I thought at this point in the Getting Real with Food series, you might enjoy hearing from someone else on the matter.  My friend Lindsey recently began making some changes for her family (which includes her husband Eric and two of the cutest little girls).  She and I have been visiting and emailing back and forth.  I’ve loved hearing about how hard she’s working to learn and about all the changes she’s making.  And I thought you would too!  So, I asked her to write a guest post to tell us all of her journey so far. 

Here’s Lindsey:

When Laura started posting about eating healthy, natural foods, I was a little skeptical.  I thought that her lifestyle was something that would take a lot of time and money, and those are two things I do not have.  Because I know Laura to be an intelligent woman, and one that I want to mirror my own wife/mothering skills after, I thought I should open my heart to this topic.  As I continued to read her posts, I also set out to do some of my own research.  I began with reading about unnatural foods such as High Fructose Corn Syrup, Partially Hydrogenated Oils and artificial sweeteners.  Once I heard everything that went into processing those foods and the health problems they can lead to, I was pretty convinced we should try to make changes. 

Our changes have been slow for two reasons.  The first is that we want to make sure the changes we make turn into habits that will fit our lifestyle.  Second, we make small changes because some of them are costly and we need to find room in our tight budget. 

One of the easiest changes to make was switching from margarine to real butter.  I never had real butter growing up, so I never knew the difference.  Now I know, it is so good!  And, when used in moderation, is a great addition to the fats needed in a healthy diet. 

We have also stopped buying prepackaged foods that have HFCS and Partially Hydrogenated Oils.  These are in pretty much everything.  Some things I buy still have those ingredients, but I will only continue to buy them until I find an alternative. 

Recently, we stopped buying bread from the store.  The ones I found either had whole wheat and HFCS or were not whole wheat, even though it was labeled as whole wheat bread.  So, I made my own, with Laura’s recipe.  I thought I would give it a try, and if it didn’t work out or if it was too time consuming, I would have to try another replacement.  It was not time consuming at all, and I really loved the process.  My two year old even helped me, and it was a great bonding experience for us.  I also switched from buying enriched pastas to whole wheat pastas.  This was another easy change to make, because it doesn’t cost much more and it actually has way better flavor. 

We also switched from buying white flour to whole wheat.  It is not much more expensive, and because I am saving money with not buying prepackaged snacks, I have that money to spend so I can make healthy snacks for our family.  My two year old also helped me make Laura’s pretzels and they are incredible!  They also lasted longer for my small family than a box of unhealthy food would. 

Something that we have always done is buy a lot of fresh fruit.  Over the summer, I had a garden where I grew a lot of it, so we didn’t spend much money on that.  Now that gardening season is about over, we are buying more fruit, but it is so good, and I really feel good when my husband and kids ask for more grapes/apples/pears etc.  We have found so many healthy snacks that are good for us and taste good too. 

I really thought at first that this is something I would fail at because of the money issue, as well as my husband’s picky eating.  His favorite foods are cheeseburgers and pizza.  Not only have I found healthier ways to serve those foods, I am so surprised at the new foods he is trying, and how much he likes them.  There are still many changes I am excited to make because I know I am taking better care of myself and my family. 
——————————————————

 Thank you so much Lindsey for opening yourself up to share with us.  You are such an encouragement to me and to others.

One of my favorite things about what Lindsey is doing:  She’s not just reading my posts about healthy eating, believing what I say and that’s it.  She’s been doing a lot of research on her own to validate the fact that HFCS and hydrogenated oils and such are not good for you.  (In the meantime, she found a website telling how great HFCS is supposed to be for your health.  Guess who funded THAT website?  Grr)

I’m curious what others of you out there have discovered about making changes.  Has it been difficult?  Is it costing you much more to eat this way?  Are you discovering some new favorite foods that are both healthy and delicious?   

I have two friends.

Okay, I have way more than two friends…but right now I’m going to be talking about two friends.

