Although I am a teacher by trade, I really enjoy learning. If something comes across interesting to me then off I go on research. One of the topics that has always interested me is food and the body. What I am going to share holds some opinion and some fact. I am not a doctor, nutritionist, dietitian or any other professional in this field. I simply eat food and have a body. I encourage you to do your research and not base your decisions or beliefs solely on me. With that being said, I am very concerned with what is in a lot of the everyday foods we eat.
Let me start by saying I have researched food since I was a teenager. I had a disease, Jesus saved my life and here I am…still researching food but on a different level and for different reasons. Instead of trying to become invisible I am now trying to be healthy. I believe wholeheartedly that the fuel we put in our bodies determines what we get out of our bodies. I also believe many ailments and health crisis we face can be reduced or eliminated by what we eat.
There are numerous diets out there. The keto diets seems to be really popular right now. I don’t agree with them. I don’t believe it is healthy to put your body in ketosis, along with other things that go with those particular diets. That’s just what I believe. I also don’t like pills or dietary aides. I don’t like shakes. I don’t like paying money to join programs. I do like praying about my struggles and temptations and being educational about what I am eating.
My latest research has been about what is in the food we are eating. Again, I encourage you to look up what I am saying and see for yourself. Here comes some eye-opening information. Ready?
Bread. I don’t like it. I know, I know…I just said I don’t believe in the keto diets but I also don’t like bread. Yes, I know it’s in the Bible. I read how they ate it all the time. It was a main staple. Jesus multiplied the 2 loaves to feed the 5000. It nourished people. However, it wasn’t today’s bread. It wasn’t bread made in an American factory. It wasn’t modified, bleached, and processed. One of my issues with bread products today is L-Cysteine and dough conditioners. Go look at your bread. Do you see dough conditioner? It’s in a lot of bread products. L-Cysteine is, in part, made by boiling human hair or duck feathers. Dough conditioner is banned in some countries because of the potassium bromate in it. Here are a couple of links to read more about L-Cysteine and dough conditioners.
Vanilla. I love that stuff. I love the real stuff. Watch out because your vanilla could be castoreum/castor. Let’s just say it comes from the backside of a beaver and leave it at that. That’s one of those I really encourage you to type in the browser and read for yourself things. It is said that a mere 292 pounds of castoreum is harvested for food each year. I’m just one of those people who would eat that food product that uses it so I’m gonna pass unless I know for sure my “natural” vanilla comes from vanilla beans. Manufacturers can get away with saying the food product has all-natural ingredients when this is present because, afterall, it is all-natural. You can read what Snopes says about it here, if you’d like.
Photo courtesy of Canadian Geographic Photo Club
Coffee. It runs thru my veins. I have literally gone weeks with the only beverage I’ve drank is hot, black coffee. I’ve had weeks where I’ve made at least 2 pots a day. I’d drink it day and night…or I’d get a headache. I still drink it. However, the brand is really important. Did you know that some major coffee manufactures use fillers? These fillers range from twigs to soybeans to corn husks and more. The ingredients will say something like 100% coffee because they don’t have to list the fillers. I trust some of the Fair Trade brands, the ones with the rain forest seal, and you can ensure you aren’t getting fillers in your ground coffee if you are grinding your own beans. If you want to be free of the pesticides and such, look for organic, as well. Below is an article about this from the Washington Post.
Colors. More specifically, yellow 5, yellow 6, red 40, and red 3. You might recognize the yellow colors as Tartrazine, or not. Using the colors in ingredients is just prettier. These are known carcinogens. These are still in our food. That’s not pretty.
Cellulose. You know, wood pulp. It’s in a lot of foods. It can also be called cellulose gum, cellulose powder, and microcrystalline cellulose, among other names. Some might look at it as just a vegan ingredient, plant based and healthy. However, when I think about it as sawdust, which it has been called off of the nutrition label, it just kinda makes me gag. It’s fiber. It’s not supposed to get absorbed by our bodies. However, I’m obviously not a fan of what the FDA allows in our food and don’t know what wood that pulp is pulped from. So, no. It shows up in some of the following foods (not all are listed and not all brands of what are listed have it…check your labels): salad dressing, ice cream, tomato sauce, bagels, flour tortillas, packaged fruit cups, boxed cake mix, coffee creamer, and cereal.
I could go on. I’ve got more of this stuff and will plan another post soon. For now, I’ll let all this digest.
JP/Grace and Pink
(This verse reminds me of how I feel when food companies make food look so delicious and fun. I feel enticed to buy these goodies, which makes them richer at the expense of my health, knowing harmful ingredients are hidden inside. That’s just how I feel and this is just the verse that came to mind.)
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