Processed Foods

   

     Who doesn't like processed food?  In all my years of living ( which is a lot ), I  have never heard anyone say that they didn't like the stuff.  We have become a society where it's all around us.  Gas stations, grocery stores, department stores have candy at the checkout!  There are stores where you can drive your car into a barn like structure to get all kinds of drinks from soda, to alcohol.  Not to mention all the fast food stores that are everywhere, and the minute you walk into Walmart the smell of Subway or another fast food store hits your nose, and smells divine!

      Life as I knew it when I was a child has changed so much!  I was never in the house for very long except to get a drink or go to the bathroom, or to tell my mother where I was going. I was always playing outside with my friends, playing hopscotch, rollerskating, kick the can, hide and seek just to name a few, I was active then!  Childhood obesity was unheard of!   My father worked the same job for many years.  Life was stable!  I grew up in the same home for 27 years.  Fast food back then was a treat!  I remember getting Kentucky Fried Chicken once in a while. My mother always had a so called "healthy" dinner for my dad and I by the time my father came home from work. Life was simple back then.  Now look at us.  Because of the economy both parents have to work, children aren't safe to play outside anymore unattended, but children choose to stay in and play video games and surf websites online.  I never see kids outside these days.  Children now have a million of activities after school, and there is no time for mom to make a healthy sit down dinner.  Children and adults eat on the run.  Salads take too long to eat, and besides the greasy fried foods taste better, not to mention it's cheap with the dollar menus and such.

     What is the definition of fast food?  According to Merriam Webster  1. of, relating to, or specializing in food that can be prepared and served quickly.  2. "designed for ready availability, use, or consumption and with little consideration given to quality or significance.  Interesting that number 2 says with little consideration given to quality or significance.  We are feeding our families food that is low in quality.

     The first thing I did when I started this journey was to throw out all the processed junk from the house.  This included cereals, white bread, boxed easy fast meals like Mac and Cheese, Bisquick etc. Then I started reading labels.  Here is what I found on the Bisquick box.  
   
The ingredients in Bisquick Original consist of bleached wheat flour(enriched with niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin and folic acid), corn starch, dextrose, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate), canola oil, salt, ...

     First of all bleached wheat flour.  Wheat flour is processed into white?  That doesn't sound too great, strips all the nutrients out of the wheat.  The thiamin mononitrate is a stable salt whatever that means, and thiamine is a vitamin.  Dextrose is a form of sugar.   Partially hydrogenated soybean oil.  We should avoid hydrogenated anything.  It's a form of trans fats.  In hydrogenated oils their chemical has been altered to prevent rancidity in foods.  GROSS!  Not to mention it has been altered.  What about sodium aluminum?  It's a stabilizer and it's aluminum folks!  It was been connected with infertility, and Alzheimer's disease.  Monocalcium phosphate is a chemical compound.  

     I don't know about you, but if I have to look things up and try to understand it all, if we can't pronounce things we shouldn't be eating them.  

     When I shop, I stick to the perimeter of the store, unless I'm picking up rice or beans, but I stay away from the junk.  Now I make it sound easy, but really it just takes discipline.  As I continue to eat healthy, my taste buds have changed.  I don't crave the sweets anymore, I sometimes crave salty foods, but I try to stay clear of them as well.  It's all just a process.  

     Michael Pollan, bestselling author of The Omnivoe's Delemma, has said,  "If it came from a plant, eat it.  If it was made in a plant, don't.