These two friends are named Ima and Erma.  (While these may sound like ficticious friends…they aren’t…the friends are real…I just changed their names so as not to embarrass them on my blog).

Ima’s husband has had poor health for years.  Once when Ima was visiting with me in my kitchen while I was making honey whole wheat bread she looked into my pantry at my whole foods and said, “Oh, you do try to make everything healthy don’t you?  My husband is always on me to cook more like this.  I just don’t want to.”  Then Ima shrugged. 

Here’s my advice to all the Ima’s out there who have husbands that want to eat healthier:

If your husband wants to eat healthier…then I would certainly think that as his help meet you would want to work to learn a few things about healthy eating.  It is not as difficult as you might think.  What a great gift you would be giving your husband…which would be a blessing to your marriage and your entire family. 

Now, on to my friend Erma…

Erma has a husband who sort of understands that eating healthy is a good thing…but the guy just really likes his junk food.  And he loves to eat out.  And he really likes giving their kids fun treats like “Fun Dip” and popsicles and hot dogs, because…it’s fun.  Erma is totally into healthy eating and has had a very hard time with the way her husband likes to eat because she knows that licking colored sugar off of a sugar stick (Fun Dip) is not a good snack for her kids.  And it really bothers her.

For a while, Erma fought her husband on this.  She got mad at him everytime he brought home sugary cereals and white bread from the store.  The kids started noticing that that Mommy got mad about the suckers Daddy would bring home for them.  It was causing bitterness within Erma and tension in the family.

Finally Erma realized that her husband and kids did also eat the healthy food she prepared.  The treats her husband brought home were rare…and he did it because he wanted to do something fun for his children.  It was a special thing for Daddy to do. 

So Erma decided that it was more important to have peace in the home than to have a perfect diet.  She knew it was better for all of them to eat healthy foods…but the trouble she was creating by fighting her husband all the time about it was not worth the “unhealth” of the family.  She began smiling at him and thanking him when he brought home pizza so that she wouldn’t have to cook.  And she’d fire up the grill when he brought home hotdogs for a fun cook out.  (And she’d get out carrot sticks to go with the hotdogs) 

It is amazing the transformation that happened in the family when Erma just lightened up and worked to follow her husband’s lead about food.  Now he even works a little harder to make sure the kids eat their veggies!

Erma, you rock. 

I wanted to tell you about my friends because I’ve heard from several of you out there whose husbands aren’t as excited about making healthy changes as you are.  I want to just encourage you to follow their lead.  Move slowly and try new things.  Make tiny changes.  Make their favorite foods, just try to make them with the best ingredients that you can.   Try healthier foods that are fun (like my Giant Breakfast Cookies or Donuts).

Above all, be cheerful about it.  And don’t give up.  As long as he’s okay with it, keep making small changes to your diet so that your family is given the nourishment they need.  And, if he brings home a package of oreos…pour everyone a glass of milk and just sit yourself down and enjoy them! 

What’s it like at your house?  Are you and your husband “on the same page” when it comes to eating healthy?   And…what’s it like teaching your kids to eat healthy foods?  I’ll be talking about that soon!
—————————————————-

Read more Works for me Wednesday posts here.

If you’ve missed the other posts in this Getting Real with Food series, be sure to go read them!

All this information about healthy eating can be SO OVERWHELMING…huh?  Especially if you’re used to buying and eating mostly pre-made convenience foods.  Now you’ve learned that you need to “find good healthy sources of milk and meat from cows that have gone to college and have a Master’s degree”.  And you should become the little red hen so that you can ”grow the wheat,  cut it, chaff it, and mill it” (Andrea’s fun commentary on what we have to do if we grind our own flour!).   And “eat only organic produce that has nary a pesticide on it whatsoever and grew on a tree that was sung to sleep every night”.   Please, can someone just hand me a poptart? 

NO!  Don’t fall back on the poptart!  Eating healthy doesn’t have to cause stress.  That would be…unhealthy. 

