Thursday, January 21, 2010

Jack LaLanne on Sugar

I've seen this video, and I'm sure many of you guys have seen it too. But for the less fortunate who haven't seen it, it is a must. A true classic. I couldn't hold out on ya any longer. This is especially poignant in regard to the comment the other day left by someone bashing breakfast cereal and other supposed "healthy" foods that contain sugar (as opposed to foods we all consider junk foods, like soft drinks and doughnuts). Yes, it's true, if you crumbled up some cookies, put them in a box, and poured milk over it - most would consider that to be a typical run-o-the-mill morning cereal - a healthy breakfast... low in fat and calories, full of 'cholesterol-lowering fiber,' 2 servings of heart healthy grains, and packed with 11 essential vitamins and minerals. 

Nope, this is not part of a complete breakfast. This is part of a complete disaster. 

31 comments:

  1. This guy is still going strong too!!

    Matt look at his sample diet.. its pretty low carb and meat at every meal

    breakfast:
    juice
    eggs or meat or both
    piece of toast
    coffee

    lunch: dinner are same
    salad
    meat
    cheese

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuW3RfWJ1H0

    One thing i noticed not many grains at all!! maybe 100 grains a day of grains would be about 5% of the diet...

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  2. He's a big proponent of real food. He doesn't believe in any kind of macronutrient restriction. But I think he gravitated to a more plant-based diet later in life. Joel Fuhrman, in a recent post, referred to LaLanne as a "nutritarian." Now that's pushing it!

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  3. Yeah i read jack takes a bunch of supplements like 40-50 a day and also is known to take up to 200 liver tablets a day..
    he also eats fish and egg whites every day.

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  4. Wow, great video. Kinda sad, too, that there have been experts like LaLanne around for decades promoting such a healthy message and people still aren't listening. Oh, except now they're loading down their coffee with aspartame or Splenda - just as bad as sugar if not worse in my opinion.

    The good news is I avoid all the foods on his list - except the occasional pint of Haagen Dazs when I'm in the mood for a treat.

    Anyhow, thanks for sharing that video. Now I want to go watch some more LaLanne stuff.

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  5. ...And far greater experts than LaLanne prior to LaLanne! Try Abrahamson and Pezet's 1951 Body, Mind, and Sugar... the work of Robert McCarrison, and of course ol' doc Price for starters.

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  7. Funny I was thinking of posting here about Jack Lalane just yesterday.My question stems from how dangerous fructose is yet this man juices huge quantities of fruits and vegetables everyday and still is going strong.Just food for thought.

    Another thing I wanted to post about is I see people saying that they use ice cream in large amounts as an occasional treat.Of course its loaded with fructose.One pint has 96 whopping gms sugar and 48 is fructose.

    Why not instead of sucrose laden ice cream people start making there own using pure glucose as a sweetener.I buy dextrose from local health food store(most stock it)and use that to sweeten heavy cream with.Gotta get me an ice cream maker soon.

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  8. wolfstriked,

    I've been thinking of buying some dextrose because of the damaging effects of fructose. Given that dextrose is a highly refined product, do you still think it's an acceptable replacement for sucrose (which is, of course, highly refined itself)? I need an ice cream maker too...

    By the way, I don't eat a whole pint of ice cream by myself. My husband usually helps me with it. :)

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  9. I've used brown rice syrup rather than dextrose. Thoughts?

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  10. Highly refined from sugar though.Actually its made from corn instead of sugar cane.

    I look at it like this...you either use table sugar which is half fructose half glucose or you buy dextrose which is pure glucose.It has a less sweet taste and kinda taste different but its still sweet.Yes its nutrient devoid but your not solely existing on it so...

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  11. Also,I don't really believe in the whole vs white debate.The japanese are known to exist on just white rice or I have never heard of them eating brown rice.

    I have looked into glycemic values of say a white bread vs whole wheat and they are both bad.And I have experimented with both and they both cause hypoglycemia for me.

    Then theres the whole "use sweet potatoes instead of regular" tips that are mentioned abroad.Yes they are lower glycemic by a small amount.The reason....well part to do with some fiber but mainly IMO due to the fact that sweet potatoes have a high sugar content...more fructose means less glycemic load since fructose causes little glycemic change.

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  12. Brown rice syrup looks good as its got no fructose.BUT does it taste good in ice cream?

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  13. wolfstriked, you have some good points there. I guess if you're going to eat refined sugar, pure glucose is the way to go.

    I'm just delving into the whole fructose subject and it's really interesting to me. Right now I use mainly raw honey and palm sugar as sweeteners. I love raw honey and won't give it up, but I may change out the palm sugar for glucose when I run out. I'll have to do some more research first, though.

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  14. I've got both coconut palm sugar and raw honey here too, mostly to satisfy the kids' sweet tooth. I keep reading that palm sugar has a low glycemic index and wondered if it would be healthier in ice cream. It sure tastes good, even a 1/4 teaspoon at a time.

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  15. There both just sucrose though.Actually there both higher in fructose.

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  16. wolfstriked and Youngblood.carl - thank you. I was thinking of trying both those sweeteners myself. More for treats for my daughters once they start figuring out what ice cream and cookies are.

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  17. @wolfstriked and @Helen

    If you do decide to check out the brown rice syrup, try not to have any particular expectations because it is quite different than other sweeteners. It is notably less sweet, with a strong sort of caramel-y undertone.

