Pantry Raid #15: Pots and Pans

I've had a lot of readers ask me about what type of cooking and bakeware I like to use.  I have to admit, my selections were mostly on accident.   When I read up on it, I realized I was all good...whew!  My absolute preferred cooking surface is cast iron.  I really bucked using cast iron for years.  The hubby was raised on it, but the whole not washing it with soap and "seasoning" thing just scared the crumbs out of me.  When I finally caved, I couldn't help but wonder why in the world our generation seemed to have disregarded this amazing cooking surface.  Aside from the weight, the perks are endless.  My two favorite reasons to use cast iron--they are non-stick (when seasoned correctly) and indestructable.  I could go on forever about cast iron, but first, let's talk about what cookware options you have and which ones you may or may not want to be using if you are concerned about your health and/or the environment. 

Non-Stick:  In 1961, a new, technologically advanced cookware was introduced to the market with the claim that stuck on food was a thing of the past .  The cookware gained popularity as the "fat free" diet fad rose to its peak giving dieters a way to use less oils when cooking.  How does it work?  Most types are coated with a chemical called Polytetrafluoroethylene, which is most commonly known as the brand Teflon.  This chemical was accidentally discovered in 1938 when Roy Pluckett of Kinetic Chemicals was working on a new refrigerant using Tetrafluoroethylene. Unfortunately, when heated to tempatures above 200 degrees, the coating begins to deteriorate.  Most cookware is used at these tempatures on a daily basis.  Unpublished studies show that the deteriorated Teflon creates a by-product that has been tested to be lethal to birds and causes flu-like symptoms in humans. 

Aluminum:  Aluminum cookware can be purchased in two forms--anodized and non-anodized.  Anodized aluminum cookware has a coating that is created by placing the cookware in a bath of electrolytes like sulfuric acid and running an electrical current through the bath.  The result is a protective layer that keeps the aluminum from ozidizing which causes corrison, rusting and pitting.  My thoughts...the less chemicals the better.  Sulfuric acid is a highly hazardous chemical that, with high exposure, can cause nervous and respiratory system damage.  In regards to the environment, I give it a big thumbs down.  As far as your health, the coating (if undamaged) restricts the leaching of aluminum into your food.  Studies have shown that testing in Alzheimer's patients reveals a common link of aluminum found in their blood streams.

Stainless Steel:    Stainless Steel is deemed a safe cookware.  Look for cookware marked 18/10 stainless steel, which means 18% chromium and 10% nickel.  This type of cookware releases about 45 micrograms of chromium into each meal cooked, which is less than the published "safe" intake.  If you have a sensitivity to nickel, steering clear of stainless steel cookware is suggested.   

Cast Iron:  Cast iron cookware is made by heating iron to extremely high levels and casting it into the desired form.  When seasoned properly, it is non-stick and will not rust.  It distributes and holds heat evenly through the cooking process.  It can withstand being placed in direct flames without being damaged.  I am telling you, these pots are indestructable!!  If I mess one up, I run it though the self cleaning oven cycle and reseason it.  Cooking in cast iron can actually be healthy because it leaches additional iron into your food as it cooks.  Before aluminum cookware was introduced, cast iron was pretty much the universal choice of cookware.  All over the world, people are using cast iron cookware that is generations old, because it last forever!

Glass, Stoneware and Ceramic:  Cookware made with glass, stone and ceramic materials are all perfectly safe cooking options.

Happy Cooking!!

The Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen

For many, buying 100% organic is not an option either due to availability or budget constraints.  In either of these cases, knowing which fruits and veggies are most or least contaminated in the growing process provides excellent ammunition when trying to make decisions while grocery shopping. 

I got this list from EWG.  The Enviromental Working Group is a Washington DC based team made up of scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers who make it their sole purpose to "use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment".  Check them out on ewg.org.  Their website has all types of great information!!

What are the dirty dozen you ask?  They are the 12 fruits and veggies that leave the consumer most exposed to chemical toxins from pesticides and fertilizers.

This is the most current list in order of contamination--apples being the most contaminated. 
Apples
Celery
Strawberries
Peaches
Spinach
Nectarines
Grapes
Sweet Bell Peppers
Potatoes
Blueberries-Domestic
Lettuce
Kale/Collard Greens

What is the Clean Fifteen?  The fifteen fruits and veggies that leave the consumer least exposed to chemical toxins from pesticides and fertilizers.  I'm not saying don't buy these organic, but if the option is not there to buy organic, then "settling" is ok :)  Buying organic whenever possible supports the environment and eliminates your consumption of chemical toxins through your food (which is always a good thing).

Here's the list with mushrooms being the cleanist.

Onions

Sweet Corn

Pineapples

Avocado

Asparagus

Sweet peas

Mangoes

Eggplant

Cantaloupe - domestic

Kiwi

Cabbage

Watermelon

Sweet potatoes

Grapefruit

Mushrooms

Happy Shopping!!!

Pantry Raid #14: Yogurt

I've put off the yogurt post for a while now thinking most everyone knows that the kind you buy with all the pretty packaging that tastes like something besides yogurt is loaded with all kinds of bad for you sugar and additives.  Then, I look at the grocery store shelves and have to question that thought...obviously, someone is still buying it in large quantities or they wouldn't be reloading all those empty spaces on a nightly basis.

Honestly, I've never in my life looked at the ingredient list on any of the flavored yogurts until just now.  I used to buy them all the time as a substitute for cake or cookies when I was having a craving.  One day, years ago, to cut out the sugar for the kids, I stopped buying them.  Had I read the ingredient list, I think even back then, I would have been shocked.  I cannot believe all of this stuff is added to a container of yogurt.  Here's the ingredient list for a popular low-fat strawberry flavored variety.  I found it on Amazon (had no idea they sold yogurt), because I got all frustrated trying to find any ingredient info on the manufacturer's website.  I always have to wonder why the manufacturers make it so hard to find their ingredient lists.  Even for their more "natural" options, where they advertise no corn syrup or additives...where's the ingredients list??   Anyways...here's the list.

Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Nonfat Milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Strawberries, Modified Corn Starch, Whey Protein Concentrate, Kosher Gelatin, Citric Acid, Tricalcium Phosphate, Aspartame, Potassium Sorbate Added to Maintain Freshness, Natural Flavor, Red No. 40, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3.

Wow!  I don't even want to know what the key lime pie, apple turnover or red velvet cake flavors have in them.  I did a quick search for the popular Go-gurt sticks that are packed everyday in kids lunches all over the country.  I was shocked at just the sugar content.  There is as much sugar in one of those 2.5 oz stick as there is in the above 6 oz cup.   Just to be a little nerdy, there's 13 grams of sugar per every 2.5 oz.  That's 5.2 g per ounce.  There's 65 g of sugar in a 20 oz Coca Cola.  That's 3.25 g per ounce.  Huh...guess you're better off sending your kid to school with a Coke than one of those sugar (corn syrup) sticks.

Let's take a deeper look at the ingredient list for our strawberry yogurt.

Cultured milk is just milk that has been mixed with a yogurt culture and allowed to ferment.  That is how you make yogurt.  What strikes me as odd here is that they are using nonfat milk.  I have done my fair share of making yogurt and have learned one thing.  The less fat in the milk, the runnier the yogurt.  So, how are they getting their yogurt all thick and creamy??