I love to cook and bake, and it comes pretty naturally to me.  Even so, when I began making healthy changes for our family a few years ago, I also found it overwhelming to think about all of the ins and outs of it.  Cooking macaroni and cheese from a box would take so much less time and be so much easier than making macaroni and cheese from scratch from wholesome ingredients, wouldn’t it?

Guess what I’ve found?  It DOESN’T take much longer and it ISN’T much harder! 

Over the past few days, I’ve been charting some of the things I do in the kitchen…and guess what I found?  All the work I do to feed my family a healthy diet really doesn’t take hours and hours.  It really, really doesn’t!!  You just have to get into the swing of things, that’s all.

Like, take for instance, the fact that I grind my own flour.  This job consists of me pouring grain from a sack into my grinder…plugging it in…and turning the knob to “on”.  Then, I walk away and do other things (like read someone’s blog, or check email!)…then I go back in and turn it off.   Done.  I’ve ground flour.  Whew.

Or how about soaking the flour before you make your recipe?  It hardly takes any time at all…you just have to plan ahead a little.  Oh, and you have to stir.

And cooking a whole chicken?  Well, yesterday I did this…and today…I’m not even sore.  I stuck that bird in a pot of water with some veggies (that I didn’t even take the time to peel), shook in some salt…and walked away.  The chicken cooked all day long, all by itself, and made the house smell really good too.   Go chicken…go chicken.

And I could go on and on about the simple REAL FOODS you can make without difficulty.  Cooking from scratch and preparing healthy meals doesn’t always mean that you have to labor in the kitchen for EVER.  Often it’s just about planning ahead and getting the food started…then just waiting for it to be ready. 

And…the more you cook…the easier it will be and the faster it will go.  (I can practically bake bread in my sleep now…and I’m pretty sure I have on occasion…)

You CAN do this!! YOU can do this!!  You can DO this!!!  And you can keep reading my blog for more help…and you can email me anytime you want with questions.  I love it when you email me!  It excites me to read about the changes you’re working to make and to see that you care enough to try and learn! 

So keep on making great changes and learning new things about healthy eating!  Your good health and the good health of your family is worth it!

So…how are you doing on this healthy eating train?  What’s going well for you?  What’s overwhelming you?  How are ya feelin’?
—————————————————

Be sure to read more Works for me Wednesday posts here at Shannon’s awesome blog!

I’ve had tons of emails lately asking if I soak my grains and how I do it and why I do it! 

Most of the recipes on my site have not shown that I soak my grains.  Mostly I did that because I know that many of my readers are just beginning to look into making changes toward healthy eating.  I decided…if you are just starting out trying to switch over from fruit roll-ups to real fruit…from white flour to whole wheat…from boxed foods to foods made from scratch…it would be very discouraging to hear that you also should “prepare your grains 12-24 hours ahead of time by soaking them in something that is lacto-fermented in order to break down the phytic acid…” 

It’s overwhelming enough sometimes just to try to get your kids to eat a green bean…and to wrap your brain around the fact that almost every food on the shelves that we might be used to eating has a no-no ingredient in it. 

So, if you’re just starting out on the healthy eating trail…read over the information in this post and tuck it away for whenever or if ever you’re ready.  Continue to take baby steps and make small changes.  Read the Getting Real with Food series here to give you some basic ideas of where to start and what to do.

But, if you’re eating a lot of whole grains already and are used to baking from scratch anyway, and you want to take this nutrition thing one step farther…here’s some information for you about soaking grains that I am paraphrasing from Sally Fallon’s book “Nourishing Traditions”:

Eating whole grains is important because they provide vitamin E, B vitamins, many important minerals and fiber.  But the phytic acid in the grain combines with the iron, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in the intestinal tract, blocking their absorption.  They also contain enzyme inhibitors that can interfere with digestion. 

