Over the weekend I was looking at the ingredient list of freshly baked bread that we got from our local Publix supermarket. What caught my eye was the very first ingredient called enriched flour. At first it appeared to be a good thing. After all, look at what all it contains:

Enriched flour – wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid

Niacin is vitamin B3 needed for DNA repair and production of steroid hormones. Lack of vitamin B3 results in Pellagra, a disease of 4 D’s: diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia and death!

Reduced iron is simply a form of iron added to the flour. Iron is essential for all living organisms and its deficiency causes anemia where blood hemoglobin gets to low levels.

Thiamine Mononitrate is vitamin B1 and its deficiency causes beriberi which affects the nervous system.

Riboflavin is vitamin B2 is needed for metabolism of fats, carbs and proteins. Its deficiency causes inflammation in eyes, mouth and throat.

Folic acid is needed for a lot of different bodily functions especially at a time of cell division and growth (pregnancy and early childhood). Folate deficiency results in loss of appetite, weight loss, weakness, headaches, heart palpitations and behavioral disorders.

So on the surface, all this looks good since enriched flour is giving you iron and important B vitamins. What can be wrong with it you wonder.

Well, the main question is why they need to add them to flour in the first place since wheat contains these nutrients anyway!

Simply grind the wheat, turn it into flour and forget about all this processing and enrichment. Turns out, things are not so simple.

Customers love the looks of bright, white flour. But enriching is necessary because the processing used to make white flour destroys some of these nutrients that originally were present in the whole grain. So, FDA forces producers to add these important nutrients so that they don’t have to face the public health nightmare resulting from their deficiency. This makes everybody happy – customers get the white flour they like, producers make a profit and FDA doesn’t have to deal with public health problems.

But is that really true?

Vitamins, minerals and oils are stored inside the germ of the whole grain, protected by the bran so they can continue to nourish the seed. The carbohydrates and proteins are stored inside the endosperm which is also protected by the bran. The milling process of turning wheat into white flour removes the barn and the germ, so all you are left with are the carbs and proteins from the endosperm. High surface area of the flour causes very rapid release of sugar in your blood when you eat stuff made from white flour. Insulin levels have to go up to correct this sugar surge. Done a lot of times, this can lead to insulin resistance and Type II diabetes. You can add back vitamins and minerals and feel good about it, but the problem of sugar over time is the one we need to worry about.

Next time, go for whole grain bread instead of the white bread. I know it tastes so good, and it is ok to consume it in moderation; but over eating baked foods made from the so called enriched white flour is a long term health risk.

Photo Sources:
White Bread – PhotoExpress
Whole Grain Kernel – Wikimedia Commons
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

It should not come as a surprise to anyone that we are addicted to sugar! What might surprise you though is just how much added sugar we Americans consume every day. A whopping 22 teaspoons according to the news I covered in last week’s Five for Fridays. That comes to about 355 calories or nearly 20% of the recommended 2000 daily calories. Most of this added sugar comes from regular soft drinks, soda, candy and desserts such as cakes, cookies and pies. Consuming this much added sugar is really not necessary because it does not provide any added nutritional value, just empty calories.

It is true that there is no clear link between added sugar, weight gain and obesity. But common sense tells us that if we consume more calories than we can spend by physical activity and exercise, those extra calories will add up. Excessive sugar can also result in insulin resistance leading to Type 2 diabetes. In short, too much sugar is not good in the long run no matter how you look at it.

I think that it is important to tame your child’s sweet tooth by keeping a close eye on it early on. All children love sweet treats, some more than others. At times you may be tempted to give in and just accept that your child might be hardwired for a sweet tooth. But that is no reason for a child to be introduced to soda at a young age. In my opinion, that can count for child abuse! I can live with children enjoying desserts and candy in moderation, but when it comes to soda, I have to draw the line!

I have written about how to manage daily sugar for your child in the past. Recently I posed this question to some of my Twitter followers for their tips. Here is some of what I heard back.

@notdiyheather tweeted about how she does not keep sugar drinks and snacks at home:

She also tries to teach her child that sugary treats are for special occasions and prefers water over juice:

Dr. Taffy Wagner @moneyinmarriage, a mom of twins, has a little more strict approach to managing sugar:

@TheMommyChef suggested that you make your own homemade sweet treats with natural sugars and reduce the amount:

@mamahall offered an interesting formula to control how much candy the children get:

She also suggested to dilute sugary drinks with water when giving them to children on special occasions:

Registered Dietitian @MiltonStokes cautioned against too much control:

Bottom line: it is important to put some boundaries but not too many. I should add that there should not be a different set of rule for adults. As a parent, you have to be a role model and practice what you preach. We don’t drink soda in our household or while eating out – period.

What are your rules and tips for managing sugar for your child? Please leave a comment, I would love to hear from you!

Photo source – GlamourFood by suiker on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

The theme for this year’s World Diabetes Day was Diabetes in Children and Adolescents. That is exactly what caught my attention.

The World Diabetes Day recognizes the global scale of the diabetes epidemic. Organized each year on November 14 by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organization, this day is also the official United Nations World Health Day. One of the cool things about this campaign is that hundreds of well-known monuments all across the world are lit in blue on this day, which is also the color of the World Diabetes Day logo. The pictures of the more than 1000 monuments that were lit this year are simply breathtaking. I am posting a few of my favorites; for the complete list, go to World Diabetes Day gallery.

Here are few facts I did not know:

1. November 14 is the birthday of Frederick Banting, a Canadian medical scientist, who discovered insulin in 1921. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923 for his achievement.
2. It is well-known that more than 250 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. What is less known is the fact that the type 1 diabetes is rapidly increasing in pre-school children at 5% annually. Unfortunately, it is not well-understood and there is no way to prevent it.
3. Type 2 diabetes is now reported in children as young as 8 years old. According to the IDF:“Global studies have shown that type 2 diabetes can be prevented by enabling individuals to lose 7-10% of their body weight, and by increasing their physical activity to a modest level“. Think about this for a moment – this disease is totally preventable! It is all about nutrition and lifestyle.

There are other scary statistics, but I don’t want to go into that. You can get a lot of information from CDC’s website. For now, I just want to enjoy these beautiful pictures! You can also find them on Flickr.

Niagara-Falls - by Screechydialup	Roman Temple, Evora, Portugal - by international diabetes federation	PB111166 London Eye - by mike.felton
Four Freedoms Monument Evansville IN USA - by international diabetes federation	Great Buddah of Kotokuin Kanagawa Japan - by international diabetes federation	European Parlement Strasbourg - by patrick_wdd_france
Sydney Opera House - by international diabetes federation	Bosphorus Bridge Istanbul - by international diabetes federation	PB091135 Shell WDD 14 Nov - by mike.felton