Questions You May Have About Sugars And Protein In Your Diet

I am using honey in my tea and I assume that it is safe to use it. Any thoughts doctor?

No honey. The only honey is your wife!
Although honey is a natural sweetener, there is no nutritional advantage to using honey over sugar. The nutrient content of honey is same as sugar. There is no best sugar. Honey contains 60% fructose, the sweetest of monosaccharides (simple sugars) and 40% sucrose. Table sugar is sucrose (glucose plus fructose). Fructose is sweeter than sucrose. Honey is denser, sweeter and has slightly more carbs than table sugar. Honey has the highest calorie content of all sugars with 65 calories per tablespoon, compared to the 48 calories per tablespoon found in table sugar.

Doctor, Your series is getting better and better. You have discussed carbohydrates, sugars, nuts etc. How about cheese and yogurt? There are different varieties of these and which one you recommend?

Cheese contains almost no carbohydrate, 20-30 percent protein and about 30-40 percent fat. 100 grams of cheese supplies half of our daily Vitamin A needs, most of our Vitamin B12 needs and 20 percent of our folate needs. 100 grams of cheese supplies all our daily calcium needs, nearly 50 percent of our zinc needs, 25 percent of our iodine requirements and 20 percent of our selenium needs. Due to its high fat and low carb content, cheese has a low glycemic index (GI) value. The healthiest types of cheese are those with a lowfat, low sugar content. In general, the harder the cheese, the higher the fat content, with the exception of cream cheese which has a very high fat content. Ideally choose low fat, low sugar cottage cheese or curd cheese.

Fat free cream cheese contains a fat content (lipids) 1.36g/100g and sugar content 0.4g/100g; cottage cheese fat content (lipids) 4.51g/100g, sugar content 0.29g/100g; low fat cottage cheese fat content (lipids) 1.02g/100g, sugar content 2.72g/100g.

Plain yogurt starts out with the same carb count as the milk its made from, but watch the label, as additives can change the number. Also, the bacteria in yogurt eats lactose, so depending upon how long its fermented, the actual carb count can be about 8 gms less per cup. Sugar is present in yogurt because of non fat milk powder (has high concentration of lactose) which is added in order to thicken it . Also the amount of time the yogurt is left to ferment, effects the amount of sugar in it. The longer the yogurt is kept warm, the more lactose the bacteria will dine upon. Lastly, the whey of the yogurt is the part that has the most lactose, so if that is strained, the yogurt becomes more healthy.

Strained yogurts, which include Greek yogurt, dahi, Bulgarian yogurt and yogurt of Lebanon are types of yogurt, which have less sugar and more protein per cup.

I have “gout” and cannot eat nuts as they give me joint pain. What alternate proteins do you suggest?
Animal proteins are higher in purines. Cutting back to smaller portions and using lean meat, white meat, poultry, and pork is good for gout. Even though vegetable proteins, such as legumes, have higher purine content, they do not lead to gout attacks. Kidney beans, lima bean, soya beans, lentils, eggs, and dairy products are good to start with but most beans contain a lot of starch. About 3 to 4 ounces - of fish such as salmon, tuna, halibut, catfish, shellfish - two or three times a week is recommended. Whey protein, peanut butter and tofu from soybean are also good.

I have 2 children and they are studying in school. Do they need sugar to be active and energetic at school?

No sugar is recommended for children. The human tongue has 60 receptors for different tastes. Guess how many receptors are for sugar? Just one. Once the child is exposed to sugar it takes control and leads to addiction. A study on rats was done by giving them Cocaine. They gave rats cocaine and made them addicted to it. Then they gave sugar to the rats, what do you think the rats did. Yes, they gave up cocaine and went after sugar. That’s how addicting sugar is.

Doctor, I stopped using sugar in tea and coffee about 5 years back and I am using “Splenda” as it is advertised that it is made from sugar. Is Splenda recommended? If not, is there any other sugar substitutes that you recommend?

Currently, I would not recommend Splenda routinely. It will be discussed in future articles. I have a patient who started using Splenda. He came back and was concerned because his symptoms of depression had come back. He gave up Splenda and his symptoms improved. He went back on Splenda his symptoms came back. His question was, should I take Splenda and start back on Prozac or give up Splenda and give up Prozac? He gave up Splenda and Prozac.

Are your recommendations on food only for people with diabetes and cardiac problems? Do I need to avoid sugar even if my parents or I are not diabetic?

Eliminating sugar is for everybody. If you eat sugar, you will develop diabetes. If you are diabetic, you cannot control it.