So, Nourishing Traditions recommends that we soak our grains in either whey, cultured yogurt, kefir, cultured buttermilk…or in lemon juice or vinegar if you can’t tolerate milk products.  Soaking them for at least seven hours allows the enzymes to break down and neutralize the phytic acid.  Then, more of the good nutrients in the grain are released and all the good stuff is more readily absorbed in our systems and the grain is digested much more easily.

Okay…so quick re-cap.  Eating whole grains is so, so much better for you than processed grains that have almost all of their nutrients stripped from them.  Eating whole grains that have been soaked is even better. 

How do I do this?

It’s really not hard…I just have to plan ahead a little more.  And I don’t always soak everything even though I know I should.  I try to just do the best I can.  (That’s the goal right?)

So, here’s a quick run down of the basics of how I soak my grains when preparing recipes:

Pancakes and Waffles…I stir the whole wheat flour and the buttermilk together, cover it with a cloth and let it sit overnight.  The next day, I add the remaining ingredients and cook the pancakes or waffles.  They are SO YUMMY made like this!

Quick Breads and Muffins…I mix the flour with the butter (melted and cooled) or oil that the recipe calls for and add enough buttermilk to make it “soakable”.  I let it sit overnight, then mix in the remaining ingredients.

Giant Breakfast Cookies and Breakfast Bars…I mix the melted butter, flour and oats with enough buttermilk to soak then let it sit overnight.  I have found these to be VERY HARD to stir the next morning, so putting the soaked mixture into my food processor with the other ingredients so that it doesn’t take me 45 minutes (or until lunchtime) just to stir the silly things.  Yea for food processors.

Tortillas…I mix up the tortillas as the recipes says, only I put in 1/4 cup less water and add 1/4 cup yogurt, kefir or buttermilk as I’m making the recipe.  Then, I let them sit for the day, and roll them and cook them that night for dinner.  They roll out so nicely after they’ve been soaked.

Breads, Rolls and Pretzels…These belong in the “I don’t soak these but I should” category.  When I’m really on the ball, I make sourdough bread…but my sourdough starter isn’t starting anymore, so I need to get a new one going.  In the meantime, I’m compromising and making Honey Whole Wheat Bread, and that’s okay with me.  After I get my sourdough going again, I’ll post about it.  Sourdough bread is so tasty!

Cookies and Brownies…I rarely soak these either, mostly because I’m lazy about it.  When I do soak them, I mix the butter and flour called for in the recipe with a few tablespoons of buttermilk, kefir or yogurt…allow them to sit for a few hours, then add the remaining ingredients and bake.

I hope that helps.  I’ll cover soaking other grains like rice and oats in the future.  And, as I slowly but surely get around to it…I’ll go back through each of my site recipes and blog recipes and add a brief explanation of how to soak the grains if you choose to do so.  That way, you have the option if you’d like! 

And now, I think I’ll go grind me some flour and soak something.  Because looking at all these recipes put me in the mood to bake. 

(Like I’m ever not in the mood to bake?!) 
——————————————

More Kitchen Tip Tuesdays here!

After all this talk about how you should eat real food and stay away from not-real food…many of you are asking WHERE I get all of my real food and how I find it to be affordable.  I decided my Frugal Friday post for this week would offer some suggestions about great real food sources!

Now of course, I only live in one place.  So, I don’t know all of the real food sources you might have in your community, and every community offers different things.  I’ll just tell you what I do…and hopefully it will at least give you some ideas!

1.  I grow as much produce as I can and preserve it for the winter.  (Check out this post about putting up corn and this post for putting up green beans…then stay tuned for more posts about putting up more produce.  It IS that time of year when I always have a very achy back from freezing and canning foods for hours.  Ah, but I love it!)

2.  There are many things that I can’t grow myself that others around me are growing…and they are happy for me to take their extra produce off of their hands.  So might I suggest to you:  Mooching is a great way to gain access to awesome, often organic produce. MOOCH as much as you can.  Woohoo for mooching.   (P.S.  Is that the right way to spell mooch?) 

