Even for the health conscious, eating natural foods can be a challenge. It’s easy to become ambivalent and unaware of how easy it is to consume at least one or two varieties of the “5 White Devils” in every meal – white sugar, white flour, white salt, “white” oil (oil with the nutrients stripped out) and white rice. These ingredients have been through the industrial refining process, broken down from its natural colour and bleached, and thus they are considered “nutritional silent poisons” by some nutritionists and doctors. They are the first hurdle in your weight-loss program, or in achieving a healthy lifestyle.
In order to raise awareness of the white devils and additionally, to show the importance of nutritional supplements to our health, Brenda Rogers, Network Development Manager for USANA Australia and New Zealand, has initiated an interesting but challenging food experiment for USANA Australia and New Zealand staff – To avoid the white devils for an entire week. Some of our USANA staff has already put their hands up for this challenge!
We would like to invite you to join us, make this an unforgettable experience as part of your New Year Health Resolution.
So what will you need to do each day during this week?
- Set up a start date and let the experiment run for a week
- Write down what you eat and drink, don’t worry about recording the quantity.
- Write down any insights, challenges, detox symptoms, insights, negative comments from friends, etc, ..
- Write down questions you have, if any
- Write down any interesting recipes that you’d like to share
- Don’t give up if you happen to break the above rules. Just write it down and then keep going
- Send them to Brenda at Brenda.rogers@au.usana.com each day so that she can review and answer your questions
We suggest the tips below for completing this experiment successfully:
- Hint: You will need to prepare beforehand so there are items available in your pantry. We can guarantee you that you will be cooking more of your own food this week! Explore the health section of the supermarket, the health food shop and the best fruit and veggie shop in your district. Have some recipe books handy, know how to substitute whole foods for refined foods and get Google ready for searching! Above all, learn to read the labels and/or if dining out, don't be shy to ask the waiters what the key ingredients in your dish are..
- Avoid white flour, i.e. white bread and blends, white pasta, pastry, cakes, biscuits, white sauces made with white flour, couscous, etc. There may be other things containing white flour so be sure to check the ingredients label. You can have wholemeal wheat flour and other grains such as corn and rye.
- Avoid white sugar, i.e., caster sugar, raw sugar, brown sugar, icing sugar, juices containing sugar, cakes, biscuits, soft drinks (soda), candies, ice-cream, alcohol, chocolate, sweetened anything. Be careful, it’s hidden in so many things. Read the label always. What you can have is honey, syrups such as rice or malt, rapadura and other whole sugar cane products.
- Avoid white salt, i.e. pretty much everything processed contains salt unless it says unsalted, e.g. butter, nuts, cheese, chips, etc. Use instead Himalayan salt, rock salt, sea salt, especially the greyish salts which contains all the original minerals , tamari or avoid altogether and use herbs and spices for flavouring. You’ll find many of these things in the health food store.
- Avoid “white” oil, i.e. margarine and the pale yellow types of oils sold in supermarkets. Use extra virgin olive oil instead (the greener the better) and other quality oils in the supermarket – butter, cream, ghee, coconut cream, avocado, nut butters or cream cheese.
- Avoid white rice and associated products, i.e. white basmati, jasmine, rice noodles, vermicelli. You can have brown rice or other grains. Try barley or quinoa.
- What you can have (as long as it doesn’t contain any of the above): vegetables, fruit, nuts, whole grains, meat, fish, seafood, dairy (though we don’t think we’ve ever seen a cheese that doesn't contain salt. If you find one let us know!), legumes e.g. chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils; and all things made with these e.g. dips, soups, salads, stir-fries, nut butters, whole grain breads, pumpernickel, stews, BBQs, slices and cakes made with whole foods, coffee, tea, water, freshly squeezed juices and eggs.
We will keep you posted on the progress of this experiment in our coming blogs. You are more than welcome to share your experience with us as well!
About Brenda Rogers ND, MBA, PCC – She is USANA’s Network Development Manager and is a qualified naturopath trainer and coach. She is also one of the contributors for the USANA Health Essentials mini magazine. The testimonials she will collect from the experiment are going to be included in the upcoming Health Essentials issue.
In order to raise awareness of the white devils and additionally, to show the importance of nutritional supplements to our health, Brenda Rogers, Network Development Manager for USANA Australia and New Zealand, has initiated an interesting but challenging food experiment for USANA Australia and New Zealand staff – To avoid the white devils for an entire week. Some of our USANA staff has already put their hands up for this challenge!