Thursday, January 5, 2012

You Are What You Eat!

According to a recent poll done by CNN 76% of Americans have set a New Year's Resolution to lose weight.  

The problem?  We are what we eat!  

The solution?  Know what you're eating.  It's as simple as that. 

If you knew what was in those chips, you would probably NOT feed them to your children.  If you knew what was in McDonald's chicken nuggets you would NEVER allow your children to eat them again. 

Have you ever stopped to consider that your store bought meat, eggs, cheese and milk have other things in them?  Like hormones and other preservatives??

Your chips are probably loaded with MSG which causes thousands of problems for thousand of Americans and they aren't even aware of it!  They complain of head aches, inability to lose weight, hormone imbalance and a whole host of other problems!  {Don't even get me started on MSG!!!} 

You can go here and see what Sarah the Healthy Home Economist has to say about it all. 

And what about your bread?  Does it have vegetable oil?  Hydrogenated oil? High Fructose Corn Syrup? White wheat?  Soy?  These are all things to stay away from.

Unless you make everything at home - which isn't as hard as it sounds - you have to read ingredient labels to know what's in your food.

photo credit
Check out these ingredients!  This is a label on a jar of powdered baby food.  Scary.  Soy ingredients....that's pumping them full of estrogen and then wondering why girls as young as 7 and 8 are getting their periods. 

That alone {and the MSG argument} should be reason enough to start reading ingredient labels.

When reading ingredient labels, remember that the first item on the list is the most important because it's the main ingredient.  In other words, if "water" is the first ingredient, then there's more water in that food item than anything else.

If high fructose corn syrup is the second ingredient, you know that high fructose corn syrup is the second largest ingredient in that food item.  

Reading ingredients can be daunting.  When I first started I did more reading in the grocery store than shopping!  It took me forever!!  But it was well worth it.  Now, I know what brands I like and which I want to avoid.  I still recommend reading the labels on those items every once in a while though.  Just in case.  Don't be shocked if a company tries to pull a fast one on ya!

If there's an ingredient listed that you don't recognize, let alone know how to pronounce, you probably shouldn't be eating it.

Simplify is the best advice I have on this issue.  Do your homework.  

Know what you don't want in your food, like MSG {which can be labeled under other names as well}, high fructose corn syrup, soy, and hydrogenated vegetable oils and avoid them. 

Try to buy foods that only contain 5 ingredients or less.  It's a fun challenge {in my opinion} and quite possible.  

You will reap many healthy benefits by simply reading labels!  Your family is worth it!


For tips on avoiding MSG {a neurotoxin that literally kills brain cells}, feel free to check out some of my other posts:
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This post is linked with:

day2day joys
Raising Homemakers
Hearts for Home
Natural Living Link Up
Raising Mighty Arrows

9 comments:

  1. When I first started reading ingredients, I was afraid to eat anything!! It's scary what they put in food products.

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  2. I know! I try to make just about everything we eat from scratch so I know what's in it. Bread and tortillas are my next venture. I need a wheat grinder and a kitchen aid!!!

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  3. I'm a huge whole foods fans, for the very reasons you mentioned in this post. Processed foods are quite literally killing Americans!

    You're absolutely right- it's SO important to read labels, to know something about what you're reading, and then choose wisely!

    Thanks so much for linking up, my friend!

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  4. I'm a huge whole foods fans, for the very reasons you mentioned in this post. Processed foods are quite literally killing Americans!

    You're absolutely right- it's SO important to read labels, to know something about what you're reading, and then choose wisely!

    Thanks so much for linking up, my friend!

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  5. We have always eaten moderately healthy but have recently been working on really cleaning up our diets. I am quickly finding that there are many undesirable ingredients in much of the food we purchase. Switching to more whole foods simplifies the process! Thanks for a great article!

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  6. Great post Angela! As sad as it is, many people don't really even read what they are eating. Thanks for linking up at H2W!

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  7. Isn't it amazing what is legal to put in our "food?" We are definitely what we eat!

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  8. What we put on our bodies is as important as what we put in them. Parabens are turned into estrogen when absorbed, which is another chemical accelerating early menses for young girls. I read EVERYTHING from food to household cleaners to health and body aids. I make most of them myself, but the few things I don't make, I get from proven sources with fully disclosed ingredient lists.

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  9. Angela, I also wanted to tell you this post is one of my top 3 from last week!

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