3.  What I can’t grow or mooch…I try to find at our local Farmer’s Market.  Often if I buy in bulk from some of the venders, they offer me a discount.  LOCAL PRODUCE IS THE BEST!!  Supporting local farmers is a great thing to do!  Go load up at your Farmer’s Market!!

Okay….that was mostly all about produce.  Now, on to my resources for other real foods:

4.  Health Food Coops.  There are several out there.  My favorite by far is Azure Standard.  If you’ve hung out here much you’ve heard me talk about them over and over.  They don’t service every U.S. state, but they are expanding all the time.  They have great customer service and great prices on great foods.  They even have organic produce for VERY reasonable prices.  Go to their website and check them out.  Give them a call and see if there’s a coop near you.  If not…talk to them about starting one.  That’s what I did.    They make things very simple.  I love Azure Standard!  (Really, they should be paying me to say all these things…)

Here’s a picture of my Azure Standard order this month. 
Check out that gallon jar of raw honey!!

I also am a part of a Frontier Coop, which my friend organizes.  I order a few times a year from them, mostly spices, vanilla, shampoo and dishwashing stuff.  (Soon I’ll post more about the soaps and cleaners we use and where I get them all.)

5.  Local Farmers.  Oh how I love them.  These people work HARD so that I can have fresh free range eggs and chickens, grass fed organic raw milk, grass fed organic hormone free beef and lamb…all for very reasonable prices.  I found most of these farmers pretty much by just asking around.  But, there’s a great website called Local Harvest which may help you find what local farmers in your area have to offer.  Even if the farmers you find through their site don’t have exactly what you’re looking for, they might be a good resource to finding other farmers. 

6.  Local grocery stores.  I don’t have any cool stores like Whole Foods within 90 miles of me (bummer)…but I do find a few organic foods I need at our regular grocery stores and of course at Walmart.  And, a couple of years ago I called one of our grocery stores and talked to the produce guy who happily ordered cases of organic produce for me.  He even gave the produce to me for a price less than what he would have charged if he would have shelved the items for normal sale.  My friends and I then divided up the cases and ordered as often as we needed to.   It never hurts to ask!

Okay, that pretty much sums up my sources for the food we eat.  Here’s a link to a post about our food budget and break down of what we spent where.

Anybody else have a great suggestion about resources for real food?!

Many, many, many of you have emailed or left comments asking what on earth I feed my family for snacks since we try to avoid packaged crackers and other “stuff”.  (See my list of the ingredients we try to avoid eating.)

Snacks are one of the most difficult foods to come up with, in my opinion.  Especially when it seems that all afternoon I seem to be bombarded with, “Mama, I’m hungry again.” 

One thing we’re working on is simply to encourage our kids to just eat more at meal time…and that seems to be working somewhat.  But really…they do get hungry between meals.  They can’t help it.  They’re growing boys.  (With hollow legs.)

I have found that I really have to think ahead and try to be prepared when it comes to snacks.  Otherwise, I get frustrated when they ask me for one.  (Like it’s their fault they’re starving again.)

Here’s a list of foods that I feel great about offering as snacks…

*Fresh fruit or veggies (of course)
*Homemade tortillas with peanut butter and honey or jelly or other yummy things inside
*Muffins or quick breads
    ~Applesauce bread
    ~Orange Muffins
    ~Chocolate swirl muffins
*Homemade bread and butter
*Whole wheat soft pretzels
*Nuts
*Popcorn with coconut oil and sea salt…or sprinkled with parmesan cheese
*Mudballs
*Milkshakes (recipe coming soon)
*Applesauce
*Homemade wheat crackers
*Homemade graham crackers (recipe coming soon) (oh so…yummy!!)
*Yogurt with fruit
*Breakfast cookies
*Breakfast bars
*Slushies
    ~Strawberry-Peach
    ~Pineapple-Orange
*Smoothies
*A treat made with natural sugars and whole wheat flour

There really are some great choices for snacks out there that provide your family with nutrition! 

