Here are some common signs you have a high acidic stomach (or higher than your usual), and where you can restore to a normal PH alkaline with your diet:
-Stomach discomfort especially where your GI tract meets the upper stomach intestinal wall.
-If you drink coffee and after you’ve eaten something light, food adds discomfort to your stomach. Btw, coffee on an empty stomach can “tear up the stomach.”
-If you burp more often, and especially if that’s not common for your body.
-You know you’ve been freely eating more of whatever you want, whenever you want, and maybe a usual food offender to your stomach. Our stomachs are naturally acidic and most of the foods we eat that we enjoy are acidic so maintaining a balance between joy and health will make the difference.
-And, if you have the taste of acid washing back up your throat (referred to as acid reflux), then that’s a sure sign. Many people pop antacids like candy after meals. But that’s masking an opportunity for a better and healthy solution of changing your eating lifestyle and habits.
Healthiest cookie vibes are almost unheard of, as they often have too much high fructose corn syrup, other sugar, fat content, artificial flavoring… and did I mention sugar? 😊
This spiced cookie is one powerful bite, loaded with anti-inflammatory spices. Recipe below. ⬇️
But, I share a piece of good sweet news… today, you could look for the healthiest cookie that tastes good (and not like the box it came in), and then feel better for your reduced sugar choice.
Included below is a helpful sugar content list next time you’re out cookie grocery shopping.
If you were born with a sweet tooth (ahem…Vatas!), eliminating sugar from your diet, may be one of the worst food elimination news you could hear.
But wait!… before you give up on all sugar, know that your natural makeup and desires are there for a reason, so you don’t have to give up all your sweets if your body and health allow.
Instead, you could look for better, daily choices so you don’t have to give up entirely one day.
Cookies are one sweet type and if that’s not your go-to sweet, what are some of the other daily sweet delights? Ice cream, cakes, pies, candy, and donuts.
Sugar is sugar. But some sweets are better for you and they originate in nature and from plants.
If a piece of dark chocolate or a juicy piece of fruit will give you the same effect, learn to let your healthy taste bud rule over your eyes that plays tricks.
Because the truth is if you or I tell ourselves, no, we can’t have that sweet piece of joy, then we just want it more as we have an internal debate.
And once we get a taste of the tasty stuff, our brain’s pleasure center can easily tempt us to go overboard in a weak moment, even if we consider ourselves self-disciplined in every other way.
That’s why lose weight diets (a.k.a. yo-yo or fad diets) don’t work long-term or lifelong because we feel we are missing out on what our mind and body know is out there. Short-term diets are not natural to our bodies. We want real tasty foods that we crave.
But, if you want to fit into that special dress or get your bathing suit body ready for the summer season, you’re better off doing it naturally so that you can stay the same size year-round.
Thankfully our abundant society has wised up with better accessible plant-based and healthier ingredient options (from farm to store), than when we were kids.
Decades ago, I wrote a lifelong diet guide with recipes that included enjoying more or less one day “off” a week.
A few years before then I had gone on a diet of eating low-fat cookies that came from a dark green healthy-color box (that was anything but healthy or plant-based).
I don’t see those cookies on the grocery shelves anymore, but they were a terrible food substitute that led to weight gain and adding unhealthy processed ingredients to my body. I learned the hard way, but that saved me a lifetime of going down the wrong eating path, and from then on, I wised up.
And I try to save others from making the same mistakes I made.
I still very rarely eat red meat, dairy, or more than one or two bites of a sugary sweet, not because I don’t like those foods or can’t eat them (au contraire!), but because I choose to, now knowing what I know. And like Oprah says, “when you know better, you do better.”
And you can do the same with knowledge and a little discipline, which then becomes second nature where you don’t even want those foods anymore because you know they don’t make you a healthier being and that is more satisfying to you.
There’s no guilt, either way… it’s just a choice.
Plus, as you get older, the bad foods and sugar your body could tolerate in your 20s aren’t the processed same in your body so you’re better off wanting to change instead of having to or being forced to.
So that’s where cookie consciousness came into the picture for me.
My sweet weakness is cookies (and decadent cakes and cupcakes). It’s wired in my DNA.
But, I’ve learned to be discerning and find the best ones out there.
I enjoy the cookie if it tastes great and has low sugar content, or if I make my own in a controlled sugar baking environment.
