Prop 37: My Humble Opinions

On November 6, 2012, California voters will decide whether to require labeling of food products containing ingredients derived from genetically modified organisms (Prop 37). It is all I have been hearing about lately, and while I am completely against genetically modified foods, I am also completely against the government forcing companies to do anything about it. 

Here's why...

1. When the government gets involved in business it imposes tremendous costs on industry X, Y, or Z. This is often "in the best interest of the public", but it actually hurts everyone because it takes the responsibility and necessity of being informed away from the people. It tells people "don't worry the government will take care of you." 

2. The more regulations, the higher the cost. I'm sure that Prop 37 doesn't just effect companies that are producing foods including GMO's. There will for sure be collateral damage. Food will inadvertently become more expensive and the food available will not be any more valuable for the extra cost. 

3. The food industry is in bed with the government. I'm afraid that this monster is too big to tame overnight. There are a handful of corporations that own and control majority of the major food brands. They lobby in Washington, donate to politicians who will help them, have huge budgets. This is not to say that I don't believe that a few people can create a huge change (revolution if you must)... given the right circumstances a one person can change everything. But getting the government involved is not going to get GMO's out of our food. 

So what do you do? 

In light of the fact that most of the items at any given grocery store (including Whole Foods) contain genetically modified ingredients, you stop buying them. Companies are run off of profits. If the company loses profits it changes it's product(s) or it goes out of business. As much as it is important for everyone to not be eating genetically modified foods, it is more important for YOU to stop eating. And YOU don't need the government to tell you what is or is not genetically modified.

I'll tell you in a nutshell:

• any product containing corn that is NOT organic
• any product containing soy that is NOT organic
• any product containing canola oil that is NOT organic
• any product w/ high fructose corn syrup in it
• any product w/ hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in it
• any meat that was not humanely raised
• any dairy that comes from animals not humanely raised
• any fish that was not wild caught

Why the animals? Because they are fed corn and soy, and whatever they eat, we eat. 

The more fresh fruits and vegetables you buy, the less processed junk you will buy. It's that simple. But just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy. 

It took me being completely grossed out by certain foods to cut them out of my diet- cold cuts, conventional meat, conventional dairy, factory farmed meat, most processed/packaged "foods" that are sold in the grocery store. It's hard to get over  what you are used to, but it gets easier the more you know about the reality of our food industry.

What will it take you to start changing the things you put in your mouth?

Twinkies vs. Carrots

While I do not agree with Michael Pollan that carrots should be subsidized...I do agree that there is a major problem with our food industry. I believe that the government should stay out of business...and food is a business too.

It's very simple. If you want whole foods, shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Whole foods will be along the walls of the grocery store.

Do you get "sucked in" to the goodies in the middle of the supermarket?

FACT: Eating Fat Does Not Translate Into Getting Fat

I wanted to write this as a follow-up to 'Tis the Season to Get Fat, because I know a lot of people have the misconception that you will loose weight by eating low-fat foods. This is a very complicated topic so I will boil it down for you as best I can.

Everything that you eat breaks down into 3 different components: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. (There are many other things like vitamins and minerals that we get from food, however for the sake of this discussion I will be focusing on these three.) Your body needs all three of these to function properly, and your body knows the difference between the good forms and the bad forms.

Let's talk specifically about fat. I grew up being told that fat was bad for you and anything fat-free was healthy. It all started long before I was born...

"The demonization of saturated fat began in 1953, when Dr. Ancel Keys published a paper comparing saturated fat intake and heart disease mortality. His theory turned out to be flimsy, to say the least, but the misguided ousting of saturated fat has continued unabated ever since. Fortunately, the truth is finally starting to come out, as medical scientists have begun to seriously question Keys' findings."

"Keys based his theory on a study of six countries, in which higher saturated fat intake equated to higher rates of heart disease. However, he conveniently ignored data from 16 other countries that did not fit his theory. Had he chosen a different set of countries, the data would have shown that increasing the percent of calories from fat reduces the number of deaths from coronary heart disease."

"And when you include all 22 countries for which data was available at the time of his study, you find that those who consume the highest percentage of saturated fat have the lowest risk of heart disease."

"Furthermore, many have now realized that it's the trans fat found in margarine, vegetable shortening, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils that is the true villain, causing far more significant health problems than saturated fat ever could!"

"Still, despite the scientific evidence, the low-fat dogma remains a favorite among most government health authorities. Case in point: the most recent food chart issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in December of last year, recommends reducing your saturated fat intake to a mere seven percent of caloric intake—down from its previously recommended 10 percent…" (Original Source)

I don't like citing studies to back up my opinions (mainly because I do not trust that the results are accurate due to biases), but I respect the information that Dr. Mercola puts out (excerpt from above). I am far more impressed with personal experiences, trials, and tribulations. So let me tell you about what I have been doing. I eat full fat everything, but I also eat mainly whole foods. I eat organic butter, organic dairy, I eat whole eggs, I eat avocados, I eat all nuts, and just about anything else you could think of that is considered "fattening". Moderation is key here. Since I started doing this about a year ago, I have lost about 10 lbs. I workout a few times a week, and I eat mainly whole foods- meaning I eat mostly un-processed foods- meaning I make most of my food from scratch and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I still use flour and eat pasta, but try to always eat whole wheat/grain if it is processed.