What kinds of things do you make for your kids for snacks? 

Visit Tammy’s Recipes for more great kitchen ideas.

Gretchen emailed me with this question:

I just read some of your series on “Getting Real with Food“.  I am in the midst of being a “coupon queen” but trying to quit.  I am doing some organic foods and trying to cook so much more homemade food.  My question to you is, how do I make this transition? 

I am having a lot of trouble just trying to figure out how to stop couponing.  I get organic produce delivered to me.  I am starting to buy my pantry staples in bulk.  Do you have any advice?

My answer:

(And by the way, we’re not talking about trying to stop couponing because there’s anything wrong with couponing…it’s the fact that usually coupons we find are for unhealthy foods, and our focus is on getting food for cheap or free instead of buying good, quality foods.)

Okay, now…My answer:

I SO understand your “pain” with trying to stop couponing.  It seriously is painful…I’m not kidding when I say that.  I loved doing it so much and it was such a part of who I was…not to mention it was something that made me feel so good about how I was taking care of my family.  I didn’t want to give it up.  But I did want to eat healthier.  Oh, it was painful.
 
I remember walking through the grocery store one day when I had first learned about high fructose corn syrup and MSG and hydrogenated oils.  And I was determined to still use some coupons because I thought surely I still could on some things.  You know, like granola bars.  Those are healthy, right?  And I kept checking labels and EVERYTHING I had a coupon for had at least one thing in it that we shouldn’t be eating.  I was getting so discouraged.  And I started getting mad at the grocery store.  And I thought it suddenly smelled stinky.  And then I was starting to feeling teary. 
 
I think I might have used one coupon that day on toilet paper or something…and saving those 50 cents didn’t really make me feel good like normal coupon shopping had.  It made me feel worse.
 
Ultimately I think what helped me the most was that I pretty much stopped shopping at grocery stores.  I began getting my food in all different ways, like from local farmers, our farmer’s market, a food co-op, and other bulk food stores and graneries.  This means I hardly needed to walk into a grocery store anymore, which is where my couponing took place. 
 
And, where I used to have SO MUCH FUN couponing at the grocery store…I now have SO MUCH FUN pouring over my food co-op catalogs and seeing what’s on sale for the month and what produce is available.  I really kinda make it an “event”…when I have a quiet moment with my feet up to look through the catalogs and make my order.  AND, I have so much fun seeing what awesome food I can get at the farmer’s market, and so much fun finding great foods from area farmers. 
 
And the joy I used to feel knowing I was “taking such good care of my family by saving so much money with coupons” I now feel knowing that I’m taking such good care of my family by feeding them so well. 

And this joy feels even better!
 
SO, hang in there.  It sounds like you are very much on the right track!!!!  Since you get your organic produce delivered to you  and you’re ordering staples in bulk….you are making the transition very well.
 
And hey, use some coupons sometimes while you’re transitioning…on some things that are more “compromise foods” or toiletry items (I still use those kinds of coupons actually when I can). 
 
Or, still use coupons to get free or almost free items that you can share with a food pantry.
 
I hope this helps.  Please feel free to ask me more if I haven’t answered you as specifically as you would like. 
—————————————-
Anyone have anything they’d like to add?

(Visit Tammy’s Recipes for other kitchen tips.)

No. 1 thing to know about preserving produce for winter:  It takes hard work and time and might make a big mess.

No. 2 thing to know about preserving produce for winter:  In the winter when you get to pull yummy things out of your pantry and freezer…all the hard work and time and big mess will have been worth it.  Very worth it!

Here’s a bit about how I put up corn…and you should also check out this post at Amy’s Finer Things because she blogged about this already.  I really liked her technique for cutting the corn off the cob!

First…here is our happy little party of Nebraska Cornhuskers….

Check it out…they make a game of how far they can throw the husks.  Hey, whatever it takes to get the work done with a happy attitude!