    I do think it would make great ice cream, but I haven't tried it. It has a lot of flavor; I don't like my ice cream particularly sweet though. =)

    If you do get some, let me know what you think! I just had a big sticky piece of sourdough covered with it. Something about lots of glucose is sexy to me; I think ever since that anti-fructose doctor kept referring to glucose as the 'sugar of life'. =D

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  18. Yes, being anti-glucose is like being anti-blood, or anti amino acid. Glucose is present in our bodies every second of every day from birth to death. Declare war against that and you may have some problems (mentally).

    Any refined carbohdyrate definitely is not optimal. Is straight glucose better than sucrose or straight fructose? You betcha.

    Lustig, for those who watched the video, mentions that sucrose can actually be preferable for athletes. But if you're not an athlete, according to him, it's trouble. That would certainly be one explanation for LaLanne's ability to thrive off of it. The other, more important factor, is that he's consuming vast quantities of nutrients along with it, which Lustig also proposes to play a part in being an antidote to the negative effects of fructose.

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  19. I'm finding that the longer I'm off sugar, the less it interests me. Not worth it. Coffee, otoh, is much much harder. I had a cup of decaf with loads of cream the other day and was moaning with happiness -- but clearly decaf still has some caffeine in it because the aftermath was not pretty.

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  20. My daycare provider who is from India always has these Indian "biscuits" as treats for the boy. They are called "Parle G" I noticed they were sweetened with glucose. They are pretty tasty, like a regular tea biscuit. I couldn't taste the difference between a Parle G and a biscuit sweetened with something else.

    A few other products that I've found that were sweetened with glucose--a mirin, a Japanese cooking wine, and some desiccated coconut powder which I sometimes add to the boy's shakes as a sweetener instead of fruit.

    I think homemade icecream made with real cream, vanilla pods and honey requires very little honey before it's sweet enough. As a once in a while treat, I'd say it's about as healthy as it gets. I find that when you use real eggs, real cream and butter, most dessert type items are much richer than we are used to and need very little sweetener to be more than palatable. It's amazing how much sugar is required to make up for a lack of fat!

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  21. Oh by the way, it's interesting that all the glucose sweetened products I've found were imported from Asia.

    Oh Hey Nell, thanks for the spoonbread recipe! I made some last night and it was fantastic. The boy ate like half the pan. Sooooo good to find a carb that isn't loaded with sugar and white flour that he will eat. I served it with Matt's sweetpotato gratin and roasted chicken. Also I had the leftovers this morning with a piece of bacon and a soft boiled egg over the top. Awesome! Spoonbread is made of win!

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  22. Damn Jenny. You be eatin' as good as I have been. That rivals the creamy clam chowder with rice I ate for dinner last night.

    Nell-
    That's typical to lose interest in the sweet taste over time - assuming that you're feeding yourself well and not overexerting yourself or missing sleep (in which case the opposite phenomenon happens). For some the caffeine thing really is harder to kick than sweets. I can't relate, but I've seen it and heard about it from many, so you're not alone.

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  23. The most awesome thing about 180 is that I've kicked my cooking up a notch. Bamn. It's amazing what you can do in the kitchen when you're actually allowed to use fat! All the years it's like I was cooking with one arm tied behind my back.

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  24. Amen Jenny. It almost feels like cheating. Now you know, as I mentioned in 180 kitchen, there is very little talent in the restaurant industry that isn't totally reproducible at home. Often better, and without the stomach ache of having your food cooked in vegetable oil with refined sweeteners added.

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  25. Glad you liked the spoonbread, Jenny. It's the only childhood recipe I got from my family that goes back generations.

    And YEAH on the good restaurant-high fat connection! I keep saying, Oh NOW I see how they do it, it's that extra stick of butter and all the cream!

    Matt, your creamy grits are a perfect example. My old grits, with a pat of butter, were tasty. But yours? High-end restaurant, whole other ballgame good.

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  26. Speaking of restaurant cooking, I think traditional French food is the best restaurant fare because the chef uses so much real fat, like butter, lard, and duck fat. And they serve the best fat-dense foods, too!

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  27. Jenny...you better watch out with those Parle G cookies, however they are sweetened, they also contain partially hydrogenated oils. My hubby is Indian and I hate when him and his Mom bring home stuff from the Indian store, just about everything has trans fats, then they stuff my toddler with it, pisses me off, but I can't really say anything.

    Aaron, good point about French food, and French people are usually thin and very healthy.
    I used to co-own an Italian restaurant and most of our dishes were very rich too (like Fettuccine Alfredo, gorgonzola sauce and most everything.) We had only one dish that was naturally low in fat and that was spaghetti with Marinara sauce, everything else was very fatty. Plus, I know that in Italy nobody would ever just eat some pasta with tomato sauce. For lunch there is almost always a pasta dish, but not a ton of it, then always followed by a small veggie side and a meat, chicken, pork, or fish course. For dinner, almost always bread, some veggie, and always meat again, usually in the form of cured pork meats and tons of cheese and olives.
    Gosh I miss that stuff. I can't eat any pork now, really sucks.

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  28. Hi Matt, just checking in here, you just started to follow me on twitter and I recognized your name and your face - did you once have another blog, perhaps three years ago, where you wrote about your own spiritual food journey? I remember reading it back then and thinking how great it was. Can't remember the name of it though....

    Anyway, lovely to see your venture is coming on leaps and bounds, I am esp. interested in this sugar post at the moment, as I am doing zero sugar and low G.I. amongst other Weston A. Price inspired things......

    cheers,
    Lou x x

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  29. yes, just remembered the name of it: 'Sacred Self'- it is you, well, how great is that?

    x

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  30. Dat's me Louisa. Welcome back. We're having lots of fun here.

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