Reading Labels

I've read labels.

EVERY body has read labels, right?

I mean, I look at the calories and stuff. 

Fat, sugar, carbs. Check.

Sometimes, depending on the diet du jour, I might look at the amount of carbs, or the sugar content, or the fats in a food. But that's where my reading labels ended. 

Oh yeah one time I read calories. And tried to count them in a day. 

Yeah that lasted until about noon.

It has never dawned on me that I should read all those ingredients. When I was on the Sugar Busters diet, I would scan the ingredients list to be sure that sugar wasn't one of the first five ingredients. But all that red dye no. 9, sodium phosphate and partially hydrogenated soybean oil didn't matter to me. 

I didn't know what it meant, so why bother reading it?

Take a closer look at Cheetos:

Ingredients and what it REALLY means:

Enriched corn meal = GMO corn lacking any nutritional value

Vegetable oil = rancid, soy-filled

Cheese seasoning= what tha...., and more soy

Partially hydrogenated soybean oil = MORE soy

Canola oil = READ more HERE: Con-ola 

Sour Cream= skim milk, no nutrients

Salt

Whey protein concentrate= in my chips? Why??

Monosodium Glutamate = MSG (to make it tastier and addictive) which causes side effects in many people

Natural and Artificial flavors = vague labeling to cover many sins

Lactic Acid  and Citric Acid= preservatives

Artificial colors= vague labeling to cover many sins

Salt = listed twice??

SIGH.....Just thinking about eating all those chemicals makes me gag. Dang.

 Ignorance WAS bliss.

I LOVE Cheetos! 

I just won't be caught dead eating them now. 

Unless I'm on vacation. Then all rules are on hiatus. ;)

When I started analyzing labels, this whole approach to eating started to come into focus. 

The more chemicals and preservatives, the junkier the food. 

So the question now is, where do you start?  We have to eat. It's not realistic to think we'll just eat fruits and vegetables for the rest of our lives. That would be great (not really, I'd miss chocolate) but it's just not realistic. 

So where do you start?

So this is how I started. First thing we got rid of in our diet was gluten. We literally went through all our cabinets and the fridge and tossed out anything with gluten. That took about two weeks. 

Then over time, we took out sugar. 

Then I ruled out products with junky oils for several weeks. 

This is how I cut out all junk oils. If it has any hydrogenated oils, canola oil,  or soybean oil, I stopped buying it.
And in it's place, I find something similar that's more healthy.
Take for example, my beloved Jif peanut butter. Man I grew up on this stuff.
Jif can't be bad, right?
Read the ingredients:

I ate this stuff for 30+ years and never read the ingredients.

I assumed it was just peanuts.

But do you see it? Hydrogenated vegetable oils- rapeseed and soybean oil.

Hydrogenated oils cause free radicals which cause a ton of problems in our body.
Over time, free radicals can lead to many different diseases. We don't want that.
I'm not saying Jif it toxic. I'm saying that OVER TIME, consuming these kinds of foods will cause you to be ill. And you'll never know it's your unsuspecting jar of Jif. Or cheetos. 

So instead of buying Jif, I searched out a product that my family could live with (ie, TASTE good) but didn't have any of the rancid oils. I started buying organic Maranatha brand peanut butter.

Ingredients: organic peanuts, sea salts.

This works for us.
We still get to eat peanut butter. YAY!! We win.
This peanut butter is soft, doesn't need to be stirred constantly, and tastes fantastic.

I think that's the key- SUBSTITUTE things you like to eat with healthier versions!
And don't feel like you have to toss everything out of your pantry and start fresh.
Just start becoming aware of what's in your food. And then over time, make better choices.

Then as I got the hang of that, I moved on to other chemicals. We just took it slow. 

And at our house, we are still very much a work in progress.

And on any given day I might have a binge on Godiva chocolate bunnies.

That I bought for Easter.
For "Hannah."

And I didn't read any labels (except the word Godiva... and I was sold.)

Dang Easter bunny... 

My friend Cheri told me a great nugget of truth that has helped me along this whole
revamping-my-entire-diet process. 

She said,
"Do you know how to eat an elephant? 
One bite at a time."

You don't have to be perfect. I'm sure not. I keep making mistakes.

And it's usually about chocolate....

But, I'm doing better than I was a few months ago.
And I'll take that.