The most common bread sold and consumed by the American public is by far white bread.

We have all grown up eating our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white bread and our morning toast on white bread, but why?

Most likely because it’s cheaper and lasts longer then any other style bread. The issue I bring up though is it’s nutritional value, which is close to none.

When a producer has wheat refined into white flour about 25 known nutrients are removed. However after the refining process only about 4 are replaced. On average 87 percent of essential minerals are lost.

The funny thing is that the producer will put “enriched with vitamins and minerals” to give it a healthy appeal. The same procedure is used in making most pasta’s, white rice, and white sugar.

This all boils down to the fact that we are consuming two thirds of our diet on refined empty calories. This is a main culprit with low energy, obesity, low mineral intake and unstable insulin levels.

The solution is to consume whole wheat breads and pasta, brown rice, and limit refined products. You not only will see countless health benefits, but the taste improvement will be extraordinary. Give it a try and experiment with different foods that are closer to what nature intended and not what the food corporations wanted.

1. Reduce the amount of fat, sugar and sodium

With most recipes, you can reduce the amount of fat, sugar and sodium without losing the flavor. By cutting fat and sugar, you also cut calories. How much can you leave out without affecting the flavor and consistency of the food? Apply the following general guidelines:

• Fat. For baked goods, use half the butter, shortening or oil and replace the other half with unsweetened applesauce, mashed banana or prune puree. You can also use commercially prepared fruit-based fat replacers found in the baking aisle of your local grocery store.
• Sugar. Reduce the amount of sugar by one-third to one-half. When you use less sugar, add spices such as cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg or flavorings such as vanilla extract or almond flavoring to enhance the sweetness of the food.
• Sodium. Reduce salt by one-half in baked goods that don’t require yeast. For foods that require yeast, don’t reduce the amount of salt, which is necessary for leavening. Without salt, the foods may become dense and flat. For most main dishes, salads, soups and other foods, however, you can reduce the salt by one-half or eliminate it completely.

Other ingredients may contain sugar, fat and sodium, and you can decrease them as well. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, use 1/2 cup instead. Or use less soy sauce than is indicated to decrease the amount of sodium in the food.

2. Make a healthy substitution

Healthy substitutions not only reduce the amount of fat, calories and sodium in your recipes, but also can boost the nutritional content. For example, use whole-wheat pasta in place of enriched pasta. You’ll triple the fiber and reduce the number of calories. Prepare a dessert with fat-free milk instead of whole milk to save 63 calories and almost 8 grams of fat per cup.

3. Delete an ingredient

In some recipes, you can delete an ingredient altogether; likely candidates include items you add out of habit or for appearance, such as frosting, coconut or nuts, which are high in fat and calories. Other possibilities include optional condiments, such as pickles, olives, butter, mayonnaise, syrup, jelly and mustard, which can have large amounts of sodium, sugar, fat and calories.

4. Change the method of preparation

Healthy cooking techniques — such as braising, broiling, grilling and steaming — can capture the flavor and nutrients of your food without adding excessive amounts of fat, oil or sodium. If your recipe calls for frying the ingredients in oil or butter, try baking, broiling or poaching the food instead. If the directions say to baste the meat or vegetables in oil or drippings, use wine, fruit juice, vegetable juice or fat-free vegetable broth instead. Using nonstick pans or spraying pans with nonstick cooking spray will further reduce the amount of fat and calories added to your meals.

5. Change the portion size

No matter how much you reduce, switch or omit ingredients, some recipes may still be high in sugar, fat or salt. In these cases, reduce the amount of that food you eat. Smaller portions have less fat, calories and sodium and allow you to eat a wider variety of foods during a meal. Eating a variety of foods will ensure that you get all the energy, protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber you need.

Putting it all together

As you look over your recipe, decide what to change and how to change it. Make notes of any alterations, so you can refer to them the next time you prepare the food. You may have to make the recipe a few times, adjusting your alterations, before you get the results you want. But finding the right combination of ingredients — for the desired taste, consistency and nutrients — is well worth the trouble.

The following muffin recipe shows a before-and-after ingredient list. Incorporating a few small changes can make a big difference in the amount of fat, calories and sodium per serving.

The team is converting the starch-like substance called gellan gum into a liquid which can be drunk but then turns to a gel when it reacts with the digestive juices in the stomach.

