September 2008 Archives

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Shopping was easy when most food came from farms. Now, factory-made foods have made chemical additives and preservatives a significant part of our diet. People may not be able to pronounce the names of many of these chemicals, but they still want to know what the chemicals do.  More importantly, which ones are safe and which are poorly tested or possibly dangerous.

Preservatives and Food Additives in the US:

Preservatives and food additives are a tricky subject. I've talked recently about reading the ingredient list of the packaged foods that you buy. Now that you are looking more closely at the list, you might wonder "what the heck are all these long, complicated words?!!"

For the most part, long words on the ingredient list are chemically produced or chemically altered preservatives or food additives. Some additives that are allowed in the US are not allowed in other countries. Take Nutri-Grain bars for an example:

The above picture shows an identical product, but in the UK it is sold with natural food coloring whereas in the US it is sold with questionable food colorings. So how do you know if the additives in your food are linked to health problems or not?

Know the Facts!

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (www.cspinet.org) is a great place for updated scientific information about health. They have two resources that may be of use to you:

1. A list of food additives and how safe they are:  http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm
2. A chart of food additives, separating them by safety recommendation: http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm#Additives%20rated

Understanding the science and facts behind recommendations is your first step to making an educated decision.

Food Additives to Avoid:

For those of you who want to keep it simple, here is a short list of food additives to avoid:

• sodium nitrite (In many packaged meats)
• saccharin ("Sweet and Low")
• caffeine (especially the levels found in energy drinks)
• olestra (In the WOW chips that came out a few years ago)
• acesulfame K (in some of the new diet drinks like Coke Zero)
• artificial coloring (especially Red 3 and 40, Yellow 5 and 6, and Blue 1 and 2, Green 3 and Orange B)

Not only are these among the most questionable additives, but they are used primarily in foods of low nutritional value.

For more details on this topic, check out CSPI's report on food additives: http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm

Shop Safe!

- Julie

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Last post we talked about smart grocery shopping. This is an add-on to that and hopefully will help you avoid some of the tricks at the grocery store!

10 Things NOT TO BUY at the Grocery Store:

1. Foods with a lot of ingredients that you don't recognize. If you read through the ingredient list and see a lot of long, weird and hard to pronounce words, then it's probably not the best choice!

2. Foods with any form of sugar as the #1 ingredient. Packaged food that has sugar as the first ingredient means that the product is mostly sugar. Sugar words include words that contain sugar, syrup or end in -ose. If it's the first ingredient then it's not far from being a sugar cube!

3. Foods with any form of fat as the #1 ingredient. Fat should enhance the flavor of something, not BE the flavor! If cream, butter, margarine, oil or other form of fat is the first ingredient of the processed food, then think again.

4. Sugar drinks. Our bodies need water, our taste buds like flavor. The bottom line is that we need fluids. Don't add extra calories and stress on your body by having sugar drinks around. Having a sweetened soda or tea no more than 2x/week is my recommendation.

5. Crackers not made from whole grains. I don't know about you, but I eat crackers almost once a day. When you buy them, be sure to get ones with whole grains as the first ingredient. Crackers that qualify: triscuits, wassa, whole grain saltines. Crackers that DON'T qualify: wheat thins, cheeze-it's, saltines.

6. Granola bars made from refined grains. Look at that ingredient list again. #1 should be a whole grain (usually oats). Healthy granola bars include: Kashi and Nature Valley. Not healthy granola bars: almost everything else!

7. FAKE cheese products. You might not realize it, but that totino's cheese pizza that you just bought for 33 cents is NOT REAL CHEESE! Look at the ingredient list and you will see "cheese substitute". Other violators include velveeta cheese, american cheese and many mac and cheese products.

8. Nutrition Supplements. Supplement suppliers would have you believe that their product is the magic cure to your problems. In the big picture, being physically active and eating healthy foods is much more influential than supplements. At the most, a multivitamin, vitamin D and calcium are all you need.

