Processed Food Facts
According to Donna Crane, writer for the Voice Newspaper out of Aurora, Illinois, the average American consumes 150 pounds of chemicals each year. She says that in any grocery store, you will see tens of thousands of boxed, bagged, jarred, canned, and frozen items begging for your attention. The labels show attractive pictures and brightly colored packaging, many of which show colorful fresh fruits and vegetables or cartoon characters, and say “good source of fiber,” “trans fat free,” or “natural.” Donāt be fooled, as the label should say: “jam packed with health-wrecking chemicals” and there should be a skull with crossbones.
Some of the chemicals in our foods are synthetic vitamins and minerals, emulsifiers, buffers, artificial flavorings and colorings, taste enhancers, artificial sweeteners, trans fats, and preservatives. A good rule is that if the ingredient list is very long and you donāt know what the ingredients mean, you are eating chemicals and not food.
Reading Labels
If you ask most people if they read labels when they shop, they will answer in the affirmative. Questioning them further, you will find it is the āNutrition Facts,ā which has the biggest label. On this label, it has serving size, servings per container, calories, total fat (including saturated and trans fat), cholesterol, carbohydrates, and sugar. The problem with this is that zero fat sounds good but is dangerous and the label does not reveal the kind of fat. Emphasis should be on the ingredients; often the lettering is so small that it is difficult to read.
The following is a label off of a T.V. dinner. Here are some of the ingredients in addition to the meat and vegetables:
Soy protein concentrate, modified food starch, salt, sodium tripolyphosphate, chicken broth, maltodextrin, yeast, dextrose, wheat gluten, calcium propionate, mono and natural flavor, magnesium carbonate, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium carbonate.
Compare this label to a package of wild sardines. Go to the ingredients and read: naturally wood smoked Brisling Sardines, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Salt. Generally speaking, if there are more than two or three ingredients, it is not food.