The substance, which contains virtually no calories, then slowly breaks down in around six hours.

By adding nutrients, the researchers believe they can make a drink that not only fills you up with no calories but is also healthy.

Dr Fotis Spyropoulos of the School of Chemical Engineering at Birmingham University, said: “We think it is a great idea because it is so simple.

“The solution we designed takes advantage of the body’s natural process of digestion to convert itself into a gel that fills you up and then breaks down.

“We are now working on how to get it to release energy slowly so that it not only makes the stomach feel full but also provides energy the body needs.”

The solution, which the researchers will be available for industry testing in three years, works by reacting with the acid in the stomach’s digestive juices and turning itself into a gel.

However, once it has turned into a gel it then starts breaking down just like a meal.

The strength of this gel is carefully controlled so it is firm enough to provide a prolonged sense of fullness but then breaks down at a rate similar to food.

While it “sits” in the stomach, it suppresses appetite, making the consumer feel full for longer, reducing the likelihood of snacking and eating unhealthy foods.

The scientists have designed other mechanisms into the technology to get the gel structure to progressively weaken after a certain time of exposure to the stomach’s acid, and eventually break down and pass through the digestive tract.

The researchers’ aim is to see the new solution in a breakfast drink or a type of porridge, the consumer benefiting from feeling full, but still able to eat three meals a day.

But now it seems it is not just down to the fact that fruit and vegetables contain fewer calories.

Tomatoes are rich in the compound lycopene, which scientists believe may help to make people feel more full by lowering appetite hormones.

Researchers from the University of Reading made their discovery by testing the effects of bread enriched with vegetables on a ground of 17 normal weight women aged 18 to 35.

The volunteers were given sandwiches either filled with cream cheese or made with bread enriched with carrot or tomato and asked to record how full they were.

The researchers had expected the additional fibre in the carrot bread to promote the most feelings of satiety or fullness, but instead they found the tomato bread was actually the most filling.

“It was a small study, and we can’t yet say what the crucial tomato ingredient is, but the results were statistically significant,” Dr Julie Lovegrove, a specialist in nutritional metabolism who is leading the project, said.

The lycopene found in tomatoes makes them red and is a key component of the Mediterranean diet which is credited with lowering rates of heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and some forms of cancer.

Dr Lovegrove believes it may too be the reason why the volunteers felt more full.

The Washington State Apple Commission reports that Americans eat approximately 19 pounds of fresh apples annually, compared to about 46 pounds consumed annually by residents of European countries.

You may think we are slackers by comparison, but the bounty and variety of fresh fruit that we have at our fingertips is far superior to that of European countries, particularly given the many climates our country has and our proximity to Central and South America, which grows a large amount and variety of fruit. So don’t feel bad, but you could consider eating a few more of our homegrown fruit, helping out American growers and doing yourself some good as well. One large apple (8 ounces) has 130 calories, 5 grams of fiber (20% of your RDA), no sodium and no cholesterol. Full of healthy goodness, an apple a day just might keep the doctor away, or at least help with the process.

We all have our favorite kind of apple, and our favorite way of eating them:

• Sliced with salt, peanut butter, or served with a cheese plate
• Juiced or made into cider to drink
• Cut up for a pie, crisp, brown betty, or apple cake
• Whole baked apples, stuffed with nuts and/or raisins and sweetened with brown sugar or maple syrup
• Cooked and made into applesauce (I love this served warm right out of the cooking pot)
• Covered in chocolate, caramel, or red candy, with or without toppings, and eaten right off the stick
• Dried, to snack on

I grew up on homemade applesauce, spoiling me to the point that I cannot eat the store-bought version. When my children were young and my family had apple trees, it was a favorite family pastime to make applesauce. I have an old-fashioned apple-peeler-corer that the children could use to prep the apples in a jiffy, and everyone took turns stirring the pot. The fragrance in the house is unmistakable and heavenly, reminiscent of days gone by.

I don’t make applesauce much anymore, but I do make a simple apple tart, freeform in style, that is delicious and easy enough for a child to prepare. I use a pre-made pie crust, the flat version, and because the tart is freeform, when you roll it out it doesn’t matter if it comes out round, oblong, or amoeba-shaped. Your local store probably carries the Pillsbury brand in the refrigerated biscuit section. I let it thaw slightly and roll out a bit thinner than you would use for a pie. And since this is so easy to do, I often use both crusts and make 2 tarts at the same time!  Served warm or cold, topped with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream or low-cal vanilla ice cream, it will be a crowd pleaser.