9. Hot dogs or sausages. I don't care what you use to make them, hot dogs and sausages are fatty meat and chemicals smooshed into a shape. Even the fat free versions are still high in chemicals and nitrates, which have been linked with colon cancer.

10. Anything located by the checkout counter! Don't get sucked into that very final impulse buy that the store is counting on. The candy is tempting you so if you must, just buy some gum.

Happy Shopping!
- Julie

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Probably one of the more difficult tasks for the average person is grocery shopping! Grocery shopping is to be contrasted with what I call "impulse grocering", the habit that often doubles the amount of money we spend at a trip to the store.  Personally, I find it completely confusing to have to go to the store and look through 35 loafs of bread decoding the marketing and advertisements to find something that's worth eating!

Throw on top of that the 56 options of ice cream, and 39 choices of "juice drink" not to mention soups, cereals and frozen dinners. When choosing packaged foods at the grocery store there are a few tricks to help you narrow down your choices. Hopefully these will help you make smart purchases the next time you hit the grocery store.

The Packaged Food

1. DON'T BELIEVE THE PACKAGING! There are many claims on the box or wrapper of a food item. First off, if there is a box or wrapper, then someone is making lots of money on that food. Do you think their objective with the packaging is to help you make a healthy choice? NO! They just want to get your buck! Just because something is written on the outside doesn't make it true!
2. Look at the ingredient list. There is nothing that can take the place of knowing the facts on a food item. If there are a lot of ingredients that you don't recognize, it's probably not a good choice!
3. Choose food for health. The purpose of eating is to NOURISH your body. Eating does provide enjoyment, but that shouldn't be your primary reason for eating! Look for things in the ingredient list that promote health. Include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, lowfat dairy and healthy fats. If the food item does not contain mostly these ingredients, think again about buying it!
4. Refer to the nutrition facts for clarification. Maybe you look at the ingredient list and see something on there that you're not sure about. We'll use syrup for an example. Any variety of syrup might be on the ingredients to sweeten a product. To know how much is in there, you can look at sugar on the food label. (As a side note 4 g of sugar is equivalent to 1 teaspoon of sugar).
5. Check the serving size. The most important thing to check on the nutrition facts label is Serving Size. Then ask yourself how many servings you usually eat. For example. Most people eat 2-3 servings of ice cream at a time. Some candy bars are 2-3 servings. For drinks, 8 oz. is a serving, so the 20 oz. bottle is 2.5 servings. Once the item is in your house, it's not easy to control the serving size; maybe the ice cream is better off at the store! 

The first thing you can do with this list is actually check out the foods in your pantry and freezer right now. You might find yourself throwing some of those things away!

- Julie

We've talked many times about the benefits of plant foods in reducing risk for cancer and promoting health and immune function. For more information on the benefits of a plant based diet, check out my post on phytochemicals, termed "cancer phyters"!

I've also talked before about the importance of eating breakfast. Remember that breakfast does not have to be "breakfast food". It can be any food that you want! Personally, I love having soup for breakfast. I like it any time of day, but I especially love it at breakfast!

Soup is great because it is an easy way to fit in some more cancer fighting vegetables. It also freezes well and can be cooked in a slow cooker. I often cook it overnight so it's ready in the morning.

Here is one of the soup recipes that I use. It's simple and very tasty! You can change up the vegetables depending on what you have in your house. To add some protein, you might want to add canned beans to it.

Garden Vegetable Soup

2/3 cup sliced carrot
1/2 cup diced onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups fat free broth (beef, chicken, or vegetable - beef is my favorite for soup!)
1 1/2 cups diced green cabbage
1/2 cup green beans (can use frozen if you want)
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup diced zucchini

1. In a large saucepan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray or oil, saute the carrot, onion and garlic over low heat until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add broth, cabbage, beans, tomato paste, basil, oregano and salt; bring to a boil.
3. Lower heat and simmer, covered, about 15 minutes or until beans are tender.
4. Stir in zucchini and heat 3-4 minutes.
5. Serve hot. Makes 4 1-cup servings

Enjoy!
- Julie