Stocking the Silver Cloud Diet Pantry
Getting ready to realize your New Year’s Resolution of a healthier life, a leaner body, and a shot at a longer life.
Your doctor may prescribe a sugar-free diet for you for several health conditions. Metabolic syndrome, diabetes type I and II, and prediabetes all respond well to a sugar-free diet.
A diagnosis of one of these life threatening disorders is quite alarming both to the patient and the care givers and even though most everyone agrees they will do everything to help themselves get better, changing the diet is one of the hardest.
Other conditions equally challenging that benefit from a sugar-free regimen include cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity. Cancers, for example, feed on sugars, so it’s best to avoid sugars if you have received a diagnosis of cancer.
Sugars in all their forms have been observed to aggravate asthma, create mood swings, make heart disease worse, grow gallstones, hasten hypertension and precipitate arthritis.
In short, sugar is one of the 3 major causes of degenerative diseases. Whether you are the patient, or the care-giver of a patient whose doctor has advised you to get rid of sugars in the diet, know that everyone in your household will benefit by a major overhaul of the pantry, including a big sugar purge.
First off, become a label reader and understand that sugars are known by a number of names when included in food products, so your first challenge is learning to recognize sugar in all its disguises.
Second, go through your pantry, freezer, and cabinets and box up all the products that are sugary and get them out of the house.
A sugar habit is a hard one to break and the first thing you must do is remove the temptation.
Don’t just look at the cookies and cakes, but also understand that sugar hides in everything from soups to ketchup in our modern world.
In fact, the use of sugar has skyrocketed in the past 20 years until the normal amount of sugar eaten – in all its forms – has risen from 26 pounds per year to a heart-stopping 135 pounds. When you consider that in the nineteenth century, average consumption was about 5 pounds, you can begin to understand the health problems this excessive consumption has caused.
Where is all this sugar, you ask? It’s in prepared foods, soft drinks, breakfast cereals, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce. You name it. If it was manufactured the chances that the flavor has been pumped up with sugar are great.
So after you’ve cleared out your cupboards, what can you stock your pantry with and stay on your doctor’s recommended sugar-free diet.
For your sweet tooth:
Fresh fruit
Nuts and seeds (try shelling pistachios)
Sugar-free popsicles and fudgsicles
Sugar-free jello
Artificial sweeteners (more on those later)
Peanut butter
Sugar-free jams and spreadable fruits (Polaner is good)
Sugar-free ice creams and ice cream bars
For quick meals
Soups and broths (read labels to avoid hidden sugars)
Canned beans
Pasta (for carb free try Dreamfields) and sugar-free pasta sauces
Fresh vegetables including carrots, celery, lettuces, premade salads in the produce section
Ingredients for recipes
Baking powder and baking soda
Cocoa powder
Cornstarch
Cream of tartar
Flour, all-purpose and whole wheat
Corn meal and polenta
Vinegars: balsamic, red wine, white wine
Worcestershire sauce
Capers
Chiles, dried and fresh
Mushrooms, dried and fresh
Mustards, Dijon, ball park (read the labels)
Mayonnaise (ditto)
Seasonings
Cajun and Chili powders
Cinnamon and cloves
Crushed red pepper flakes
Cumin and curry powders
Ginger
Fresh and dried herbs including: basil, bay leaves, dill, oregano, rosemary, saffron, tarragon and thyme
Garlic, whole, crushed, fresh or dried
Italian seasoning mix
Paprika and poppy seeds
Peppers and specialty salts
Taco seasoning
Fats
Extra virgin olive oil
Coconut and sesame oils
Any cold-pressed nut oils
Butter
Animal fats including the fat on the steak
Dairy
Cottage cheese
Whole organic milk and creams
Yogurts (watch out for hidden sugars. We like Greek)
Cottage cheese
Any full fat cheese of your choice
Large organic eggs
Canned goods
Beans including cannellini, garbanzo, kidney, navy, pinto, black and white
Chicken, vegetable, and beef broth
Tomato sauce and paste
Tomatoes, crushed. Diced and whole
Tuna and salmon packed in water or olive oil
From the freezer
Peas, corn, asparagus, any other whole frozen vegetable
Unsweetened IQF fruits (individually quick frozen)
Unsweetened, all natural fruit juices
This is enough to get you started. As we continue our journey, I’ll teach you lots of great foods, both ready-made and ready for you to make. You will not suffer on this regimen. You will prosper.
