A small rant : food additives and what to feed the kids ??

[panfan]

Hi...just wanted to share some thoughts and observations.....

I have been trying to cut sugar/additives in all of our diets. (DH, Me and two DS's) It is MY fault I know but what I thought was a good bread...Pepperidge Farm "hearty grains" has high fructose corn syrup AND partially hydrogenated soybean oil in it!!!! Then I just got back from an "investigation trip" to the grocery store. Almost everything that we might think of as "healthy" has these two ingredients!!! Including all QUAKER cereal bars and snacks and many other brands etc. Luckily I have a Trader Joes near me . Their cereal bars don't have these ingredients nor does their whole wheat bread. I really have to be more careful. Luckily my kids have made the transformation to fruits/ lots of veggies and more "REAL" food in general.

It's just a shame that the food manufactures have to put this crap in our food and then try to label it and sell it as a healthy food!

The label on that bread even says that it is "baked the old fashioned way" and their dedication to quality is what makes the bread so wholesome! The old fashioned way with transfats and cornsyrup ????

Okay...I'm done!

[SetzKitten]

This is one of my biggest gripes about food, you think you're eating something healthy, and you're not! That, and the fact that high fructose corn syrup is in everything, even things that shouldn't contain sugar. We are very careful label readers. On the positive side, I have found some food that used to contain HFCS and PHVO that no longer do. I think some of the food companies are starting to take notice. I think it's General Mills that doesn't use either. Kellogg's definitely uses both. It certainly makes eating healthy an adventure, doesn't it?

[MelanieC]

I'm a big advocate of eating as all natural and/or organic as possible. I figure if I can clean up 90% of what goes into my mouth, then the other 10% isn't so bad.

With my family, it's been a long uphill and sometimes downhill battle. DD is being forced to learn to like all natural whole wheat bread although she still balks. DH, DS7 have both climed aboard that train. I think this past week I finally won the cereal battle - for the second time mind you. It goes in waves and I get so made when DH brings home Froot loops and the likes. There are plenty of good cereals that are healthy for the kids. Mothers Nature makes some really good ones (the peanut butter one tastes just like Captn Crunch and it's even made by Quaker). Kashi makes a wonderful granola bar!!.

For bread I buy the pepperidge farms all natural whole grain bread. It still has too many ingredients for me and it isn't 100% whole wheat, further on the ingredients is regular wheat flour (why can't they just use 100% whole wheat) but at least there are no trans fat (hydrogenated oils). I shop at Whole foods a lot, and I want to try thier whole wheat bread. I stopped on Tuesday and today but the expiration date was tomorrow so I passed.

I also tried the Whole foods wheat english muffins for the kids and DH. I'm happy they are all natural, but again.........why not 100% whole wheat. Maybe its good that its a mix. At least it ups the fiber and gets them hooked slowly. Once I find some that are 100% maybe they won't balk.

There are so many alternatives at Whole foods.

Taco Shells- Bearito's makes a good all natural one without hydrogenated oils.
Crackers- They make an awesome cracker like triscuits (triscuits now has no hydrogenated oils but there are still lots of ingredients and are not all natural) Whole foods version only has wheat and salt.
Chocolate syrup for milk- Whole foods has an all natural organic version- and while its still sugar its a slightly better form of sugar.
Tortillas- Whole wheat, regular and corn- all natural and very tasty
Organic all natural sour cream with live cultures


I'm constantly finding new and exciting things and I work to find healthier alternatives to the foods I eat. It doesn't mean I don't binge on bad things once in a while, it just means that for the majority of the time I"m eating healthy.