Aug 3, 2023
Zero Sugar, guilt-free snacking with delicious Multigrain Millet Cookies! The perfect blend of nutrition and flavour
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Zero Sugar, guilt-free snacking with delicious Multigrain Millet Cookies! The perfect blend of nutrition and flavour
How to Get Your Children to Eat Healthy
Eating Healthy Starts Early, Catch ’em Young!
Then How to Get Your Children to Eat Healthy ‘Ritu, come on, eat up that last apple slice!’ ‘Finish up the carrots on your plate, Aman!’
Sounds familiar? Then How to Get Your Children to Eat Healthy These are common refrains that can be heard floating out of homes with young children. Getting your kids to eat healthily is a very familiar struggle for a parent. We all want our children to reach for nutritious and wholesome food. But it’s not that easy.
Children today are perpetually fighting a host of lifestyle diseases. The numbers don’t look good.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 showed that, globally, 39 million children below five years of age were obese. Another study from the University of Queensland, said that one in three adolescents globally were at a high risk of developing lifestyle diseases, with 35% of the participants having more than three risk factors.
According to one of the researchers, “Low fruit and vegetable intake, and physical inactivity were the most prominent lifestyle risk factors for NCDs among adolescents (86%and 85%, respectively).”
Barriers to children eating healthy:
Every day, our children are barraged by an array of influences, which make eating those fruits and vegetables a difficult task. Here are just a few.
The lure of digital entertainment:
Watching television or playing video games during mealtimes are distractions that prevent mindful eating. Children whose attention is taken up by electronic devices end up eating more junk food, as this study shows. And, of course, eating when distracted is a surefire way to munch through more than your recommended portion size.
And when they do watch tv shows on YouTube or on television, they are bombarded with advertisements. Recently, the Central Consumer Protection Agency (CCPA) issued a set of guidelines in 2022 prohibiting advertisements for junk foods, sugary drinks, and other snacks or beverages during a program or on a channel meant exclusively for children. The ban hopes to reduce children’s exposure to foods high in sugar, saturated fat, and salt, which might help them become more inclined toward choosing healthy food.
What’s for lunch?
But your problems don’t stop with advertisements or children’s programs. Peer pressure is a significant force among school-going children. “What did you get for lunch?” is the first question children ask each other during lunch break. And this is where they end up trading that orange for fries or that cucumber slice for a toffee. The yearning to be the one bringing a ‘cool lunchbox’ and, therefore, be more accepted is of utmost importance to the young ones.
Junk food is everywhere:
It doesn’t stop with lunch. Junk food is everywhere. It’s at children’s birthday parties, playdate meets, and school canteens. Adolescents can easily buy cheap junk food with their smartphones and get them instantly delivered to satisfy cravings. Very often, your home is close to fast food outlets or corner shops well-stocked with junk food and children can easily buy them with pocket change.
A survey from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) showed that 93% of the participants ate processed foods while 68% consumed sugary drinks at least once a week. Alarming, isn’t it?
This all brings us to the core of this piece — the importance of starting healthy habits at a young age. And how to do it.
Why prioritize nutrition at a young age:
Good nutrition in the early years is about more than just the right choices of food. It’s also about helping your children form healthy food habits that will eventually develop into a lifestyle in the future. A healthy diet in their first five years will ensure a balanced life as adults. Ensuring our children learn what constitutes a healthy, balanced diet is like giving them the keys to a successful life.
How to get your child to eat healthy
Worried that it’s too late for your child to form healthy habits now? Thinking of numerous ‘what ifs’?
Take a pause because you can start making a change right now and make a positive impact on your child. Here are a few ways to do that.
Teach them to identify the good things in life
Usually, we tend to focus on foods that are bad and try to keep children away from them. Instead, focus on healthy food. Teach them to identify foods that are good for them by reading labels on food packets. When they understand why some foods are healthier, they will learn to pick foods without sugar, preservatives, chemicals, and so on, on their own. This will create a positive environment and also help them form better relationships with food.
Smart swaps are the way to go
Children have cravings just like us. And they cannot be curbed all the time. Instead of giving in to them with pizzas, burgers, chips or sugary drinks, you could do some smart swaps to give them the same level of enjoyment. For instance make fresh juice with some honey instead of packaged juices, plain yogurt with fruits instead of flavored yogurt, deep-fried chips with homemade popcorn, and so on.