The answer...

They add Whey Protein Concentrate, Kosher Gelatin and Modified Corn Starch as thickeners and texture enhancers.   Kosher just means it conforms to the Jewish standards (laws from the Old Testament) on how to handle foods.  Modified corn starch is exactly what it says. They take an already processed food made from GMO corn and modify it's chemical makeup even further so that it does a better job of thickening.  Whey Protein Concentrate is the cheapest form of protein on the market.  It's just a concentrated, powdered form of protein derived from whey, which is the byproduct of cheesemaking. 

Now that we have a nice thick yogurt, time to make it taste like something else.  Even in my house where we eat plain yogurt, if we add anything, it's always something to sweeten it up.  We mostly use raw honey.  They use High Fructose Corn Syrup and Aspartame.  I have been all over the corn syrup topic in the Pantry Raid posts.  To sum it up, it's science-made and our bodies don't react well with it at all.  Aspartame is another beast.  It's not even derived from a "food".  I say food in quotes, because GMO corn isn't a food either.  Aspartame is a chemical concoction made 100% in a lab.  It is a very controversial ingredient with research claiming it can cause headaches, anxiety, memory loss, depression and many more severe side effects.  The FDA says that have done the counter research and proven otherwise.  Either way, it's a chemical and it was not designed by God for our bodies to consume.

A little more flavor is added with Strawberries and "Natural" Flavors.  Yey for the strawberries...they are actually in there!  Too bad they are on the Dirty Dozen list (the list of the 12 fruits and veggies with the highest levels of chemical residuals from chemical pesticides and fertilizers in the end product).  Since strawberries aren't a natural flavor enough, the manufacturer added more "natural" flavoring (insert sarcasm here).  Wonder why they don't say vanilla extract, strawberry juice or something like that?  What exactly is a "natural" flavoring, and what kind are they adding??

Somewhere along the line, someone decided that, allergic reactions aside,  it can't be strawberry flavored unless it's really red, so Red Dye #40 is added to make sure we get it that it's REALLY strawberry flavored.  I guess white yogurt with little red flecks of strawberry just doesn't get the point across? 

Then, because the product needs to last through storage before it's shipped to the distributor, shipping to the distributor, storage until it's shipped to a store, shipping to a store, storage until it gets to the shelf, sitting on the shelf until it's bought and sitting in our refrigerator until we eat it (which can be a long time if it gets pushed to the back of the frig), plenty of preservatives are added like Citric Acid and Potasium Sorbate.  Potasium Sorbate is made by neutralizing potassium hydroxide with sorbic acid.  It can be a skin, eye or respiratory irritant.  Citric Acid is another chemical compound...not lemon juice like I used to think :)

Last, but not least, the need to add back in what was taken out through processing the milk is there, so a little Vitamin D, Vitamin A and Tricalcium Phosphate are in there for good measure.  All of which being synthetic supplements. 

I find this all to be so amazing, considering that perfectly good yogurt can be made by just adding a bacteria starter to heated up milk and letting it ferment.  Cook down some strawberries and pour them over top with a little honey and voila...strawberry yogurt--very yummy strawberry yogurt might I add :)!

I'm going to have to post a How to Make Yogurt guide soon so you can try this out for yourselves!!

If you're not in a yogurt making mood, just buy the plain organic yogurt and flavor it yourself.  If you want to buy the already flavored varieties, just look for the ones made with nothing but real food.  You will probably still be eating "evaporated cane juice" which is just a fancy name for sugar, but it will be much better than corn syrup and aspartame!! 

Happy Tuesday!









 

Pantry Raid #13: Eating "In Season"

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With an increase in awareness of how our eating relates to the environment and our own health, traffic at local farmer's markets that offer fresh, organic and local produce is on the rise.  More and more Americans are looking to eat cleaner not only for their bodies, but for the environment as well.  So, the question arises...what does eating "in season" mean, and what should I be looking for right now?

God's design is amazing.  He created certain vegetables to grow during certain seasons just as we need them.  For instance, what's the first vitamin we reach for when we feel like we are starting to get sick?  That would be Vitamin C.  When do we get sick the most?  In the winter.  What fruits veggies are "in season" during the winter?  A long list of those containing the most Vitamin C--like citrus, broccoli,  brussel sprouts, butternut squash, kale, swiss chard, bok choy and chestnuts.

Or,

What season in most areas is the off season for farmers?  Winter, right?  What veggies are the most long lasting for storage?  That would be winter squashes--butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, etc.  These squash are harvested just before winter and can be eaten all winter long.  Not to mention, these veggies are loaded with Vitamin A and Vitamin C.  One cup of cooked winter squash contains 457% of your daily Vitamin A requirements and 52% of your Vitamin C.  Vitamin A helps regulate the immune system and fight off infection, while Vitamin C is an antioxidant and immune system booster.  Crazy, isn't it?!?!

So, as we come off the winter and into the spring, what can we be looking forward to seeing at the market in terms of "in season"?

Here in Florida, it's a transitional time.  The last rounds of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, greens (including kale, spinach, lettuces, turnips, collards, mustards, etc) beets, carrots, citrus, and snow peas will be making their final showings these next few weeks. 

Right now is the peak of strawberry season.  Buy as many as you can!  Eat them fresh now and freeze the ones you can't eat.  Frozen berries are great for summer smoothies, popsicles,  or just eaten by themselves as a cold treat.

In the next few weeks, you will start to see the beginning of spring harvests from farmers that use greenhouses.  This means cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes and onions.

As summer approaches, we can look forward to peppers, okra, eggplant, melons, green beans, summer squashes (yellow and zucchini), black eyed peas, acre peas, corn, blueberries and peaches.

It's Monday, so I know I missed a ton!!  Post your favorite fruits and veggies in the comment section if I missed them.

Happy Monday!           

Pantry Raid #12: Cereal

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So, I'm sitting on the couch with the hubby last night reading the most phenomenal book to the sounds of "boink, boink, squeek, squeek, boink, boink, squeek, boink..." (the sound of basketball is almost mind numbing to me) when a change in the tv screen catches my attention.  It a commercial (whew...a break from the boinks and squeeks)...the tv screen is filled with beautiful, amber waves..."oh cool, it's grain" I think to myself.   My mind wanders..."Cartoon grain?...oh, the Trix rabbit...the TRIX RABBIT?!?!?!...WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?!?!?".  The last part actually came blurting out of my mouth and drew the hubby's attention to what was causing my loud outburst.  The both of us sat there, dumbfounded, jaws on the floor, starring at this insane commercial. 

The makers of Trix, Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms, to name a few, have decided to market their sugar laden cereals as "whole grain".  I know some of you are probably thinking "where in God's creation have you been?", because as I began to research this new-to-me phenomenon, I realized it's not so new.  I'm just not a tv watcher (cable is just on because I haven't gotten around to turning it off after football season), and I haven't shopped the cereal isle in at least two years, so this "whole grain" thing slipped right by me. 

The maker of these kid-oriented breakfast items tells us on the website that "About 10 percent of the estimated whole grain consumed in America comes from Big G cereals. Today, General Mills delivers almost 35 million whole grain servings per day via Big G cereals alone."

That just plain old scares me! 

