This fall has been an especially busy time for me. My oldest is off to college now, so I thought things would be so much easier with only 3 kids at home. I thought things would quiet down a little bit. Boy, was I wrong! I have been juggling Varsity and JV games each weekend with the teenager. My daughter is cheering for a little tackle team and my youngest is playing flag football. That’s 4 games each weekend when I’m supposed to be meal planning, grocery shopping and getting ready for my busy week. I’m sure a lot of you can relate.
Lately, I feel like I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants when it comes to meal planning. We are still eating real food for most of our meals, but I have allowed some trips to the concession stand to enter into our life. I have a long way to go to before we are as bad as we used to be, but I feel like we are slipping just a bit.
That’s why I’ve decided to write this post today. I want to reconnect with all of the reasons why I changed our family to a real food lifestyle. I hope this serves as a nice reminder to all of you out there who also are having a crazy fall with me. If this is just the beginning of your real food journey, then let this be some information to motivate you to change.
10 Ingredients to Avoid in Processed Foods (Part 1)
1. Artificial Colors – This will alway be my #1. There is just no need for them to be in our food. These colors are chemical compounds that are made from coal and tar. Yuck! Studies have shown that artificial can cause hyper behavior in children and have been linked to cancer. I don’t need them!
Flavorings…………..
2. Artificial Flavorings – What’s wrong with real flavor? Artificial flavorings are cheap chemical mixtures that mimic natural flavor. They contain no nutrition, but many times food companies fool us with these. Are you eating a blueberry muffin with nutrition or corn syrup flavored and colored to look like a blueberry and without any nutrition?
3. MSG – It is a flavor enhancer that is found in restaurant food, frozen meals, soups, dressings, and other foods. It has been shown to cause nausea, a burning sensation, and even stimulate your appetite. Great! You are eating and now only feeling hungrier.
All of these ingredients above have been shown to cause headaches! Headaches are a common complaint amongst us busy moms. Hmm…….is it the food we are eating or our kids? I will say it is probably both! My headaches have not gone away completely, but there has been a drastic change in both frequency and severity since I switched to a real food diet.
Sweeteners…………..
4. High Fructose Corn Syrup – It’s a cheap alternative to cane and beat sugar. It helps baked goods last longer on the grocery store shelf. HFCS has been shown to increase your risk for Type-2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. I’ve said this over and over. I don’t want any of these diseases for my family or any of you for that matter.
5. Artificial Sweeteners– These are the sweeteners that we commonly know as the ones in the pink packets and blue packets. Aspartame, Sucralose and Sorbitol are others. They are highly-processed and can affect your metabolism, cause dizziness, headaches, and some have been linked to cancer.
Time to start checking your labels. This is a lot of information all at once so I decided to break this up into 2 parts. Is there anything here you think should be in your food? I’m serious. Let me hear it. How do you feel about feeding these ingredients to your family? How do you feel about the food industry as a whole? Are there certain companies and/or brands you really like?
I can’t wait to hear from you. Leave me a comment here and I invite you to join the fun on our various social media. Just join us by using the various buttons at the top of the page. Lots more recipes, tips and fun to be had by all!
Sources: http://www.healthiertalk.com/10-worst-food-ingredients-you-should-avoid-plague-4066
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/9-ingredients-to-avoid-in-processed-foods-1268429.html
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This is such a good list and series on your blog! Labels are so important! I used to spend so long in the natural store just reading labels when I started changing how I eat. I could still do it even though now I have to watch timing depending on whats going on with hubby and baby, great post!
Thanks for stopping by Brittnei. I was blown away by the ingredients I saw when I started reading labels. You are right though. It does take time. My husband and I started out reading a few new labels each time we shopped until we developed a list of go-to brands and products. We are much quicker now, but it was a long process at first.
Yes, these are things to avoid. I try to avoid these whenever possible. So many of these can be found in so much food!
The food industry is very tricky. I find these ingredients where I would least expect them. I agree! They are everywhere.
Stopping by from yumeating.com (Sorry, its not a blogger blog) and I always wonder about the artifical sweetener controversy because I am hearing more and more about it lately. I used to use a lot of Splenda. Back in the day it was the big thing because it didn't have the funky aftertaste that Equal and Sweet n Low had. Now even Splenda is having a lot of backlash because it has been linked to various things. I'm trying to stick to a clean diet and that means getting away from artificial sweeteners. I am confused about Stevia. It's not artificial – right? Because its the leaf? But it's still processed, so is it considered clean? I'm finding that all the 'clean' products are filled with calories and I'll never lose any weight that way!
MSG is evil it tears us up, we always know when it is in food it effects us so quickly. When things end in itol they generally are evil to us too Especially me! xo