Over the decades as a researcher and teacher, I’ve come to realize that all-natural foods have benefits. With this said, I demonized all the white foods for several decades including white rice, white flour and white sugar.
I indulged in these white substances from time to time, but used to feel they had no healthful properties. As we come to the holiday season where at least two of these foods can be on your relative’s tables, I thought I would talk about their merits that I discovered in recent years.
I now often surprise people in classes when I speak about how important it is to get enough calories. I explain how the requirements for the number of calories needed for good health are under estimated by even government organizations.
When people are studied who maintain a healthy steady weight, it is estimated that women after 25 eat 2500 calories and men eat at least 3000 calories. Those under 25 as well as pregnant and nursing women need much more. If physical activity is added even more is needed.
Many health problems arise from not getting enough calories. These range from digestive to sexual reproductive issues, to brain and emotional imbalances and other serious health issues. Due to our national obsession with thinness people can’t believe that we need to eat as much as we should.
This is where the white stuff has a great benefit. White flour, white rice and white sugar (as well as healthier versions such as organic cane juice and organic cane sugar) are very easy to digest sources of energy and calories. These are excellent for people who have compromised digestion such as the elderly, those who are sick and going through medical treatment, people who have been restricting their diet excessively and people who require more calories.
As beneficial sources of easy to digest energy; white flour, white rice and sugar are best as part of a nutritious overall diet including a balance of natural vegetable and animal products or in general what I call a Full Spectrum Macrobiotic Diet Approach.
A balanced diet includes whole grains, cooked and some raw vegetables, adequate concentrated proteins from animal sources or protein supplements, natural vegetable and animal fats, and an array of vitamins and minerals from a variety of vegetable and animal food sources.
One caution that I recommend in incorporating these foods is that most of the time I suggest one eat organic unbleached and non-fortified white flour, organic white rice and a variety of natural sugars such as raw honey, maple syrup, and unrefined cane juice. Commercial white flour is bleached with bromate and fortified with iron. I don’t think it is a problem to eat it occasionally at restaurants, but the regular use of bromated flour can hurt the thyroid, a gland very important for your metabolism. Excessive iron from fortified wheat can cause multiple problems if you have too much.
White sugar has been blamed for a host of problems. Many of them have been exaggerated. It has been blamed for cancer, diabetes, addictions, immune disorders and more. I believe that any link to these problems is related to a diet extremely high in sugar and lacking essential nutritious foods. These are eating patterns with high sugar amounts that displace the desire for other necessary nutritious foods.
It is best to use natural sources of sugars for the most part because of how refined sugar is processed with chemicals. The occasional addition of refined sugar to one’s wholesome diet will not create the catastrophic problems some profess that unnecessarily frighten people.
White flour, white rice and natural sugars can be a great addition to a healthy diet in order to supply adequate energy. You might decide to eat these more regularly if you have been undereating calories or occasionally. You might say that this article is just in time for the holidays.
The science:
https://edinstitute.org/paper/2012/11/23/phases-of-recovery-from-an-eating-disorder-part-4?rq=phases%20of%20recovery%204
I indulged in these white substances from time to time, but used to feel they had no healthful properties. As we come to the holiday season where at least two of these foods can be on your relative’s tables, I thought I would talk about their merits that I discovered in recent years.
I now often surprise people in classes when I speak about how important it is to get enough calories. I explain how the requirements for the number of calories needed for good health are under estimated by even government organizations.
When people are studied who maintain a healthy steady weight, it is estimated that women after 25 eat 2500 calories and men eat at least 3000 calories. Those under 25 as well as pregnant and nursing women need much more. If physical activity is added even more is needed.
Many health problems arise from not getting enough calories. These range from digestive to sexual reproductive issues, to brain and emotional imbalances and other serious health issues. Due to our national obsession with thinness people can’t believe that we need to eat as much as we should.
This is where the white stuff has a great benefit. White flour, white rice and white sugar (as well as healthier versions such as organic cane juice and organic cane sugar) are very easy to digest sources of energy and calories. These are excellent for people who have compromised digestion such as the elderly, those who are sick and going through medical treatment, people who have been restricting their diet excessively and people who require more calories.
As beneficial sources of easy to digest energy; white flour, white rice and sugar are best as part of a nutritious overall diet including a balance of natural vegetable and animal products or in general what I call a Full Spectrum Macrobiotic Diet Approach.
A balanced diet includes whole grains, cooked and some raw vegetables, adequate concentrated proteins from animal sources or protein supplements, natural vegetable and animal fats, and an array of vitamins and minerals from a variety of vegetable and animal food sources.
One caution that I recommend in incorporating these foods is that most of the time I suggest one eat organic unbleached and non-fortified white flour, organic white rice and a variety of natural sugars such as raw honey, maple syrup, and unrefined cane juice. Commercial white flour is bleached with bromate and fortified with iron. I don’t think it is a problem to eat it occasionally at restaurants, but the regular use of bromated flour can hurt the thyroid, a gland very important for your metabolism. Excessive iron from fortified wheat can cause multiple problems if you have too much.
White sugar has been blamed for a host of problems. Many of them have been exaggerated. It has been blamed for cancer, diabetes, addictions, immune disorders and more. I believe that any link to these problems is related to a diet extremely high in sugar and lacking essential nutritious foods. These are eating patterns with high sugar amounts that displace the desire for other necessary nutritious foods.
It is best to use natural sources of sugars for the most part because of how refined sugar is processed with chemicals. The occasional addition of refined sugar to one’s wholesome diet will not create the catastrophic problems some profess that unnecessarily frighten people.
White flour, white rice and natural sugars can be a great addition to a healthy diet in order to supply adequate energy. You might decide to eat these more regularly if you have been undereating calories or occasionally. You might say that this article is just in time for the holidays.
The science:
https://edinstitute.org/paper/2012/11/23/phases-of-recovery-from-an-eating-disorder-part-4?rq=phases%20of%20recovery%204
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