Why?  Let's take a look

Credit: General Mills

Whole grain means the grain was milled in it's entiriety--the bran, germ and endosperm.  Kudos to GM for using whole grain corn as the first ingredient (meaning the ingredient whose contents is the highest in this cereal), but the buck stops there with a big screeching halt.  Since it is not labeled non-GMO, you can bet with a 99.9% accuracy, that your kids are eating GMO corn. 

The next ingredient--sugar!  That's beet sugar most likely, because it is not labeled as cane sugar.  95% of beets grown for sugar in the US are GMO.  Not only are they GMO, there is no fat, fiber or protein in white sugar (cane or beet), nor is there any other vitamins or minerals--100% dead food (empty calories).

Corn Meal-because they couldn't make the cereal out of entirely whole grains (that would cut into their shelf-life and profits), so they needed a filler.  Corn meal is corn that is milled and stripped of it's bran and germ to preserve shelf life. Once again, it's not labeled non-GMO, so it most likely is a GMO and more dead food with empty calories.

Corn Syrup-I love that commercial about corn syrup where the sweet couple is sitting on the picnic blanket, and she offers him a popsicle.   He says "I thought you loved me?", and she tells him "it's made from corn, has the same calories as sugar and is fine in moderation".   Run, you poor man, run!!  She's like the modern day Eve, except without the serpent, because she IS the serpent!!!  Yes, it is "made" from corn...if you can still call it that after all the processing they do to it to get the end product.  Yes, it has the same dead calories as sugar.  No, it is almost impossible to moderate corn syrup in the average American diet because it's in everything (unless you are eating mostly whole foods). 


Canola and/or rice bran oil- Extracted properly and grown organically, these two oils could have actually been good for you.  Canola is almost impossible to grow organically or even non-GMO right now because of the infestation from GMO canola crops.  Organic farmers are dealing with cross-pollination and nasty law suits from Monsanto (the creators of the GMO seed and the Round-Up they use to spray the crops).  Then, the oils are extracted using chemicals and high heat.  This kills all the good for you stuff, leaves traces of bad for you chemicals behind and can cause free-radicals (carcinogens).
 
Trisodium Phosphate- The is a cleaning agent, food additive, degreaser and stain remover.  It is commonly found on the shelves of hardware stores.  Manufacturers use it in food as a thickener, emulsifier, or acidity regulator.  Why this is even used in cereal is beyond me...

Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1 and other colors added- I get why the coloring is in the foods...it makes it fun for the kids, so the kids "want" to eat it...another marketing ploy.  It's a frustrating topic, because we want our kids to have fun things to eat, but, really, the dangers outweigh the fun.  There are plenty of truly natural food dyes out there that will make food just as fun for our kids to eat...they don't have to eat poisons.  More info on these additives is available on the Valentine's Candy Pantry Raid.
   
Natural and artificial flavor- I won't get on my rant about this one today :)  All I have to say is that if they put all that other junk in the cereal already, I am pretty sure they aren't adding pure orange juice to get that orangy flavor.
  
Citric Acid-This is not your mama's citric acid.  I had myself completely convinced citric acid was just lemon juice.  A little research and science reared its ugly head again.  I talked about it in the All Natural Pantry Raid.

Malic Acid- This is a chemical food additive that enhances the sour flavor in foods.  Hmmm...maybe that's why they felt the need to add the trisodium phosphate to regulate the acidity...lol!

BHT- Is a preservative and stands for Butylated hydroxytoluene...sounds like something I want to eat.  I guess they shorten it to BHT so it doesn't scare label readers as bad...or, maybe, they might just accidentally overlook it :)  According to Wikipedia, it "is a lipophilic (fat-soluble) organic compound that is primarily used as an antioxidant food additive (E number E321) as well as an antioxidant additive in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, jet fuels, rubber, petroleum products, electrical transformer oil, and embalming fluid."  They also mentioned that "In the 1970s, Benjamin Feingold, a San Francisco MD who established the Feingold diet, claimed that BHT could produce hyperactivity in some children".  Sounds like a plan to me...feed the kids a big bowl of BHT and send them off to their teachers, but hey, they got their whole grains for the day.  Crazy!!!!

The book I'm reading references a research project done on rats.  Some were fed cereal similar to the one I've cited here.  The others were fed the cardboard boxes that the cereal was packaged in.  The ones eating the boxes thrived better.  Essentialy the rats fed the boxes were fasting while the ones fed the cereal were eating toxic white flour, sugar and artificial colors. 

I just grabbed the label off of one cereal.  The rest of them aren't much different.  Even Wheaties have corn syrup, BHT and sodium phosphate.  My point...take the time to read the labels or,
save yourself the headache, and just make them a bowl of oatmeal.

Happy Monday!

Pantry Raid #11: Buying in Bulk, Co-ops

Good morning!!  I am SO excited about today's Pantry Raid!  I've been tossing around the idea of joining a local natural foods co-op for at least two years (maybe even three).  It just makes sense that if I'm going to make the trek all the way to the health food store three or four times a month while wasting fuel and my time, that it would just be easier and more productive for myself and the environment to buy all the same items at once through a co-op on a monthly basis. 

For the most part, we've gotten to a place in our pantry that I pretty much buy the same items over and over again.  Aside from seasonal produce which changes frequently, there's the occasional item outside the box for a new recipe I want to try or a crazy craving that just needs some satisfaction.  But, pretty much, I am a creature of habit.  This makes buying in bulk flat out easy...it's just the getting the list out of my brain and onto paper that causes a bit of a stumbling block for me.    

So,  I put off joining the co-op for years because the idea of getting organized enough to implement this change in our household just scared me to death.  Have I mentioned that I am a MAJOR procrastinator, an over-analyzer and I don't like change at all?  This combination can be paralyzing sometimes.  Scary, huh?  Talk to the hubby...he'll be more than happy to tell you just how scary it is :)   I can only hope some of you are the same way...otherwise, I can't imagine what you are thinking about me now...lol!

I guess getting over that hump for me is what makes this new adventure extra exciting.  Once I get "the list" together, I will be adding it to the resources here on the blog (more excitement).  SIDE NOTE:  Some of you have been asking how to get updates on when new posts are added.  Just enter your email address in the space in the left column to "Subscribe via Email".  After you hit submit, you will receive a confirmation email.  Make sure your click the link in it.  Back to the Raid...An even more exciting piece comes into play with my constant need to save our money that the hubby works so hard for.  Less money spent means less of my hubby's precious time spent working and more of his time spent at home with the family.  That's something I am willing to work extra hard for!  Buying in bulk is a huge contribution to that cause, amd that gets me even more excited!!


Here's how the co-op works...

Joining with a full membership gives you access to United Natural Foods, Frontier co-op, Peaceful Pastures, Live Oak Dairy, and Global Organics. You can get detailed info on these suppliers at their website www.jaxnaturalfoods.com/supplier/  There is not a single item I would buy at the store that I can't get through these suppliers....so cool!

