Learn Anything??

Whew.  Okay, I'm finished with the posts that explain why I avoid the 5 things in my Top 5 Ingredients post.

I truly do hope you learned a little something about how to feed your family a little healthier.  If you are new to reading labels, you may find yourself getting frustrated at how many of the products you regularly buy that contain those 5 ingredients.  Please don't let that stop you from starting with just one ingredient!

Pick one ingredient and start cutting it out now.  Even if you can't cut out the ingredient completely, maybe just cut out a few of the products that contain said ingredient?  For example, most crackers I have seen contain high fructose corn syrup and/or hydrogenated oils.  Try going to the health food section and buying your crackers from there.  If you want to get really crazy, you could cut out grains completely.  Our society eats way too many grains anyway!  Just so you know, my family does eat crackers.  However, it is a treat, not a daily, or even weekly snack.

Anyway, like I was saying, go to the health food (or natural) section of your grocery store.  Usually, you are fairly safe in that section.  However, don't assume that just because you are in the 'natural' section of the store that you are okay to buy anything.  Please still read the ingredients.  Once you are comfortable with the substitutions you have made with that ingredient (whatever ingredient you decided to start with), move on to the next ingredient.

If you missed the posts, click on them below and you can get all caught up! :)

• Top 5 ingredients to avoid when shopping
• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Hydrogenated/Partially Hydrogenated Oils
• Sodium Benzoate
• Artificial Sweeteners
• Glutamate

Just take baby steps toward better health!

Then, come back here and comment to tell me how you are doing with your new shopping habits!  I would love to hear your feedback.


Have a great day!

Why I Avoid Buying Foods With Glutamates

Today's post is the last in my series of posts that explain why I try not to consume the ingredients in my Top 5 Ingredients I Avoid When Shopping post.  Today we talk about glutamate (or, more accurately, glutamic acid).

Glutamic acid is the harmful component to Monosodium Glutamate or MSG.

Glutamate (glutamic acid) is the major excitatory transmitter in the brain.  So, wait a minute.  If it is in our brain and has a function, why do I avoid it?

Simple.  My body knows how much I need of it.  If I give my body too much of it, the brain cannot do its job properly.  I don't know about you, but I want my brain to function properly even if that means my food has a little less taste.

Glutamic acid is very good at hiding within other ingredients.  This is why I said in my post listing my 5 ingredients I avoid that glutamate is the hardest ingredient to avoid.  Refer to this helpful chart to find out what other ingredients contain (or can contain) glutamic acid.

That chart is extremely helpful, because you will realize it is not just as easy as looking for Monosodium Glutamate on the ingredient list.  Avoiding MSG is a great starting point, but it would be great to branch out and avoid the rest of the ingredients on the list as well.

And here is a list of reported symptoms from ingesting MSG.  It's a long list, right?  That is why I don't ingest it or let my kids ingest it.  That list of symptoms is why my kids (aged 2, 7 and 9) have NEVER had Doritos. 

I apologize for not giving you all of that in my own words, but as you saw if you clicked on the links, the lists are quite long.  I thought there was no point in rewriting it all when those two sites did it so beautifully!  No point reinventing the wheel! ;)

Well, I hope this weeks posts get you started on a new healthy track with your family's diet!  If you missed them, you can go back and read them by clicking on the ingredients below.

• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Hydrogenated (and partially hydrogenated) Oils
• Sodium Benzoate
• Artificial Sweeteners (with a concentration on Aspartame)

Again, if you are new to reading ingredients, please don't feel overwhelmed with this list.  You will find that these ingredients are highly prevalent in the foods most Americans eat!  Start with just one item on the list if you don't think you can do all of them.  Anywhere you start will be beneficial for your health!

Good luck!

Note: As stated in the link with the list of ingredients that glutamate can be in, "Glutamic acid found in unadulterated protein does not cause adverse reactions.  To cause adverse reactions, the glutamic acid must have been processed/manufactured or come from protein that has been fermented."

Why I Avoid Artificial Sweeteners Like The Plague

On to the next ingredient in my series explaining my Top 5 Ingredients I Avoid When Shopping post. (If you missed it, just click on the title in that last sentence and you can get caught up.)  Today we talk about artificial sweeteners.  This can include aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, acesulfame K, neotame and probably more that I'm not remembering or that are still in the lab and will come out any day now!

In 'studying' to write this post, one of the most disturbing things was at the very beginning of my search.  If you type "artificial sweeteners" into your google search bar, the first page of links are all health related and contain the terms, "cancer" and "most dangerous".  Not good!

For the purposes of keeping this post as simple and easy to understand as possible, I am going to concentrate on aspartame.  The post would be 5 pages long (or longer) if I went into each one!

