What on Earth are You Eating?

Do you ever pick up the package and look at the Nutrition Label?

Do you read the Ingredients List?

I’m sure you do. Even if just some of the time. But do you understand what you are looking at? Do you understand what they mean?

Here’s a little quiz for you:

a) What is soy lecithin?

b) What is Xanthan gum?

(These you’ll find on lots of supposedly healthy food products.)

c) What is modified food starch?

d) What is butylated hydroxytoluene?

(All these you’ll find in loads of packaged foods.)

Answers below, but let me talk to you a little bit more about labeling.

Currently we are concerned with GMO (genetically modified organisms) labeling, but labeling isn’t going to help if

a) we don’t read the labels,

and

b) we don’t understand them when we do read them!

So, I’ve been thinking for a while that I would like to teach people how to read labels, both the Nutrition Facts Label and the list of ingredients. How to make sense of them, and how that can lead to a much healthier you (and your family!)

You may remember my ‘rule of thumb’ … if your thumb doesn’t fit over the ingredient list, then don’t eat it!

But seriously, that’s just the start.

Consider this, when we read the Nutrition Facts Label, we are given a Serving Size and the nutrition in that serving size. Well, the serving size listed on the label may not correspond with what you consider a serving to be. For example, I just looked at a bag of potato chips (that’s crisps back home). Okay, I didn’t claim to be a saint, now did I?

The recommended serving size was 12 chips/crisps. When do you ever sit down and eat 12 average sized chips/crisps? Me? Nevair!!!

Oh my, you don’t think the manufacturer was trying to trick us do you? Yes I do! You betcha I do!!!

I then decided to serve my usual serving. Yes, I’m very good…I put my crisps in a bowl and only eat the bowl full and never munch them from the bag. Hmmm…maybe I am a little bit saintly. Anyhoos, it turned out my little rice bowl actually held 3 servings … argh!!!

I told hubby. He was shocked. I then lectured him for ten minutes on the subject of labeling. He was impressed. Hooray!

He’s started to read food labels. When he doesn’t know how, he comes to me for help.

And that brings me back to what I’d like to do next…I’d like to help you learn to read labels too!

So, this is my love note asking if it’s something you’d like to learn. Because if you would, I’m pulling out the video camera, grabbing some packets of food and typing up a storm. The course will be delivered!

If not, I will continue to nag my family, friends and loved ones…and don’t even get me started on GMOs, icky chemical additives and sugar. Argh, not sugar…that’s a course of it’s own!

Please take a quick moment to let me know your thoughts below.

And before I forget…

The Answers are:

a) “Soybean lecithin comes from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a ‘degumming’ process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid. Before being bleached to a more appealing light yellow, the color of lecithin ranges from a dirty tan to reddish brown. The hexane extraction process commonly used in soybean oil manufacture today yields less lecithin than the older ethanol-benzol process, but produces a more marketable lecithin with better color, reduced odor and less bitter flavor.” (1)

It’s a by-product used as a filler in foods, especially chocolate…wah!!!

b) When the bacteria Xanthomonas campestris is introduced to a nutritive solution containing carbohydrates (from corn, wheat, dairy, or soy), fermentation begins. The polysaccharide xantham gum is produced as a byproduct. The xanthan gum is then precipitated from the solution using isopropyl alcohol, dried, and milled into a powder so that it can be added to food and other products. It’s labeled a natural product. Isopropyl alcohol is rubbing alcohol. Symptoms of exposure include: skin irritation, drowsiness, dizziness, headache and dry cracking skin.

Yum? No thanks! It makes gluten free foods bind and mimic wheat products…so sad.

c) Who knows? There are no rules saying that source has to be disclosed. Labeling it ‘food’ is pretty much a misnomer in my world. It can be made from any grain. Beware the gluten intolerant. And it can be treated in a number of ways, including sodium or potassium hydroxide, various acids, roasting and adding an electric charge.

Cheap to produce, it’s used to emulsify or bulk up, provide a longer shelf-life and as a substitute for fats in low-fat foods. Check your yogurt, salad dressing, macaroni and cheese…and more. Oh and btw, Corn Syrup is a modified food starch!!!

d) A preservative that promotes longer shelf life in foods by stopping naturally occurring rancidity. It preserves fats in foods. Sounds good? Hmmm…the oxidative characteristics and/or metabolites of BHA and BHT may contribute to carcinogenicity or tumorigenicity. That is there is a certain school of thought that believes they may be cancer and tumor causing.

There is evidence that certain persons may have difficulty metabolizing BHA and BHT, resulting in health and behavior changes. It’s in bread, cereals, pasta…and loads more.

(1) Shurtleff, William and Aoyagi, Akiko. What Is Lecithin? Chapters 1-6 from History of Soy Lecithin. In Soyfoods: Past, Present and Future. Unpublished manuscript, (Lafayette, CA, Soyfoods Center, 1981).