The Perpetual Dieter Part 2

As promised... more photos... with more ingredients that I can't pronounce and sugar added in places it just shouldn't be added...

Onto Goldfish crackers... I LOVE goldfish crackers... whenever I was on a road trip these were the "healthy" snack I brought along in place of potato chips because I thought I was doing something good for myself. Again... not necessarily the case.

First... lets start with how deceiving the front of the box is... "Made with whole grains." Be wary of this label, sure there's whole grains in the ingredient but unless they indicate that the product is made with 100% whole grains you're going to find PROCESSED non-whole grain flours in the ingredient list as well. Second... I love how they use the word "Natural" on the front of the box... there is nothing natural about processed flour, (which is ingredient number 2 on the list) or genetically modified wheat (since the whole wheat flour listed as ingredient number 1 isn't organic.) Now, onto the actual ingredient list. As I've already mentioned, since wheat is one of the major crops that utilizes genetically modified seeds and the whole wheat flour used in the goldfish isn't organic...there's the high potential the flour comes from genetically modified wheat. Next we've got unbleached enriched wheat flour...there is a whole history behind enriched flours going back to I believe it was World War II, when the soldiers were lacking several vitamins in their diet so artificial vitamins were added to flours because it was assumed everyone eats bread. However, the problem is our bodies can't break down or utilize artificial substances as well as it can when they come from natural unprocessed sources. I don't know about you but I'd rather get the real thing than some chemically created vitamin added to my flour. Let's move on to the oil... as I mentioned before I'm not as knowledgeable as I'd like to be about oils, but I do know that there's no such thing as a canola. Canola oil comes from rapeseeds... which if processed the way they used to be (grinding the oil out slowly with stone and consuming immediately) there wouldn't be a problem. Instead since this oil (as well as soybean and corn oil) is unstable and easily becomes rancid (yes apparently oil becomes rancid!) we process the hell out of it and dump a bunch of chemicals in it to deodorize it and make it more stable. So thanks but no thanks I'll pass on the rancid oils. We've got a few other ingredients on there that I don't even know what they are!

Are we ready to move on?  How about nutri grain bars and nature valley granla bars (which are still in my cupboard today as part of our few remaining processed foods)... these were a big fall back of mine. A quick easy, supposedly healthy snack.

So let's start with the Nutri-grain bars... For the crust you start with whole grain oats... not bad, they aren't organic but admittedly I don't know enough about the widespread use of GMOs so these could be fine... next...again you've got enriched wheat flour, whole wheat flour, and canola oil (see arguments above). We move farther down the list...and they hit you with sugar three times! Sugar, dextrose and fructose!! And that's just in the crust!! The first ingredient for the filling is invert sugar... I don't even know what that is!! You can't see it on the label but there are 12 grams of sugar in ONE bar... I'm pretty sure the recommended DAILY intake of sugar is like 6-8 grams (don't quote me on that though.) That's crazy!! The list goes on and on ...a lot of words I can't pronounce like monoand digycerides and dicalcium phosphate...others I can say but have no idea what they are...like calcium carbonate and cellulose. I think you get the point for nutri-grain bars.

So let's move on to Nature Valley Granola bars...the SECOND ingredient is sugar... followed by more processed sugar three items down the list with the brown sugar syrup. These are a bit better than the nutri-grain bars with only 6 grams of sugar PER BAR (remember there are two in a package). To continue on it's got canola oil (see argument above) and some yellow corn flour and soy flour. I need to point out, according to the Science of Skinny and a few other books I've read, soy just isn't healthy (unless it's fermented)... and without the word "whole" in front of either one of these flours in means they have been processed because they're not using the entire corn kernel or soy bean to create the flour. I won't make the argument again, but let's not forget about corn and GMOs. And then we've got soy lecithin. I won't pretend to know enough about this to go into it... but from what I've been reading it seems pretty processed and full of chemicals to me. Look for yourself though.

Are we starting to get the point?? I still have a lot more pictures to go through!! How about we move onto Kashi granola bars... they're promoted as pretty natural and healthy.

As you can see... the second ingredient yet again is SUGAR! Don't let them fool you, dried cane syrup is not natural, it is just another form of processed cancer feeding sugar. Unless it says unrefined organic whole cane sugar/juice it's just another name for processed sugar. Let's move on to the canola oil... they try to be tricky by adding in the expeller pressed... it's still just another processed oil (see argument above.)  I will say there are some items on here that I'm not sure about so I will leave it at that... but I think you're getting the point anyway.














How about the ever popular frozen meal! I tried not to be biased and picked one of my favorites from each brand...

There are a whole bunch of ingredients but I'll try and pick out a few. All three of these use semolina flour...in my book she talks about the make up of a grain, a whole grain is made up of bran, endosperm and germ...semolina flour has both the bran and germ removed, therefore making it a processed (not whole) flour. They have things like sodium phosphate, potassium chloride, sodium citrate, modified cornstarch and ammonium chloride. I will say that Amy's frozen meals are much much better than the other frozen meals. It does however still have processed ingredients like the semolina flour, and low fat milk, but it lacks all the chemicals and unpronounceable ingredients that the other two contain.

I have a feeling you're starting to get my point... no need for me to continue to hammer home how incredibly processed our foods are. But, while I have your attention, I want to take this opportunity, or better stated hopefully you'll take this opportunity to really examine some of the other labels of foods that I feel like are on a lot of your current grocery lists. If nothing else I hope these entries will make you stop, read some labels, and think twice about whether what you're buying is really a "healthy diet" food.

It should be noted that all my knowledge/information provided in the perpetual dieter entries has come from "The Science of Skinny" by Dee McCaffrey, CDC. I should also say that these foods were picked solely because they used to be a main part of my daily food intake. I don't have any bias for them or  against these particular foods or brands. It's not just them... it's the entire processed food industry.