Meanwhile…I’m in the kitchen sticking those ears into boiling water.  Just for a short time.  Two to three minutes.  Blanching stops the aging process of your produce.

Ah, but you don’t want them to continue to cook…so you immediately pull it out of the boiling water (with tongs of course) and run it under cold water to try to cool it off right away.  (And Amy recomended putting it in ice water…a much better idea!!)

Now, I line up my ears (hehe…line up my ears…hehe)

And then I cut the corn off the cob into a bowl with a sharp knife.  If you have an electric knife, you can use that too.  Or do it the way Amy does it.  (Oh, so many options.)  (But no matter what option you choose, your hand will probably cramp up and feel like it will never again be them same by the time you’re done.  But don’t worry, after several operations, you’ll be okay again.)  (Kidding…just give yourself a few minutes of a hand massage.)

I then use a measuring cup to scoop the corn into freezer bags.  Sometimes I use quart…sometimes I use gallon.  Just don’t fill the bags too full, or after it freezes, you’ll have a terrible time getting your corn out of the bag! 

Then get the air out of the bag and seal it up and press it flat.  And it’s ready to go into the freezer.  Isn’t it beautiful?

When you’re ready to cook it, break off whatever amount of corn you want, put it into a saucepan with a little water and cook it until it’s bubbly.  Turn it off, drain out the excess water and stir in butter and salt! 

Awesome!

I’ll show you to process of freezing green beans another time!

Last time I posted in this series, I talked about some of the no-no ingredients you should try to avoid.   And I promised to explain a bit more about why you should avoid them. 

Then I started writing this very difficult post and found that it was a very difficult post to write. 

Most of the nutrition information that I have read and learned comes from Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions.  But I really wanted to show you how many other great sources explaining some of these “no-nos” there were out there too.

So I began to do research.  (Yeah, that’s the part where this post got very difficult to write.  It began to require lots of reading and lots of note taking….and I really did need to begin making dinner for my family.) 

As little boys begin to look more and more pitifully hungry (and as I still don’t even have the chicken thawed) I decided to just provide you with the links I found.  Then you can read the information for yourself and pick and choose what you’d like to read instead of me trying to decide what you’d like to learn.

Oh, but guess what?  Some of the sites contradict each other.  Not surprising really.   That’s one of the biggest reasons I want to stick with eating real food.  I know what it is.  I know what’s in it.  There is no controversy in that.

Here are the ingredients I suggested to you here that were no-nos…and the links I found to provide you will more information than you could possibly ever want to know.  And then some. 

Partially Hydrogenated Oils: 

Here’s what I found at the Weston Price site specifically about hydrogenated oils.  And here’s a link from that same site to a page full of links that talks more about fats in general.  (You’ve gotta love a link to more links.)

I Googled Hydrogenated Oils too…just so that I could read what other sources said about it.  I wanted to see if anyone out there said, “No really, eat all the hydrogenated oils you want.  It’s okay.”  I didn’t read them all, but all the links I did read said to avoid them.  Check it out.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (or High Tukfrose Corn Syrup, as my friend’s little girl says it!):

Here, check out this link at the Weston Price site which describes High Fructose Corn Syrup very well. 

And, I found this article quite interesting.

Here are all the links I came up with when I Googled it. 

Food Dyes:

I appreciated what Dr. Mercola said about Food Dyes.  He had several other articles too here.  I very much trust Dr. Mercola and his research.

Here’s what I came up with when I Googled Food Dyes. 

Artificial Sweeteners:

The information I found at Dr. Mercola’s website provided TONS of information abour artificial sweeteners..   

When I Googled Artificial Sweeteners, I found different sites with conflicting information. 

Okay…after you go click around on some of these links, you’ll see why I wasn’t able to conglomerate (whoa, big word) all of that information and put it into one post for you.  So sorry if this was just about the most boring post ever.  (For comic relief go here.)