Back to fat...I read an entire book dedicated to explaining fat that was written by Mary G. Enig, PhD. She is a nutritionist/biochemist who has spent her career studying and analyzing fat. My understanding of good and bad fats started when I read Mary's book, Know Your Fats.

"As we close the second millennium, the prevailing clinical approach from both the nutrition and medical communities in the United States is to condemn a high dietary intake of almost all fats. This emphasis on reducing dietary fat intake has developed from concerns about diet/serum cholesterol, coronary heart disease (CHD) and dietary fat/cancer relationships that have emanated from organizations such as the American Heart Association (AHA), the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's National Cholesterol Education Program, and the US Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines. Many official and quasi-official, articles and publications written for the public reflect this view. Unfortunately, for the consumer and the clinician, many of these articles have multiple misstatements about fats, oils, and cholesterol in general, and about the hydrogenated fats and oils in particular. The kindest thing that can be said about the authors of these misstatements is that they are misguided and not sufficiently knowledgeable about the chemistry of fats and oils and hydrogenation."

FYI...this is a technical definition of fat straight out of her book, "Fats and oils (technically called lipids) are basically made up of collections of molecules called triglycerides. If the collection is liquid at ambient (room) temperature, it is called an oil; if it is solid, it is called a fat." She gets way technical and I figured that I would lose the majority of you on this, but if you are really interested I suggest reading the book for yourself.

Below are some common misconceptions from Know Your Fats...

• Calling animal fats "saturated" is not only misleading, it is just plain wrong. For example, beef fat is 54% unsaturated, lard is 60% unsaturated, and chicken fat is 70% unsaturated. 
• None of the naturally occurring fats and oils is made up of only all saturated or all unsaturated fatty acids; rather they are mixtures of different amounts of various fatty acids. 
• The food industry knows that cookies and crackers, as well as cakes, pastries, and donuts have to be made with a fat at least as firm as a soft fat like lard, so the industry changes the liquid oils, such as soybean, corn, canola, cottonseed, and sometimes peanut and safflower oils, into fats by a process called partial hydrogenation. 
• Partial hydrogenation increases the degree of "saturation" of the fat and has created an entirely new class of fats called trans fats. Trans fats have a very, very long shelf life, unlike the original, highly unsaturated oils they were made from. The unsaturated oils become rancid (bad, spoiled, you wouldn't want to eat them) easily if they are not stored very carefully...a-hem...this is why your box of Ritz crackers can sit on a grocery store shelf for months and then in your cabinet for months!

For shitz & giggles I looked up the ingredient list of Ritz Crackers...Ingredients: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, SUGAR, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, SALT, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA AND/OR CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SOY LECITHIN (EMULSIFIER), NATURAL FLAVOR, CORNSTARCH. (Original Source)

• The word Omega is used to designate unsaturated fatty acid families. Saturated fats (cocoa butter, dairy fats, nutmeg butter, palm oil, tallow) do not have an Omega designation. Omega 3's and 6's are considered "essential" because our bodies cannot make them. There are also Omega 9's, however our bodies can make them so they are  not considered "essential"
• Saturated fatty acids are not all the same. They come in different lengths. The shorter ones of the type found in butter, coconut oil, and palm kernel oil, have much lower melting points than the more common longer chain saturated fatty acids ( ). 
• When shorter chain fatty acids are used by the body for energy, they do not produce as many calories as the longer chain fatty acids. This is why there are fewer kilocalories in a pound of butter than a pound of margarine made with seed oils. While this difference in calories is small, it is still significant because most people have been lead to believe that butter has more calories than margarine. 

Here are just a handful of examples of what trans fats do to us when we eat them... (P.S. after I read this book I cut out all foods that have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in them)

• When people eat fats containing trans fatty acids (hydrogenated oils), these fatty acids are deposited in varying amounts in some of the tissues, and they have an effect on the way the organs in the body function. 
• Feeding trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to adult humans lowers HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol).
• HDL is significantly decreased, LDL is increased, and the more recent studies have shown that the heart disease marker called Lipoprotein [a] is increased, especially in people who already have high levels of this lipoprotein.
• INTERESTING...saturated fatty acids lower Lipoprotein [a] levels, so an adequate amount of saturated fatty acids in the diet is a good thing to have.
• Consuming trans fats raises the blood sugar levels and causes people to weigh several kilograms more than people consuming the same amount of fat that is not hydrogenated. 
• When researchers have examined the fat in milk that mothers are producing, they have found up to 17% of the fatty acids as trans fatty acids. That is very high, but when they measured the levels in mothers who were not eating foods with trans fatty acids, the levels were so low that they found less than 1%. 
• Feeding infants with milk containing trans fatty acids that came in through the mother's diet causes a significant decrease in visual acuity. 