And mostly bake my own cookies or biscuits like these biscotti that uses natural sugars (fructose) to sweeten. The nutrients also offset some of the sweet downfalls without compromising adult taste! 😋
Healthy Biscotti (No Butter or Sugar) - Black and White Chocolate Biscotti
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
2-1/2cup flour
3tspbaking powder
1-1/2tspaniseed, crushed
3/4tspsalt
1/4tspcinnamon
1/4tspnutmeg
1/2cupcoconut oil
1-1/4tspalmond extract
2eggs
1cupsblanched almonds
2tspmilk
finely choped dates, orange zest, dried fruits as sweet
Instructions
Make your dough with the ingredients. It should be cohesive and sticky enough to become a dough. You may need to add more oil or can substitute with yogurt or apple sauce.
Roll our two rectangular loafs flattened at the top in 350°F oven for 25 minutes.
Let cool completely. Then use a serated knife to make even-cut biscotti pieces.
Then flip over and bake for 10 more minutes for twice baked.
Let cool and dip in melted chocolate.
Refrigerate and then dip in white chocolate for duo-chocolate.
Keeping it real to yourself is what it’s all about…
And also celebrating your efforts, leaves you happy, your mental health improves, and your body benefits, so you want to balance health and happiness (btw, my blog name is healthy and happy 😊). I mostly do this through modern Ayurveda that my blog is about.
I also like to balance rules because they keep life simple.
So looking at nutrition facts is one practice that I like to do (and seriously I do find fun in a mature, adult sorta way).
And I started out my career out as a catering manager at a DoubleTree Hotel where they’re famous for their c.c. cookies you can make healthy 🍪 but yeah the original ingredients in the official recipe is not listed on the fresh brown paper cookie bags.
I know because I sat next to them and used them as a pound of butter paper weights for my BEO contracts I had on my desk, taking a bite here and there to curb my breakfast appetite.
Gosh, those were the early days!
And, on that note…
Quick trivia question:
Which of these cookies was famously credited as the first?… is it the Fig Newton, Animal Cracker, or Chocolate Chip Cookie? (Keep reading, as the answer is below ⬇️).
Choosing the Healthiest Cookie
This is a healthy chocolate chip cookie without added butter, white sugar, and flour.
In choosing cookies, the first step is acknowledging that all cookies are not created equal. You know this without having to think about it twice.
But when you’re in the grocery aisle, do you make mostly sensible decisions… or sensory-driven decisions?
If you’re not sure or your answer is it can vary, then take a photo of your grocery cart at the check-out line and evaluate when you get home.
Do some grocery introspection.
Take a look at the Nutrition Facts on the back of the food packaging as though you’re looking for the healthiest cookie out there that you want.
When you look closer and compare, you may find an oatmeal cookie may not be lower in sugar count than a chocolate chip cookie. So you are now informed and can make a better decision next time.
In those pleasantly surprising fact discoveries, if nothing else you get what you want and are happier for your choice! And sometimes you’re shocked at what your old favorites tell you.
You can also compare cookies in the same brand like a Girl Scout Cookie.
One GSC can be lower in sugar and another one can be off the charts. They may be made from the same factory, but they have a different makeup.
You can continue reading below how they rank in sugar content as I’ve included in the list. Today, gratefully we have so many healthier choices and from the same brands.
If the food item looks similar to another, the ingredients could be completely different, change over time or the next time, so it’s best to keep doing your due diligence.
This can become a healthy habit and you may end up doing a food pantry audit that’s not a bad thing.
It actually helped me when I discovered it was bothering my skin later in eczema where sweets or over-sweets could exacerbate flare ups. And any inflammation is not a good sign.
If you love a crunchy-style cookie, the list below is meant to open your horizons in search of the tastiest and healthiest cookie (best value). And one day, you may want to switch to even healthier options like making your own savory, plant-based, healthy good recipes and low-sugar summer desserts.
The average cookie listed here has 2 grams or less of added sugar. That’s pretty darn good in cookie terms!
Keep in mind, if a sweet food item or cookie has no sugar or low sugar, it could contain sugar substitute ingredients.
Sugar for sweetness I believe is the safest bet out there (next to pure juices and zests that come from whole fruits, or unprocessed honey or agave).
Be sure to read the actual list of ingredients and pay attention to artificial ones. A general rule of thumb: the fewer ingredients the better (closer to natural vs. processed or store packaged with additives for better taste or preservatives).
In Search of the Healthiest Packaged Cookie (That Tastes Good!)