I think now I’ll take a shift in the direction of this Getting Real With Food Series, and start just sharing more specifics about more of the things we eat and drink and why and how I make them and where I get them.  (You know I love talking about my cow in the freezer.) 

One more thing!  Remember to just take little baby steps and don’t try to change everything at once.  If you’re reading some of this information and you feel overwhelmed…stop reading it.  Just work to change small things, one at a time.  That’s do-able!
—————————————————-

Go on over to Tammy’s Recipes for other kitchen encouragement.

Catch up on the rest of this series here!

In my latest post of this series, I talked about some simple ways for you to make some changes in your diet in order to begin eating healthier.

I also recommended that you start taking a good look at the labels on the food you buy. 

Today I’d like to share a few ingredients that you should be alerted to when you see them on a food label.   The big NO-NO list.  Try to avoid eating foods with these ingredients…at all costs…don’t even get near the stuff…avoid it like the plague…run far, far away!  (Or…maybe we’ll be realistic and say…try really hard to not eat it most of the time if you can possibly help it...)

Okay here’s the biggie no-no list:

Hydrogenated oils

High fructose corn syrup

Food dyes

Artificial sugars

I’ll explain these poisons no-no’s in more detail in the next post of this series…but first let me admit to you (so that you don’t feel overwhelmed…maybe) that sometimes our family puts some of this into our mouths.  They are found in MANY, MANY “foods” out there, and they are very hard to avoid!!  So, don’t despair…just do your BEST!  (Isn’t that the point of this whole eating right thing?  Do your best!  That’s it!)

Notice something about each item in the No-No list.  None of them are REAL FOOD!  (Remember, we’re working toward eating real food, right?!)  They might have started out as real food (might have)…but after undergoing several processes of “this and thats”…they usually end up being some form of freaked out chemical when it’s all said and done.  (I made that up all by myself, “freaked out chemical”…like it?)

And then these freaked out chemicals are mixed together with other ingredients (that we may or may not recognize)…put into a box, usually with a label telling you how good it is for you…placed on a shelf and sold to you as “health food”.  Or at least as ”a part of this balanced breakfast”. 

I promise to explain each of these no-no’s in my next Getting Real With Food post…because I think it’s got to be frustrating for you to hear me tell you to avoid them, but not really tell you all of the reasons why.  It’s just that I feel like the explanations of each of those terms deserve a blog post of it’s own…and I really don’t want this particular blog post to go on for three years. 

But, I will tell you this.  The process those ingredients have gone through to make them become the freaked out chemicals that they are effect your digestive system in ways that are really scary.  When food digests poorly…every organ in your body is effected negatively.  Beyond that, these ingredients have the power to change the healthy cells in your body to become unhealthy cells.  The cells around your heart…the cells around your brain…

Here are just a few of the foods that contain at least one, if not all of the ingredients in the no-no list:

Pop and candy (Well, we probably all knew that.)
Juice that isn’t 100% fruit (Although sometimes there’s food coloring added to the 100% juice too.  Grr.)
Peanut butter (Choosy moms choose…hydrogenated oils?  Grr again.)
Cereal (I have been shocked to see that almost ALL boxes of cereal have both high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils in them.  And food coloring.  Even the ones considered to be healthy cereals.)
Crackers (Grr to Shabisco and Beebler.) (Names have been changed to protect the guilty.)

Unfortunately, that list could go on and on…but I’ll stop with just those few. 

Remember though to focus on making small changes!  YOU DON’T HAVE TO CHANGE EVERYTHING AT ONCE!!! 

Also remember…REAL FOOD tastes so good!  Really, really good.  (Much better than the “food” provided for you by Keneral Zills and Mellogs.)

Hope to see you back here at WeavenlyDomeShakers…WAIT…  Why am I changing MY name?  Guess I got on a little carried away there…

Hope to see you back here at HeavenlyHomemakers for more Getting Real with Food encouragement!

Find more Works for me Wednesday here.