According to an article on Medicine Net , it was concluded after numerous studies that aspartame was safe with a daily intake of 40 mg/kg/day, except for people with phenylketonuria.

I'm sure you've seen the word before.  There is a phenylketonuria warning on all packages of things with aspartame... you know, the usual, "I'm covering my hind end warning".  Just like the warnings on cigarettes.

So, what it is phenylketonuria?

It is a genetic disease in which you are missing an enzyme needed to break down phenylalanine.  If phenylalanine builds up in the body (due to it not being broken down) it is harmful to the central nervous system and causes brain damage.

The reason you can't have aspartame if you have this disease is because aspartame is made up of phenylalanine, along with aspartic acid and methanol.

If you don't have phenylketonuria you might be wondering why you need to bother avoiding aspartame.  Here's why...  there have been reports of aspartame causing the following problems (this is just a sampling of the problems it can cause):

• Aspartame disease (yes, you read that correctly.  Apparently, someone knows this stuff is bad if they are willing to name a disease after it!)
• Headaches 
• Birth defects
• Depression
• Cancer
• Increased hunger (interesting, seeing how they put it in diet drinks)

Here is a great article on the rest of the side effects of aspartame (the side effects are lengthy!).

I hope this gives you a little insight as to why it would be a good thing to cut this out of your diet... or at the very least try to avoid it.  I know this was all about aspartame and how it's evil, but remember sucralose, saccharin, acesulfame K, and neotame are all on that nasty list as well.  When you are in a restaurant and need a sweetener, stay away from the yellow and pink packets and go for the white... or the brown if the restaurant has raw sugar.

Tomorrow's post is the last of this series and will talk about glutamates.

See you then!

Top 5 Ingredients To Avoid When Shopping

If you know me, you know that I am conscious of what goes in my kids bodies.  I have been asked by quite a few people what ingredients I avoid.  So, I thought I would make a Top 10 list of ingredients to avoid.  I thought that might be overwhelming for some people, especially if you eat like the average American, so I decided to do a Top 5 list instead.  The following is a list of ingredients that don’t enter my house.  To get you started eating a healthier diet, try avoiding one or more of these.

Here is my Top 5 list of ingredients to avoid

(In no particular order)

1.  High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) also called corn syrup – This one has been getting a lot of media attention lately, which I love.  I especially love the commercials from the corn industry trying to fool a person into believing that not only is HFCS not bad for you, but it is actually good for you!  What a joke!

2. Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated Oils – You aren’t going to like me for this one.  This is in lots of foods.

3. Sodium Benzoate – Commonly found in things that are ‘pickled’, such as pickles, banana peppers, jalapeño peppers, etc.

4. Artificial Sweeteners – This can include aspartame, phenylalanine, splenda, nutrasweet, and the list goes on.  This is becoming a long list that I can’t keep up with as companies keep on coming up with new ‘sugars’ in their labs.  When I am looking at a label, I will buy it if it says sugar, evaporated cane sugar, honey, molasses, stevia, or no sugar at all.  That way, I don’t have to keep up with all the cancer causing sugars they are making in labs!

5. Glutamate – This is the harmful component to Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) – This is probably the hardest ingredient on my list to avoid (and why I listed it last).  The reason I feel it is the hardest to avoid is because it is in so many things and it’s not as simple as looking for ‘Monosodium Glutamate’ in the ingredients list.  Click here for a list of other names/ingredients that glutamate can be found in and you will see what I am talking about.

I will post about each of these individually so you can see why I avoid these like the plague!  

*Update: I have now linked all my individual posts so all you have to do is click on each ingredient above and it will go to the post.  That way you don't have to search through my archives to find them.  I'm all about making things easier for you. :) 

Even though this is just a top 5 list and not a top 10, it may still be overwhelming to some.  That’s okay.  If that’s the case, just pick one.  Start wherever is easiest.  Getting one of these ingredients out of your diet and the diet of your family members will still be beneficial for your health.

The great thing about picking just one is that you will find that by just taking one of these out of your diet you will be taking some of the others out as well, because they travel in packs.  You’ve heard the saying, “Birds of a feather, flock together”, right?  The same usually goes for bad ingredients.

I hope this helps you to get your family on the road to better health!

Note: For my readers who are already going in this direction, I’m sure that you have others to add to this list.  You may even be thinking there is an ingredient or two that is/are more important to avoid than these.  Please remember I am talking to the readers that have never altered their diet in this way and that this is just a starting point for them.  Feel free to leave a comment with your opinions on these ingredients or others that you feel are detrimental to our health.  I welcome feedback.

Nicole