In today’s world there is always a new fad or a new trend in terms of losing weight, or the latest new “diet”. When coaching my clients, I stay away from the word “diet“ and I talk to them about a healthy lifestyle and eating a certain way for the rest of their life.
There are various trends that have come and gone and that still remain today for better or worse. I remember years ago the new “diet“ was a diet that was “low in fat” meaning that the way to lose weight or to stay healthy was to only eat foods that were “low in fat” having little regard for the other ingredients. People flocked to the stores buying only low fat items and made a fundamental mistake. They didn’t read the label and they didn’t realize that many of these items were extremely high in their sugar content.
The result then and now is that millions of people are overworking their bodies with all the excess sugar. In some people their beta cells cannot keep up and continue to produce the necessary insulin our bodies need and are in fact to overworking our beta cells to the point of burn out. This doesn’t just happen with such things as cake and ice cream but it also happens with highly refined carbohydrates foods such like yogurt, granola, pasta, cereal and alcohol. When you eat these foods it’s signals to your body to make more insulin. Your beta cells continue to work harder and produce more insulin. At the extreme end of this you can get beta cell burn out which is another way of saying pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes. This can happen to anyone and has a lot to do with your food choices.
A prime example that comes to mind Is yogurt. Years ago and even today people will purchase yogurt thinking it’s a “healthy” food choice. When one takes a closer look at the label of many of the yogurt brands out there the number of grams of sugar are astonishingly high. In some cases the grams of sugar in a serving are higher than those in most chocolate bars. I always advocate to people that when buying a product no matter what the product is to simply read the label. In other words read the fine print and not just the words that say “low-fat” “clean” “organic” “natural” or “healthy”. This is known as marketing. Additionally, stick to foods that come from the ground or grow on trees. In other word, stick to eating lots of fruit and vegetables and cut down on purchasing packaged items especially ones with high sugar content.
I have taken steps in my own home to advocate a low sugar lifestyle. That doesn’t mean that there are not days that we don’t celebrate birthdays and have birthday cake, special treats or a glass of wine but we are all mindful of our sugar intake on a daily basis. You do not have to sacrifice taste by changing things up to lessen or eliminate the sugar content.
After converting many recipes and creating new ones, I am happy to say that I have not sacrificed taste and prefer the end result. A perfect example is my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. Instead of using white flour, sugar and canola oil I now use Almond or Hazelnut Flour, Fibre Boost (from my own website) 70-85% chocolate chips and coconut oil. The result is delicious. Check out my recipe below and if you want to know more about how to get the Fibre Boost send me a DM on Instagram @eliseteitler
Elise’s Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
2 mashed bananas
1 organic egg
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 pinches of himalayian sea salt
1. 5 cups of Almond flour or Hazelnut flour
1/2 cup Arbonne Essentials Daily Fibre Boost
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips 70% or greater
Mix the mashed banana with the wet ingredients then add the flour, salt , baking soda and then mix in slowly the Fibre Boost. Lastly, add the chocolate chips. Pour into a parchment lined loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees 45- 50 minutes
