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There are some really great articles around the blogosphere this month.
Food Renegade has some excellent information about butter and margarine. Click here.
Concerns about the swine flu? We can always count on Dr. Mercola to give us the truth!
Natural mole removal? Who would have guessed? Check it out here at Cheeseslave’s site.
I found a new health blog (new to me), check it out — Just Making Noise: Sound Bytes From a Deaf Mama. Marilyn Beard is a missionary, with her husband, in Costa Rica. She is into Nourishing Traditions, homebirth, kombucha, kefir, and more!
And last, but certainly not least–Kelly the Kitchen Kop is hosting a giveaway–Beef Tallow from US Wellness Meats–a $99.95 value!
This is why I haven’t blogged here lately – click here.
Thank you everyone for participating in this month’s Mystery Food guessing game. Most of the responses were on facebook, so I will list them here. Here are the guesses:
- canned buttercream frosting
- ice cream
- pudding
- sweetened condensed milk
- Miracle Whip
- caramel ice cream topping
Caramel ice cream topping was SO close! Good job! This happens to be Marzetti’s Light Caramel Apple Dip.
Let’s review these ingredients again:
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, NON FAT MILK, POLYDEXTROSE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, BUTTER (MILK, CREAM, SALT), SUGAR, LESS THAN 2% OF: DISODIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES.
Is nothing made from good old-fashioned sugar anymore? Everything is high fructose corn syrup based. Notice it’s the first ingredient, meaning, of all the ingredients, this one is the highest quantity. Then corn syrup. Sugar is the 7th ingredient listed. And then…aaaah!–partially hydrogenated soybean oil–this is the trans fat we talked about, just the other day. Mono and diglycerides are also trans fat.
But you may be thinking, it’s a treat, all treats are bad for us. We can have a little, right?
There are levels of bad. If you were to make your own caramel dip (not that hard) at home, you would use sugar, butter, cream, salt, vanilla, and maybe a little corn syrup (I use Griffin’s since it lists corn syrup and sugar syrup on the label, not high fructose corn syrup). These ingredients are much better for you. (Note, I did not say “healthy”, but better. For more information, check out my Ladder of Healthy Eating.)
This is an October treat for us, we don’t eat it all the time. I used to buy the Marzetti dip. No more, we are taking our steps up the ladder. Checkout any good cookbook for a recipe for real caramel. Make some at home. I especially like Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and The Joy of Cooking. Real food–this is what grandma lived to 90 on!
Little late here with my update on the trans fat challenge–been busy!
Well, trans fat is probably the number one thing I look out for. I avoid it like the plague. I don’t just look for the grams of trans fat listed on the label (it’s often not correct), I look at the ingredients list and check for partially hydrogenated oils. That’s the true tell. So, I don’t have a lot in my house that contains it. The only staple I can think of is flour tortillas. Some day I will get around to making my own, but for now I still buy them. However, I abstained during the challenge. 
My family wanted Oreos with our movie night. In the past I bought Newman’s Own Newmanos, because the cream filling was trans fat free. Since companies are now required to label trans fat, Oreos has reformulated their product. They couldn’t risk everyone knowing just how many grams of trans fat their product contained. So now I will buy them about twice a year. The other night I indulged in one cookie.
Other things that come to mind are peanut butter. I buy Smucker’s Natural because it truly only contains peanuts and salt. Don’t be fooled by the other brands that try to say they don’t contain trans fat. They do, and they’re loaded with sugar.
Many bread products have trans fat added to soften them–sandwich bread, hamburger buns and hot dog buns. Packaged cookies, cakes, and chips contain trans fat. Packaged cookie dough is a big one–it’s loaded, and also packaged biscuits and rolls. Make your own cookies and use real butter. Believe me, they will be much better for you!
I used to buy crescent rolls in a tube. Pampered Chef recipes call for this ingredient all the time. Well, not any more! Not since I found out about the trans fat! Packaged pizza crust, too. Make your own with my french bread recipe. It’s so very easy and much, much more delicious!
Boxed cake mix contains trans fat and canned icing is pure trans fat and sugar. Think of it as a can of Crisco with sugar and flavoring added. I do not eat store-bought cakes anymore and trans fat is the reason. If you invite me over for a party and see that I do not partake of the cake, don’t think I have immense will power to avoid junk food. I have just read about trans fat and what it does to your body and it totally turned me off to store cakes. I make my own and enjoy them fully! Click here for my chocolate cupcake recipe.
I could go on and on about trans fats. Learn to check your labels. Cook with butter, coconut oil, and olive oil. Start making more things at home from scratch. Take your babysteps and checkout The Trans Fat Solution by Kim Severson for more information. I don’t agree with everything in this book (she mentions using soy protein, for example), but her information on trans fat is wonderful. And she has good information about coconut oil, too. The informative part of the book is only 31 pages, the rest are recipes. It’s available at my local library, it might be at yours, too.
Are you ready for October’s mystery food? Here it is:
Ingredients:
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, NON FAT MILK, POLYDEXTROSE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, BUTTER (MILK, CREAM, SALT), SUGAR, LESS THAN 2% OF: DISODIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES
If you think you know what it is, post a comment. I will reveal in a couple days.
…of my motto here at All Things Health.
If God created it, it is good for me; if man has changed it then it is bad for me.
If we start to think in those terms choices become clear and we can end all this confusion. The more you read about nutrition the more you will see contradicting opinions. One group says saturated fats will kill you, another group says they will heal you. Who do you trust?