The bottom line is that we eat a lot more unhealthy fats than we realize. It would be safe to say that anything fried at a restaurant has been fried in partially hydrogenated oil. It is also safe to say that the majority of the snack foods, deserts, and baked goods that you buy have partially hydrogenated oils in them. Even some "health" foods include this disaster of an ingredient in them....so CHECK YOUR LABELS! Start incorporating more homemade meals with whole foods. If you are pregnant or breast feeding it is soooo important to eat foods without hydrogenated oils (or high fructose corn syrup) in them. It's one thing to knowingly do something to yourself (many of us do it everyday- we smoke, we drink, we eating garbage) but it is another to do it to your perfect baby. (I don't want to make you feel like I am talking down to you or making you feel guilty...but TOO BAD I AM! DON'T FEED YOUR CHILDREN TOXIC GARBAGE...THINK FOR YOURSELF...DO YOUR OWN DAMN RESEARCH...BE AWARE!)

I am giving you the Jess Face (with perfect hair)

Do you worry about eating too much fat?

This "Health" Food's SOYld Reputation

By the way...if you haven't noticed I'm becoming obsessed
with Natalie Dee's comics

Yesterday I wrote about why I eat canned salmon instead of canned tuna- it is because I have not found a brand that doesn't have soy in it. I know that I have mentioned before that I read a book about the dangers of soy and immediately after embarked on a personal mission to cut all soy out of my diet. Let me explain to you why I was compelled to cut out this so-called health food.

Everyone is in a soy-frenzy and it has become the new "healthy" choice. It seems like a great option for vegetarians and vegans. How would they get their protein anyway? That's what I used to think.

Well the book I read was The Whole Soy Story by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN. It is a thick book, almost 400 pages with another 40 pages of end notes. This is not a light read. I was getting the "Why the hell are you reading that?" looks from EVERYONE! So here it goes...I am going to try to condense 400 pages into a few paragraphs...

• A brief history of soy in the east...The soybean is one of the five sacred grains along with rice, millet, barley, and wheat. However, the soybean is a legume not a grain, and it was originally not used for food like the other sacred grains. Farmers originally grew soybeans as "green manure"- as a cover crop plowed under to enrich the soil between plantings of food crops. Soybeans are very good at capturing nitrogen from the air and delivering it to the plants roots in the soil. Soy went from fertilizer to fermented food about 2500 years ago. Until then the Chinese considered soybeans inedible- they were only found edible after the discovery of of processing methods that could largely deactivate an anti-nutrient found in soybeans known as the trypsin inhibitor. Trypsin inhibitors are chemicals that reduce the availability of trypsin, an enzyme essential to nutrition of many animals, including humans.

• The process of fermentation uses bacteria, fungi, and other beneficial microorganisms to help breakdown complex proteins, starches, and fats into highly digestible amino acids, simple sugars, and fatty acids. The ancient Chinese originally used this process to preserve fish, shellfish, game, and meat. Then came chiang (the original form of miso), soy sauce, natto, tempeh, but not until after the 4th century AD. As some of you may know, there are records of the Chinese culture that go back 5000+ years. The ancient Chinese did not eat soy. The fermented products we know now like miso and tofu did not come about until a few hundred years ago. 

• Since the 1950's the market for processed foods has seen explosive growth- most of them containing soybean oil. The industry found itself saddled with leftover sludge (yum) from soybean oil manufacture which it could either dump or promote. Which do you think it did? "The quickest way to gain product acceptability in the less affluent society," said a soy-industry spokesperson back in 1975, "...is to have the product consumed on its own merit in a more affluent society." Enter: imitation meat, milk, cream, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, candy bars (I think she means protein bars), smoothies, breads, infant formulas, chocolate, and meat extenders to name a few. 

• For years, the soy protein left over from oil extraction went exclusively to animals, poultry, and, more recently, fish farms. Today the industry aggressively markets soy protein as a people feed as well. Soy is now an ingredient in nearly every food sold at supermarkets and health food stores. The industry also makes a profit off of other waste products, most notably soy lecithin (an emulsifier that replaced eggs), protease inhibitors (digestive distressers sold as cancer preventatives), and isoflavones (plant estrogens promoted as "safe" hormone therapy, cholesterol reducers, and cancer cures). 

• Soy is now genetically modified which is monopolized by Monsanto. If you haven't ever read anything on GMOs please read my post.

• This is so typical of the US FDA..."While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a heart healthy claim for soy protein, the agency also lists soy in its "Poisonous Plant Database." A search of the word "soy" in the database reveals 256 references, including studies that warn about goiter, growth problems, amino acid deficiencies, mineral malabsorption, endocrine disruption and carcinogenesis.

• All soybeans contain anti-nutritional factors (which is the opposite of what you want to eat) and toxins. Mother nature put them there to block seeds from sprouting prematurely and to harm insects and other predators (humans) that would otherwise eat too many of them. Unfortunately, they can harm us as well unless the soy beans are properly processed to neutralize them- i.e. fermentation. 

