Don't Eat That...'til you read this

Okay, my last word for the week on food marketing and what you need to know about it - this piece from Men's Health and their notorius "Eat This, Not That," model for pointing out what we already know: the longer the list of ingredients, the worse it is for our bodies.

Before you pull your car up to the drive through, and please before you feed fast food to your children, read this article on what's really in your "food."  It's eye-opening and sobering.

But, there is a silver lining in all of this bad news.  I know, sometimes it seems like we're surrounded by things we can't eat, and it's overwhelming to try and change our ways.  But, it only seems that way because we've been convinced that our options are simply what's sold to us on television.  There is a whole world of cleaner, healthier eating out there and guess what? It's waaaaay easier than reading lists of ingredients and trying to figure out what to eat.

Here's how: eat real food. Apples and oranges and pears and berries.  Carrots, broccoli, spinach, squash. Eggs. Chicken. Fish.  Sweet potatoes and brown rice and whole grains and nuts. You don't need a degree in nutrition to eat healthy, just ignore the marketing, skip the aisles, and head to the produce section.  I absolutely promise you will find everything you need there, and if you get tripped up, call me and I'll walk you through it.

Education isn't always power.  It's a good start, but only action is power. Take this new knowledge and put it into action this weekend!  Start eating cleaner and stop worrying about what's in your food.

Be healthy, and be happy!

Shopping Cart Ambush

As I was doing my usual speed shopping last week, trying to set the land speed record for time in and out of the grocery store, I screetched my buggy to a halt in front of a display of Crystal Light Pure.  I've been meaning to take a peek at the ingredient list because it is advertised as having no artificial sweeteners.  As I suspected, it is sweetened with Truvia and Stevia, which are natural sweetners although I still don't care for them because I am opposed to sweeteners in general and prefer to eat food the way it actually tastes.  But that's beside the point.

  



I flipped the box over and looked at the list of ingredients.  Numero uno was our unfriend sugar. Not a surprise, although look at the picture on the front.  Does this girl look like she drinks a lot of sugar?  Don't be fooled - Crystal Light Pure may not have artificial sweetners, but it is still sugar so if you drink it, just be aware!

As I put it back on the shelf, I noticed that it was stocked right next to a supply of Kool Aid. How ironic!  I flipped that package around as well and looked at the ingredients.

Pop Quiz: Do you see anything similar about the first ingredient in each of these items? (hint: they're the same)



Crystal Light Pure Ingredients

 

Cherry Kool Aid Ingredients

Now, as an adult, would you make yourself a pitcher of Kool Aid and carry it around with you all day thinking you're doing the healthy thing?  Of course not!  Please, if you buy and drink sugar, do so in measured moderation.  I like tasty things too...I just don't want you to sacrifice your health to have them.  Put a wedge of lemon in your water if you want some extra flavor!  I do it every day and live to tell the story.

But if you buy this...we need to talk because that is just wrong!

  

Be healthy! :)

Sick of Deciphering Nutrition Labels? Stop!

Just a warning here - I have my megaphone out and I am stepping onto the soapbox.

It's no secret that the United States has a bit of a weight problem. Over a third of our population is categorized as obese, and leading trends show that statistic destined to grow over the coming years. While we are a society obsessed with diets, exercise, and body image, its obvious that our methods for achieving our ideals are flawed:

• Diets sabotage us.
• Guaranteed-results workouts require actual work and discipline.
• Reese's Peanut Butter eggs now look like this:

So it may seem like great news that such notable people as Michelle Obama, our Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, and the CEOs of food manufacturing companies are jumping on the healthy-eating bandwagon, calling for not only more truth in advertising but actually changing the way food is mass-produced to include healthier ingredients. So why do I feel so cynical about it?
I mean, hearing our First Lady tell the bigwigs at Kraft that, "we need you not to just tweak around the edges but entirely rethink the products you are offering, the information that you provide about these products, and how you market those products to our children," should be a good thing. And it is. The aggressive marketing of crap to kids is not a new concept, but is getting out of control. Its reassuring to read articles such as this, which point to the potential changes in food labeling that may help educate Americans about the food they are buying.
I guess I could say that I understand how families are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to convenience food, but I would be lying. I just don't think it is unreasonable to think that instead of perusing the grocery store aisles trying to translate the nutrition label or list of ingredients on a food package, they may push their buggy out of the marketing section of the store and into the part that has actual food.
Here are some examples of food if you aren't familiar:

I have a quick and simple solution to the confusion that Americans are facing when it comes to reading nutritional lables and lists of ingredients: don't do it. Instead, eat food that doesn't have any mystery about it at all - fruits, vegetables, chicken, turkey, fish, and whole grains. Get a breadmaker; it takes less time to throw together a loaf of bread and set a timer than it does to sign up for Weight Watchers.

A co-worker recently stopped me in the hall at work and vented about being so confused about whether to eat low-carb, low-fat, low-calorie, which foods had "good" fat and which ones had high-fructose corn syrup, etc. She was a mess; she was so confused and overwhelmed that I could tell she was going to ditch the whole idea and go back to eating mindlessly. I remember being that way, and I remember realizing that I could save myself a lot of headaches if I would just eat fresh food straight from the earth. I don't mess with nutrition labels because I have no need for them.

I do realize that most of the people in our country are more concerned with the short-term flavor of a food than the long-term effects of it on their bodies, and that a majority of Americans feel downright entitled to eating junk because they feel they've earned it by working hard. I personally don't understand that logic but I recognize that it exists.

I guess I am just on my soapbox today to say something really simple - if reading nutritional labels and lists of ingredients makes your head hurt, stop doing it. Eat food that doesn't come vacuum sealed.

Done. :)