Do you know what you're eating?

INSIDE

By Gwen Wiley

Have you read any food labels lately? What you find might surprise you.

Many of us do our grocery shopping out of habit, mindlessly purchasing and consuming what we think is real food. But much of the food on grocery store shelves and in our cupboards may not be what we think it is. Here are some important tips to help you understand what you’re actually eating and how you can begin to choose real foods that nourish a healthy body.

It is important to understand that much of what we eat today is processed food. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration defines processed food as “any food other than a raw agricultural commodity and includes any raw agricultural commodity that has been subject to processing, such as canning, cooking, freezing, dehydration, or milling.” Some of these products contain relatively few ingredients while others contain a long list of chemicals and additives.

Since it is commonly recommended that we eat 4-5 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily, that means our intake of processed food should be greatly reduced. That’s probably not the case for most of us. Here are some simple suggestions for selecting real and minimally processed foods for a healthier diet:

Select most of your groceries from the store perimeter
Read ingredient labels
Choose foods with fewer ingredients that you understand
Don’t be fooled by labels like ‘natural’ or ‘whole grain’
Take advantage of your local farmers’ markets
Analyze your diet by writing down everything you eat for 1 month
Be patient as you learn to think about foods differently

The main idea is to start thinking about what we call food.

Ellen Allen, a young mother in Fayetteville, Arkansas, started reading food labels when her toddler began to eat more than strained bananas and green beans. She said, “I wanted my daughter to continue to have a healthy diet and found that most processed foods had ingredients that were questionable.”

A physician advised Ellen to select foods with the fewest ingredients and avoid foods that contained the following terms in their labels: bleached, enriched, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated, or partially hydrogenated.

The two most likely reasons for not reducing our intake of processed foods are time and cost. It takes time to read label ingredients and we’re often rushing to get our grocery shopping done quickly. It may be necessary to begin slowly by focusing on certain items like our snack foods at first. Once you know the typical ingredients in a particular group of foods, you will be able to read labels much more quickly. Eventually, you will automatically know what foods to avoid.

Also, healthier eating may appear to be more expensive. Sometimes it is, but not buying real food may cost us more in the long run in terms of health problems such as obesity and diabetes. Purchasing local produce is another great way to offset the cost of healthy eating.

The following links can help you to begin learning about what’s really in the food you eat as well as locate wholesome foods in your particular area:

Healthy Living and Eating 101
http://www.deliciousorganics.com/Controversies/healthy101.htm

“From a Chinese Oil Refinery to Your Twinkie” by Steve Ettlinger<>
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-0e-ettlinger29may29,0,7374864.story?track=rss

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture farmers’ market listing
http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/

<>Find wholesome and fresh food in your area
http://www.eatwellguide.org/

Created June 23, 2007