• Soy's other "healthy" effects on the human body:
• can lower testosterone levels in men
• can cause allergic reactions...soy is one of the top 8 allergens
• goitoestrogens damage the thyroid
• lectins cause red blood cells to clump together and may cause immune system reactions
• oligosaccharides are the pesky sugars that cause bloating and flatulence (farts)
• oxalates prevent proper absorption of calcium and have been linked to kidney stones and painful disease known as vulvodynia 

• phytates impare absorbson of minerals such as zinc, iron, and calcium
• isoflavones are phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) that act like hormones and affect the reproductive and nervous systems
• protease inhibitors, most notably trypsin inhibitors interfere with the digestive enzymes protease and trypsin. This can lead to gastric distress, poor protein digestion and an overworked pancreas
• saponins bind with bile. They may lower cholesterol and may damage the intestinal lining

Fermented soybean products enjoy high honor throughout Asia as digestive aids, potent medicines, powerful energizers, stamina builders and longevity elixers. Treasured as more valuable than gold, the molds and cultures used to make miso, shoyu, natto, tempeh and other fermented soybean products are often heavily ensured and safeguarded in vaults. Those, along with soy sauce, are the only acceptable ways to eat soy. Soy protein is notoriously hard to digest unless enzymes and microorganisms go to work on it first. These tiny workers not only predigest the soybeans, but deactivate the powerful protease inhibitors that inhibit our digestive enzymes and overwork the pancreas. 

A WARNING ABOUT SOY SAUCE: The soy sauce-like products most commonly sold in American supermarkets and used in Chinese restaurants are commonly made in 2 days or less. This process is not the traditional fermentation and uses hydrocholoric acid to break down the soybeans, followed by sodium carbonate to neutralize the brown liquid. Sugars, caramel coloring and other flavorings are added before further refinement, pasteurization and bottling. A true soy sauce should say "naturally brewed, fermented for over a year", and should also only have a few ingredients- soy, water, salt and possibly wheat.

Long soy story short, all of the soy products that appear in our foods are not natural. They are heavily, heavily processed. The soy products show up in most processed food as: soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, soy flour, soy oil, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated soy oil, textured vegetable protein,  textured soy protein, soy lecithin, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (PS..that's MSG).

Here's a fun fact about soy protein isolate. Before 1958 it was only used as an industrial product to bind and seal paper product. Think about that next time you open up a fresh ream of computer paper. That glue that is holding the packaging on there is quite likely the same stuff that is in your protein shake. 

I know this was a long one with a lot of information, but hopefully you are taking something away with you (that you are never going to buy anything with soy in it ever again!). I would not have spent weeks reading this book, hours and hours scouring my grocery store for products without soy in them, and probably hundreds of dollars of donated food (from my pantry) if I did not believe 100% that the soy that we are being told is healthy for us is actually poisonous to our bodies. 

There....I've said my piece.

I should have been born French

I recently watched the movie Julie & Julia (I know it is a few years old) and was instantly enthralled by Julia Child. Honestly I could have done without the Julie character and her story (although that was a great accomplishment to have her blog turned into a major motion picture). They should have just done the movie about Julia Child. Anywho. Julia Child had spend years and in France "mastering the art of French cooking" which coincidentally is the name of her two volume masterpiece. I have not read it yet, but I am going to buy it and start working through it. She also has another book Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking which I think might be right up my alley. 


The real reason I am writing about this is because it occurred to me that she lived to be 92, and, from what I saw and know of her recipes, ate a high fat diet full of pastries and duck, beef and butter (among other things). This was back in the 1950's until the time she died in 2004. I do know that she used real, fresh, quality ingredients, and lots of love. She LOVED to cook and figure out the best ways to prepare any dish. A woman after my own heart. 

This raises the question... do the ingredient matter as much as the quality?


Let's take butter for instance. It is quite possibly my favorite fat and I will put it on anything that I can. According to SELF Magazine's Nutrition Data Website it is 99% fat and 1% protein. It is very inflammatory probably because it is a saturated fat from an animal source (I assume that they are rating this as bad as they are because it is high saturated fat and everyone is under the impression that saturated fats are bad- WRONG - unnatural fats are bad). It has upwards of 20% RDA of Vitamins A, D, E, & K as well as being a complete protein (a complete protein is a source of protein that contains an adequate proportion of all nine of the essential amino acids necessary for the dietary needs of humans or other animals).

So in butter's case, it is the saturated fat and cholesterol vs. all 9 essential amino "fatty" acids and 4 vitamins. Now obviously you can find these vitamins elsewhere in a wide variety of vegetables. The essential fatty acids are another story.


Two things:

• The complete proteins are called "essential" fatty or amino acids because our body cannot make them. We need to get them from other sources, and our bodies will not function properly if we are deficient.   
• The word "fatty" means they come from FAT. Therefore, you will be deficient if you eat a low fat diet. That means, if you only eat egg whites, boneless skinless chicken breast, no butter, and no meat you are running the risk of becoming deficient in one or several of the 9.

Yes you can find some of the 9 amino acids from other sources (legumes, grains, and vegetables) but they tend to be limited in the number of amino acids. Some are notably low, such as corn protein. Hmmmm, didn't I just find out that corn in the United States is genetically modified and shows up in a lot of the processed foods Americans buy? 

These are the foods naturally containing all 9 amino acids:  amaranth, buckwheat, hempseed, meat, poultry, soybeans, quinoa, seafood, and spirulina.


How many of those can you say you eat on a regular basis? Personally, I can say 1 regularly (seafood) and 5 occasionally. The three that I have never used in my cooking so far are amaranth, buckwheat, and hempseed. 


