What are we eating?
Do you want to know? Good. Then you have come to the right place! It might get a little ugly, but don't worry - there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
What you need to know is that the most important item to look at when you are shopping is the ingredients list. Why? Because calories are not important, fat is not important, even sugar is not important - what is important is where those things are coming from. What is the source? You want to put real food into your body and much of what is in our diet is made of chemicals and additives. For example, I was doing the dishes a few weeks ago, and there was dill pickle relish on a spoon in the sink. As the water rinsed over the little pickle pieces they turned from green to white. Being the serial label reader I am, I rushed to get the jar from the fridge and chuckled as I read "Yellow 6." I often wonder why they, the food producers, think that white pickle relish isnt good enough. That is a question I still have not found an answer to, though I suspect it was the idea of a very clever marketing rep who knows that the human brain is drawn to colors. Most of our food system is all about money. Thats why you need to be one step ahead.
When you go to your pantry and grab an item, it is required by the FDA to have a label that looks like this:
When I shop, I literally look at the ingredients list on EVERYTHING. I have learned never to be decieved by something that looks ok. Even canned veggies can potentially have loads of junk in them! What we are eating is making us sick. Our bodies were not made to process red dye 40, hydroginated fat, and anti caking materials found in cheeses. What I am about to tell you is going to change your relationship with food for the better. How did we get here?
Food has been preserved since the beginning of man and fire. Smoked meats have long been a staple of our diets, to help sustain us through the winter. Housewives started leaning on processed foods in the 30's when they needed to work to help support their families during the depression, and there wasnt time for the traditional cooking methods that had been handed down for generations. At that time there wasn't as much added to the foods and the processed foods were relativley pure. Over time however, manufacturers were looking for cheap ways to make foods last longer and they started including things such as hydroginated fats, MSG, and food colorings. In fact, since 1918 seventeen different food dyes have been approved and then banned.
The First Step
Before you concern yourself with the HUGE task of educating yourself about the thousands of man made ingredients allowed to be injected into our foods, start your quest to be healthy by staying to the perimeter of the grocery store. Most good things can be found on the outer walls. In my store, I first visit the bakery, then the produce department, then dairy, eggs, and finally to the meat department. You can pretty much sustain your family on those foods. Try it next time you shop, challenge yourself. If you don't bring processed foods into your home, chances are, you wont eat them!
WHY are processed foods "bad?"
#1 – Minerals are stripped out, such as 98% of the magnesium being stripped out of wheat when it’s milled and bleached into white flour.
#2 – Phytonutrients are destroyed. As much as 90% of the phytonutrient content is lost during processing. (And remember, phytonutrients are the disease-fighting medicines found in foods.)
#3 – The physical properties of foods are artificially altered in a way that makes them dangerous. The homogenization of milk, for example, alters the fat molecules in milk, giving them properties that contribute to heart disease and clogged arteries. Partially-hydrogenated oils are also the result of a physical alteration that makes food dangerous for your health.
So if "you are what you eat" I guess the question is, what do you want to be? A whole organic living creature that functions as nature intended? Or a walking creation of a scientist that has to take a pill for almost every life system in you that is failing, just to function?
FoodFacts
Food Dye Information
Processed Soy