Quick and Easy Freeform Apple Tart
1 prepared flat pie crust* (homemade or store bought)
4 large apples (red and yellow apples make the best tart)
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel, core and thinly slice apples. Roll out prepared pastry on floured board to about a 12-inch round. Transfer dough to a lipped nonstick baking sheet. Seal any tears in the dough. Leaving a 2-inch border, begin placing apples in concentric circles, starting from the outside and working toward the center. Mix sugar and spices and sprinkle over the apples. Dot with small knobs of butter. Then fold the edges of the pastry over the apples, making overlaps as you go around.

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce oven to 375 degrees and bake an additional 30-35 minutes, until apples are tender and crust is golden.

Ninety-three percent of participants consumed more calories from fat than they should, 85 percent consumed too much saturated fat, and 92 percent took in too much sodium.

Researchers compared what study participants reported eating to the recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Institute of Medicine’s Dietary Reference Intakes.

These guidelines call for no more than 30 percent of a person’s daily calories to come from fat, for example, and no more than 10 percent from saturated fat.

“You displace other healthy foods if you consume high levels of fat, [and] fat is high in calories,” cautions Mara Vitolins, the study’s lead author. Vitolins is an associate professor and vice chair of the department of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine.

The research serves as a heads-up to all type 2 diabetics—not just the newly diagnosed—since it found that people who had lived with diabetes for the longest periods of time were no more likely to maintain a healthy diet than people who’d had the disease for shorter periods. Whether you were diagnosed many years ago or only recently, here are seven tips for starting and maintaining a healthy type 2 diabetes diet:

Figure out what you’re eating. To replace high-fat foods in your diet with low-fat foods, first write down everything you eat and then analyze your list, advises Sue McLaughlin, president for healthcare and education at the American Diabetes Association. Some online tools, such as the ADA’s My Food Advisor, can help you determine what your actual intake is and where you are lacking in nutrients. As you analyze your food intake, “choose one or two of the highest fat-content foods and replace them with a colorful serving of fresh fruit or vegetables,” says McLaughlin. By doing this, she says, “you have decreased your fat and calorie intake and increased your intake of fiber and vitamins and minerals and moved one step closer to improving blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and overall health.”

Get serious about your fruits and vegetables. Strive for two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables per day, Vitolins suggests, and two servings of dairy and six servings of grains. And try to stick with low-fat dairy products and grains. The study showed that less than half of study participants took in the minimum recommended daily servings of fruits, vegetables, dairy, and grains.

Plan your meals. Careful planning can prevent mindless eating. Adults should get 45 to 65 percent of their calories from carbohydrates, 10 to 35 percent from protein, and 20 to 30 percent from fat, Vitolins says. For some people, diabetic diet planning tools, such as counting carbohydrates and the create-your-plate method (which involves drawing imaginary lines on your plate to divide it into three sections, then putting nonstarchy vegetables in one section and starchy foods and meat/protein in the other sections), may be useful for meal planning.

Don’t assume you know everything. Just because you’ve been diabetic for a long time doesn’t mean that nutrition education won’t help you. “In my opinion, people with type 2 diabetes may not be getting the amount of nutrition education they need to consume a healthful diet,” Vitolins says. “I think people with type 2 diabetes need nutrition education ‘boosters’ or continual re-evaluations of their food intake over time.” Ask your doctor for a referral to a dietitian or nutritionist if you think you could use a refresher.

Develop a support system. Identifying a person who McLaughlin calls a “champion”—someone who will listen and provide support for the healthy changes that you are trying to make—can be beneficial for diabetics. Ask this person to encourage you to consume healthy foods and engage in physical activity as a part of your daily life.

Be picky about where you eat. Select restaurants that specialize in healthy foods or that are willing to substitute high-fat foods for healthier ones.

Along with refining your dietary habits, it’s important to take stock of your physical activity. You should “do something that requires you to move the large muscles in the body [arms and legs] for a goal of 30 minutes or more, five days a week or more,” McLaughlin recommends. Research shows that restricting calories alone will result in loss of lean muscle mass and body fat, while a program of both exercise and calorie restriction should lead to a loss that is primarily body fat.

Sources: health.usnews.com