DH Experiment Over

In an attempt to win the award of "Least Popular Blog Post", I'm going to demonstrate an experiment.

Let's play "Food Showdown" Spark style.

Which is healthier?

Round #1:

Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt versus a Snickers Bar



Winner: It's a tossup!

Sure, Yoplait is lower fat (if you care about that) and calories weighing in at 1.5g fat and 170 calories. A Snickers bar is a hefty 11g fat and 266 calories.

But wait...

Yoplait has 27g sugar and Snickers has 28g.

The probiotics aren't going to eat your bodyfat. Sorry.

Round #2:

Which is healthier?

Snickers bar versus Costco low-fat frozen yogurt



Winner: Snickers!

Say what?

A 2oz Snickers bar has 266 calories and 28g sugar. A full container of Costco frozen yogurt is 390 calories and 53g sugar.

Better off with the Snickers, unless you're sharing with a friend. Frozen yogurt is a dessert, just like ice cream. Just like cake.

Round #3

Which is healthier?

100g Whole Grain Bread versus 100g Avocado?



Winner: Avocado!

Weight by weight, avocado is a winner. 100g of Whole Grain bread has 234 calories, 75mg potassium, 24mcg folate, 0 vitamin A, 0 vitamin C, 0 beta carotene and 2.5g fiber. 100g of an Avocado has 160 calories, 485mg potassium, 81mcg folate, 146mg vitamin A, 10mg vitamin C and 6.7g fiber .

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What's got me fired up?

DH and I went out today to get groceries and look for a new apartment. We had a cookie at one of the apartments, which was fine. It's a Friday treat. I allow myself one treat a week. Usually I prefer something healthier like a sweet potato, but I haven't had a sweet treat in almost 4 weeks. DH has one too. Alright, we're good.

We go shopping at Costco and load up on tons of healthy foods: halibut, sockeye salmon, no-nitrate turkey breast, avocados, lettuce, blackberries, tomatoes, mixed nuts, bok choy, etc, etc.

We get to the end of the checkout and he orders a frozen yogurt.

Uhhh...what?

He says he's hungry and it's something to tide him over.



I asked him how that was going to work. He said, "It's yogurt".

Yogurt = great! I make my own yogurt. I love yogurt. I eat lots of yogurt.

Yogurt churned with 53g of sugar is a recipe for diabetes. Low fat yogurt isn't a bubble shield from the insulin load.

I predicted within an hour, he'd be sleepy.

Within 30 minutes, he was yawning in the car.

It reminded me of posts on the message boards where people say the 'good outweighs the bad' concerning the sugar in yogurt.

If Snickers added probiotics, would it be as 'healthy' as sugar yogurt?

This is why I learned to make my own yogurt. Processed food yogurts are desserts, not breakfast.

With my diet, I've chosen to eat more avocados and less grains. I used to forgo avocados because of the fat content, but I was short changing myself on all the nutrition it packed. It's nature's multivitamin.

Go to your kitchen and weigh 53g sugar. Eating that much sugar on a regular basis is what gives people non alcoholic fatty liver disease. That is what causes atherosclerosis. That is what causes metabolic syndrome.

I was pretty sure it was going to end this way. My DH's 'diet experiment' is over. It put me in an uncomfortable position of dietary police, which I don't want to be. I don't want him eating pizzas and sugary frozen treats, then saying the diet doesn't work.

His younger brother has already been diagnosed with diabetes. He isn't even 40 yet.

Enjoy a treat in 'moderation'. Like I said, I had a cookie today. I would have passed on an Oreo or Chips Ahoy, but this was something special. It was a white-chocolate cranberry cookie. I enjoyed it. My first baked sweet treat in almost a month.

Pretending that the sugary yogurt or frozen yogurt is better than a Snickers bar is delusional. Fear of fats preventing eating avocados is tragic.

That type of thinking at one time prevented me from making any progress, too.