluscicidal and Antiviral effects (3)

1 Quillaia
2 Solanine poisoning from potatoes.
3 The biological action of saponins in animal systems: a review

Food Spotlight: Wild Mustard(Brassica oleracea)

Wild Mustard, uncultivated

This amazing plant is cultivated to make cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, savoy, kohlrabi and Chinese kale.  Wikipedia has some good quality pictures of which my favorite is shown below.

Tree Cabbage

Though it may be ridiculous looking, this species makes up a huge portion of the vegetables we eat and should eat more of.  Both kale and collard greens, which many people understand are superfoods, are actually cultivars of this species. In my previous post, I discussed some foods that are high in nutrient density.  All the cultivars of Brassica oleracea are on this list except for Savoy and Chinese kale.  I was unable to find reliable nutrition information for Chinese kale, meaning it may not be on the list is because it is relatively unknown.  Savoy has a similar nutrient composition to broccoli so it can be considered of similar caliber.