In essence, the co-op members place their individual orders, and the co-op orders from the suppliers in bulk to fill these individual orders.  The co-op orders like a grocery store just more personalized because individual orders are made up front, so only what is needed is ordered.  I hope I'm making sense.  There is a little more inner working between members before the order is placed, but that is the basics of it.  When the order arrives, members get together to sort it before they take it home.  Pretty simple...I'm not sure why I put this off for so long!!  Even though some work for me goes into the process on delivery day, it will take way less of my time and energy than the 4-5 trips a week to the grocery store plus 3-4 a month to the health food store...did I mention I am unorganized and a procrastinator? :)

So, today marks the beginning of a new journey for me...I am going to HAVE TO get organized.  At the risk of sounding like Martha...this will be a good thing!   This should make for some fun blog posts...lol!

Happy Monday!!

Pantry Raid #10: Valentine's Candy

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With Valentine's Day upon us, I thought I would share a fun conversation I had with my oldest daughter this morning about the sudden, uncontrollable flow of junk food into our home.  Every school-day morning, I rattle off a list of Mom-Approved foods available that day for the kids to pack in their lunches.  Usually homemade crackers and cheese, carrots, broccoli, a healthy sweet, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, some sort of fruit and some healthy, homemade sweet.  They get to pick three--two for lunch and one for snack.  There are mornings where I get done with my list and they just stare at me blankly as if I had something hiding up my sleeve that sounds more appealing that day just waiting for the big reveal, but for the most part, they pick what they want and get to packing.

I'm excited this year that their school and teachers have taken a turn towards being a little more aware of what the kids have in their lunch boxes.  It's really been helpful that our third grader's teacher has put the hammer down about junk-food snacks in her class.  I'm sure it is helping teachers remedy sugar-induced, hyper-activity in their classes, but for me, it helps combat the "why can't I have's" when packing lunch each morning.

This morning, the request was made to pack a box of Sweethearts as part of lunch.  It's nearly impossible to regulate all the candy that appears on Valentine's Day.  It comes from school, friends, family, church....everywhere!!  Multiply that by three kids and I could make myself nuts trying to end the massive sugar boom happening in our house this week.  So, I truly do appreciate that the question was asked, and the box wasn't just smuggled to school in a backpack.  There's always this fine line between being militant about the junk food and being too free with it.  I don't want the kids eating it, but at the same time, I don't want them sneaking it either.  So, when the question is asked, I have to take a deep (very deep) breath and take my time with the answer even though I really just want to blurt out a big, fat "NO!!" followed by no explanation whatsoever.  

I'm sure this morning's answer was a bit overboard, just because I'm coming off this weekend's high of being less of a perfectionist....which by the way was SO freeing!!!  I highly recommend it!! :)....seriously!!!

Back to the Sweethearts...the ingredients your child consumes with one of those somehow "required" at Valentine's Day, "Be Mine" hearts is plain out mind boggling.  Each little heart contains sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, glycerine, artificial and natural flavors, gelatin, vegetable gums, citric acid, artificial colors (red 3, yellow 5, yellow 6, red 40 and blue 1).  My answer to my daughter's question...a drawn out lesson in exactly what each of those ingredients are and what they do to our body.  Needless to say, the box did not make it's way to school.

Well....what exactly are these ingredients, you ask??

The first three have been hit on pretty heavy in earlier Pantry Raids.  Essentially, they are all sugar (in one form or another).  Why they needed to use three different sugars is beyond me.  The first is nutrient-barren, white, table sugar not labeled "cane" sugar, so most likely beet sugar and most likely GMO.  The second is corn syrup always derived from GMO corn.  The third, dextrose, also a sugar derived from starch (usually GMO corn). 

Glycerine is a product of soap making.  The glycerine in natural soap is extracted and used in the food, pharmaceutical and weapons industry.  It was first extracted from soap in 1889 for the soul reason of creating dynamite.  It was later discovered that glycerine has a sweet taste and could be used in processed foods as a sweetener and thickener.  All I can wonder is what crazy person decided to put it in their mouth and taste it!?!?!

Artificial and natural flavors...you know what I think about those.

Gelatin is a substance derived from the collagen in animal skin and bones also used as a thickener.  The collagen is removed and processed into a powder form to use in food processing.  It is the same ingredient used to stabilize jello. 

Vegetable gums are, yet again, thickeners.  Xanthan gum being the most popular.  Brocolli, cauliflower and other leafy vegetables are allowed to ferment.  The bacteria Xanthomonas campestris causes the fermentation, the black rot and also the "slime".  The slime is a natural stabilizer and thickener also called xanthan gum.

Citric acid was my surprise ingredient from the post on natural foods.  I am still amazed that it isn't lemon juice!!!   Are you seeing a pattern here?  I've only broken down two products this way in my Pantry Raids and both had citric acid and dextrose.  I am willing to bet doing a few more products will reveal duplicates of many of these ingredients.

Artificial colors...Yes, these treats do contain the infamous red 40 known for it's contributions to severe allergic reactions in children.  You know... those little people that are the main consumers of this Valentine favorite.  Yellow 5 and 6  are made from tatrazine.  Tatrazine has been linked in some studies to various immunologic responses including anxiety, migraines, clinical depression, blurred vision, itching, general weakness, heatwaves, feeling of suffocation, purple skin patches, and sleep disturbance.  Blue 1 is a petroleum derivative.  Some reactions to Blue 1 include eczema, hives, puffy eyelids, dry skin, sneezing, recurring ear infections, congestion and wheezing.  But, the wouldn't be as yummy if they weren't all those pretty colors!!  (if you guys haven't figured it out yet, I tend to be a bit sarcastic at times :))

Let me end by saying that it is absolutely impossible to shield our kids from all of these "treats", but being better educated on what our kids are truly consuming through these products can help us make them more aware of why we limit them in our households.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Pantry Raid #9: Chocolate

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Happy Monday Everyone!!   I don't know about all of you, but I am wiped out after this weekend.  Super Bowl is such a fun excuse to hang out with good friends, but my body doesn't do staying up past 9pm very well anymore.  It was midnight before my head actually hit the pillow last night...gosh, that makes me feel so old!!!  It seems like just yesterday, I was in college staying up all hours of the night and running on nothing but caffeine and chocolate the next day!!

There was a time where I would say that I wasn't sure if chocolate even counted as a food, but these days, I am sure...it so does!!  A food in my book is anything that offers our bodies nutrients for energy or growth.  And yes...to all my chocoholic friends...chocolate counts as a food!!  Not only is it a food, it even classifies as a SUPERFOOD!!!

What?!?!  How?!?!?

Chocolate as most of us know it has gotten itself a pretty bad rap.   Over the past few years, as I have dug deeper into the mystery of what exactly IS in my pantry under the guise of "food", I have found a few common threads.  One of which being that, as humans, we are just weak to whatever tastes good.  If it's cheap, we are even weaker!  Manufacturers know this.  They know that if they can put a product out there that tastes really good and doesn't break the bank, we will indulge...and indulge...and indulge a whole lot more.

Let's look at chocolate in it's purest form.  Chocolate comes a tropical plant known as the  Theobroma Cacao Tree.  The cacao bean is harvested from the tree, fermented and dried.  In this form, cacao is rich in magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, chromium, anadamide, theobromine and is an excellent source of antioxidants.  Pound for pound, it has more antioxidants than blueberries and more flavanoids than green tea.  Anadamide is an endorphine that our body produces naturally.  It's the same endorphine that is released to give us that "high" after exercise.  This is so cool...only one plant to date has been found to contain this "bliss chemical"....that's right, the cacao plant!!    Theobromine is an anti-bacterial substance that, ironically, kills the primary bacteria that causes cavities.  It also dilates the cardiovascular system contributing to a healthy heart.