If you want to be healthier driven, here is a better grocery list with less than 2 grams per cookie (but you should always do your research as cookies change):
Annie’s Chocolate or Neopolitan organic cookies –7 grams of fat for 31 cookies. (Compare that to other store-bought cookie or a deceptively high sugar-filled fig newton)
-Stella D’oro Stella cookies – 8 grams per 3 cookies (I wish they’d bring back the one in the assortment with the fruit in the middle)
-Stacy’s Cinnamon pita chips – 5 grams of fat for 7 chips
-Honey Teddy Grahams- 8 grams per 47 pieces – (wins the sugar healthiest cookie award from this list)
-Dansk Danish cookies (royal blue round tin) – 8 grams per 4 cookies
-Loacker Quadratini wafer cookies – 9 grams for 8 cookies
-Mulino Bianca Batticuori – 1.8 gram per cookie (when in Italy, you may want to stock up on this one)
-Girl Scouts Savannah Smiles – 11 grams per 5 cookies
-GS Trefoils – 7 grams per 5 cookies (the original is the GSC’s healthiest cookie by sugar count… go figure!)
-GS Thin Mints – 10 grams per 4 cookies (my fave stored in the freezer!)
-Nabisco Animal Crackers – 7 grams per 14 crackers
Compared to Not the Healthiest Cookie (above 3 grams of sugar):
-Vienna Fingers: 10 grams per 2 cookies
-Oreo Cookie: 14 grams per 3 cookies
-Chips Ahoy: 11 grams per 3 cookies
-Tate’s Cookies 11-13 grams per 2 cookies
-Carr’s English Tea Cookies (Ginger Lemon Cremes) – 11 grams per 2 cookies
-Girl Scout Do Si Do (peanut butter) – 11 grams per 3 cookies
-GS Samoas – 11 grams per 2 cookies (..was a personal fave until I learned the truth!)
-GS Tagalongs (chocolate/peanut butter)– 8 grams per 2 cookies
-Pepperidge Farm Verona Thumbprint/Brussels/Milano – 11 grams per 3 cookies
-Pepperidge Farm Mint Milano – 9 grams per 2 cookies – (…glad I got this one out of my system as a kid!)
-Pepperidge Farm Milano Dark Chocolate – 7 grams per 2 cookies (…huh, dark chocolate is less? – ok..noted.)
-Keebler Sandies shortbread – 7 grams per 2 cookies
-Keebler Simple Made butter cookie – 6 grams per 2 cookies
-Biscoff shortbread cookie 12 grams per 4 cookies (…good to know as you’re often handed these on some European international flights that don’t include nutrition facts)
-Honey Maid graham – 8 grams for 4 squares (2 whole rectangular pieces)
-Stella D’Oro Swiss Fudge – 11 grams per 3 cookies
Changing Your Sweet Habits
…If your fave is on this higher added sugar list (as my childhood ones are), maybe there’s a lower-refined sugar one in the list above it you can learn to love… maybe?
Just remember, sometimes all you need is a ‘lil something sweet. If you reach for a few raisins or a small handful of low-sugar cereal, that could do the trick to satisfy your want (and add some fiber at the same time ;-). … or maybe all you need is a juicy apple to satisfy your sweet tooth?
Have you ever tried an apple with all-natural peanut or almond butter? I think it’s delicious. If you choose a Granny Smith apple then you get a sweet and sour symphony of tastes, that’s better than a green apple Jolly Rancher… and can be very pleasing to a Vata.
What I’m suggesting here is a lifelong and year-round approach for your health success, and not a list of don’t do’s.
When you start looking at Nutrition Facts sugar content, then you get sugar conscious. Not eating high sugar foods helps you stay healthy and fit, lose weight, and reduce body inflammations (that are no fun).
When you do your household shopping for products at Target or wherever you go, on your receipt printout, most individual items are under say $10, but all those little costs add up… it’s the same with your daily sugar. It adds up daily and your body keeps score. Keep that in the back of your health-conscious mind.
Here are a few additional sugar rules I’ve created for myself and maybe you want to adopt in your life…
1.Be picky about your sugar choices. Think of your dessert as a treat for the day or week. When I was younger, I could’ve had a sugar IV drip in my vein and be happy eating spoonfuls of white sugar.
Weaning yourself gradually to better sweets is a better strategy than eliminating, especially if you have a sweet tooth (remember, the fad diet example I gave above).
2. If you don’t see the Nutrition Facts, ingredients, and the full-sugar content on the food packaging, skip the choice. If you order groceries online and the photos don’t show the written facts, keep going.
3. Eat candy sparingly, and maybe this is a good one to eliminate, as there’s no healthy nutritional value in candy. I think you can get a smile on your face another way. I know that one can be a downer as we all love candy (for the memories if nothing else).
When we were kids, our caretakers/role models could’ve helped us out if they informed us that candy is for kids. I’m serious. When you were a toddler, you were planning to get new adult teeth so cavities didn’t matter. That was the time to enjoy candy galore, not as an adult.
