In the Press

As some of you may know, I have been awarded a grant from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in Belgium to present my research at the 21st World Diabetes Congress to be held in Dubai (UAE) in December. I am so privileged to be 1 of 100 in the world to receive this grant that covers my travel, accommodation and registration to present my research. The session I will be presenting in is entitled:
"Modeling Diabetes and Obesity Through Animals" and will be presenting research along side people from Germany, China, Algeria and Australia.

I know I will benefit greatly from this conference and it is a wonderful learning opportunity for me. A great thank you to everyone who has helped me achieve this.
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06 Muffins are code name for cake

I wonder how many people actually realise this: that muffins are just code name for cake?




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Have you ever realised that to make muffins and cake, you use the same ingredients? You basically pour cake batter into a muffin mould, change the name and voila! We believe by some twisted logic, that muffins are in fact, better for us than cake. Even more astonishing is that it has become quite the trend to have a cup of coffee and a muffin as a substitute for a healthy breakfast. Yet, would you really eat a piece of cake for breakfast??

For my experiment to see exactly what the difference is (if any), I googled: "Chocolate cake recipe", and "Chocolate muffin recipe",. I randomly selected 2 recipes each.

Then, I added all the ingredients into a calorie analyser. After putting in all the ingredients, the software calculates the total calorie content, and then you select how many servings this makes. So, if it makes 12, it divides the total calorie number by 12, including all the other parameters like carbohydrates, protein, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and fibre. I then standardized this so that each serving size is per 100g.

The results are amazing!

Common ingredients for cake and muffins:

Sugar

Butter/Oil

Flour

Raising agent

Egg

The ratios vary slightly, but not much. The only difference is you may make 12 muffins or 1 cake that gives 8-12 slices. In fact I often use cake recipes for muffins. But here are the results anyway:

The first recipe used chocolate chips as opposed to cocoa. If you compare the means (the average) we get:

Assuming no icing on either:

Average chocolate muffin: 393 calories

Average chocolate cake: 334 calories

I wonder if it is psychological that we do not associate the same meaning of "muffin" with "cake"? I know I don't. If everytime you had to order a muffin, and call it "cake", do you think you would think twice before eating it? I think yes. I know I would. Wikipedia (yes we know especially in science is not the most reliable source), but nonetheless, defines "muffins" as an American-English term that are "somewhat like small cakes or cupcakes in shape". Aha. Cupcake. Cake. Mmm. Even still, I don't think we make the same association of "cupcake" with "cake". 

The term "muffin-top" refers to the "spilling over" jeans syndrome that seems to be spreading world wide:

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Besides the fact that muffins look totally desirable and topple over the sides of the case does not mean that we should replicate this or consider this desirable. As the saying goes, you are what you eat - too many muffins and you may start looking like one!

Personally I don't think anyone should ever be eating muffins for breakfast - not even so called health muffins. Yes, they may substitute all purpose flour for wholewheat flour and contain some nuts and fruit, but the chances are, they still aren't very healthy for you and full of sugar. If you wouldn't eat cake as a snack, don't eat muffins as a snack.

I think our society has lost touch on what a "treat" is and reward ourselves for things that really aren't "reward-worthy". Just because you went to gym does not mean that should be considered "reward-worthy". That should be considered "part of daily life". I truly believe when you really appreciate things as "reward/special", you will really treasure eating that delicacy. I remember growing up, my mother never ever kept sweets, chocolate, crisps or biscuits in the house - that was a real treat. One vivid memory I have is being 4 years old and receiving 2 squares of chocolate and thinking it was like Christmas! Such a treat, and remember being told to "Enjoy it, and eat it slowly." Nowadays, we could eat 2 squares of chocolate and not even remember putting it in our mouths! Mindless eating is a global pandemic that needs to be stopped. 

The art, pleasure and beauty of eating needs to be rekindled and rediscovered. Culture needs to be reignited and celebrated. Has greed really grown to the point where we can eat 2 muffins as a "by-the-by" part of our day and not think of it as a pure bliss? 

Personally, I think we need to all throw out the sweets, biscuits, chocolate, chips, fizzy drinks, breakfast bars, chocolatey cereals etc. from our cupboards. If we placed more emphasis on baking sweet goods:

a) The effort involved would likely reduce the amount of times desired to make them.

b) It is always so much more pleasing to eat something self created. Appreciation to eating is KEY.

Bottom line:

More than changing our eating habits, we need to change our state of mind...

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05 The bread stigma - its not the bread that's making you fat ...then what is?

Bread. That's one of the first things we hear people who go on diet say they are giving up.

It seems to be ingrained in our brains that bread = carbs = BAD = gain weight = FAT.
Yes, even I have believed this. When I was 15, I was training for the Junior World Championships in Acrobatics - I didn't eat bread for a year! I substituted eating sandwiches for lunch with yoghurt and protein shakes.

