NO MORE SUGAR!

Sugar, sugar, sugar...You add it to your morning cup of coffee or tea, you bake it into pastries, cakes, and cookies, and you might even sprinkle some on your breakfast cereal or oatmeal for added "flavor". However that's not it, sugar is also hidden in what you consume on a daily basis, such as sodas, fruit juices, candies and ice cream. You can even find them in processed foods, including breads, meats and ketchup. 

Most people view foods with sugar as tasty treats, but to the three words to more accurately describe sugar would be: toxic, addicting and deadly. Sugar is one of the most damaging substances that you can ingest, and what is scary is that it is exists in almost all foods you consume in your everyday diet. 

Today, an average American consumes about 32 teaspoons of sugar per day. Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology in the University of California, works with decoding sugar metabolism. He says that your body can safely metabolize six teaspoons of added sugar per day, which is three times less than most Americans are consuming. So if only six teaspoons get safely digested, what happens with the rest?

The excess sugar becomes metabolized into body fat, which can lead to many debilitating chronic metabolic diseases many people struggle with. Here are some examples of how sugar impacts your body:

•  It overloads and damages your liver. Sugar or fructose has similar affects to what alcohol does to your liver. All the food that you eat is broken down by the liver, so all the fructose you consume goes there, overloading the liver, and in the end causing liver damage.
• It tricks your body into gaining weight, as fructose tricks your metabolism by turning off your body's appetite-control system. It doesn't stimulate the insulin, which then fat ls to suppress ghrelin (hunger hormone), which then fails to stimulate leptin (satiety hormone). This causes you to eat more and develop insulting resistance.
• It can cause metabolic dysfunction. Eating too much sugar causes symptoms known as classic metabolic syndrome, which include weight gain, abdominal obesity, elevated blood sugar, high blood pressure and more.
• It increases you uric acid levels, which is a risk factor for heart and kidney disease.

In addition to all of these horrible effects sugar has on your body, it can also increase your risk of getting the condition "non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)". It has been proven that too much sugar and fructose intake can cause the same disease as you can get from alcohol intake. One similarity between alcohol and sugar is that your liver metabolizes alcohol the same as fructose. Another thing is that fructose can also indirectly stimulate the brain and create a dependence (addiction), the same way that ethanol in alcohol does.




However don't think that this is the only thing sugar does to your body. Research has shown that sugar is a primary dietary factor that drives obesity and chronic disease development:

• Fructose is food for cancer cells, promoting cell division and speeding their growth, which allows the cancer to spread faster.
• Alzheimers disease can also arise from too much sugar. The connection between a high-fructose diet and your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, is the same pathway through which type 2 diabetes is caused. Experts say that brain disorders may be caused from the constant burning of glucose for fuel by your brain.

Other diseases linked to metabolic syndrome that can arise because of too much sugar include: type 2 diabetes, hypertension, lipid problems, heart disease, polycystic ovarian syndrome and dementia.

Now, after reading all of these negative impacts sugar has on your body, try to control the amount of sugar you consume. I know it might be hard to quit eating sugar for good, but by cutting out at least foods with added sugar (fructose) you will do your body a huge favor. Trust me, you might think sugar has had no effects on you yet, but you might regret it some day. Stop eating sugar, it is toxic, addicting and deadly.

Review on Crispbread Recipe

So it's a new week, meaning new blog post. As you might remember, last week, I shared a crispbread recipe with you. Therefore I decided to write a review on it. I'll talk about the nutrition content and why it is healthy.

The ingredients I used along with water and salt were: sammalt grov rug, havregryn, solsikkekjerner, linfrø and sesamfrø. All together this gave me 50 crispbread pieces, each with a mass around 25g.

Here is the nutrition content in one crispbread piece:

Energy: 104 kcal  

Protein: 3 grams

Fat: 5 grams

Carbohydrates: 11 grams

Fiber: 2 grams

As we can see there is not much fat or carbohydrates, but still it seems that there are many calories. How is the crispbread healthy then? How would you explain this?

Seeing the big numbers might panic you at first glance, but if you really think about it, you will realize something. Even though it has more calories per 100 grams than a piece of bread, it has double the amount of fiber. Therefore it is considered a healthier alternative. 

The only thing that can ruin the fact that they are  healthier is what you put on top of them. Normally, you would put a bit more topping on crispbread because of how thin they are, and maybe eat around two pieces. Then you end up with eating a lot more calories than if you just had eaten a piece of bread. To avoid this, try to not use too much topping, and that way two pieces will only equal to one piece of bread.

Here are a few suggestions of healthy toppings:

Crispbread topped with some strawberry jam and two slices of brown cheese

Crispbread topped with tomatoes and celery no top of two slices of cheese

To conclude we can see that crispbread are actually healthier than bread, however over time it's good to have variation. Whether you eat bread or crispbread, rye bread or rye crispbread is always better. That is what was used in the recipe. Additionally, fun fact, rye and oatmeal contain advantageous fiber types that can reduce cholesterol and regulate blood sugar.

Also in my previous blog post someone asked how to store them, and for how long they last. It's really simple. You can just leave them on you kitchen counter in a basket (like in the picture), and they can last for more than a week.

Super Healthy and Easy to Make Crispsbread

Have you ever felt in the need of something simple, but good at the same time, and because of this just eaten a snack such as a snickers bar instead of making or buying something healthier? I'm sure you have, because I definitely have.

Therefore I decided to share this quick and simple recipe on how to make healthy homemade crispbread. They come in handy all the time, especially when you just need something to snack on.

P.S Some of the ingredients have Norwegian names, so I’ll write in brackets what they are in English.

Ingredients (I used both metric and cups imperial)

4 dl or 1.7 cups sammalt grov rug (whole grain crude rye)

4 dl or 1.7 cups havregryn, lettkokt (oatmeal)

2 dl or 0.8 cups solsikkekjerner (sunflower seeds)

1 dl or 0.4 cups linfrø (flaxseed/linseed) 

1 dl or 0.4 cups sesamfrø (sesame seeds)

7 dl or 3 cups water

1 tsp. salt

Directions

1. Mix all the ingredients together.

2. Spread out the mixture on two different baking plates covered in baking paper. Use a baking spatula to spread, making it as thin as possible and clean up the edges. Then sprinkle some sea salt on top.

 

3. Set the oven (convection oven) at 180 degrees Celsius, and put the crispbread inside.

4. Take it out after 10 minutes, and cut them up in pieces while still soft using a pizza wheel.

5.  Put it back inside and now let it bake for 35 minutes.

6. Once they have baked let them cool for 20 min.

There you go! Homemade crispbread! As you can see it’s so easy to make and super healthy. Eat them bare, or with toppings such as cheese. Anything that you would put on your sandwich would most likely go well with crispbread too!

Introduction

Hello, my name is Cecilie Kamilla. I am a 15-year-old girl from Norway. I created this blog because of a school project, but the reason I chose "healthy living" as my topic is because I'm very interested in healthy eating and everything that has to do with keeping your body in good shape. This blog will provide you with information about the food you eat, tips, healthy recipes and much more. Enjoy!