EYE OF AERY prides itself on being the only edibles you will find on the market with nothing but SUPERFOOD, health-promoting  ingredients. At the core of AERY’s philosophy is a devotion to understanding nutritional science and executing on that knowledge in the most delicious fashion possible. Our products will always be packed with healing ingredients every cell in your body will love. Every ingredient we select is intentional and chosen for it’s powerful and unique benefits. Our sweets are perfect for those seeking pain-relief while empowering you to take control of your own health destiny.

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All harmful ingredients in conventional desserts, such as sugar, and other concentrated sweeteners, refined flour, butter, oil, dairy-based creams and artificial anything are excluded from our tasty delectables! Looking for gluten-free sweets? You will find a plethora of options here! 

 

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SWEET TO THE CORE

 

First, let’s take a knowledge dive into why processed sugar, sweeteners and other ingredients commonly used in desserts are so bad for us. This knowledge is extremely important as the average American consumes 150-170 pounds of sugar a year. Knowing the science will help you choose healthier desserts forever—especially when you discover how delicious they can taste.

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Sugar is more dangerous than we thought in the past, as are many commonly used so-called “healthier” sugar replacements, such as maple syrup, agave nectar, honey and coconut sugar. Sweeteners commonly viewed as “healthy” alternatives are processed the same way in the body as sugar and can cause the same serious health problems sugar does!

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COMPOSITION OF SWEETENERS

 

All of these sweeteners are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and significantly contribute to the development of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Despite their reputation as healthier alternatives to table sugar, natural sweeteners like agave nectar, honey and maple syrup are just as addictive and they do the same harm because they flood the bloodstream with glucose or fructose! The reality is that all concentrated sweeteners add substantial sugar calories to the diet while contributing very little nutritional value.

 

It is a common assumption that maple syrup is a healthier alternative to table sugar, but it contains 96 percent sucrose, so it is compositionally very similar to sugar. Coconut sugar contains 70-80 percent sucrose, and honey contains about 50 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. Sucrose is half fructose and half glucose. It’s composed of one fructose molecule linked to one glucose molecule. Agave nectar is about 80 percent fructose; it is almost the same as high-fructose corn syrup. All of these sweeteners promote weight gain and fat storage on the body.

 

The general rule is that all high-calorie, low-nutrient sweeteners have approximately the same effects on the body regardless of the ratio of glucose to fructose or what type of plant they come from. There is nothing innocent about it. No matter how good those sugar-loaded desserts look or taste, they can slowly kill us with a life-shortening disease if we consume them on a regular basis throughout our lives.

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HONEY

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Just like sugar, the nutrients in honey are insignificant. Add this to the fact that honey is highly concentrated fructose and glucose and that puts additional stress on the body, especially our liver and kidneys. There are 64 calories in one tablespoon of honey and all of these calories are in the form of concentrated sugar. Websites on the Internet claim that honey is nutritious and contains antioxidants and minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc; however, the reality is that the quantity of these nutrients in honey is insignificant (practically nil) compared to the quantity in real fruits and vegetables.

 

Upon researching the vitamin and mineral content in a serving of honey, it becomes obvious that claims asserting that honey is high in these minerals and vitamins like B6, thiamin, niacin and riboflavin are false. Honey, whether raw or cooked, is almost all sugar and no fiber. Fiber slows down the rate of carbohydrate absorption from the small intestine, delaying the after-meal flow of glucose into the blood.

 

Without fiber, glucose is absorbed rapidly. A surge of glucose into the bloodstream at a rapid rate leads to an insulin spike. The more insulin spikes we have, the greater our likelihood of developing type II diabetes, heart attacks and its associated cardiovascular problems as well as breast, colon and prostate cancer. Excessive insulin also increases fat storage and the risk of cancer.

 

 

AGAVE NECTAR

 

Agave nectar, or agave syrup, is used widely as a sweetener in so-called healthy food products from breakfast bars to cereals to vegan ice creams. It has become the sweetener used by health-conscious folks who want to avoid sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners. There is enthusiasm about it for having a seemingly low glycemic index, which would make it a friendly sugar substitute for those with diabetes.

 

Unfortunately, these enthusiasts are misguided. What agave nectar does have is a lot of fructose. Actually, it has more fructose than high-fructose corn syrup! It’s refined and processed just like high-fructose corn syrup. Agave nectar is between 55-97 percent fructose, depending on the brand, while high-fructose corn syrup averages 55 percent fructose. Pretty shocking, right?

 

To be fair, before processing and refinement, agave nectar was once in a natural form, albeit a high-in-fructose natural form. Before manufacturing and standard practices of refinement, true agave nectar comes from the Blue Agaves (also known as tequila agave plants) that thrive in the volcanic soils of Southern Mexico. However, the agave nectar we buy in stores is a far cry from the agave nectar that comes from the natural plant. Most “agave” is nothing more than a laboratory-generated, highly-compacted fructose syrup.