I Timothy 4:1-5 says that in the last days a great apostasy will take place and people will preach that we should abstain from foods that God created. Well, the vegetarian/vegan movement has been preaching that for a while now, that we shouldn’t eat meat, some go as far as abstaining from anything remotely associated with animals such as honey (because it’s made by bees). That really narrows your choices. Doctors are telling us that saturated fats and cholesterol will clog our arteries and that we shouldn’t eat red meat very often. Many people won’t eat eggs because of the cholesterol. Nutritionists will tell you that you can increase your protein intake with protein powders and protein bars. If we have ailments we are given pills, be they drugs or mega-vitamins. How can we cut through all the nonsense? Verse 4 and 5 – EVERY creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Now I think that a lot of people have taken these verses to mean that they must pray at every meal and ask God to bless the food they are about to eat and they think that this means it won’t harm them. There are natural laws of sowing and reaping, just like the natural law of gravity. We can’t throw a ball up into the air and pray that God will keep it up there. It’s going to come down because of the natural law of gravity. We can’t ask God to bless our processed non-food and expect that we won’t reap unhealthy lives from consuming it.
Deuteronomy 6:16 says, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God”. Jesus quoted this verse when the devil tempted Him to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the temple. We can not knowingly do things that we know will hurt us (or bring us bad health) and expect God to protect us. God will not be mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galatians 6:7).
When we choose foods, we must ask ourselves, “How far has this food (or supplement) come from God’s creation?” In your babysteps toward healthier eating, try to start thinking in those terms.
This article was originally published on this blog on August 20, 2007.
Convenience food is so bad for you, but what’s a person to do when they want something quick and easy?
Plan ahead. I learned of this idea from moneysavingmom.com. She does a once-a-month baking day and freezes all the items so she can pull them out anytime she wants.
This works great for me, a homeschooling mom of two. We do our schooling on a six weeks on, one week off schedule. So on the week off, I do a baking day. I bake up lots of muffins, so that once a week we can have a quick easy breakfast, without cooking. I just place the frozen muffins in a baking dish the night before, cover with a heat-proof lid or foil and leave out on the counter. The next morning I turn the oven on and pop them in. They come out tasting just like they were fresh-baked.
I also make up a couple batches of my french bread recipe, so that I can make croutons or french toast easily. I just cut the bread up into cubes and freeze them for the croutons or slice the bread and freeze it for french toast. French bread makes the best french toast ever!
I have also made up waffles the same in the past. Just pull them out of the freezer and pop them in the toaster.
Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be intensive labor, just plan ahead, make life easier!
I took my son to his homeschool PE class today. Quite literally two-thirds of the class was absent due to sickness, or being afraid to expose themselves to sicknesses. It seems each year the germs get worse and worse. But there is no reason to fear. Arm yourself with this powerful medicine:
Coconut Oil!
It sounds strange, but this healthy oil is a powerhouse. It fights viruses, bacteria, and even yeasts/fungus (think candida, or athlete’s foot, etc.).
As I mentioned here, Hippocrates (460BC – 377BC) said, “Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food.” Apparently the Chinese have this same philosophy, too.
Coconut oil is food, but it is a powerful medicine. We take it at the first sign of a cold or flu and in our experience it has drastically cut down on recovery time, sometimes in less than 24 hours. In the past I have been down with the flu 10-14 days, and nothing natural I tried was working (before finding coconut oil). I used to take massive doses of vitamin C (now I know that will only work with infection, whereas most issues are viral), I tried oscillococcinum, echinacea, goldenseal, and another herbal tincture that slips my mind right now. None of them ever worked (for me, they may work for some, but not for me).
Click on these articles to read more about coconut oil:
‘Tis the Season – How I Beat the Flu with Coconut Oil
Coconut Oil – How to Take It and Where To Buy It
This post is part of Natural Cures Blog Carnival on HartkeisOnline.com. Go check it out to learn about more natural remedies for colds and flu.
This is a fabulous book with fabulous photos! I love beautiful books! But really, the information in this book is great, too. You can see why blueberries are so good for us, and what are the best fats to eat, and so much more. The thing I love most, is that Jonny Bowden is promoting whole food. Remember–If God created it, it is healthy; if man has adulterated it, it is not.
Are you ready for another challenge?
This month, the challenge is to cut out hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils for 7 days. Check your labels, you might be surprised to learn what foods contain these oils.
Partially hydrogenated oil is the same thing as trans fat. The problem is that a lot of packages claim 0g of trans fat per serving, but it really is anywhere from 0 to .49g. The FDA allows the manufacturer to claim 0, if it is less than .5. Well, half a gram doesn’t sound bad, does it?
Let’s think about it this way, though. When was the last time you just ate 1-oz. of chips. If you have a scale, try weighing out 1 ounce. It isn’t much. Most of us eat more than one serving of most foods at a time. The manufacturer makes that serving size so small so that they can hide how much trans fat and/or sugar the item really has. So, then you are really eating possibly 1.5g of trans fat, every time you enjoy those chips. Studies show that even 2 grams of trans fat a day are dangerous.
If you normally cook with Crisco, use butter instead. Butter is a very healthy fat. It has had such a negative connotation for far too long. Click here to read about that.
Click here to learn more about hydrogenated oils.
I will check back in at the end of the 7 days and report my results. See you then!
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