As I was walking around the Union Square farmers market last week, I was enjoying the beautiful pumpkins, gourds, sunflowers and apples that were so gorgeously presented at the stands. It always gets me into the mood for Fall.
Walking around town I am seeing a lot of signs advertising pumpkin-flavored drinks and foods. I love everything pumpkin, so these advertisements jump out at me: Pumpkin muffins, bread, cookies, mash, pies, coffee, smoothies and chai lattes flavored with pumpkin. Your initial notion might be - just as mine used to be - pumpkin is healthy and therefore adding it to these otherwise unhealthy foods will make them better. That's not too far off because pumpkin offers quite a few health benefits: high in fiber, beta-carotene, and tryptophan, which balances your mood, high in potassium and Vitamin C. However, the reality is quite a bit different and so I thought I'd enlighten on the fact that these 'treat's do a lot more damage to your health than good.
I picked three pumpkin-flavored foods to illustrate just how bad they really are.
I walked by Jamba Juice and saw this standup advert for the Pumpkin Smash Smoothie. Looks great, doesn't it? Here's the reality:
If you order the 'original' size, you're getting 550 calories, 118 grams of carbs (that's how many I need in a day to stay in fat burning mode!!!!), 107 grams of sugar (that's 27 teaspoons of sugar!) and 14 grams of protein.
The fact that these drinks don't have fat is actually bad because fat would at least slow the absorption of sugar into your blood stream.
The "Make It Light" version contains 360 calories, 77 grams of carbs, of which 70 grams are sugar, and 11 grams of protein. Their slogan: "All the yum with 1/3 fewer calories, carbs and sugar! Pumpkin Pie's Fitter, Cooler Cousin".
THE TRUTH: Great slogan, but a total lie. The drink makes you fat, sluggish, creates massive inflammation from all the sugar, makes you bloated from the amount of soy you're getting, and the sugar can cause some severe hangover feelings once your blood sugar has come down from its massive spike.
Soy milk is almost always from genetically modified soy beans, one of the cheapest ingredients used in smoothies, contains no fiber and so many calories that you would have to run for 6 hours to work it off.
Let's compare that to a slice of pumpkin pie from Trader Joe's: 320 calories, 21 grams of carbs, 18 grams of sugar and 4 grams of protein. You could actually eat 6 slices of pie to match the sugar content of the 'original' sized drink from Jamba Juice!
Then, I passed Argo Tea, which is known for their variety of tasty tea blends and drinks. They also advertised a Fall drink: Pumpkin Chai.
One medium drink has 192 calories, 0 grams of fat, 7 grams of protein, 41grams of carbs, of which all are from sugar - that's 10 teaspoons of sugar!
Again, you could eat 2 slices of pie to get the fill of sugar in this drink.
You might make your afternoon pit stop at Starbucks, the master of offering Fall favorites. Their pumpkin bread contains 390 calories (takes you about 40 minutes of running to burn off), 14 grams of fat, 61 grams of carbs (that's about half of what you would need to stay in fat burning mode as a 150 lbs woman), 38 grams of sugar (10 teaspoons), and 6 grams of protein. I won't even discuss the ingredients, but you get my point. Sugar, fat and crappy ingredients won't make for much Fall enjoyment once you've downed that thing.
In case you don't remember my previous rampages on sugar. Here are just a few things you want to remember next time you think you're doing yourself something good:
Eating about 100 grams of carbs from glucose, fructose, sucrose, honey or juice can reduce your white blood cell's ability to fight microorganisms. Within 30 minutes of eating sugar your immunity is decreased by up to 5 hours. Your white blood cells can be reduced by 50% in their ability to fight disease.
Sugar will spike and then lower your blood sugar levels quickly, leaving you tired, fatigued, moody and with sugar cravings all over again.
Sugar can cause breakouts/acne and flareups in skin issues such as psoriasis and eczema
Sugar slows down your digestion
Sugar ages you as it creates inflammation in your body (by promoting insulin release, which causes inflammation in your arteries).
Do you want wrinkles early? Sugar makes collagen (the tissue that keeps your skin supple and elastic) hard and once stiff, wrinkles appear.
Sugar causes cravings for more. Who wants to be on a constant sugar rollercoaster?
Sugar causes fat storage. When you eat sugar your body makes insulin, which tells your body to store fat.
