Understanding Food Ingredients and Labels-Part 1

Now that you have had ample time to think about what changes you would like to make, here are more tools for your toolbox on your discovery to lifestyle change and healthy choices.

~Reading and Understanding Food Ingredients:
YES, it is important to take the time to read food ingredients and labels then understand what you are reading. Understanding food ingredients and labels are one of your strongest tools while shopping or purchasing foods to know what you are putting into your body. Again, it goes back to the basics of wanting to know you are putting gasoline in your car engine vs diesel. Then of course their are different grades of gasoline which are necessary to be able to decipher according to your engine. These principles are correlated with the fuel (food) that you put in your engine (body)!

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Example of ingredients list! How many of these are in the list below to AVOID?

Read the ingredients!

• Ingredients are listed in order. The first ingredient listed is used in the greatest quantity in the food product while the ingredients taper accordingly until the last ingredient listed is used in the least quantity in the food product. 
  • Look for food products that have the least amount of ingredients utilized. The fewer the ingredients listed the healthier the product usually is due to less preservatives, sugars, etc used.
• If you can NOT pronounce the ingredient it is probably not what you should be eating. Most ingredients should be recognized as a derivative of a fruit, vegetable, nut, or seed; this is usually evident in the ingredient's name.
• Certain ingredients you should put to memory and AVOID:

• 1. High Fructose Corn Syrup      
  2. Artificial Flavors
  3. ANYTHING Enriched
  4. Hydrogenated and Fractioned Oils
  5. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) -aka: Hydrolyzed Pea Protein, Caseinate, Yeast Extract
  6. Potassium Benzoate and Sodium Benzoate
  7. Artificial Coloring -examples: yellow 6, red 3, blue 1&2, green 3 
  8. Acesulfame-K
  9. Splenda and Sucrolose 
  10. Aspartame, Equal, and NutraSweet 
  11. Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated Hydrozyttoluene (BHT)
  12. Propyl Gallate
  13. Sodium Chloride -use real salt, rock salt instead
  14. Soy -fermented and organic-OK!
  15. Potassium Sorbate
  16. Soy Lecithin
  17. Polysorbate 80
  18. Canola Oil
  19. Corn -even organic is not guaranteed to be non-GMO!
  20. Sugar -comes in many different forms

**There are more ingredients that should be avoided than the above 20, but this should give you a good start and idea on how saturated normal food products are that is available to the general public.

Why do you avoid the above listed 20 ingredients?

• It's simple! Most are carcinogens which cause thyroid/bladder cancers, infertility, weight gain, migraines, seizures, obesity, infections, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, ALS, high blood pressure, damages liver, diabetes, insulin resistance,  damages and changes DNA, accelerated maturing, hormonal changes, ovary deformities, changes to vagina and womb lining, and much more.
  • Carcinogen definition: A substance or agent that alters the genetic structure of cells and cause them to become cancerous.

Image credit: inspiredfitstrong.com

Research the ingredients!

• If just seeing the list of ailments that the above ingredients cause does not make you want to avoid them then you should try googling photos and information on each listed ailment to get a better sense of how you do not want to experience any of these negative effects!
  • I have found that visualization is one of the strongest tools to create cause and effect in our minds, leading to the strongest changes!
• To learn more information on each ingredient check out these resources: ​walkingtimes.com; ewg.com; google.com-use the classic name search; your local library or university has access to scientific journals if you really want to compare the research.
  • Environmental Working Group (ewg.com) is a great online resource with cited journals that I use to research any ingredients that I can not pronounce or do not recognize whether the ingredients are in food, cosmetics, or body care.
  • Feel free to do a little research and make your own informed conclusions; the whole point is to empower yourself through information!
  • Believe it or not, the large companies distributing most of the food products on your local gas station, restaurant, or grocery store shelves are "banking" on the fact that you are uninformed, overwhelmed, and "too busy to care."

Image credit: medicaldaily.com

​Stay tuned for Part 2 which will include how to use and understand nutrition fact labels! Once we set the foundation for understanding and being informed we can begin focusing on the fun art of creating recipes and true lifestyle changes.