Label Lies, Crappy Foods in Disguise

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Yeah, I know this is a repeat picture, but I had to post it on Halloween!

Today and tomorrow I will be talking about food labels. They are a big issue right now, and I believe you can never know too much about them.
Would you feed your child, or yourself for that matter, bagel-fuls for breakfast or a snack, and think to yourself "I'm making a healthy choice, or a "better" choice?" . With 200 calories, 2 grams of saturated fat, and very few health benefits (10% calcium and 10% iron among them), these Bagel-fuls are just glorified junk food if you ask me. Yet, they proudly display the "Smart Choices" logo on the front of the box, providing parents, adults, and children a false sense of security. If this is a smart choice, what isn't a smart choice?

Another example is Cocoa Puffs. The first ingredient, whole grain corn, does a nice job of providing the consumer with a whopping 1 gram of fiber. The second ingredient, sugar, does an even better job of providing the consumer 12 grams of sugar. Personally I like to look for no more than 10 grams of sugar for my morning meal. Let's not forget the serving size is 3/4 cup, which is not much. So I'm confused, what makes this a "Smart Choice"?

If you haven't read about the Smart Choices controversy yet, click the link and enjoy. For a review, the Smart Choices program uses "science-based" guidelines and criteria to select the foods on the market that are "smart choices". This program was designed to help consumers make better choices at the grocery store. While the concept is great, it seems to be a bit misleading.

My last example is the new Fruit Loops, with FIBER! Check out the ingredients;

Ingredients

SUGAR; WHOLE GRAIN CORN FLOUR; WHEAT FLOUR; WHOLE GRAIN OAT FLOUR; OAT FIBER; SOLUBLE CORN FIBER; PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (ONE OR MORE OF: COCONUT, SOYBEAN AND/OR COTTONSEED OILS)†; SALT; SODIUM ASCORBATE AND ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C); NIACINAMIDE; REDUCED IRON; NATURAL ORANGE, LEMON, CHERRY, RASPBERRY, BLUEBERRY, LIME AND OTHER NATURAL FLAVORS; RED #40; BLUE #2; TURMERIC COLOR; YELLOW #6; ZINC OXIDE; ANNATTO COLOR; BLUE #1; PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6); RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2); THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1); VITAMIN A PALMITATE; BHT (PRESERVATIVE); FOLIC ACID; VITAMIN D; VITAMIN B12.

I actually made note of the fact that SUGAR is the first ingredient to the lady at the FNCE conference in Denver. She was flustered, to say the least. And if you go to the website you'll notice some fun recipes they have provided for you to create with your Fruit Loops. More Smart Choices here; crispy ice cream sandwich sundaes, crunchy pudding squares, fiesta cookies, lovely!

I'm not going to turn into some really strict RD who says no to everything, but the thing that really makes me mad is that these claims are misleading. Most of you are very good at reading labels and understanding what is "healthy" and what is not, but the lay public may not know much about food labels, which is why programs such as Smart Choices were created! Unfortunately when a program is created by a food company, it will be created in a way that will allow it to include many of their own products. Too bad.

Question: What are your thoughts on the Smart Choices program? Do you think there is a better solution? Personally I think cereals and other products should be required to highlight the "good" and the "bad". This way people could actually learn what to look for. If ALL companies did this, it wouldn't hurt anyone's sales. The companies could also provide advice such as, "mix this cereal with a small handful of bran flakes to add more fiber to your breakfast!", for their products that are lower in fiber, like the Cocoa Puffs. Or, "Add some fruit to your cereal to add more vitamins and minerals!", etc.

Coming Up: Stay tuned for some foods that may be in YOUR cabinet and which may be tricking YOU (they tricked me!).

Giveaway Update: Check out the blog makeover giveaway over at the Zesty Cook ! I hear he does an amazing job, plus I've seen some of his work and it's very impressive.

Tonight Nick and I are taking his mother out for dinner, as it's her 35th wedding anniversary (and Nick's dad passed away a couple years ago). Everyone have a SPOOOOOKY GOOD DAY! Thanks for reading.

Do You Weigh Yourself?

Yesterday I spent the entire day re-creating many of my lost files, but I'm very much aware that many of them are gone for good, including all of my statistics from my research (if my adviser ever finds that out....I'm in trouble!!). Anyway, before I get started on my work for the day, I thought I would post the "Top Ten Reasons Not to Weigh Yourself", as I know many people weigh themselves often and I truly believe it's not the best idea. Why? I used to weigh myself all the time back when I had an eating disorder, and I really believe it made things worse. This is not to say that anyone who weighs themselves will get an eating disorder, but I do think that it puts the focus on the wrong issue and it causes one to become pre-occupied with a number, rather than an overall sense of health and well-being.