Involve them in the process
With careful supervision and guidance, you can involve children in meal prep sessions, setting the table or serving food. Getting those potatoes and onions from the basket, handing you a glass or a bowl, or simply watching while you cook are all exciting activities that nurture a love for good food in children. Older children can even start baking their own favorite items like cookies or muffins with healthier ingredients.
Teach them about the wonders that various nutrients can do to their mind, and body and it won’t be too long before eating healthy becomes a habit.
What’re we doing about this at Artinci?
We realise that learning to eat healthy starts really young. We also realise that children are surrounded by the temptations of cakes, crisps, chocolate bars which can be hard to deny. It gets even harder when one’s child is a Type 1 diabetic, and they have a craving that you don’t feel comfortable indulging, for their own good.
That’s exactly who our gluten free and sugar free desserts like (ice cream, sweets, cookies, chocolates, Cakes, cheesecakes) are designed for! With good, clean ingredients like almond flour in cakes, an abundance of seeds and nuts in cookies, anti-oxidant-rich dark chocolate bars, all coming together with a ZERO sugar sweetener, parents of our young, 6 year old diabetic customers have been able to help their little ones indulge, worry-free!
You Are Eating Way More Sugar Than You Think
You are eating way more sugar than you think!
Hungry and making a salad? If you like a creamy French or Thousand Island dressing, make way for about 4 gms of sugar for every 2 tablespoons served. Sure, Vinaigrette or Caesar is better, but they don’t make your tastebuds sing, do they?
Opting for ketchup? There go 4.1 gms of sugar into your system for every tablespoon of ketchup you add to your plate. Even your barbecue sauce that makes everything from pan-seared veggies to chicken wings taste phenomenal, contains 15 grams of sugar in two tablespoons.
And these are just appetizers we are talking about. We haven’t even started on lunch or dinner yet.
A world fueled by sugar:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a daily intake of 5 teaspoons or a maximum of 25 gms of free sugar per day for adults. The term ‘free sugar’ includes added sugar as well as naturally occurring sugar found in fruits, honey, etc. However, globally, our consumption is far, far more than that.
As of 2016, the US topped the daily per capita sugar consumption charts at 126.4 grams, with Germany and the Netherlands at 102.9 gms and 102.5 gms, respectively. The top 10 list also includes Australia, UK, and Canada.
How does India fare?
A 2020 study from the Indian Council of Medical Research — National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) showed that residents of Mumbai and Ahmedabad topped the sugar consumption charts with 26.3 gms and 25.9 gms, respectively
Source — ICMR-NIN report
However, India’s sugar consumption across metro cities overall was 19.5 gms per day, well below the global average. Despite this, we experience some of the highest incidences in the world of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Sugar and the link to diabetes and heart disease:
More than 74 million people or 1 in 12 adults in India live with diabetes, which is the second highest in the world. Research from the International Diabetes Foundation expects 134 million Indians to be diagnosed as diabetic by 2045.
Furthermore, research has proven that a sugar-laden diet increases the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 38% and places you at a higher risk for type-2 diabetes. And in 2019, diabetes was the cause of 1.5 million deaths.
The ICMR study also observed that the highest sugar intake occurred in people aged between 36 and 59 years — the age group most at risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. Equally concerning was the fact that school-going children were having nearly the same amount of sugar as adults (20 gms per day) at around 17 gms, while adolescents were taking 19 gms per day.
Is it because sugar is everywhere in India (You are eating way more sugar than you think), and is practically unavoidable? Perhaps, and the root of it lies in our modern lifestyles.
Ordering in, taking away:
Between 2020 and 2021, urbanization grew by 1.5% in India. And it’s set to continue on the same path.
That means we will see more and more people outsource meal prep and grab food on the go, making more of us consume diets high in sugars. The food processing industry, which knows that sugar is addictive, uses it as a taste-maker, as an additive, and even as a preservative to some extent to keep you coming back for more.
The Indian mithai culture:
Traditional Indian culture indulges the practice of eating dessert along with the main meal of the day. And sugar-laden desserts are an inevitable presence at celebrations, festivals, and events, even at workplaces. Bottom line — sugar is nearly unavoidable in India.
Or is it?
How To Moderate You Are Eating Way More Sugar Than You Think:
Feeling alarmed? These stats can be scary but there are ways in which you can enjoy the sweet things in life. You don’t need to completely cut out sugar from your life or do a radical sugar detox. The key is moderation and awareness. Here are a few things you can start with.
