Monday, September 27, 2010
Fat
Trans fat may be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, but never saturated. They are fat molecules containing one or more double bonds between the carbon atoms, since the carbons are more closely connected, there are less hydrogens. So what does this mean for you? 1, it's no longer natural and therefor no longer desirable, but is it dangerous? They are no longer essential fats and actually increase the risk of coronary disease. That's NOT what you want. I cannot stress enough how important it is to read the side of your packaged items. You simply won't find hydrogentaed oils in natural foods, fruit, veggies, whole grains, eggs, etc. They don't exist naturally, they were created to make things last longer on the shelf, so what does that mean for what it does to your body? Gross. I always advice people to buy on the perimeter of the store and they will have a healthier diet. The meat, produce and dairy are on the perimeter, so is the bakery and cakes, so be careful! Pastries using shortening now have hydrogenated oil! Read the side of your breads, those labeled Whole Wheat may also have High fructose Corn Syrup and Hydrogenated oils, you need to make sure you are getting what you pay for. I have found plenty of breads with neither,, but way fewer than with! 2 of the breads I found are not as expensive as the others either! That's exciting, right! One is at Sam's club and the other is at Winco, I'm not going to tell you which, you have to read for yourselves, but I will tell you they are under 2 dollars a loaf! This is where I do go the organic route, but some balk at the price difference. It is less expensive to go organic than mainstream IF you don't buy packaged! You can live a completely organic life with no packaged food, but your choices are more limited and it will tak emore time, you'll have to make all your own breads and pasta, I have four kids, a job and a wonderful husband,, this is not happening for me! Therefor, I buy these things organic or make sure they don't have the hydrogentaed oils or High Fructose Corn Syrup. So my challenge for you now is to read up! it will take some time at first and you may have to say no to some certain childhood favorites, but there are options out there that will improve your children's health and lower their risk of heart disease! Yeah Mom! So start reading the labels and know what is going in your kids mouth and the risks involved. Personally, with how much food my 7 year old eats, she would be at risk of a major heart attack if I didn't keep the unsaturated fats away from her! You may never buy Kraft MAc and Cheese again, but Annie's a nd Trader Joes have become the staple at our house. You may have to buy natureal PB (NOT JIF NATURAL OR SKIPPY, they add palm oil, the ingredients should read Peanuts, maybe a little salt) my favorite is fresh ground, but my favorite jarred is Laura Scudders. Again, let me stress the importance of making small changes to change you life, this is a journey and you don't want your kids to associate "The Day Mom took all the good food out" with eating healthy, sneak it in in increments! If they have crackers with hydrogentaed oils in their lunch with their lean meats and cheese, your still making progress! Be roud of every step you take, everytime you add half the oil a recipe calls for and your chocolate cookies are just as good, or when you leave out the white sugar completely and use honey instead. These are the perfect little people knit together in your womb, or for some of us, God grew them in someone else's just for us, but they are fearfully and wonderfully made and still our responcibilty to make sure they are growing with the best nutrition possible! There is nothing I love more than God, my Husband, and my kids, I know you all must feel the same way otherwise you would press delete and never think of this again, so thanks for joining this journey with me to better health!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Hormones in Chickens and Beef, you may be surprised!
Let me start by saying I am not a chemist or cattle farmer, I am an advocate for your children and your pocketbook, and don't be naive to think that the government tells you everything you need to hear! Do your research on your own and see what I have seen!