What I find amazing is some people's refusal to eat bread - yet if they saw it scientifically, they would think twice about their food options! Granted, I do not eat white bread - a) it is not healthy because it is made of refined carbohydrates and offers little fibre and b) I find it gives me bad stomach cramps and I feel bloated. What I am talking about though, is brown bread. The specific brand of bread I eat is "low GI brown seeded bread" by Albany. South Africans will know this is the Albany bread with the yellow trim.

In this very short review I want to compare it to something people seem to consume by the gallon without batting an eyelid of the consequences and - even worse - actually believe it is healthy for them. Just what am I referring to - fruit juice.

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Compare 1 slice brown bread to 1 glass orange juice
By plugging in the nutritional values on the label of brown bread and orange juice we get the following images:

Is it surprising that a slice of bread has fewer calories than orange juice? What is almost amusing is the fact that people avoid bread because it contains carbs - yet it has only 58% of the carbs of a single glass of orange juice! But you will most surely find many dieters opting for a glass of orange juice over bread under the pretense that it is healthy and full of vitamins and minerals. 1 slice of brown bread contains almost 3 times the amount of protein compared to orange juice which is great when you need to ensure you get adequate protein in your diet to maintain muscle and lose fat. Brown bread has almost 6 times the amount of fibre compared to a glass of orange juice.

Fibre has long been associated to aid in weight loss. Fibre is a bulky food that is more difficult to digest than carbohydrates, promoting the feeling of "being full and satisfied" and prolonging the retention of gastric contents. Gastric retention slows down the rate at which nutrients are absorbed, meaning if the nutrients are absorbed slower, you will not feel hungry again as quickly. Consumption of fibre promotes the production of saliva as well as gastric acids and enhances the desire for water, which further serves to enhance satiety and feelings of fullness. Research has shown that patients who add 14g of fibre to their diet will reduce their calorie consumption by 10%.

The effects of sugar can never be downplayed. 1 glass of orange juice contains 21g of sugar, whereas brown bread has 1/10 of that at only 2.2g of sugar. To put this into perspective for you:
4g sugar = 1 teaspoon

1 glass orange juice = 5 teaspoons of sugar
1 slice brown bread = 0.5 teaspoons of sugar

When you're on a diet, you certainly aren't going to eat 5 teaspoons of sugar in one go so why drink a glass of fruit juice as opposed to eating bread? Really doesn't make sense huh?
Also remember my previous article (http://nutritionalbiochem.blogspot.com/2011/08/03-saving-calories-why-this-doesnt-work.html) - the more sugar dumped into your system, the more insulin is secreted to compensate. At high concentrations, insulin activates the enzyme citrate lyase that turns off energy metabolism, and switches on fat generating pathways.

Remember also, your sugar allowance is only 10% of your total calorie consumption. Remembering from my 2nd article (http://nutritionalbiochem.blogspot.com/2011/07/02-its-all-about-label.html), 1g carbohydrate = 4 calories, then 21g sugar = 84 calories.
If you have a 2000 calorie limit, 84 calories of 2000 is 4.2% of 10% limit - so you've almost had half your sugar limit for the ENTIRE day. Doesn't leave you with much room to eat any other carbohydrates, or, more likely, the chances of you exceeding your sugar allowance for the day are almost guaranteed.

Finally, 1 measly glass of fruit juice isn't going to take you far - it won't be long at all, perhaps even minutes before you start feeling hungry again. Eating a slice of bread is far more substantial and far more nutritious - and actually, far better for your diet.
I could go on and on about the negative effects of fruit juice - don't even get me started on fructose (my entire masters thesis!)

What I'm trying to make you aware of, is that the culprit for sabotaging your diet could be a sneaky thing! Many many MANY people will think they are having a healthy boost start to their morning by having a deliciously cold fresh glass of orange juice - oh how innocent-sounding! Poor bread gets all the blame. Bad bread bad! Orange juice is just smiling and laughing...and making you fat.

If I can give any advise, seriously limit your intake of fruit juices. Many people do not realise to make 1 glass of fruit juice requires at least 3-4 pieces of fruit, when realistically, you would never sit and eat 4 oranges in 1 go. If you're on a diet, drink water.
If you really want fruit juice, either, dilute it with water (half glass fruit juice+half glass water) or do what I do: Just drink half a glass or less - on the odd occasion. You will notice many fruit juice labels state per 100ml. That's about 1/3 of a glass.
Its not always about cutting out, its all about moderation.


I decided to add this after publishing: Just so you don't think its orange juice that is worse than bread but all fruit juice, I am adding in the nutritional labels from other juices below:

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