By Brenda Brissette Mata
Ritz crackers, my favorite go-to late night snack (have you ever eaten these with a glass of milk – heaven!) is no longer on my grocery list because one cracker contains two grams of refined carbohydrates, almost a whole gram of fat and – wouldn’t you know it – high fructose corn syrup.
Apparently high fructose corn syrup is about as healthy for you these days as a dose of strychnine.
Grocery shopping isn’t easy anymore. I have to read labels and think about the latest science reports. As a result, the stuff I’ve loved for a long time is slowly but surely disappearing from my grocery list.
No more Cheez-Its. Oh man, I love those square fluorescent orange bits of yum. But I quit buying Cheez-Its because they are made with TBHQ and I read that the Centers for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) conducted a study and found that TBHQ increased the incidence of tumors in rats. That’s enough to scare me off for good.
Pringles no longer grace my pantry because they are made with a slurry of rice, wheat, corn, and potato flakes that are pressed into shape. I can’t even look at one without thinking about slurry.
I love Gardetto’s Garlic Rye chips but the American Heart Association has determined a single serving has more trans-fat than the daily amount that is considered safe to consume. And honestly, I’ve never eaten a single serving in one sitting.
When I shop for cheese, I go crazy trying to make sure I read the ingredients on the package. If it says anything other than “cheese,” I don’t get it. Instead, I buy big chunks of cheese and grate everything myself because I read that many of the pre-grated cheeses contain potato starch, powdered cellulose, and natamycin. I have no idea what natamycin is and my spellcheck doesn’t even think it’s a word, so it can’t be good.
Ground turkey has replaced hamburger and I try to come up with at least three vegetarian meals a week – only one can be pasta.
I’ve increased the fruit I eat but, of course, it has to be washed and scrubbed like a bathroom floor at a Denny’s just to be rid of the pesticides.
I used to buy frozen “healthy” lunches until I read the sodium levels. I went back to making sandwiches for lunch, but only with whole grain bread and never using packaged lunch meats.
I gave up all sodas a long time ago and coffee and tea are only rarely imbibed. I measure my water daily to be sure to get at least 64 ounces a day – anything else is bonus. My water container is crafted stainless steel, no BPAs for this gal.
It’s all so darned exhausting.
I don’t drink a lot, but I do drink red wine because I heard it was good for me. But then I heard it wasn’t, and then I heard it was.
Screw ‘em all. If I have to work this hard to be healthy, you can bet I’m not giving up wine.
Brenda’s column appears here every Monday, unless she doesn’t feel like writing.
I even started baking my own bread, English muffins and cookies,etc. When I look at the ingredients on the box mix it scares me. At least I know what goes into my baked goods.
Wow – that’s amazing!
Too funny!! I laugh out loud when I read your columns!
But your column brought up a lot of questions in my mind, such as: Is it true that rats have to eat 100 units of it every day for life in order to possibly increase the incidence for tumors? Can we buy TBHQ itself in jars? Do they add a “pinch” or a “hand-measured 1/4 cup” to each batch of whatever they are making?
We know from the graphic charts on the walls in the doctor’s office, that cholesterol looks like yellow glumps of fat in our arteries. Is that what it looks like when it is put into the food at the canning factory?
Gee, grocery shopping used to be fun!
Oh my stars, I don’t want to know. And I agree – grocery shopping used to be fun. And easier, and take less time.
I don’t pay much attention to the “health warnings”, but do wonder how they affect mine, don’t worry much about unhealthy eating (but have been cutting down on fast and junk food, soda, etc.), just count my calories and watch my cholesterol.
The CSPI published a good book 30 years ago, “The Fast Food Guide”, which was revised and updated five years later, I had a copy and found some really interesting information, specifically which places and menu items to avoid, the history of fast food and how to have a healthy meal at any fast food joint. The one thing that got to me was their saying to avoid fast food in the beginning of the book…then later say it’s OK every once in a while. So I’m wondering, it is OK or not?
Seems many folks heavily criticize McDonald’s every time they read an online article (especially on Facebook), seem to want to spoil things for fast food aficionados (like myself)…not that I take it seriously.
Another fine article, one for everyone to check out!
Thanks! I am not much for fast food – but I appreciate that McDonald at least publishes calories. They need to publish sodium too – that’s a kicker. But one step at a time.
I know what you mean! I started rolling my own cigarettes because I can buy pure organic tobacco, rather than having to smoke that commercial stuff with pesticides and such in it. And, I switched to locally-distilled pure gin, with real squeezed lime juice and natural spring-water ice cubes. No more sodium-enhanced tonic for me anymore. Just straight healthy natural gin.
No joke on the tobacco, I think that’s why today’s cigarettes stink so much. My grandpa used to roll his own and they never smelled bad (at least not in my memory). As for your straight gin – good job, just make srue the limes are organic. 🙂
You might be on to something! My grandpa used to roll his own cigarettes and I swear they never smelled as stinky as today’s popular brands do. Good gin idea too (but make sure the limes are organic). 🙂
No, Brenda, dear. That was supposed to be a joke about the tobacco.
You may have meant it so, but honestly I have always thought that the old tobacco smelled better.
Brenda, I have some fond memories of tobacco smoke. It wasn’t just the blend of tobacco but how it combined with the old wooden pipe they were using. That and how the smell combined with the old tombs in their library or workshop.
Thank you for bringing back that memory, I can still see the glint in their eyes when they realized I was just as eager to open a book as I was to get my hands dirty.
Hey, Andrew and Brenda and Cartoon Guy, You have not put my past two posts up in your Comments section. Would you rather I stopped looking at your column? Please let me know.
Tom
“most sweeteners and the naturally occurring sugars in fruit break down into roughly half fructose and half glucose in the body.” -CSPI. https://cspinet.org/eating-healthy/ingredients-concern
On the other hand, high fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose. That makes it “high”? Is a 5% increase significant? I doubt it. Fructose fear is way overblown.
I have always eaten junk food, I’ll be 75 in a couple of weeks. How bad can it be?
I’m age 56 and my diet has always been to eat whatever I wanted to or if I’m really hungry whatever is available. That sounds like a bad recipe but with my metabolism and level of physical activity along with the fact I’m a picky eater it makes sense. Most of what I like is healthy and balanced since I like a variety, I love pizza but I don’t eat it often.
I occasionally try to eat a more healthy diet but I need to add calories. I’ve had an aversion to pasta since I ate a bad macaroni salad in the ’60s.
In my few years on this planet, I will admit to being over 60, I have learned one thing “No matter what you eat it will eventually be bad for you.
Why?
Because no matter what you eat, you will eventually die from eating it.
Be it way too unhealthy or if it is all organic or homemade or whatever else it can be made from.
I tell people to enjoy food.
Just do not go too crazy of the not so good stuff.
High Fructose corn syrup is a byproduct of ethanol production. There was no such chemical in food until corn ethanol came into production.
Remember this one item: Under federal food production guidelines a food item is considered 100% pure if it contains at least 70% of that food item.
Or, in other words you can have a 10 pound block of hamburger, remove 3 pounds of it and replace it with 3 pounds of raw sewage and it would still be 100% pure beef.
I learned this when I used to work in the fast food industry.
Enjoy whatever food you eat.