Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Food Class Session 2

After a really nice weekend that included a trip to Scarborough Fair where I ate a Scottish Egg (hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage and deep fried!), let's get back to our discussion on healthy eating.

We'll start today with the list of "health" foods that aren't healthy, with only a brief explanation as to why they are actually bad for you. I'll explain those reasons more fully in later posts. Also today-foods to avoid like the plague. Here we go!

Commercial, sweetened yogurt-too much white sugar, actually feeds yeast & often has artificial colors.
Store bought wheat bread-processing sucks out the nutrients, sometimes it's not wheat at all, just Carmel coloring (but it's still a bit better than bleached white bread).
Ice burg lettuce-not very nutritious and I've read that little microscopic bugs like to live in ice burg lettuce leaves, bugs that attack your stomach. Some people can't digest it well, maybe this is why? Also, once you leave it behind, your taste buds will thank you! Other lettuces & greens are so much more flavorful.
Graham crackers-hydrogenated oils. Think future heart attack as the oils coat your arteries.
Canned chicken noodle soup (most canned soups, really)-loaded with MSG (mono sodium glutamate) which is a neurotoxin.
Milk-there are so many nasty things about store bought milk, so I'll just leave you with one for today-as a result of the processes that make the cow a freak of nature who has many more times the milk than God intended, there's almost always pus in the milk. Homogenization hides the pus; distributes it throughout the milk instead of little particles accumulating in the bottom of your glass. Mmmm, tasty!
Juice-too much sugar at once (even though it's natural sugar, it still brings havoc to the pancreas), much of the nutrients are gone and there's no fiber like you'd get from the whole fruit.
Pasta-made from nutrient stripped white flour.
Canned veggies-I've read that canned green beans are so nutritionally void, they actually go backwards on the nutrients scale to a negative food (just to make a point, not really). If you're opening up that can out of duty to serve some vegetables, don't.
Kool-Aid (not that people think it's healthy, just a staple of childhood). There's nothing to Kool-Aid except artificial colors, flavors & sugar. Besides, it stains their mouths & the carpet!

Okay, so now that you're motivated to give your family better nutrition, let's talk about what needs to go first: Fake food. These are foods that are very hard to find a source for (other than a factory maybe), they offer little or no nutritional value and may actually include additives that are harmful (like cancer causing agents). Here's a list to start from:

Margarine
Most processed lunch meats
Hot dogs
Colas
Processed Cheese Products (not cheese, just the fake kind, especially Velveeta)
Sugar laden breakfast cereals
Mac & cheese (boxed, not home made)
Frozen dinners (prepared foods, not frozen fruits & veggies)
Chips
Candy
Most canned soups
Canned meals like Spaghetti-Os
Fake juices like Sunny Delight, Hawaiian Punch, Gatorade (think colored sugary chemicals).

I know I'll think of more, but this is a good start. Probably made most of you just click the web page shut. Don't despair, there are plenty of good things you can eat! You just need to adjust your style to accommodate them into your kitchen. Start slowly, eliminating only a few things--or even just one thing--at a time.

The major things to avoid: MSG, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup. Read labels!

Okay, next time I'll focus on one topic like MSG, milk, or hydrogenated oils. If you all want to hear about one in particular first, let me know in the comments.

Happy Eating!

5 comments:

workingmom said...

OK, so I have been checking out your blog for a while. I found it while looking at Summer's. I enjoy every post. As far as this one goes, after reading, I feel a little defeated. I have done good things (I think) like cut out all canned veggies (it's either fresh or frozen), I don't eat iceberg lettuce (I prefer spinach). But my suggestion is that you not only tell us the bad things about some of our everyday staples, but give more examples of replacement foods. Like milk for example. Do you recommend organic, dried, or no milk at all. You've got to have milk right? And juice, I try to find the ones that say 100% juice. Is this OK? I will say this, pasta is one of my favorites and my family will continue to have lasagna night. Even if I am the only one that truly enjoys it (Tony and Azlyn aren't big fans.)Canned soup as well. I use it for cooking a lot and just last night we had grilled cheese and tomato soup. Yum!! So, if you could suggest some alternatives, I would be willing to try!

PS - I am new to the blogging thing. I haven't made a post yet but I am working on it. So you should follow me or friend me or whatever you call it.

Wendy said...

Hey there Carrie! (You are an "ie" Carrie, right?)I'm so glad you posted this comment. I was washing dishes after writing that post and thinking I probably did leave you all feeling bad without much in the way of solutions.

However, I fully plan on giving you recipes and alternatives, I just don't want to overwhelm you with info, so I was trying to break it down in bite size (ha!) pieces. I'll be posting something along those lines very soon, I promise!

To answer your questions: yes, I think milk is needed, but not like the "got milk" people make it sound. We need to drink organic raw milk, straight from an organic dairy (more on that later). 100% juice is WAY better than stuff like Sunny D, but should be limited to very small amounts or at least diluted. I think if it's served beside something with protein like a PB & J sandwich, it's better than beside a sugary cinnamon roll or cereal. Canned soup-look for the "healthy selections" hmmm, that's not right, but the Campbells with the green banner on them, they don't have MSG, so they're a better choice. I love grilled cheese, just use the real cheese slices hanging beside the individually wrapped packages, a whole grain bread, butter on the outside. I think tomato soup is MSG free, just check the label.

Thanks for reading, don't give up, there's help on the way, lol. I'll follow you for sure! Can't wait to see what you have to say :)

Unknown said...

Keep it comin! And now I go hide for feeding my family velveeta last night and mac and cheese this afternoon. LOL. I knew/know all these things are bad I just havent figured out a substitute...yet..

Alison K said...

Okay, so most of the stuff you said isn't news - except for the bit about milk. Do you have any references for that? I'm very much grossed out, because we go through about a litre a day between two of us. :)

We buy wholemeal pasta, but it costs about A$3.50/500g whereas white pasta is A$1.50/500g so i'm thinking i might start making my own (the cost alone would justify it!) Do you eat pasta? Do you make it yourself?

Added to that, most of the juice we drink is the bottled, long-way-from-the-tree variety, but i still figure it has *some* vitamins in it - and because i don't eat much fruit it's better to drink that than not at all. :) Student budgets don't really lend themselves to buying juiced-on-demand juices (although there are a lot of places that make them, here). Ditto regarding actually-organic foods...

Wendy said...

Hi Alison, thanks for chiming in. I'll share at length info on milk as I get to it. There's a lot more than just the pus info. I originally learned that bit from a book my "milk lady" loaned me but the title escapes me. Nourishing Traditions, a book based on the way ancient people ate, also states it. When I write the milk post, I'll include an portion of her chapter on milk or I'll find links to send you to.

Pasta-that's a hard one for me because whole grain pasta isn't available in our town. It's available in a healthfood store 30 miles away. I've not yet decided it's worth it to make a special trip. So, while I know it's not great for us, we currently eat the regular stuff once or twice a week. I've thought of making my own, but not ventured there yet.

You've also got a valid point about budgets. Ours doesn't allow us to eat the way I'd like, but I try to decide what our priorities are and do the best we can afford. I plan to touch on the costs of all this eating business at some point in the discussion.

Thanks again for stopping by!