 

Although processing methods may vary among manufacturers, commercially available agave is converted into a fructose-rich syrup using genetically modified enzymes and a chemically intensive process employing the use of caustic acids, clarifiers, and filtration chemicals.

 

After all of this processing, agave nectar generally contains upwards of 80 percent fructose, completely wreaking havoc on our health, our skin quality, and if we eat it often enough, our weight. Fructose may even be worse than glucose because it doesn’t just increase insulin levels, it increases our insulin resistance, which increases the likelihood of type 2 diabetes. Our bodies metabolize fructose in the liver in the same manner in which we metabolize alcohol. Just as excess alcohol inclines us to developing a fat “beer belly,” excess fructose makes us prone to developing a fat “fructose belly.”

 

Every time you imagine sinking your teeth into a cupcake sweetened with agave, think “fructose belly.” That should get you to put that cupcake down.

 

 

MAPLE SYRUP

 

Maple syrup is similar to honey and agave nectar because it is just concentrated sugar calories and low in nutrients and fiber too. Continual exposure to low-nutrient, low-fiber, high-calorie sweeteners dulls our taste buds to the natural sweet taste of whole fruits. If your aim is to stay at a healthy weight and not get a life-threatening disease cutting your 12 life short, these liquid sweeteners are best avoided. Just like pure sugar, maple syrup is also linked to increased risks of weight gain, diabetes, heart disease and cancers, because it is sugar.

 

 

WHY SHARP MINDS AND SUGAR DON’T MIX

 

In life, no brain, no gain! So of course, we want our brain to be as sharp as possible. Understanding how chronic sugar consumption leads to both short-term and long-term decreased mental functioning is critically important. The effects are striking!

 

Sugar travels through the blood-brain barrier quickly and wreaks havoc with brain cells.

 

Blood vessels all over our bodies become inflamed when we consume too much sugar, and this includes the blood vessels in our brains which leads to a progressive decline in brain function. 

 

Deficits in learning, memory, motor speed and other cognitive functions have been found in studies on those who have diabetes.3 However, even for those without diabetes, greater sugar consumption is associated with similar damage, demonstrated by lower scores on tests of cognitive function, reduction in memory and attention, and higher risk of dementia with aging. It is not only the heightened blood sugar, but also its effect to raise insulin resistance. Higher consumption of commercial baked goods containing white flour and sugar also raises blood pressure and cholesterol.

 

 

SUGAR ADDICTION IS REAL

 

Not only can sugar make us depressed and harm our cognitive capacities, but it can be as addictive as drugs.6 Sweets are associated with binging, craving, withdrawal symptoms, and sensitization of the same brain pathway as addiction to amphetamines, narcotics and alcohol. For many, sugar addiction could be an even harder habit to break, because the damage is so gradual, insidious and widespread that people don’t recognize its harm.

 

White flour is essentially the same as sugar as it is converted into sugar during digestion and absorbed as sugar into the blood stream. The same harm also occurs when we consume other sweetening agents such as maple syrup, honey, agave nectar and coconut sugar, our dopamine receptors begin to down-regulate, leading to fewer receptors for the dopamine to latch onto.

 

Every single time we consume foods with large amounts of free sugar (sugar missing its fiber) our dopamine receptors become further desensitized and then greater amounts of sugar are required to produce the same stimulatory effects. This is typical of what happens with any addiction, from heroin to cigarettes. More junk food is necessary over time to achieve the same level of reward. People who are more susceptible to forming addictions are at a greater risk of developing a sugar addiction and losing control over calories, just as they are at a greater risk of alcohol and drug addiction. It is a serious problem for millions of Americans.

 

 

M O R E   S U G A R   A N D   M O R E   H E A R T   ATTACKS   AND   CANCERS

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According to the epic 2014 JAMA Internal Medicine study, which followed over 40,000 people for 15 years, the link between sugar and heart disease holds true even for people at healthy weights and regardless of age, gender and physical activity level.7 Participants who consumed 25 percent or more calories each day from processed sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease than those whose diets included less than 10 percent added  sugar.

 

This includes the agave nectar, maple syrup, honey and coconut sugar you see in “healthy” desserts at the vegan restaurants and in health food stores across the country. What’s striking about the study is that how many fruits and veggies participants ate was irrelevant! “Regardless of their Healthy Eating Index scores, people who ate more processed sugar still had higher cardiovascular mortality,” reported Dr. Teresa Fung, adjunct professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Previous studies have demonstrated that excess sugar can raise blood pressure and stimulate the liver to dump more harmful fats into the bloodstream. It’s disturbing that we’ve known that the majority of human cancers are preventable via diet and nutrition since the 1960s when the World Health Organization began examining diet and lifestyle factors and came to these conclusions. Data since then has come to the same verdicts and even more compelling evidence continues to mount that high-sugar, high-meat, low-fiber and low nutrient diets, the very diets of most Americans are what leads to the majority of cancer cases in the United States.