So, what happens to that perfect, little bean next to make it so bad for you??   


Let's back up one step before we go any further.  It's name being derived from the Greek word meaning 'food of the gods', speaks for itself.  Chocolate is listed among the tops of many's "Love Lists"...including mine ;).  The result of chocolate being in such high demand is a push to grow it faster, bigger and cheaper.  When something needs to be grown faster, bigger and cheaper, organic farming methods go out the door and farmers turn to pesticides and chemical fertilizers.  Conventionally grown cacao, second to cotton, uses more chemicals than any other industrial produced agricultural product.  So, along with your daily overdose of nutrient-void sugar, when you indulge in mass produced chocolate, you are also getting your daily overdose of body-destroying, chemical toxins.  


The toxin ridden beans are shipped usually from Africa to the manufacturer where they are broken down into a powder and mixed with most likely (in a decent quality chocolate)  white sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk or milk powder, and vanilla.  To give it a smooth texture, emulsifying agents are added (mostly soy lecithin, which is a GMO).  When all is said and done, that perfect super-bean has been degraded to a mere 7% content in some final products.  The processing has killed all it had to offer, and it has been diluted with sugar and other vitamin depleted ingredients. 

The solution???

Some farmers understand the importance of keeping their land untainted and clean from commercial pesticides and fertilizers so that they will be able to continue to grow these special beans.  They are willing to put in the extra work and love that it takes to grow a "real" cacao bean.  These beans are treated properly by chocolate makers and respected for the care that was put into growing them.  They are processed by companies that value what the cacao bean has to offer.  Their final products will be labeled with a 70% or higher cacao content.

We as consumers need a little pruning when it comes to buying and eating healthy chocolate.  Yes, it is more expensive to buy organic, high-cacao containing chocolate.  Here's a few things to keep in mind.  The flavor is much more powerful, so a little goes a very long way.  This way, you eat less and the cost balances itself out.  Eat it slow--take a bite, let it melt in your mouth and enjoy it!!  (side note:  I wait until the kids are all napping or out of the house and savor every morsel)  Second,  if you are used to eating milk chocolate, make the change gradually.  Start with a 60% or 65%  bar and work your way up.

I promise, this is one of those changes you will be so glad you made!!  I love that I can indulge in chocolate everyday completely guilt-free!!

With Valentine's on it's way, I want to know....

What is your favorite chocolate recipe?  I need some fun ones to "makeover" with a healthy spin!!



 

Pantry Raid #8: All Natural

Pin It As we move towards being a society that is more in tune with what exactly is in our food, all kinds of catch phases are popping up on food packaging everywhere.  We see labeling like "Gluten Free", "No GMO's", "No MSG", "No Preservatives", "No Additives", and my favorite, "All Natural".

What exactly is "All Natural" anyways?  Here's what the FDA says on their website....

"What is the meaning of natural on a food label?

From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth. That said, FDA has not developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives. However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances."

Raise your hand if you thought the label "All Natural" was regulated...insert hand raised here!

So, here's my experience this weekend.  We went to a party Saturday afternoon to celebrate a close friend's upcoming arrival of her second baby boy.  Parties are always a great place to partake in a not-so-clean eating experience.  I don't put restrictions on myself or my family members in these situations for lots of reasons, but mostly because it would make me a a big party pooper :)  Although, I am constantly amazed to find that wise choices are made for the most part by all of us, including my three year old.  They would all prefer to indulge in the fruit and veggies over the processed junk food.  I've even had to pry them away from veggie trays before just to make sure there was enough for the rest of the party goers.

Since the day was already "tainted" so to say, when the hubby's late night cravings took hold with a hankering for a sub, I didn't try to talk some sense into him, and off to the grocery store he went.  I blame it on the junk food he had been consuming all day--maybe his brain was a little hazy.  Nonetheless, he came home with two non-approved (I say that sarcastically...it just sounds funny) extras.  Apparently, a certain brand of kettle chips were on sale and he couldn't help himself :)

Side Note:  Kettle chips are one of my absolute favorite snacks and one of my only packaged food splurges.  An open bag in my house doesn't have a fighting chance.  We buy Kettle Brand Organic Sea Salt.  They have three ingredients (all organic) potatoes, oil and sea salt.

This set of imposters that came home in the hubby's grocery bag were a whole different story.  After looking at the label, researching exactly what the ingredients were, neither of us could stomach opening a bag.  Here's the kicker...both bags were advertised as:

At first glance, that doesn't look bad at all.  The only thing that jumped out at me was the canola oil.  Why?  Because I know that unless that bag says non-GMO, that is genetically modified canola oil.  Nobody knows for sure what genetically modified foods do to our body, but the research that has been done is not very encouraging.  Some scientists have proven that GMO foods are linked to many of our major diseases we face today.  It's a very politically touchy subject, so these findings are not yet advertised as common knowledge.   These websites are very informative on the subject

www.saynotogmos.org
www.nongmoproject.org
www. just labelit.org

I am working on an upcoming post that will better explain this subject as well.

Anyways...here's what a closer look at the labels told me.  

 

Two ingredients on this label stood out to me--Maltodextrin and Sodium Diacetate.  I didn't need to spend five years in college to get a piece of paper that called me a Biomedical Engineer to figure out that they didn't sound very "All Natural" to me.  

Maltodextrin is a sweetener.  According to wikipedia, it is "enzymatically derived from any starch".  The most common ones being corn (yikes, another GMO) and wheat.  Call me crazy, but isn't wheat a gluten??  The package did say "Gluten Free", but wikipedia also says that "maltodextrin is such a highly processed ingredient that the majority of the protein is removed, rendering it effectively gluten free".  I guess I can accept that, although I would question trusting it if I had gluten allergies.  Do I agree that maltodextrin is "All Natural"...absolutely not!  If wheat has been processed to the point that is no longer resembles it's former gluten-filled self, the chemistry has been so altered that you just can't call that natural in any way shape or form.   Have studies been done to see what this chemical does to our bodies before they put it on our grocery store shelves?  Yes, one German study that was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology proved that maltodextrin contributes to weight gain. BEWARE: Since it is such an inexpensive sweetener, it is VERY frequently used in the world of processed foods.   

Sodium Diacetate "is a compound with formula NaH(C₂H₃O₂)₂. It is a 1:1 mixture of sodium acetate and acetic acid but is also described as the sodium acid salt of acetic acid", as per wikipedia again.  I will let you decide how "All Natural" that is...you know what I'm thinking :)

Here is the second label.

Hmmm....Dextrose, Torula Yeast, Natural Flavors (Mesquite Smoke), Oleoresin, Citric Acid, Caramel Color.  Let's see...

Dextrose is a highly processed sweetener, like maltodextrin, that is produced from any starch.  Most of the time, it comes from cornstarch, a GMO.  Both maltodextrin and dextrose have very high glycemic index ratings, which screams DANGER in regards to diabetes.  Is it "All Natural"?  Like it's cousin maltodextrin, did God or science make it?  