It is easy to get all of the essential amino acids if you eat a wide variety of unprocessed foods, but how many of you can say that?


So with all that technical stuff aside, let's get back to quality. After everything that I have read on the science of fats, dairy, the dairy industry, sugar, the sugar industry, soy, the soy industry, etc, it is my humble conclusion that the quality of the fats, sugars, and proteins are more important than the amount of saturated fat in something or the amount of carbs in something else. 

Instead of counting calories and grams of fat, try focusing on these few things that will make a tremendous improvement in your life:

1. Buy organic egg and dairy products. If you are lucky enough to live in a state or country that allows the sale of raw dairy take advantage. The packaging must say "without antibiotics and growth hormones" and would be a HUGE plus if it says "comes from grass fed/pasture raised animals". Cage Free is does not mean that the chickens live on a farm. They are given slightly better living conditions than normal (which isn't saying much). If you want to know how "conventional" animals are raised look up some videos on YouTube...a lot of it is worse than your wildest imaginations.
2. Buy meat from "humanely raised" animals. Grass fed is good too, but the regulations for raising grass fed animals go against what is natural for those animal. Animals eat other things than grass in nature. Organic means nothing unless it also says humanely raised or grass fed.
3. Don't buy processed soy UNLESS it is soy sauce, tofu, tempeh, or miso. Check all ingredients though because manufacturers sneak in bad ingredients to cut costs. 
4. Cut out as much refined sugar as you possibly can. Fruit sugar is different. We are meant to eat fruit. It has fiber in it which slows down the absorption into our blood stream. Fruit is also bursting with vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, and cancer-fighting nutrients. 
5. NO TRANS-FATS. Partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated oils make up this category. They wreak havoc on your bodies in many different ways. 

Long story short...EAT LIKE JULIA DID...REAL, HIGH QUALITY FOODS COOKED WITH LOVE.

She was funny too!

The Prevention Hit List

The more I read about what to eat and what not to eat, one thing becomes clearer to me. Humans are supposed to eat food- that is whole foods that come from the earth. If you are confused as to what a whole food is here is a sampling:

• raw broccoli (not frozen covered in cheese sauce)
• cheese (made from animal's milk not in powder or squeeze form)
• tofu (made by fermenting soybeans, not soy protein isolate made in a factory)
• corn on the cob (not high fructose corn syrup)
• strawberries
• carrots
• beans
• oatmeal (the kind where the only ingredient is oats, not like Quaker's Instant Apple Oatmeal with 
   WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS, SUGAR, DEHYDRATED APPLES (TREATED WITH SODIUM SULFITE TO PROMOTE COLOR RETENTION), SALT, OAT FLOUR, CALCIUM CARBONATE, GUAR GUM, NATURAL FLAVOR, CARAMEL COLOR, REDUCED IRON, NIACINAMIDE*, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE*(WTF IS THAT?), RIBOFLAVIN*, THIAMIN MONONITRATE*, FOLIC ACID*.)

Avoid the following food like substances and ingredients at all costs:

High Fructose Corn Syrup

There are more studies than I could count or include in this post (it would bore you) that study the effects of high fructose corn syrup on how the body functions. Some deal with testing on animals, some form their conclusions based on the sheer numbers of overweight (65%) and obese (30%) people in this country vs. a few decades ago before the use of HFCS. Dr. George Bray is a professor of medicine at Louisiana State University, and has looked at whether HFCS in beverages has played a role in the increase in obesity in the U.S. He says that two-thirds of the high-fructose corn syrup Americans consume is in soft drinks. If you add a single soft drink to an otherwise balanced energy level [meaning you are burning as many calories and you are taking in] everyday for one year you will accumulate an additional 15 pounds, says Bray. (source) If that isn't motivation to cut this food like substance out of your diet I don't know what is (other than the possibility of giving yourself Type 2 Diabetes or cancer).


Just about everything processed has HFCS in it. My rule of thumb is to ask myself...Can I make it myself in my kitchen from other whole ingredients? Would I find this in nature? NO? Then don't eat it.


Hydrogenated/Partially Hydrogenated Oils

Another heavy hitter to our poor health. Hydrogenated oils do not occur naturally. They need to be pumped with hydrogen in order to exist. This process increases the shelf life and stability of the fats which would otherwise go rancid faster than it takes to manufacture, transport, sell, and eat. The modern marvel of our 1st rate food manufacturing/distribution system had to overcome the time delay from farm to plate, or from bakery to plate. Enter hydrogenation. A quick list of what hydrogenated oils (trans fats) contribute to:

• Alzheimer's 
• Diabetes
• Cancer- increases inflammation
• Heart Disease
• Increases LDL (bad) cholesterol and lowers HDL (good) cholesterol
• Clogs arteries

You may be young right now (as I am) but one day you will be old (and statistically speaking chronically sick). Make the changes now while you still have the time. Processed foods pumped with these food like substances are making everyone sick and fat. 

Tip: You can also add up the amount of fat in a product (saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated), provided the amounts are listed, and compare the total with the total fat on the label. If they don't match up, the difference is likely trans fat, especially if partially hydrogenated oil is listed as one of the first ingredients.

