Missy Vital Fitness Question #2

Q: Hi Missy, I'm always trying to cut out carbs and just eat healthy overall. When I'm reading labels, I focus on the carbs on the label but I saw a show on Oprah where Dr Oz said to watch sugars also, your items should have less that 6 grams of sugar. So take for example shopping for cereal was hard. I found Kashi whole grain puffs which has 70 calories, total carbs 15g , dietary fiber 1 and Sugars 0. I thought it was good but do you think it has too many carbs for a low carb diet?

2nd question about milk: 2% or fat free, skim milk or soymilk ??? I was using 2 % and now switch to soymilk. Is one better than the other ?
Gloria

A: Hi Gloria! Those are alll awesome questions. Dr. Oz is great. No doubt. If you get a chance, go on Amazon and buy his book "You On A Diet" used. It's got a lot of really good information in it.(Personally, I don't care for the style it is written in, but good info none-the-less). Buying any processed cereals is difficult when you are watching your sugar/carb intake. The Kashi IS a good one...but my opinion is that you go old school with the old fashioned type of oats, spelt or cream-of-wheat. This way you can add your own sugar. Agave nectar is the best (lowest in sugar, tastes great). Or 1/2 tsp (or less) of regular sugar (or brown), or some raisins or dried berries. If you don't have the time to make a single serving every morning, make a 5 servings for each day of the week and re-heat it in the morning. Remember that the carbohydrate amount in one serving of processed cereal is way more than one serving of oats or the like.

Begin tangent: I know that eating oats vs. eating a processed cereal (low fat or other) is hard to do. Let's face it, the processed stuff just tastes better! However, we are doing our bodies a huge injustice by putting all those chemicals/additives in it. Not to mention, we, as an entire culture, have ruined our taste buds! We are so used to the over seasoned burgers and fries to the over sweetened cereals and snacks, that we don't appreciate the real flavors of grains and produce. We need to adjust our taste buds, and reprogram our minds to suit! End tangent.

Skim is probably your best option mostly because it is the lowest fat. However not much different when it comes to the sugar content. Use portion control with all dairy products. A lot of people drink soy milk because they are either lactose intolerant, they are hard core vegetarian, or they are going through menopause (the phyto-estrogens are used as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy). I drink it because it tastes good to me, has p.estrogens (no, I'm not going through "the change" yet) and because I don't eat dairy everyday. Remember that soy milk is only 2% calcium, to cow's milk 30%. I have to be sure to eat veggies high in calcium from day to day to make up for the dairy calcium I don't get. The sugar content in soy milk is usually low ( lower than milk). Be sure to read your ingredient label because most of the time the sugar source in sly milk is fake (aspartame, carageenan and/or others). Stay far away from fake sugar! I can not stress that enough!!!

I really hope this is helpful to you. If you have further questions on these topics or others, don't hesitate to post.