 

Every major scientific health organization in the United States, including the National Cancer Society, the American Cancer Society, and the Department of Health and Human Services, supports research findings that diet and cancer are intertwined and these organizations have presented dietary suggestions for the public in hopes of engendering greater awareness.

 

When sugar combines with other low-nutrient, low-fiber foods in our environment, like white flour and oils, the very ingredients found in most dessert recipes, we have essentially created a cancer cake. Those sweets and treats everywhere from Starbucks to supermarkets are actually the perfect formula for cancer and heart disease to develop later in life.

 

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WHY WHOLE FRUITS ARE SUPERIOR

 

What makes whole fruits different than extracted sweeteners is that they are packed with fiber to regulate the entrance of glucose, fructose and sucrose into our bodies, and they are loaded with phytonutrients and polyphenols to buffer the effects of the natural sugars inside the fruit. Furthermore, the fructose and glucose threshold is much lower in fruits. Fruit only contains a few grams of fructose per serving and do not expose us to enough fructose to trigger fat storage, unless we consume an overabundance of fruit juice or dried fruit.

 

 

 

DATES ARE THE CHOSEN ONE

 

There are magical qualities in dates that make them the perfect sweetener for healthy, anti-cancer, heart disease-fighting desserts! Dates are unique for quite a few reasons. They are particularly sweet for their small size.

 

Wouldn’t such a high-sugar food raise blood sugar and triglycerides, increase oxidative stress on our bodies and incline us to gain weight? Not at all. Dates also happen to be loaded with fiber and phytonutrients and this makes all the difference in the world. Just like other whole fruits jam-packed with fiber and phytochemicals, the nutrients and fiber in dates buffer the effects of those natural sugars.

 

There are no documented adverse effects of consuming a reasonable amount of dates on blood sugar or weight. Quite the contrary, studies show beneficial improvements in triglycerides and antioxidant levels upon consuming dates regularly!

 

 

IMPORTANT DATE

NUTRITION FACTS

 

1) Dates are packed with polyphenols, and in particular, a type of polyphenol called tannins. Polyphenols are a class of antioxidants with incredible health protecting properties.

 

2) The fiber content of dates is between 6.4-11.5% depending on the variety and degree of ripeness. Fiber is known for its ability to lower cholesterol and fight obesity, heart disease and colorectal cancer. The primary fiber in dates is insoluble fiber, which binds to fat and cholesterol and carries it out of the body.

 

3) There are at least 15 minerals in dates in significant quantities, including potassium, boron, calcium, cobalt, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous and zinc. Selenium is another element found in dates, which has been found to prevent cancer and increase immune system strength.

 

4) Dates contain protein: 23 different amino acids, many of which are not present in more popular fruits like oranges, apples and bananas.

 

5) Dates contain important vitamins including vitamin C, thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), vitamin K and vitamin A. The B vitamins help with the metabolism of food and the formation of new blood cells.

 

Remember that it is the high-fiber and high-micronutrient content of fruits that helps protect us against cancer and heart disease.

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Scientific references 

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 [i] Al-Shahib W and Marshall RJ. The fruit of the date palm: its possible use as the best food for the future? Int J Food Sci Nutr, 54(4):247{259, 2003; Rock W, Rosenblat M, Borochov-Neori H, Volkova N, Judeinstein S, Elias M and Aviram M. Effects of date (Phoenix dactylifera L., Medjool or Hallawi Variety) consumption by healthy subjects on serum glucose and lipid levels and on serum oxidative status: a pilot study. J. Agric. Food. Chem., 57(17):8010{8017, 2009.

[ii] Hammouda H, Cherif JK, Trabeisi-Ayadi M, et al. Detailed Polyphenol and Tannin Composition and Its Variability in Tunisian Dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) at Different Maturity Stages. J. Agric. Food Chem., 2013, 61 (13), pp 3252–3263.

[iii] Starr VL, Convit A: Diabetes, sugar-coated but harmful to the brain. Curr Opin Pharmacol 2007, 7:638-642.

[iv] Kodl CT, Seaquist ER: Cognitive dysfunction and diabetes mellitus. Endocr Rev 2008, 29:494-511.

[v] Kroner Z: The relationship between Alzheimer's disease and diabetes: Type 3 diabetes? Altern Med Rev 2009, 14:373-379.

[vi] Sommerfield AJ, Deary IJ, Frier BM: Acute hyperglycemia alters mood state and impairs cognitive performance in people with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care 2004, 27:2335-2340.

[vii] Schopf V, Fischmeister FP, Windischberger C, et al: Effects of individual glucose levels on the neuronal correlates of emotions. Front Hum Neurosci 2013, 7:212.

[viii] Yang Q, Zhang Z, Gregg EW, et al. Added sugar intake and cardiovascular diseases mortality among US adults. JAMA Intern Med. 2014 Apr;174(4):516-24.

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