Aspartame
If you are trying to cut down on the sugar that you eat in your diet there are much better ways to do it than substitute with artificial sweeteners. Here is a list of reasons why not to use artificial sweeteners:

• cancer
• diabetes
• obesity
• headaches
• seizures
• Alzheimer's 
• Parkinson's
• Multiple Sclerosis
• ADHD

There are actual negative neurological effects to our brains when aspartame is introduced into the body. If you want to cut down on the amount of sugar in your diet, cut out all of the processed foods. Do not substitute sugar for an artificial sweetener.

MSG
A.K.A aspartame (hmm, go figure), casein, caseinate, glutamate, anything hydrolyzed, autolyzed yeast.

Soy Protein Isolate
"Soy protein isolate is mixed with nearly every food product sold in today's stores- energy bars, muscle-man powders, breakfast shakes, burgers, and hot dogs. SPI is also the major ingredient in most of today's soy infant formulas. Consisting of 90-92% protein, SPI is a highly refined product processed to remove "off flavors," "beany" tastes and flatulence producers, and to improve digestibility. Vitamin, mineral, and protein quality, however, are sacrificed."

"The manufacture of SPI has always been a complicated, high-tech procedure. There's nothing natural about it- it takes place in chemical factories, not kitchens."

There you have it from Kaayla T. Daniel, Phd and author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's favorite health food (a link to her book is on the right side of this blog). Now this is only a tidbit of the vast amount of science she writes about in her book. I read it cover to cover, and you know what I did after that? I cut everything out of my diet that contains soy products. It was challenging at first because soy is in EVERYTHING! But now when I read labels I skim for "soy" (as well as HFCS and hydrogenated oils).

Soy is only healthy for humans after it has been fermented for a long period of time using traditional Asian methods to produce foods like tofu, miso, tempeh, natto. But watch out for even these foods may contain soy protein isolate her in America. Also watch out for soy flour, soy protein concentrate, textured soy protein.


Anything You Cannot Pronounce 
Do I really have to explain this one?


I challenge you to go to the grocery store and read labels of the foods that you buy. Go up and down each aisle and only put in your cart items with the following criteria:

• less than five or six ingredients (all of which you know what they are)
• no soy ingredients, no HFCS, no partially/hydrogenated fats
• ingredients that you can pronounce

I did this one day not too long ago, and I was shocked. I already know that what would end up mostly filling your carts are fruits and vegetables, meat, some dairy, nuts, and MAYBE some breads if you are at a really good high quality grocery store. Although even Whole Foods junks up their breads with soy and about 10 other ingredients that do not need to be in bread.  

All in all, I feel better at the end of the day knowing that I did not put anything into my body that was made in a chemical laboratory. And if cancer prevention is at the top of your list as it is mine, I would suggest doing some more research on these food like substances if you are not yet fully convinced.  

Food vs. Food Like Substances

Author Michael Pollan talks about his rules for eating food vs. food like substances (what most of Americans eat) and some of his thinking behind his convictions. I just finished one of his books, In Defense of Food and it is was a great awakening to me that WE DON'T EAT FOOD...WE EAT THE PRODUCTS OF FOOD SCIENCE! 


Food is:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Whole Grains
• Beans
• Legumes
• Fresh Dairy
• Humanely-raised Meat
• Herbs
• Spices

Food Like Substances are:

• Gogurt Portable Yogurt
• Protein Bars
• Lucky Charms Cereal
• Entenmann's Apple Puffs
• Oreos
• Frozen Dinners
• Easy Mac Macaroni & Cheese

I have been in the process of changing over my diet from food like substances to food for the past year. These are some easy ways to make small changes quickly that will make a huge impact in the way that you feel.

• Buy organic dairy. This ensures that there are no hormones or antibiotics fed to the cows which end up in your body after you eat their dairy products.
• Buy grass-fed or humanely raised meat. This ensures that these animals are raised on their natural diet and allowed to exhibit their natural behaviors. The animal is healthier, the meat is healthier.
• Do not buy anything containing hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup. These are two toxic food additives that harm you every time you eat them. HFCS makes everything taste sweeter which feeds your cravings for more sweets, and hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils make food like substances last for years on the shelves (gross!).
• Replace one meal with a fruit and vegetable smoothie. Any blender (you know... the one you bought to make margaritas and mudslides) will do. I buy a huge batch once a week (usually no more than $30-$40 worth) and it lasts me just about all week. I try to put at least 5 different fruits and/or vegetables in my smoothies. I find that when I make a healthy choice in the morning it ripples through my food choices for the rest of the day. Plus you will find it will make you feel amazing!
• Do not stress about eating healthy all the time. Or you may become ORTHOREXIC! Just kidding. Make healthy choices as often as you can, and when there is absolutely no possible way of eating something healthy (fruits, veggies, food that is not heavily processed, or covered in gobs of cheese) just think of it as your free pass to indulge in something you would not normally eat but you enjoy.

If you make only these 5 changes you will start to feel the positive effects. You don't have to "go to extremes" like eating only raw food, eating no meat, or not accepting dinner invitations because you know they will not be serving "healthy" food. These 5 upgrades will make a positive change in your life. 

What the hell am I eating?

