Monday, July 28, 2008

You gotta check the labels...



It's upsetting all the foods out there that taste so good and are so bad for us. We have to watch out for "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" oil, which tells us there is trans fat, the worst type of fat for your heart in it. We need to look for products with zero grams of trans fat on the Nutrition Facts panel.

Like Jif peanut butter. Look at the label and there it is....'Fully hydrogenated Vegetable Oils'...IN MY JIF!!...the words vegetable seem to make it all better, but it doesn't.

We switched to Kroger Natural, it's ingredients say peanuts, salt. You do have to stir it up the first time you open the jar, then store in the refrigerator.


It's not a creamy as Jif, I stir it a bit. It tastes like.....peanuts. ;-)

So many food products sold today are full of additives that can contribute to poor nutrition. Refined sugar is packed into many "healthy" foods, like cereals and flavored yogurts, just empty calories with no nutritional benefits. We have to watch out for it on the ingredients list, where ingredients are listed in order of quantity, from most to least. I avoid products that add sugar (also called high-fructose corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, cane sugar, and corn syrup) as one of the first ingredients.




I found a great chicken salad recipe from a gourmet magazine that calls for "Major Grey Chutney" which is loaded with calories from high-fructose corn syrup. Darn it!! I'm not going to be undone by it...I found a recipe for Major Grey Chutney low sugar I'm going to make. Then I'll make the chicken salad...I'll let you know how it turns out.

It seems to me, the less ingredients in a food item, the better. Nevertheless..we need to check those labels!!

2 comments:

Football and Fried Rice said...

We switched to natural peanut butter too and we LOVe it! We usually eat SOME peanut butter everyday. We manage to sneak it in!!

My Year Without said...

In addition to all your great advice about checking labels closely, I would recommend trying out local food co-ops and farmers markets for healthier food choices. I went 100% sugar-free (including corn syrups!) in January for my new year's resolution, and it is so helpful to have a "safe" place to shop where I still check labels, but am more likely to find whole foods without added sugars. "My Year Without" has been quite an adventure, and boy, I've sure read my share of labels!