Torula Yeast is an interesting ingredient.  Manufacturers have caught on to the fact that we have gotten smarter about what we are consuming.  MSG is one of the food additives that started this "revolution".   Remember the slogans "Once you pop, you can't stop", or "You can't eat just one".  That wasn't manufacturers just being full of themselves.  They knew they had a guaranteeing ingredient, because MSG messes with the function of your endocrine system and stops your appetite control.  In other words, your brain stops getting the message that you are full.  MSG is also linked to nerve disorders, headaches, reproductive disorders, lasting endocrine system and appetite control problems.  Once this became public knowledge, any company driven by morality would certainly remove THAT from their products!  Um, not all of them.  They just covered it up with a whole list of aliases.  One of which being torula yeast.  Ok, well, maybe it's natural???  Wikipedia says "It is produced from wood sugars, as a byproduct of paper production. It is pasteurized and spray-dried to produce a fine, light grayish-brown powder with a slightly yeasty odor and gentle, slightly meaty taste."   Yes folks, you are eating a by-product of the paper industry.  I used to live on St. Simons Island.  On a day when the wind blew just right, you could get a good whiff of the pulp mill where they made paper in Brunswick.  It is one of the most wicked smells you will ever lay your nose on...oh, I can't even think about it... that is just plain old gross!!!


Natural Flavors (Mesquite smoke):  One of the hubby's favorite summer past-times is spending his weekend on the driveway watching smoke billow out of the top of his barbeque smoker.  I've seen the process.  He burns some wood on one side, puts a piece of meat on the other, adds a whole lot of skill and out comes some of most succulent pieces of food I have ever placed in my mouth.  That seems like a pretty "All Natural" process to me.  So, you're telling me that this manufacturer put some potato chips in their ginormous smoker with some mesquite wood and got them some "All Natural" flavoring??  I think not, but can't see any other "All Natural" way to do it??

Are you grossed out yet??  I am!

Oleoresin is a "naturally occurring mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants, such as pine or balsam fir."  That's pretty natural...I'll give them this one.  Where they come up with this stuff is beyond me though.  Let's go extract some resin out of that tree out there and put it on these potato chips...that'll be yummy!  Sorry, I can't help myself sometimes :)  


Citric Acid is a preservative....wait, I thought these chips had "No Preservatives".  I guess because it is a "Natural" preservative, it doesn't count.  Anyways, how is citric acid made?  I always thought citric acid was just lemon juice.  Boy, was I was wrong!  There is a less expensive way to make it.  Certain strains of mold, when fed sugar (GMO corn based is cheapest), produce citric acid.  "After the mold is filtered out of the resulting solution, citric acid is isolated by precipitating it with lime (calcium hydroxide) to yield calcium citrate salt, from which citric acid is regenerated by treatment with sulfuric acid."  Not so "All Natural" sounding to me anymore. 

Caramel Color:  Can I just say my brain is literally in pain after trying to decipher this one.  Caramel is made by heating a carbohydrate in the presence of an acid, alkalies and/or salt.  In commercial production, the carbohydrates permitted by the FDA can be "fructose, dextrose (glucose), invert sugar, sucrose, malt syrup, molasses, starch hydrolysates and fractions thereof."  The acids "are food-grade sulfuric, sulfurous, phosphoric, acetic, and citric acids; the alkalies are ammonium, sodium, potassium, and calcium hydroxides; and the salts are ammonium, sodium, and potassium carbonate, bicarbonate, phosphate (including mono- and dibasic), sulfate, and bisulfite."   Also, "food-grade antifoaming agents, such as polyglycerol esters of fatty acids, may be used as processing aids during manufacturing".  BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!  I said it, because I know you're thinking it :)   So, it boils down to taking an already highly processed sugar (carbohydrate) and adding more highly processed stuff to it to get some coloring to make your food look like what it really isn't.  Call it what you want, but I am surely not calling any of that mad-scientist, chemical, insanity "All Natural"!!

I just can't seem to shake this question...what in God's green creation is wrong with plain old POTATOES, SALT AND OIL?????  

The moral of my story??  Packaged food labeling can be VERY misleading.  The solution??  Read your labels, and let's go with the FDA's blurb on natural foods that I quoted at the beginning of this post.  Just steer clear of packaged foods with ingredients that you don't recognize as coming from the earth.  

Happy Monday!!

References
Wikipedia.com
fda.gov 

Pantry Raid #7: Cow's Milk

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I started this post with the intention of encompassing all of dairy.  As I started typing, I realized I was on the verge of writing a novel.  There was no way I could fit all of that info into one post that would be short enough for anyone to read in one sitting while still feeling all warm and fuzzy about this blog :).  So, I decided to focus on cow's milk for now.

Dairy can be a touchy subject these days with all the lifestyle changes some are making like vegetarian and vegan.  Believe me, I've toyed with making those changes too, but I have been completely unsuccessful in my attempts to persuade my dairy loving family to turn from their ways.  I can't lie, my occasional hankering for some dairy ridden delights could knock me off the wagon real quick too.   I love cheese entirely too much to ex it out of my life completely.

I've seen the graphic documentaries exposing the horrible treatment of dairy cows.  For those of you on my facebook, you've been so blessed to see all the video links I've posted in relation to this subject too.  This might be a good place to insert a thanks for dealing with me and my facebook ravings :)  But, in all seriousness, it really is important that we understand where our food comes from.  Those animals are treated horribly all in the name of hot chocolate or a cheap grilled cheese sandwich.   On top of that, looking beyond the inhumane treatment is a flurry of antibiotics and other drugs they pump into our milk providing buddies.  Add in some pesticide (and God only knows what else) ridden feed, and you've got one big nasty mess.

 

So where does that leave us as consumers?  I spent quite some time just feeling plain old frustrated.  Any changes to this part of our grocery list was going to cost us majorly.  Needing to just do something, the place we could afford to start with was our milk.   Making the switch to organic was just a small baby step.  We are by no means exactly where I want our family to be when it comes to milk (this is a "we're almost there" project for me), but armed with this information can help us all make the proper decisions for our family and the environment when in comes to milk.

 

The only thing organic milk insures for me is that my family is not consuming pesticides, hormones and pharmaceutical drugs via their milk.  Unless I have had a chance to tour the farm my milk is coming from, the fact I am buying organic can not insure how the animals are treated.  Most likely, the milk I purchase at the grocery store comes from a giant vat fed by farmers all over the country.  My gallon of milk could come from a gazillion different cows...crazy, huh?

Milk purchased in the grocery store, including organic, is also pasteurized/ultra-pasteurized and homogenized.  Pasteurization is the process of heating milk to a specific temperature and quickly cooling it.  They do this to kill pathogenic microbes that can cause disease.  Why is pasteurizing necessary?  When you have 1000's of cows packed into warehouses, all lined up and hooked to milking machines whose milk is then moved by truck in tanks to a processing plant where it is added to milk from other farms, processed and bottled, there is no way that you can insure cleanliness.  It's just too much product being handled by too many people.  So, to solve the problem, milk gets pasteurized. 

Pasteurized milk, like all other foods we heat up, loses nutrients and enzymes (i.e. the good for us stuff) during the pasteurization process.  Now, to take it a step further, some milk is ultra-pasteurized.  It is heated to an even higher temperature which kills pretty much everything, but this dead milk has a heck of a shelf life.  Good for the manufacturer, and bad for you.  Of course, because putting back a fake version of what you took out in the first place is always the right thing to do (sarcasm here), Vitamin D and A are added back in.

