elenamoffatt-blog

[elenamoffatt-blog]

All about carbohydrates!

Seriously, who doesn’t like sugar?  I know I do – why do you think I went into baking?! Today I’m going to be talking about carbohydrates and added sugars.  I’ll be touching on the differences between foods that are high in carbs and food that have added sugar.  I’ll be discussing what current nutrition research shows about eating too many added sugars.  Then it’s all about whole grains: what they are, why they’re important, and there’ll be a tasty recipe at the end!

To begin: what’s the difference between foods that are high in carbohydrates and ones that have added sugar?  You may have seen Nutrition Facts labels on foods where some foods that don’t have any added sugars are still high in carbohydrates.  Although sugar is a carb, there’s more to it than that!  Carbohydrates represent a large portion of what we eat in our diets and encompass a variety of sugars, starches, and fibers.  Adults should be eating 45-65% of their calories from carbohydrates on a day-to-day basis.  Some foods are high in carbohydrates but have no added sugars.  A lot of these foods are fresh fruits and vegetables or foods with whole grains.  Fruits have natural sugars, but once you head in the direction of more processed food, you start entering added sugars territory.  Added sugars are sugars, syrups, and sweeteners that are added to foods during processing or preparation.  Added sugars contain few/no nutrients but are high in calories.  Added sugars are found in abundance in processed foods.  It’s easy to eat too much sugar, and this is a bad thing.  Eating too much sugar can lead to tooth decay or obesity, which is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and cardiovascular disease (Government of Canada, 2018).

Let’s move on to whole grains.  Whole grains are unprocessed grains.  Examples of whole grains include whole oats, brown and wild rice, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, rye, and bulgur.  By including whole grains into your regular diet, you have the opportunity to lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even some cancers (Unlockfood.ca, 2018)!  Sounds pretty easy right?  By swapping white pasta for whole wheat or white rice for wild, you can lower your risk of all these things.  Whole grains are also higher in fibre, vitamins, and minerals in comparison to refined grains (Unlockfood.ca, 2018).

I’ve taken some pictures of some foods that I have at home.  One is a packaged food with added sugars, and the other two are examples of whole grains.  All of these are pictures of different kinds of macaroni and cheese.  The first two pictures are from the brand Nudge.  The pink box is labeled as organic and made with whole wheat and flax, and the blue box is labeled as gluten free.  The third and final box is Metro’s Selection brand and is simply labeled as extra creamy.

As you can see from the pictures, the pink box has whole wheat pasta with flax made from organic whole durum wheat and organic brown flaxseed meal.  There are 36g of carbohydrates (6g fiber and 0g sugar) in each 57g serving.

In the blue box, the pasta is made out of rice (white and brown rice flour).  This box contains 41g of carbohydrate (1g fiber and 2g sugar) out of each 57g serving.  

Finally, the Selection brand box simply contains ‘macaroni’ and is not elaborated further than that, although we can assume it’s made of cheap white flour.  This box has 37g of carbohydrates (1g fiber and 4g sugar) for every 50g serving.  This box also contains glucose solids in the cheese sauce mix, which help attribute to the sugars found in this box.  Glucose solids are simple sugars typically made out of corn, rice, wheat, or potato starch.

Time for the fun stuff!  How about a recipe? The recipe I’ve written below is one of my regular breakfasts.  It’s tasty, filling, and nutritious!  How’s about some yogurt with granola, nuts, and figs?  Personally, I can’t get enough of figs.  I love their sweetness and their texture.  Adding them to my morning routine has been perfect for me!

1 cup yogurt (I used plain Balkan style) ¼ cup Nature’s Path Hemp Hearts granola 1 handful of nuts (feel free to spice it up with nuts or seed – whatever you want!) 3 dried figs (you can also use fresh or another kind of sweet dried fruit)

Put the yogurt down first and pile the rest on top.  Voila, you’re already done!  Time for brekkie!  This granola contains whole grain rolled oats, brown rice flour, flax seeds, and hemp seeds.  For every ¾ cup, you get 5g of fibre and 6g of protein.  Yummy!

[elenamoffatt-blog]

Hello, I’d like to introduce myself...

I’m Elena Moffatt and I’m in the Baking and Pastry Arts Management program at George Brown College. I’m 22 years old and previously completed a bachelor’s degree in International Food Business between Dalhousie University and Aeres Hogeschool in the Netherlands. Something unique about me is that I can say the alphabet backwards with ease. During my bachelor’s degree, I realized that this isn’t the program I wanted or the career path I could see myself heading towards. It became clear that baking was more than just a hobby for me and decided to pursue the college route.

A nutrition topic that interests me is fortified foods. Until the first lecture, I hadn’t realized that micronutrients were added to different foods that are part of my daily diet. I would like to learn more about these fortified foods, as well as the obesity epidemic. It would be interesting to learn more about how to promote healthy diets but also how the different food guides differ between countries and compare that with obesity statistics.

As far as my career goes, I’d like to begin by working at a small-scale local bakery where I get the opportunity to do a bit of everything. I enjoy getting my hands dirty and learning new skills, and I think working at a small bakery is the way to do this. In five years, it’s possible that I could still be working at a small-scale bakery, but I would love to have the opportunity to open my own business that not only sells baked goods directly to customers, but also to other local businesses that need any treats to sell.

I think nutrition is already playing an important role in the culinary industry. With the trend of plant based diets becoming more and more common, chefs are needing to develop new recipes and dishes that incorporate some non-traditional ingredients. They must take into account the amount of macronutrients in dishes, particularly protein which may be more difficult to get in appropriate quantities. People are becoming more mindful of what they’re eating, and restaurants need to reflect on that.

Now, I’m going to compare the reliability of two nutrition websites. I will be comparing the Dietitians of Canada website along with DoctorYourself.com, a website made by Andrew Saul who is a natural health educator.

When googling “unreliable nutrition website,” Saul’s website pops up numerous times which should say enough about his website. Saul has published numerous books, is on the editorial board of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, “holds three state certificates in science education” (Doctor Yourself, n.d.), and has “taught nutrition, health science and cell biology at the college level” (Doctor Yourself, n.d.). However, his website is lacking and at first glance, definitely appears untrustworthy. The text continuously changes from bolded, caps lock, italics, and a series of blue links waiting to be opened. It reads messily and almost as though the author is shouting at the reader in parts. Saul primarily links his own publications on his website. (Doctor Yourself, n.d.)

Comparing Saul’s website to the Dietitians of Canada website is like night and day. The Dietitians of Canada website appears much calmer and put together which puts me, the reader, at ease. The dietitians are part of a professional association in Canada who are “governed by a Board of Directors” who are elected (Dietitians of Canada, 2018). The website links readers to affiliate sites like EatRight Ontario, Dietetics Association, and PEN Nutrition. Overall, the website is organized much clearer for readers.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading this post.

Elena

Bibliography 

Dietitians of Canada. (2018). About DC. Retrieved from Dietitians of Canada: https://www.dietitians.ca/About-DC.aspx

Doctor Yourself. (n.d.). About the Author. Retrieved from Doctor Yourself: http://doctoryourself.com/aboutme.html