Sweeteners and low fat foods why do we bother?

 I really feel sorry for people wanting to loose weight but find it a struggle to do so.  It is a real mind field as to what they can eat and what not to eat especially when there are so many adverts bombarding us to eat low-calorie products and sweeteners that help to lose weight. 

 As a nutritional therapist we understand all the tricks of the trade out there and one of my pet hates are LOW FAT FOODS AND DRINKS and SWEETENERS.  Why you ask….well low fat foods are just that – low in fat – these foods still need to taste great as generally fats add flavour.  They need to get the flavour from somewhere else and that is from sugar.  Generally speaking sugars convert to fat inside the body especially when not used up by doing exercise.  So stay away from these low fat foods as they do the same as a full food.  On the other hand sweeteners like Aspartame encourage a sweet tooth and more importantly place a heavy strain on the liver.  When looking for a sweetener to sweeten food then try using a low GI /GL product like Xylitol or Agava syrup as they don’t cause a sudden spike of sugars in the blood stream. 

Rather just eat unprocessed, unrefined foods and always read the ingredients on the labels….if there are words that don’t sound like food products then it isn’t so avoid the product altogether.  It’s that simple!