Homogenization is a little more complex.  You see some silly person along the way thought it would be nice if they didn't have to shake their milk before drinking it.  By nature, milk fat rises to the top of the container leaving the bottom pretty much skim milk.  In order to distribute the fat, the milk must be agitated.  So, a process was developed that broke down the fat globules into smaller pieces to be distributed evenly through the milk without having to shake it.  Essentially, it stays emulsified.  The chemistry that happens in your body after drinking the milk is so complicated, I don't even want to begin to try and describe it.  It boils down to excessive proteins in our blood stream.  Basically, homogenized proteins become so small that instead of being digested, which is what normally would happen, they bypass the digestive system and are floating around in our blood stream.  Since cow's milk proteins are so similar in chemistry to human's, the body treats them as excessive human proteins which, in one way or another, can trigger diseases like milk allergies, diabetes, heart disease and autoimmune disorders.   Yuck!

 

The option a step more healthy than organic milk is non-homogenized milk.  I find it at our local health food store.  Finding a local dairy that offers milk in this stage is the best alternative.  This way, you know where your milk comes from.

As far as pasteurization goes,  it is illegal in most of the US states to sell unpasteurized milk unless it is labeled for animal consumption.   I won't get on my rant about that right now.  If you can find a local dairy farmer that offers raw milk for animal consumption, make sure you have done your research.  The government is not all wrong in agreeing with pasteurization.  If your farmer has not handled their milk as clean as possible, you do risk getting sick from drinking it.  Do the benefits outweigh the risk?  That is for you to decide.  In my family, we drink non-homogenized, raw or organic depending on availability.  I'd prefer to just have a cow in the backyard, but at this point in time, that is just not an option.  If we had direct access to a very local farmer who let us tour the facilities and offered raw, for animal consumption milk, my cat's ;) would be drinking only that.

 

Some argue cow's milk shouldn't be for human consumption, period.  That's where I go running to the Bible.  There's a lot in there about food!  The Bible says God provided the Isrealites with a Promise Land.  God called it a land of "milk and honey".

Ezekiel 20:6  In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands:

This is certainly not the only place God refers to the Promise Land as the "land of milk and honey".  He says this over 20 times when He talks about the Promise Land.

So, is He referring to cow's milk??

2 Samuel 17:29 (NIV)  honey and curds, sheep, and cheese from cows' milk for David and his people to eat. For they said, "The people have become hungry and tired and thirsty in the desert."

So, rewind in time.  Were cow's pumped full of drugs, hormones and pesticides back then?  Nope.  Was milk pasteurized?  Nope.  How about homogenized?  Nope.  Were cows fed grains?  Nope.


Side Note:  Cows are not created to eat grain.  It messes with their stomachs and causes things like e-coli.  Huh...another mess we've made of our food system.  Cows should be fed grass, so look for milk from grass fed cows.

Psalms 104:14   He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate-- bringing forth food from the earth:   ( I love this verse!!)

 

Some could argue that people back then didn't live as long as they do now.  Tell that to Moses.

Deuteronomy 34:7  Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.

My point being...just start somewhere.  This is a subject that we still have not fine tuned in my family as well.  A goal this year for us is to get closer to cutting organic, grocery-store milk out completely.  Our local farmer's market has a farmer that offers raw goat's milk.  We will be giving that a try when she has stock.  Another plan is to start making our own almond milk (the grocery store stuff is way too processed).   I figure between goats, cows and almonds, we should be able to completely kick the over-processed, grocery-store milk without a problem.

I know that was a lot of information.  Please don't let me discourage you if you are making the switch from conventional to organic grocery store milk.  That is still an extremely beneficial step!!!

Happy Monday!!

Pantry Raid #6: Wheat Flour

I come from a very food-centered family.  Not only am I 99.9995% Italian, and, if you didn't already know, Italians are obsessed with food, but I grew up in a family full of restauranteurs.  My first taste of the restaurant world was my aunt's Italian restaurant/Pizzeria.  Around Christmas time (way before I was of age to "work"), I would act as "bus girl" to earn a little Christmas spending cash.  I remember standing a safe distance away and watching the hustle and bustle in the kitchen always feeling so drawn to what was going on in there.  At the ripe age of 12, my mother opened her first sandwich shop where I pretty much spent every waking moment of my life unless I was in school.  I even made the hour hike back home two days a week for the first few years I was in college, because I was so attached to being in that place.  My father opened a donut shop during my college years.  I used to love the taste of a warm donut right out of the fryer and the intoxicating smell of yeast permeating the air as it escaped from the warm proofers. 

I guess you can say that me and food have had a long-time love affair.  When we made the switch from white flour to wheat flour, I almost felt like I was cheating on my food heritage.  I'd never had a wheat pizza crust, wheat pasta, a whole-grain donut...the only wheat in the mix had been sandwich bread at my mother's sandwich shop, and I had never really liked eating it.  I knew whole wheat was better for me, but I had never really felt compelled to know why. 

I did read Cooking Light Magazine pretty religiously though and at some point, began to realize through the increasingly frequent articles and recipes mentioning whole grains that making the switch was looking like something we needed to accomplish.  So, as all things go in my life (because I am the most impatient person on the planet and can never just take things slowly), baby steps quickly turn into super-human leaps and, to make a long story short,  here I am milling my own flour...crazy! 

I know what you are thinking..."Yes, you are crazy, what's the point!?!?".

The types of grains like white flour, white rice, quick oats, etc.  that we are all used to eating are just a mere skeleton of their former mega-nutritious selves.  There was a point in my life that I seriously had no idea that all- purpose white flour came from the same exact grain that whole wheat flour comes from.  I'm pretty sure I can venture to say that I am not alone in that boat.

So here's the deal.   Farmers harvest the seed of the wheat plant called the wheat berry.   The wheat berry consists of three parts--the germ, the bran and the endosperm.  This was a another news flash for me.  Wheat germ and wheat bran come from the same place as flour.  The bran is the outside layer where most of the fiber exists.  Most of the oils and nutrients are contained in the germ, and the endosperm is the center, starchy layer.  We keep a 6 gallon bucket of wheat berries in our house.  When I need flour, I pour them into my mill and out comes what you call graham flour.  That is the entire wheat berry (germ, bran and endosperm) ground into flour.

 So what exactly is the imposter that we are buying at the grocery store?

The reason food is processed in the first place is usually to extend its shelf life.  Once the wheat berry is milled, all the oils are released from the germ and bran, and it's shelf life decreases exponentially.  The solution....commercial millers run wheat berries through a process to remove the bran and germ, which just so happen to be the most nutrious parts of the berry.    When you purchase whole wheat flour in the grocery store, it has a decent shelf life, because most of the germ and bran have been removed to keep the oil content low. 

The next step to creating white flour is the bleaching process.  The flour is gased with chlorine which gives it that "nice" white color we are used to seeing and "ages" the flour.  An unintended by-product of this process is a chemical compound called alloxan.  Alloxan has one commercial function.  It is the chemical that researchers use to produce diabetes in lab animals so that they can study cures for the disease.  Alloxan produces diabetes by attacking the pancreatic beta cells and killing them.  Beta cells produce insulin.  No insulin means you get diabetes.