Ok. This is a heated topic. Manufacturers are playing us for fools. Everyone is worked up over hormones in foods and what they are doing to our children, but did you know that only 30% of cows in the entire United States are treated with rbGH (hormone extracted from the cow's pituitary gland and injected into calfs to make them grow). The thing about rbGH is that it is a protein hormone, which mean that they are broken down when eaten and lose their effect in the body, they would have to be injected to affect you. Also, these hormones are only allowed for dairy cattle and not beef cattle, so the hormone goes into the cow and then we drink their milk, remember your body will not absorb a protein hormone, crazy! Steroid Hormones are the ones you need to watch out for. The FDA currently allows 6 steroid hormones to be used in dairy cattle and sheep, NOT POULTRY! are you hearing me, how many chicken packages have you read that say no growth hormone, well thank you for following the law! They say that to sell their product because they don't think you are smart enough to do your own research, my research was from Cornell University and I thought it was an easy read, clear and to the point with no bias. So the FDA can't regulate how much progesterone and testosterone are administered because it occurs naturally in the cow's body, but the do regulate the residual and check for illegal DES (which is the growth hormone used in chickens and outlawed in the 1970s). They started doing this in response to concerns of early puberty in Puerto Rico and found no trace of synthetic hormone in the meats. So what does that tell us, should we chuck all our organic milk and fruit? Hold your Horses one second. My personal belief system for what I eat is, "If you have to open a package to eat something, there is probably a better choice" so the same would be true up the line, if there is natural food for the cow's wouldn't that make more sense. You have to realize, that organic milk is 2x if not 3x as expensive, so I tell you this to assure you that there is no proof that this is making girls have their periods at 10-12. My daughter is 11 and not even close, but she has had commercial milk products her whole life. I want you to make decisions based on fact, not fear and I want you to sleep at night knowing you are doing your best, even if you don't take a second mortgage to buy organic milk and eggs. Organic is a realtive term anyway. If you had any idea what the federal government does with the "organic approved" and "non-organic approved" you would bang your head against the wall. My husband works in fertilizer and pesticides for farmers in the Sacramento Valley and he sees the new list every 3 months for "organic approved" pesticides, so please know they aren't pesticide free unless you grow them yourself, or find the very few farmers that are finding new and inventive ways to work with the land, and they pass back and forth from approved to non-approved with no change to the chemical. What this information is to tell you, is that you don't have to break your neck! The fewer the chemicals, the better! so how do you find this out? You ask! Find out where the foods are coming from, are they even from America? If not, what are the policies of the country they are imported from and are the parts per million (pesticide to fruit) the same? What are the regulations? Arm yourself with knowledge, don't just believe everything suzy-homemaker tells you you have to do if you don't want your child having their period in 1st grade! Manufacturers are using the fact that most people believe allthat they hear to sell their product, I do want your children to have the very best, but don't just go out and buy organic because you are fearful, buy the best foods because you know how and why they are the best! My new project is to find a family or two to split a grass-fed cow with! I also want to start a small garden and maybe find some other mom's who want to grow other things and we can share the bounty! I want to encourage you mom' s that there are so many things that are going to come your way with what is best for your child and why you need to do this or that, my advice is, get all the info and pray about what to do. God has placed His children in your care because He trusts you and fortunately, He is not a hands off parent, and want to help you make decisions for his tiny humans! Just don't get me started on the ad campaign for High Fructose Corn Syrup, next week! Remember Natural is best, but don't get manic about organic!