And If you love strawberry Twizzlers like I did and still do, you can stretch out your candy treat choice in moderation. It brings out the inner child happy in me. 👧🏻
You can be smart with your choices and find treats that have a longer shelf-life (e.g. keep in the freezer) so you’re not tempted to just consume more before your treat loses its freshness.
You could also buy a smaller quantity if the item is perishable. Remember telling yourself no, can backfire.
4. And finally, stay away from the gas station junk food aisle. I know that’s a no-brainer for healthy conscious thinking. You aren’t likely to find the healthiest cookie anywhere near those places, but reach for the healthy bar or nuts, or even a Hershey’s dark chocolate bar to fill you up if you get low blood sugar or feel you’re getting hangry with no other food source in sight.
Ok, so now you may know a little about sweet changes you could evaluate/make, and healthier cookies (and not-so-healthy cookies) out there.
Oh, and I didn’t forget…. here’s the Trivia Question Answer (from above):
Depends who you ask, but the Fig Newton made a debut in 1892 from Nabisco (The National Biscuit Company). Then Nabisco came up with the Animal Cracker in 1902. Chocolate chip cookies became famous in the 1930’s, credited to the (Nestle) Toll House Restaurant. You probably know which of these is lowest in sugar content… I’d choose the Animal Crackers.
And if you want a beautifully spiced cookie that’s usually a resurging trend around Christmas but you can enjoy year-round is a spiced cookie.
Off and on with my 20-year hospitality career, I worked behind-the-scenes in catering planning and event execution for Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese restaurants and fine hotels in the Washington, DC area — a top foodie hub. During that time, I picked up many great summer Mediterranean recipes and experimented with my own.
Some of my fondest memories were the large corporate and bridal events where I could get creative with the festive food and elaborate decorations.
From those experiences, I learned to create balanced menus for preferred and customized tastes around the specific seasons and events.
I’ve taste-tested delicious foods, recipes, and dishes from the chefs I worked with who came from around the world.
Some of my favorite summer Mediterranean recipes(great for warm seasons!) that I’ve added my take and twists to, are below:
Starbucks has a menu of refresher drinks including the Starbucks Pink Drink and a choice of exotic fruit drinks on their current menu, including these:
Star Drink, Pink Drink, Strawberry Acai, and Mango Dragon Fruit.
A couple of these drink names don’t describe the drink ingredients exactly. Like, the Starbucks Pink Drink has passionfruit and gets its pink name color from the strawberries.
The Star Drink is kiwifruit-based, but the name reminds me of star fruit (that’s star-shaped). When you cut it up, it can have a similar green color to a kiwifruit (but isn’t nearly as sweet).
Curious Tropical Fruits
Tropical fruits make for very unusual and refreshing summery drinks (great for balancing Vata and Pitta). Tropical and most fruits have Vitamin C plus their variety of vitamins and nutrients. The kiwifruit is a superfruit with amazingly high Vitamin C content.
Tropical fruits have strange exteriors, fascinating interiors, and unique colors. They can make you curious…
Like the kiwifruit with an egg-shaped, smooth coconut-looking exterior and the interior of a perfectly patterned seed.
And the dragon fruit, that’s one strange looking fruit with a fireball-exterior color/shape with artichoke-like stems, and contrasting oreo-cookie color polka-dotted interior… whew, that’s one long description…sorry, I tried my best here to describe it to you
What can I say?… it’s in a league of its own.
Then there’s the passion fruit with a soupy-mushy interior with contrasting peach orange and plant stem green colored seeds.
I have to admit passionfruit is not a taste I prefer. I’m passionate about fruit, but not the passionfruit… some people love the taste (calling all Pittas!), but it gives me a pucker face when I drink it because it’s too tart for my taste.
Me — I like pure sweet, but maybe that’s because I’m a Vata… so kiwi, pineapple, or strawberries are more my jam. Those are the sweetest fruits I know 😊.
The good news is, added sugar like the kind you find in a girly pink lemonade drink isn’t necessary as natural fructose sugar is enough.
Dreaming Up Your Drinks
In making my dream version of a perfect Starbucks Pink Drink, I think I’d mix strawberry, basil, and coconut froth. To each her own.
In making your homemade drinks, you can always stick with the fruit basics if all of this is too exotic for you.
You can use strawberry, banana, and orange, but I-yyy think you can get a little more creative!
You could make a virgin pina colada smoothie with pineapple and coconut milk and then zhugh up with a dessert maraschino cherry (that’s lower in sugar than you think 😉).
…Can you tell I turn into my ‘lil girl self when I talk about the fruits?
Other fruits to consider are berries and watermelons — perfectly ripened in the summertime. Watermelons are refreshing and contain lycopene, an antioxidant that you often hear about in tomatoes. You can add mint or basil for a great refresher-balanced drink.