Sugar can change your mood. Studies have shown that people with anxiety and depression improve when cutting out sugar and caffeine.
What's the alternative when a pumpkin craving strikes? Make your own, using organic canned pumpkin. Here are my 4 favorite fat-burning pumpkin recipes:
High-protein pumpkin pancakes
High-protein pumpkin yogurt
Pumpkin NutriBullet Smoothie
Ariane's Amazing Protein Pumpkin Shake
Enjoy Fall and keep yourself healthy!
Walking around town I am seeing a lot of signs advertising pumpkin-flavored drinks and foods. I love everything pumpkin, so these advertisements jump out at me: Pumpkin muffins, bread, cookies, mash, pies, coffee, smoothies and chai lattes flavored with pumpkin. Your initial notion might be - just as mine used to be - pumpkin is healthy and therefore adding it to these otherwise unhealthy foods will make them better. That's not too far off because pumpkin offers quite a few health benefits: high in fiber, beta-carotene, and tryptophan, which balances your mood, high in potassium and Vitamin C. However, the reality is quite a bit different and so I thought I'd enlighten on the fact that these 'treat's do a lot more damage to your health than good.
I picked three pumpkin-flavored foods to illustrate just how bad they really are.
I walked by Jamba Juice and saw this standup advert for the Pumpkin Smash Smoothie. Looks great, doesn't it? Here's the reality:
Calories for 16 ounces: 390 (the average 150 lb woman would have to run for about 40 minutes to burn that off)
Fat: 0 grams
Carbs: 83 grams, of which 75 grams are sugar (that's 19 teaspoons of sugar!)
Protein: 10 grams
If you order the 'original' size, you're getting 550 calories, 118 grams of carbs (that's how many I need in a day to stay in fat burning mode!!!!), 107 grams of sugar (that's 27 teaspoons of sugar!) and 14 grams of protein.
The fact that these drinks don't have fat is actually bad because fat would at least slow the absorption of sugar into your blood stream.
The "Make It Light" version contains 360 calories, 77 grams of carbs, of which 70 grams are sugar, and 11 grams of protein. Their slogan: "All the yum with 1/3 fewer calories, carbs and sugar! Pumpkin Pie's Fitter, Cooler Cousin".
THE TRUTH: Great slogan, but a total lie. The drink makes you fat, sluggish, creates massive inflammation from all the sugar, makes you bloated from the amount of soy you're getting, and the sugar can cause some severe hangover feelings once your blood sugar has come down from its massive spike.
Soy milk is almost always from genetically modified soy beans, one of the cheapest ingredients used in smoothies, contains no fiber and so many calories that you would have to run for 6 hours to work it off.
Let's compare that to a slice of pumpkin pie from Trader Joe's: 320 calories, 21 grams of carbs, 18 grams of sugar and 4 grams of protein. You could actually eat 6 slices of pie to match the sugar content of the 'original' sized drink from Jamba Juice!
Then, I passed Argo Tea, which is known for their variety of tasty tea blends and drinks. They also advertised a Fall drink: Pumpkin Chai.
One medium drink has 192 calories, 0 grams of fat, 7 grams of protein, 41grams of carbs, of which all are from sugar - that's 10 teaspoons of sugar!
Again, you could eat 2 slices of pie to get the fill of sugar in this drink.
You might make your afternoon pit stop at Starbucks, the master of offering Fall favorites. Their pumpkin bread contains 390 calories (takes you about 40 minutes of running to burn off), 14 grams of fat, 61 grams of carbs (that's about half of what you would need to stay in fat burning mode as a 150 lbs woman), 38 grams of sugar (10 teaspoons), and 6 grams of protein. I won't even discuss the ingredients, but you get my point. Sugar, fat and crappy ingredients won't make for much Fall enjoyment once you've downed that thing.
In case you don't remember my previous rampages on sugar. Here are just a few things you want to remember next time you think you're doing yourself something good:
What's the alternative when a pumpkin craving strikes? Make your own, using organic canned pumpkin. Here are my 4 favorite fat-burning pumpkin recipes:
High-protein pumpkin pancakes
High-protein pumpkin yogurt
Pumpkin NutriBullet Smoothie
Ariane's Amazing Protein Pumpkin Shake
Enjoy Fall and keep yourself healthy!
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