The Top Ten Reasons Not To Weigh Yourself

1. Weight fluctuates from day to day, which is not a significant indication of overall weight change.

2. Daily weight changes often are due to water weight, which naturally rises and falls.

3. Seeing a change we don't like on the scale may make us feel negative about ourselves and our bodies.

4. Focusing on weight tends to correlate with other negative behaviors that we want to avoid.

5. The scale will never say what we want it to say.

6. How we feel about ourselves is more important than the number on the scale.

7. The scale does not consider body composition (the ratio of muscle, fat, and other tissues). For example, as we exercise and gain muscle, we might look trimmer and more fit but actually weigh more, as muscle is heavier than fat.

8. We should not let a machine determine how we feel about ourselves.

9. Weight is not a measurement of self-worth

10. YOUR reason

Source: NutriFit, Sport, Therapy Inc.

Bottom Line: I do think it's ok to weigh yourself every once in a while to keep yourself on track and to prevent gradual weight gains/losses throughout your life. I usually weigh myself about once a month, just to keep myself on track (and also to make sure I have not LOST weight). I encourage you to take this list seriously and really think about how the scale effects your emotions.

Today I leave you with the only mountain view I had while in Colorado. This was the view from the convention center in downtown Denver!

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

FNCE Day 2; Omega Updates

To those of you who commented on my post from today, it WAS a duplicate post :) I realized I had not updated the date and it wasn't showing up when I opened my blog, so I re-posted it. Sorry for the confusion! To update you on my hard drive, it's officially gone and I have had it replaced now. I am still about 5 days behind since it had all of my documents for the company we are launching next week, therefore I have yet to read anyone's blogs and I feel so bad. I am just a mess right now, PLEASE forgive me! Again, I am still drawing the winners of the giveaway tonight, and I will post about it tomorrow. Thank goodness I had already uploaded all of my pics from the week/weekend before my computer started to hate me, so this post will take you through FNCE day 2!

Free Breakfast!

For breakfast on the second day my friend Fatinah and I decided to eat some of our freebies, so an apple with Barney Butter was perfect! I had never tried Barney Butter and let me tell you, it's AWESOME! It tastes like peanut butter, but it's made with almonds. This is good for me because I know almond butter is a bit healthier, but I like the taste of peanut butter better.

We walked into the expo on day two and I went right to the Smart Balance booth to complain to them about their FISHY peanut butter. Guess what?? This (below) is their new reformulated peanut butter! I tasted it and it was FISH TASTE FREE!! I was so excited, people probably thought I was crazy. Notice what it says on the front, "Rich Roasted". This is new, so keep your eyes peeled.

Seminar #3
Omega Fats, The Latest Research

- Research now indicates that an increased intake of omega-6 fatty acids (chicken, dressings, corn oil) DOES NOT lead to more inflammation, and it in fact reduces the risk of heart disease.

- An increased intake of omega-6 fatty acids also decreases IL-6, an inflammatory compound in the body.

- ANOTHER update from one of my posts; Do you choose wild salmon because you think it's got more omega-3 fats? Well if you do, you should stop! Why? There is actually MORE omega-3 in FARMED salmon! And, it's cheaper :)

- For those of you who take a flaxseed supplement or choose to eat walnuts and other sources of ALA (an omega-3 fatty acid) instead of fish or fish oil, you should know that it has been shown to be VERY POORLY converted to DHA and EPA.

Ok, back to the expo. LARABAR!!! Check it out, they were just sitting there on the table for us to grab. They weren't the full sizes, obviously, but the small sizes are just as good.

I've heard a lot about these VitaTops. I grabbed a few of them and I thought they were Ok. Not what I expected though, sort of dry in my opinion.

Puffins! Many of you were interested in this cereal. I asked the lady if I could have a coupon and she was so rude, she said; "Do you EAT this cereal?!". I was like, "umm, yeah, or why else would I want a coupon?"

Thank goodness for these eggs, as I was on sugar overload with all the juice and bar samples! Eggs on a stick are pretty fun, you should try them sometime.

And of course sitting in a plastic egg is just as fun. I look like a moron.

Kettle Cuisine had a pot of about 6 different types of soups for us to sample. I tried the carrot and butternut squash soup. It was delicious.

The Beef Council was there also. This little taste was just what I needed. Healthy, right? An egg and some beef! haha

Another favorite in the blog world, Cabot cheese!

Ok I've got to get back to work now. All work, no play. Sorry this post was sort of "to the point and boring", but I hope you learned some things. I am so excited to get back to regular posting and reading everyone's blogs. I hope you all understand why I have not been commenting on your blogs lately, I am just so behind. Stay tuned for the announcement of my giveaway tomorrow morning! I would also like to give a special shout out to;

LESLIE AT DREAM DINNERS in Seattle, Washington. She was kind enough to supply me with two awesome bags, one for me and one for my giveaway! One of the lucky winners will receive it one, they are great.

Thanks for reading everyone, and of course, thanks for being patient with me and being loyal to my blog :) You are all so great!