Ok. This is a heated topic. Manufacturers are playing us for fools. Everyone is worked up over hormones in foods and what they are doing to our children, but did you know that only 30% of cows in the entire United States are treated with rbGH (hormone extracted from the cow's pituitary gland and injected into calfs to make them grow). The thing about rbGH is that it is a protein hormone, which mean that they are broken down when eaten and lose their effect in the body, they would have to be injected to affect you. Also, these hormones are only allowed for dairy cattle and not beef cattle, so the hormone goes into the cow and then we drink their milk, remember your body will not absorb a protein hormone, crazy! Steroid Hormones are the ones you need to watch out for. The FDA currently allows 6 steroid hormones to be used in dairy cattle and sheep, NOT POULTRY! are you hearing me, how many chicken packages have you read that say no growth hormone, well thank you for following the law! They say that to sell their product because they don't think you are smart enough to do your own research, my research was from Cornell University and I thought it was an easy read, clear and to the point with no bias. So the FDA can't regulate how much progesterone and testosterone are administered because it occurs naturally in the cow's body, but the do regulate the residual and check for illegal DES (which is the growth hormone used in chickens and outlawed in the 1970s). They started doing this in response to concerns of early puberty in Puerto Rico and found no trace of synthetic hormone in the meats. So what does that tell us, should we chuck all our organic milk and fruit? Hold your Horses one second. My personal belief system for what I eat is, "If you have to open a package to eat something, there is probably a better choice" so the same would be true up the line, if there is natural food for the cow's wouldn't that make more sense. You have to realize, that organic milk is 2x if not 3x as expensive, so I tell you this to assure you that there is no proof that this is making girls have their periods at 10-12. My daughter is 11 and not even close, but she has had commercial milk products her whole life. I want you to make decisions based on fact, not fear and I want you to sleep at night knowing you are doing your best, even if you don't take a second mortgage to buy organic milk and eggs. Organic is a realtive term anyway. If you had any idea what the federal government does with the "organic approved" and "non-organic approved" you would bang your head against the wall. My husband works in fertilizer and pesticides for farmers in the Sacramento Valley and he sees the new list every 3 months for "organic approved" pesticides, so please know they aren't pesticide free unless you grow them yourself, or find the very few farmers that are finding new and inventive ways to work with the land, and they pass back and forth from approved to non-approved with no change to the chemical. What this information is to tell you, is that you don't have to break your neck! The fewer the chemicals, the better! so how do you find this out? You ask! Find out where the foods are coming from, are they even from America? If not, what are the policies of the country they are imported from and are the parts per million (pesticide to fruit) the same? What are the regulations? Arm yourself with knowledge, don't just believe everything suzy-homemaker tells you you have to do if you don't want your child having their period in 1st grade! Manufacturers are using the fact that most people believe allthat they hear to sell their product, I do want your children to have the very best, but don't just go out and buy organic because you are fearful, buy the best foods because you know how and why they are the best! My new project is to find a family or two to split a grass-fed cow with! I also want to start a small garden and maybe find some other mom's who want to grow other things and we can share the bounty! I want to encourage you mom' s that there are so many things that are going to come your way with what is best for your child and why you need to do this or that, my advice is, get all the info and pray about what to do. God has placed His children in your care because He trusts you and fortunately, He is not a hands off parent, and want to help you make decisions for his tiny humans! Just don't get me started on the ad campaign for High Fructose Corn Syrup, next week! Remember Natural is best, but don't get manic about organic!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Super sorry!
I know it has been a long time, but school got the best of me! 3-4 lunches a day is a lot of work, but I am proud to say that we are nearing the end of week 4 and no two lunches have been the same! Yeah Trader Joe's and Costco for having lots of healthy varieties! Now don't get me wrong, there have been similarities to things, pitas and mini bagels, but always with different ingredients, and different sides! The crunchy. fruit, veggie, and main dish base has been the same, but some days my girls are the only ones in their school with tomato, cucumber and feta salad! Other days they stand out with my favorite treat, the mini muffin pan, greatest invention ever! I make about a hundred (literally) mini muffins every other week. After going through the recipe and replacing the fat (butter or oil) with applesauce or yogurt, and slicing the sugar in half and changing it to honey or brown sugar, and using only whole wheat flour, i further expand the benefits by putting it in a mini muffin pan. A standard pan uses 1/3 cup for a muffin, and the minis use a Tablespoon. That's a little more than five minis to one standard. I will tell you that even my bottomless carnivore (who had a competition with her thirty something aunt this weekend and ate an entire chicken leg and a bowl of homemade baked beans. It was over a pound of meat alone, and she had ice cream, I'm telling you, we've heard "I'm full" twice!) is satisfied with two in her lunchbox. So, totally healthified and still fun! Yeah! Now that my granola pear muffins are gone, there are pumpkin chocolate chip in the oven. Oh yeah, even that I used 1/2 a cup of the mini chocolate chips and they spread out better in the batter! So treat yourself to a mini muffin pan and get creative with your muffins. I find the cutest and prettiest mini muffin papers all over the place and they aren't expensive! So have fun slashing calories and saving yourself the money on "100 calorie packs" make your own! (That is the topic of my next post!)
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