Maybe too many of us have heeded that advice, “Eat dessert first.”  It may be true that you sometimes miss out on good things by saving them until it is too late to enjoy them.  When we are talking about losing fat, though, that turns out to be not-so-good advice.

According to last year’s Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the number one source of calories is — drumroll please — desserts.  Grain-based desserts are high glycemic, full of bad fats and sugar.  And that’s our number one source of calories?   No wonder we Americans are so fat.  About 2/3 of us are overweight and nearly half of that number are obese.

And, no, we don’t look sexy and gorgeous like the fake people on television and in the ads, but there are worse consequences than appearing flabby.  We are making ourselves sick with our overweight. Diabetes has become an epidemic and joint problems and numerous other ailments are plaguing us.

Number two on the list is yeast breads — also high glycemic.  Chicken dishes come third. (Whew — glad we are eating SOMETHING nutritious!)  Number four is soda, energy drinks and sports drinks — boo, bad!  Pizza weighs in as number 5.  Following the list is 6: Alcoholic beverages, 7: Pasta, 8: Mexican dishes, and 9: Beef and beef dishes.

Number 10 — back to desserts.  Dairy this time, as in ice cream.

Whew — Only a few of the top ten sources of calories have any nutritional merit at all.  No wonder we have troubles!  Besides, most of the categories on the top ten list are high glycemic.  We are training our bodies to save up the fat — and evidently it is working!

So how does your daily diet compare with the national numbers?  There are plenty of tasty foods on the green, low-glycemic list.  Click here to read about low glycemic foods and the Green Light/Red Light eating plan. You won’t find grain-based desserts and white bread there, though.  That doesn’t mean you can never, ever have cherry pie. It just means you should get most of your calories from food that has nutritional value and is low glycemic.

There are lots of folks becoming sick and decrepit from eating the wrong kinds of food.  I hope that we Beyond Gorgeous folks are going to be the exception to the rule!

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown