Never believe what you read...

So, recently there has been quite a fuss about the fact that we have been misinformed for years about the "dangers" of eggs...and salt.  I was not surprised by these two facts...I had read and been told for years that sodium does not raise our blood pressure (except for the people in the world who are sensitive to sodium) and that salt is an important part of our diets because our bodies need it for so many functions. My family also never bought into the thought that eggs are bad for you...my step dad is a "poultry doctor" after all!!!!

These two things however, are proof of the misinformation that we are fed all the time in our society.  We were told for years that margarine was "heart healthy", only to have it proven that all the trans-fats in margarine were, in fact, clogging our arteries!!!  I'm sure we could all think of numerous "healthy recommendations" we've heard through our lives that have been proven wrong.  I truly think the next "ooops" the FDA will be forced to admit will be artificial sweeteners.  This habit has been one of the mindsets that have been most difficult to over come.  I used these sweeteners in my coffee, oatmeal, baking, sprinkled it on my pancakes and used the jelly, jello, pudding, cake mixes, canned fruit, powdered drinks and cookies that contained it....not to mention my diet soda addiction!!  I didn't throw all that stuff away, but I used up what I could, donated things that were unopened and threw away the things that I knew I couldn't use up.  Changing my thoughts and habits about sweeteners has been one of the most difficult things to do.  Now...don't get me wrong...I love real maple syrup and honey...so it's not the flavor that I have difficulty with, it is the habit.  However, the more I read about these sweeteners, the easier it got to get out of the habit.  One shocking fact, most of these sweeteners are on the "potential carcinogen" list...and the FDA admits that they truly have no idea how much (if any) of these sweeteners are safe.  They each have a maximum recommended amount to consume each day...but there really hasn't been enough research to determine what is safe and what's not.  It's also interesting to know that most of the companies who "discovered" the sweeteners were working on some other chemical compound when they tasted what they were making (would hate to be that guy!!!) and found them to be sweet.  YUCK!!! 
Now...onto the point that hit closest to home...a very simple article about our bodies insulin response.  For anyone who knows anything about how our bodies work, this should really be a no brainer...but I never thought about it before reading this article.  To start, I think we are all aware that our body releases insulin (a hormone that regulates the storage of glycogen) is released in response to our ingestion of food.  So think about it, we eat food made with these sweeteners, our taste buds send a message to our brain "The sugar is coming!!  The sugar is coming!!".  This in fact triggers our liver to get storing the available sugar with the intention of it being replaced by the sugar we are eating and then...oooopss....no sugar available.  What happens then???  Our circulating blood sugar drops, our most readily available energy source, and what happens to our body??  Our brain gets the message that we need more energy...hence, we feel hungry.  Now, it's not quite that simple...but that's the basic principle. 

So all the talk of breakfast makes me want to share a recipe that is near and dear to my heart!  This is a variation on my grandma's recipe for what we referred to as "big pancakes", but the rest of the world calls a crepe!  We ate them with syrup and butter, but can easily be stuffed with fruit and whipped cream!!  Because they are made with whole wheat, they aren't quite as light and fluffy as your regular crepe, but delicious none the less!!

Grandma's Whole Wheat Crepes "Big Pancakes"

4 eggs
1/2 t salt
1 c whole wheat flour
1T ground flax seed
2 c milk

Mix all together in a blender.  Pour a thin layer in a heated, large skillet oiled skillet. Cook until batter begins to brown on the edge & flip.  Cook for another minute or so, remove from pan.  Serve warm. 

You could make a delicious filling with Greek yogurt, honey and cinnamon...you could even mix in a couple tablespoons of cream cheese to the yogurt mixture and it would be a cream cheese type filling.  Top with some fresh berries, wrap it up and you have a super easy, delicious breakfast!!  Also spreading with butter and fresh maple syrup or a raw sugar and cinnamon sprinkle is pretty darn good too!!!!


Our bodies are fine tuned machines...requiring everything to run with minimal confines...if we vary from these, we become quite sick and may even die...so it makes sense to think that throwing off portions of our natural bodily systematic functions would effect our health. Just another reason to eat foods in it's most natural forms!!!