Spot that sugar!
Sugar is clever. It hides in the unlikeliest of places and comes in multiple guises — fructose, maltose, sucrose, dextrose, molasses etc. — making it hard for you to know that You are eating way more sugar than you think!. Read ingredient lists on food products carefully, and learn to spot the sugar content.
Beware of low-fat foods:
Yes, that’s right. That low-fat yogurt, milk, beverages, salad dressings, and other ‘healthy’ options actually contain higher levels of sugar than regular food products. Choosing full-fat, healthy foods like nuts, dairy, cereals, and others keep you fuller for longer as they contain lesser free sugars.
Improve your sleep:
Didn’t expect that, did you? A research study has found that short sleep time leads to more sugar consumption. This maybe because we are tired and the body craves sugar as a pick-me-up. Or it could be because we have more time on our hands in the night, to get an extra meal in, and that typically is a dessert. Sleep early, get 7–8 hours of sleep and you should be golden.
Choose minimum processed foods:
The more foods undergo processing the higher the amount of sugar and other chemicals. Opting for fresh, whole foods like vegetables, fruits, lentils, etc. gives you the necessary nutrients as well as naturally occurring sugars which prevents hunger pangs. For example, switch out white bread for wholegrain or brown bread, branded cereals for oats, and flavored yogurt for plain.
Plan your meals:
Reaching for a few spoons of mixture or a bar of chocolate in between meals to tamp down those hunger cravings is not ideal. And usually this happens when you feel stuck with nothing else to eat.
Plan out your meals for the week. Prepare some healthy snacks in addition to main meals. Perhaps you could batch cook for the week to take out the hassle. What’s more, cooking your meals with fresh ingredients at home has the added advantage of saving more money too.
What’re we doing about this at Artinci?
At Artinci, we believe that indulgence is necessary and important — because the occasional indulgence helps renew and sustain our commitment to our own health. More importantly, that indulgence should bring joy!
We just don’t need sugar to bring us that joy. It’s our love for everything sweet that drove us to craft healthy yet soul-filling foods with nourishing ingredients. Enjoy Artinci’s desserts like Sugar Free ice cream, sweets, cookies, chocolates, Cakes, cheesecakes with ZERO added sugar, in moderation, and live your sweetest life!
Why Glycemic Index Is Important
What is Glycemic Index?
Glycemic Index (GI) is an indicator of how quickly the food you are eating causes a rise in blood sugar. It is a scale from 0 to 130, on which foods are listed. Foods that have a smaller GI value (0–55) are called Low GI foods.
while foods that have a higher GI Value (>70) are termed High GI.
What happens when we eat High Glycemic Index Foods?
When we eat High GI foods, which are typically also high on carbohydrates (think simple carbs like Maida or sugar), this causes a blood sugar spike — which means a rapid rise in blood glucose levels.
In response to this spike, the body releases insulin rapidly too, to “mop up” all the extra blood sugar. When we repeatedly eat high GI foods, the body repeatedly releases insulin too. This repeated insulin response eventually leads to insulin resistance or diabetes.
So, in a nutshell, foods that have simple carbs cause a sugar spike. Proteins & Fats do not. Proteins and fats provide calories, but do not cause a rapid rise in blood sugar.
Artinci’s Ingredients Philosophy revolves around Low Glycemic Index:
The GI is only a number on a scale, which is useful to assess which food ingredient to choose, and which to avoid. Which brings us to our ingredient philosophy at Artinci. Our commitment is to work with only the lowest GI ingredients and to produce only Low Carb Dessert.
Our food philosophy at Artinci is that we need a balanced diet that includes carbohydrates, protein and fat. Since we already get all our carbs from our regular meal, eating even more carb in a dessert only creates a carb overload.
So we decided to go all low carb on our dessert. We also do not shy away from calories, as long as it comes from good calories like protein (like almond flour, peanuts) or good fats (like cold pressed oils or ghee).
This approach, of choosing low GI ingredients which carry good calories, helps give a feeling of satiety after having eaten an Artinci dessert — a great-tasting dessert like (ice cream, sweets, cookies, chocolates, Cakes, cheesecakes), minus excessive carbs, therefore no sugar spikes and sugar crashes. There’s also the hack of timing the dessert well, and that’s a post for another day!
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Glycemic Index (GI) is an indicator of how quickly the food you are eating causes a rise in blood sugar. It is a scale from 0 to 130, on whi