Since my last post, I have been reading, cooking, and investigating- alot! I have learned a tremendous amount of information about the food that is available to us. 99.9% of the food we buy is garbage. Even the brands and restaurants that claim "ALL NATURAL" or "HEALTHY" are full of chemicals (literally). I will break it down in future posts, but everyday I learn something new, and today I learned about the vegetable sandwich that I ate for lunch. 

Not actual sandwich, but close

I didn't bring my lunch, and only had a short time to eat. I thought 'what is the healthiest place I can eat within 5 minutes of my office?' PANERA! I got my typical Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich (with an apple). As I was eating it I was looking at what was in it- red onion, cucumbers, tomatoes, red peppers, feta cheese, pesto, and lettuce on bread. Looks healthy, tastes good! There was a spicy something in it that I couldn't recognize so I went to Panera's website. 

Well, on Panera's website you can pick each item to get its nutritional information and ingredients. I have learned that in order to be "eating healthy" an item really should not have more ingredients than I can count on one hand OR ingredients that I cannot pronounce (which goes hand in hand with not knowing what the hell it is). 

Here is the list of items (and brief description of what they are) that I either could not pronounce or didn't know what they were in my VEGETABLE sandwich:

**All information about the ingredients was found on Wikipedia.com

- Phosphoric acid  is used to acidify foods and beverages such as various colas, but not without controversy regarding its health effects. It provides a tangy or sour taste and, being a mass-produced chemical, is available cheaply and in large quantities. 

- Sodium Benzoate  is a preservative. In combination with ascorbic acid (vitamin C, E300), sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate form benzene, a known carcinogen. Wonderful! because this sandwich has ascorbic acid in it!

- Potassium Sorbate is a preservative used to inhibit molds and yeasts in many foods, such as cheese, wine, yogurt, dried meats, apple cider, soft drinks and fruit drinks, and baked goods. Potassium sorbate is considered to be safe because of its long term safety record and non-toxic profile. Potassium sorbate is non-irritating and non-sensitizing. Allergic reactions are rare, and it is well tolerated when administered internally. 

- Malted Flour is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate by soaking in water and are then quickly halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.

- Ferrous Sulfate Together with other iron compounds, ferrous sulfate is used to fortify foods and to treat iron-deficiency anemia. Constipation is a frequent and uncomfortable side effect associated with the administration of oral iron supplements. Stool softeners often are prescribed to prevent constipation. Panera should serve a stool softener as a side to my sandwich.

- Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1) is found in a wide variety of foods at low concentrations. In general, cereal grains are the most important dietary sources of thiamine, by virtue of their ubiquity. Of these, whole grains contain more thiamine than refined grains, as thiamine is found mostly in the outer layers of the grain and in the germ (which are removed during the refining process). For example, 100 g of whole-wheat flour contains 0.55 mg of thiamine, while 100 g of white flour contains only 0.06 mg of thiamine. In the US, processed flour must be enriched with thiamine mononitrate (along with niacin, ferrous iron, riboflavin, and folic acid) to replace that lost in processing. So if food manufacturers used whole grains instead of white refined flours there would be no need to fortify them with all of these vitamins. 

- Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) Riboflavin is yellow or yellow-orange in color and in addition to being used as a food coloring, it is also used to fortify some foods. The milling of cereals results in considerable loss (up to 60%) of vitamin B₂, so white flour is enriched in some countries such as USA by addition of the vitamin. The enrichment of bread and ready-to-eat breakfast cereals contributes significantly to the dietary supply of vitamin B₂.

- Folic Acid (Vitamin B9) is essential to numerous bodily functions. The human body needs folate to synthesize DNA, repair DNA, and methylate DNA as well as to act as a cofactor in biological reactions involving folate. It is especially important in aiding rapid cell division and growth, such as in infancy and pregnancy, as well as in "feeding" some cancers. While a normal diet also high in natural folates may decrease the risk of cancer, there is diverse evidence that high folate intake from supplementation may actually promote some cancers as well as precancerous tumors and lesions. AMAZING! So when you think you are getting necessary vitamins from all of these enriched foods, you are actually increasing your risk of developing cancer. FYI.... spinach, asparagus, beans, peas, lentils, egg yolks, bakers yeast, and sunflower seeds are all sufficient sources of naturally occurring folate. 

- Natural Flavor according to the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations a "natural flavorant" is the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or any other edible portions of a plant, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose primary function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. So when I order my veggie sandwich I could actually be eating parts of an animal or fish. Good news for vegetarians and vegans because natural flavoring is in many more foods than you would think!

- Artificial Flavor Flavoring substances not identified in a natural product intended for human consumption, whether or not the product is processed. These are typically produced by fractional distillation and additional chemical manipulation naturally sourced chemicals or from crude oil or coal tar. Although they are chemically different, in sensory characteristics are the same as natural ones. I don't know about you but I love eating chemically manipulated substances that come from crude oil or tar.

- Monoglycerides & Diglycerides are commonly added to commercial food products in small quantities. They act as emulsifiers, helping to mix ingredients such as oil and water that would not otherwise blend well. The commercial source may be either animal (cow- or hog-derived) or vegetable (soy- which is a whole other topic), and they may be synthetically made as well. There are natural emulsifiers such as honey or egg yolks which do not come from unspecified animal parts. 

