If you can't read it, don't eat it.

Labels.
<---- Can you guess what type of food this is? I wouldn't be able to either if I hadn't already seen the packaging. You are probably familiar with some of the ingredients, such as flour, iron or cocoa, but these ingredients are not in their most natural state. For example, this label says, "Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate {vitamin B1}, riboflavin, {vitamin B2}, folic acid)." Huh? It should really just say, "White flour that lost all of its vitamins and minerals during over-processing so we just synthetically stuck them back in." If you knew how unnatural and unhealthy these substances are to your body, you probably wouldn't want to eat them.

Let me enrich you.

Mmm that's how I like to take in my vitamins.
Reader's Digest

The first ingredient on the label above is flour enriched with a variety of vitamins and minerals. The more refined a food is, the more it's stripped it of it's natural nutrients, so it's pumped with supplements for the purpose of making it seem healthier than it is. You might be thinking, what's so wrong with that? Enriched foods are not the best way to receive your daily vitamins and minerals. People who eat copious amounts of enriched, processed foods can actually end up ingesting too much of these synthetic substances.  Toxicity due to supplements can lead to problems if the vitamins are fat-soluble. Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble and over consumption of them can cause damage to your cells and organs. All other vitamins are water soluble, so if you were to ingest too much vitamin C, you'd lose the excess in your urine. Ever taken a multi-vitamin and subsequently noticed a bright yellow color in your pee? Your body absorbed all of the water soluble vitamins it needed and then you passed the rest as waste. The label above shows niacin, iron, vitamin B1, B2 and folic acid (B9) enriching the flour. Luckily, there aren't any fat soluble vitamins in this food. Synthetic vitamins are made in laboratories with chemicals, and they have less antioxidants than vitamins and minerals from natural sources like fruits and vegetables.

Sugar
The next ingredient on the label is sugar, which tells me... well, nothing except there is some "type" of sugar in it. Fruit sugar, milk sugar, cane sugar? I have no idea. Following sugar on the label, is more sugar, particularly high fructose corn syrup, which is highly refined and contains genetically modified organisms.

Ingredients on labels have to be listed from top to bottom in order of their highest concentration. So, being that the first three ingredients are essentially, refined flour, some kind (?) of sugar,  and more sugar... we're not off to a good start.

Canola Oil

Look, a field of rape.

Next on the label is canola oil, which is a very popular fat used by many consumers in the United States. I hate to say it, but it's one of the worst oils you could use. Canola oil is modified from a poisonous substance. It's derived from a rapeseed plant, and it has high levels of eurcic acid. In large amounts, eurcic acid is linked to health problems, predominately in your heart. I find this ironic, considering that we are told specifically that since it is monounsaturated, canola oil is good for your heart. Canadian scientists were able to develop their own strains of rapeseed that were low in eurcic acid dubbing them, "canola oil." I guess they thought rape oil didn't sound very good. One might argue that since eurcic acid is found to be harmless in small amounts, the consumption of canola oil won't affect a person's health. I might agree with that if canola oil wasn't present in so many processed foods. Read some labels and see for yourself. Most of the canola oil in America is also genetically modified and get this... in many European countries, genetically modified foods are banned, meaning little to no canola oil is produced there.

More icky ingredients.

After rape oil, the label shows processed cocoa, cornstarch, which is a highly refined GMO containing thickening agent, and leavening agents to make the food "softer". The last 4 ingredients are a little more self explanatory: salt, more sugar, and my personal favorites, artificial color and flavor. 

What is it?

Divas Venus and
Serena stay fit by eating low
calorie junk food.

Wanna know what label you were looking at? It's was a list of ingredients for 100 calorie, Oreo Thin Crisps snack packs! Can I mention the fact that they are advertised as having 0 cholesterol? That's interesting, because real cholesterol only comes from animal sources, which I hope aren't in Oreo's. Also, ingesting cholesterol doesn't really raise your cholesterol, saturated fat does that. So, thanks for that unnecessary tip. Nabisco has a website with a, Diet Like a Diva section with a statement reading, "How do diva's do it? With smart style, fun and flair. And with Nabisco's 100 calorie packs." 

Umm, okay. So, you're saying I'll loose weight by dressing cute, partying and eating sugary snacks? Count me in! 

Let's look at one more label.

<--- I don't really have much explaining to do. You probably know what most of those ingredients are. You may be unfamiliar with florida crystals, which are essentially a less refined version of cane sugar, arrowroot powder, which is a natural herb alternative to cornstarch and xanthan gum which works as a natural food binder. This is a label for a cupcake from PCC made from scratch with natural ingredients. I want to point out too, that even though the cupcake undoubtedly has more calories then the snack pack, less calories do not equate a healthier food choice. We need calories to walk, talk and breathe and it's OK to get some of those calories from a tasty, low in refinement dessert.

So, what would you rather have? An over-processed, synthetic, sugary, genetically modified Oreo Snack Pack? Or would you like a cupcake made with fresh, natural ingredients?



FRANKEN-FOOD... NOM, NOM.

This picture makes me giggle.
www.deesillustration.com

When it comes down to it, if you don't know what most of the ingredients on your food labels are, you probably shouldn't be eating it. It would be more accurate for Oreo Snack Packs or t.v. dinners to be advertised as Franken-Food.

I hate over processed foods and you should too. When you take your next trip to the grocery store, turn the package around to check the ingredients list and remember: If you can't read it, don't eat it.