As if that wasn't bad enough, because the government said they have to, commercial flour millers then add the vitamins back into our flour that they killed with all the processing.  The vitamins that are added are no longer natural, but instead a man-made synthesis of what was originally in the whole wheat berry.  This is what they call "enriching".  God intended for milled wheat berries to be full of fiber, Vitamin E , good fats, magnesium, Vitamin B, iron, phosphorous and calcium.    Why mess with that? 

If you're feeling a little curious about milling your own flour, I would love to help you get started.  I've been through mills I don't like and mills I do like. I've listed some of the best mills in my online store.  I've checked all over for the best, most economical place to get my wheat berries.  We use a local co-op, but I will also be listing other options in the store as well..  Feel free to shoot me a message on Facebook or use the comment section for questions.

If you're not ready to mill your own wheat berries, you have options.  The next best choice is whole wheat flour.  Make sure you buy organic if it's available so that you are not consuming pesticides.  I like whole white wheat flour, which is flour milled from hard white berries.  It's a good all-purpose wheat flour right in the middle of the spectrum.   The heavy end of the spectrum is whole wheat flour which is flour milled from a hard red berry.  Most people like to use this flour for breads, tortillas, pizza dough and rolls.  Whole wheat pasty flour is the lightest of the store bought flours.  It is milled from a soft white berry and is good for cakes and pastries. 

In the unlikely event that you can not get your hands on whole wheat flour, make sure you purchase "unbleached" at the least.  This won't help you nutritionally, but will cut out the whole alloxan problem. 

Pantry Raid # 5: Oils and Fats

Whew...just typing that title still sends pings of residual, paranoia through my body. I was one of those girls that jumped right on the fat-free band wagon in high school and stayed there through college and a few good years after that.  Basically, if it said fat-free, it was fine for me to eat...never mind how much sugar and other junk was added...no fat equaled good food to me.  Somewhere along the line, I think I may have tricked myself into thinking it was working, but looking back, the truth was I would binge on fat-free, junk food, and then not eat anything else. Of course this eating style appeared to work.  My calorie consumption was practically at the point of starvation.  I would eat nutritiously void food, have no energy and consume loads of caffeine to make up for the overwhelming exhaustion.  As every good college student does, when I was unable to maintain the low calorie intake, I would go through spurts of eating whatever, gain 15 pounds, freak out and go back to my fat-free obsession. 

I wish someone would have helped me establish a healthy relationship with fat back then...it would have saved me over a decade of yo-yo dieting and all the stress of having reprogram the way I looked at food.  I had a really hard time wrapping my brain around the good vs. bad fat, because I was programmed to think that fat (period) was bad.  For those of you that have daughters, share with them what you learn about food...it will save them a lot of headache and heartache (and maybe even some couch time). 

With all that said, this is the change that took me the longest to implement in my pantry.  What makes it so important, is that fat is a major contributor in one way or another to almost all the major diseases Americans face today. At the same time, our body NEEDS it in order to function properly.  If that's not enough to make your head spin, let the good vs. bad  fat wars begin.  It took a refresher course in cellular biology for me to soak up the whole subject.  There's so much information out there about trans fats, saturated fats, unsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats...good Lord, it makes my brain numb!

Fats are used by our body for an interesting list of functions like energy, heart health, hormone production and cellular structure.  The function that really grabbed hold of me was fat's role in the formation of our cell walls.  I'm sure this being exciting to me has something to do with my nerdy college degree...I knew that thing would come in handy sometime...see Dad :)   Here's a very basic run down of what I am talking about...

Our bodies are made of all different types of cells.  But, the basic structure of these cells is essentially the same.  Each cell has an outer coating or plasma membrane, basically, it's walls.  This membrane's job is to allow (or not allow) stuff like water, nutrients and wastes to move in and out of the cell.  Think of the cell like a fort...good stuff can come in, waste can go out and bad stuff is kept out.  When I say "bad stuff", I mean disease causing agents like chemicals and pollution that intrude our body through our food, the air we breathe and by penetrating our skin.  Now, here's the kicker...if you build a fort wall out of cardboard, it's going to be really hard for the soldiers to keep the bad stuff out.  If you build it with stones and mortar, the walls work like they should.  The main ingredient, so to say, in the making of the plasma membrane is fat.  Whatever fat we give our body, it's going to use to make these walls.  Good fat = strong walls, bad fat = weak walls.  Basic here again, so I don't bore you to death with biology talk--weak walls let diseases happen. 

What's the solution?  Cut out the bad fats and start consuming good fats.  Majorly limit eating out, especially fast food.  Good oils cost more, so the odds you will get served a good oil in most restaurants in pretty much zip, zero.  Steer clear of anything that says hydrogenated.  For those that have been reading the Pantry Raids, that's another one of those scientifically manipulated foods conjured up to produce a longer shelf life.  Don't buy margarine or "spreads" unless you research them to death (or ask me...I'm obsessed, and I've probably already done that :) ).  These are pretty much man-made oils...that means bad, bad, bad.  There are a few organic spreads out there that are ok, but they still use refined oils and additives to hold them together.  Make your food yourself.  Packaged foods are loaded with bad fats.  Be careful when buying canola oil.  Canola is one of the big three GMO crops.  It has become almost impossible for organic farmers to grow canola without becoming contaminated by cross pollination of GMO crops.  Choose organic, not natural canola oil.  

When I say eat good fats, I don't mean start drinking a bottle of olive oil a day.  All good things can become bad things when we over-consume them and, not to mention, that would also become a REALLY expensive habit.  These oils are more expensive, which makes you want to use less of them, and that's a good thing.  Buy organic to limit exposure to chemicals that can invade your cells.  Use the least refined you can get your hands on.  The less refined it is, the less processed and the closer to God's intended form for our consumption.  Look for cold-pressed oils.  These are oils that are extracted without heat.  The less they are heated, the less nutrients and flavor are destroyed and the better they are for you.

Here's the fats we keep in our pantry:

Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil- my go-to for sauteing, roasting, baking, mayonnaise, dressings, finishing (I buy it by the gallon.  A gallon lasts us a few months)

Organic Palm Shortening-has a high heat tolerance, good for frying (yes, we do fry a few times a month), I also use it in soap making

Organic Unrefined Coconut Oil- tastes like coconut, fun to use in baking, makes yummy popcorn, also a good soap oil

Organic Butter- the old stand-by for flavoring and baking; yes, it's ok to eat butter (just not the whole stick)

Organic Unrefined Palm Oil- loaded with lycopene, good as a finish oil, can saute with it, use it in a vinaigrette

A quick side note:  Coconut oil and palm oil both contain saturated fat.  That's one of those words we usually go screaming and running the other way from, but if you consume these oils in their natural state, the body treats them differently than man-made hydrogenated oils (which are the ones you should scream and run the other way from).

I could go on and on forever on this subject.  There will be many more posts to come that will dig deeper, I promise.  In the mean time, I want to hear your questions.  I KNOW you have them, because there is no way I could have covered everything you want to know.  Use the comment section below.  If I don't have an answer, my favorite thing to do is research and get one...the right one :), so ask away!