- Citric Acid is a weak organic acid. It is a natural preservative and is also used to add an acidic, or sour, taste to foods and soft drinks. It is obtainable from lemons and limes. However, most citric acid in the food industry is not extracted from citrus fruit, but fermented by Aspergillus niger mold from scrap molasses, waste starch hydrolysates and phosphoric acid. 

- Polysorbate 60 is one of a class of emulsifiers used in some pharmaceuticals and food preparation. CHEMICAL!

- Glycerin (Glycerol) serves as a humectant, solvent and sweetener, and may help preserve foods. It is also used as filler in commercially prepared low-fat foods, and as a thickening agent in liqueurs. As a sugar substitute, it has approximately 27 calories per teaspoon and is 60 percent as sweet as sucrose. Although it has about the same food energy as table sugar, it does not raise blood sugar levels, nor does it feed the bacteria that form plaques and cause dental cavities. 

- Caramel Color is a soluble food coloring. It is made by a carefully controlled heat treatment of carbohydrates, generally in the presence of acids, alkalis, or salts, in a process called caramelization. Caramel color is one of the oldest and most widely-used food colorings. 

- Potatoe Maltodextrin is used as a food additive. It is produced from starch by partial hydrolysis (very bad for you) and is usually found as a creamy-white spray dried powder. Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose, and might be either moderately sweet or almost flavorless. 

- Ascorbic Acid is a sugar acid with antioxidant properties. One form of ascorbic acid is commonly known as Vitamin C. Ascorbic acid is commonly used as antioxidant food additives. These compounds are water-soluble and thus cannot protect fats from oxidation: For this purpose, the fat-soluble esters of ascorbic acid with long-chain fatty acids (ascorbyl palmitate or ascorbyl stearate) can be used as food antioxidants. Eighty percent of the world's supply of ascorbic acid is produced in China. 

- Tocopherols are a class of chemical compounds of which many have vitamin E activity. Recent studies have found that increased intake of vitamin E, especially among smokers may be responsible for an increase in the incidence of lung cancer, with one study finding an increase in the incidence of lung cancer by 7% for each 100 IU of vitamin E taken daily. Synthetic mixtures of Vitamin E isomers are not bio-equivalent to natural mixtures, yet are widely used academically and commercially. Beware of Vitamin E that has been added to foods. If it shows up in the ingredient list, it is not naturally occurring in the food and has been shown to be VERY harmful to our bodies. If you are worried about cancer, as I am, I would urge you to stay far away from foods with Vitamin E derivatives in them. 

- Tara Gum (Caesalpinia spinosa), commonly known as tara, is a small leguminous tree or thorny shrub native to Peru. Tara gum has been deemed safe for human consumption as a food additive. It is used as a thickening agent and stabilizer in a number of food applications. 

- Carrageenan is a vegetarian and vegan alternative to gelatin extracted from red seaweed.

- Phosphoric Acid is a mineral (inorganic) acid. Food-grade phosphoric acid is used to acidify foods and beverages, but not without controversy regarding its health effects. It provides a tangy or sour taste and, being a mass-produced chemical, is available cheaply and in large quantities. The low cost and bulk availability is unlike more expensive seasonings that give comparable flavors, such as citric acid. 

- Malic Acid is the active ingredient in many sour or tart foods. Malic acid is found mostly in unripe fruits, and is the source of extreme tartness in candy. It is also used with or in place of the less sour citric acid in sour sweets and Salt & Vinegar-flavor potato chips. These sweets are sometimes labeled with a warning stating that excessive consumption can cause irritation of the mouth.

- Calcium Chloride is used in canned vegetables, in firming soy bean curds into tofu and in producing a caviar substitute from vegetable or fruit juices. It is commonly used as an electrolyte in sports drinks and other beverages including Smartwater and Nestle bottled water. The extremely salty taste of calcium chloride is used to flavor pickles while not increasing the food's sodium content. 

- Microcrystalline Cellulose is a term for refined wood pulp and is used as a texturizer, a anti-caking agent, a fat substitute, an emulsifier, an extender, and a bulking agent in foods. I wasn't aware that wood pulp was actually an acceptable food for humans? 

Now I know that there are probably trace amounts of these substances in this sandwich, but think about all of the (over) processed/frozen/packaged food that consumes our diets. Some of these substances are put in food so that it has a longer shelf life. That means that the food can sit in a warehouse and then on a shelf for months if not years. And the trace amounts that show up in this sandwich, when multiplied by every single meal that the average American eats (which is complete crap!), turn into a significant amount of garbage that we are putting into our bodies. 

No wonder cancer is everywhere, obesity is everywhere, and people generally look and feel like shit. Take a look around when you are out in a public place and take notice of all of the overweight, frumpy shleps and ask yourself how many fruits and vegetables are they eating? You could probably count on 2 hands the pieces of fruit and/or vegetables that they have eaten in one month (not in a day like it should to be). And the lettuce on their foot-long, over-stuffed Italian sub doesn't count.

Until next time....start eating more fruits and veggies (and not the one's in Panera's Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich)!