Cantaloupe is another good fruit choice, loaded with Vitamin A. And it’s fun to cut up. I like to cut in half, use a mini-scooper, and add the chunks back into the cantaloupe bowl. That’s a perfect environmentally-conscious way to take mixed fruit to a picnic 😉. But less waste is a whole ‘nother topic I’m passionate about besides fruit.
Vitamins can have a positive effect on your physical and mental health like sunscreen, where you’re better covered. For Vitamin A, it’s retinol for skin cell turnover and also a fat-soluble carotenoid that is needed for essential daily organ and body functions.
In appreciating our bodies, we can keep them nourished as nature intended. And we can make it fun with our eat from the rainbow food where we get nutrients like vitamins and minerals.
This rainbow grit pie recipe below 🌈
These days, deficiency in Vitamin D and iodine is common as we intake less cow’s milk and salt as we’re taught that they are harmful in large doses. Finding the right daily balance is not easy.
So then we learn the habits to cut out these foods and beverages.
And we end up with a deficiency that we can supplement. And it’s still complex to fine line balance as research findings are constantly evolving…
One day, one grocery item is on the good list. And the next, it has been replaced by another consumable item.
Vitamins Stay Constant
So then vitamins in powder, capsule, and gummies can be the supplement that fortifies and serve as a “just in case.” A multi-vitamin can be the catch all.
You may not think absorbed vitamins are helping as you don’t see immediate daily changes, but HOW I believe in them as a person that grew up with them, is as a backup to food nutrients that’s the primary source of vitamins.
I first learned about vitamin supplements when I was a child. We would take the generic brand Fred Flintstones candy vitamins that tasted like Pez candy. That’s similar to the gummy versions offered today.
Then when I was halfway through college, I took a semester off to learn more about high-absorption nutritional supplements through a health-conscious product company.
I volunteered for the American Cancer Society that was in my area backyard. “Eating Smart” promotional campaign posters were plastered around to get the word out about disease prevention.
Those experiences offered me the opportunity to learn deeper about health and free radicals (yeah, that was known for those interested in cutting-edge health trends and predictions)…
And so much so, I considered nutrition as a career major.
Back then the leading causes of death were heart disease and cancer (the same ones today). By taking antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E (ACE for short), you could prevent health issues down the road. Hey… not bad for pre-Millennial century knowledge.
Learning about the “good stuff” vitamins by default teaches you about placebo multivitamins having a low-to-no effect. They’re the inexpensive vitamins claiming A-Z still sitting on store shelves. They make us feel better about ourselves that improves mental health, but aren’t adding anything positive for our bodies.
So they are helping in some way no matter what.
You get to decide. And you are your best health advocate.
You get a sign you’ve taken a “placebo” vitamin if you have dark urine as an indicator that the pills weren’t absorbed by your body. So the quality of vitamins does make a difference. And liquid gel capsules are more absorbable than horse pill tablets.
Back then, I was drinking powdered supplement shakes before smoothies became a thing. We took a reusable plastic water bottle (yes, those existed!) with some water and shook the contents, which still works. Most of the shakes had a strong chalky taste, but they started a healthy breakfast drink movement.
Back then, the large Baby Boomer generations were the influencers like Millennials and Gen Z today. Predictions were found in books like Ken Dychtwald’s Age Wave.
Then the young to mid-adults helped to push the healthy eating movements today similar to fueling the healthy food shopping, plant-based, sustainable, and organic food movements. You can check out this page of 200 anti-inflammatory A-Z list of healthy foods.
Antioxidants were a known concept, but polyphenols today have made many live longer headlines. We drink more tea, coffee, and red wine for their polyphenols good health effects.
The fitness zeitgeist beliefs were precursors to cardio fitness and getting your heart rate up. Fitness teachers like Denise Austin taught through aerobic class tapes, a lot like how we create and watch YouTube videos today. Btw, she has been on interviews more recently and looks the exact same if not better!
These days, I would say you have to be more careful about what fitness channels you follow as anyone can teach a class. You can hurt yourself at any age, and even by doing simple stretching. Videos online don’t always show you the protective ways. And there’s not much discussion about post-workout regimens.
Cooling down and replenishing your body’s nutrients after a workout is important for recovery even if you’re only working out 10 minutes at a time.
You don’t hear much talk about minerals, but below I list a few that are vitally critical in a daily routine, and you may not be getting enough of in your life and diet…
Off and on with my 20-year hospitality career, I worked behind-the-scenes in catering planning and event execution for Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese restaurants and fine hotels in the Washington, DC area — a top foodie hub. 
