What’s In This Stuff? Deciphering Food Labels…
Okay, so your trainer tells you to read food labels, and you think you have it down pretty good. You count fat and sugar grams, consider calories from fat, check your sodium content…all of that. Good job, but what about all of the other stuff that we suggest staying away from? For example, enriched grains, hydrogenated oils, and high fructose corn syrup.
What I am going to do throughout the next few months is tackle some of the ingredients in your favorite foods. Some of the ones that are really starting to confuse some folks…like the difference between semolina and durum wheat (hint…they are the same thing in different forms), or soy protein isolate and milk protein isolate. Stay with me; some are good, some are bad, but at least you will have a better idea of what you are putting into your body. Today we will start with a few basics that you will want to AVOID…
Enriched grains – Picture a wheat field in Nebraska. Miles and miles of rolling farmland as far as the eye can see. As the wind blows through the farmlands, the planted wheat sways back and forth. Wilford Brimley oatmeal commercial comes to mind. Whole grain goodness, that’s what you have in this scene. If you were to look up close at that whole grain goodness, you would find little grains packed with fiber, vitamins and minerals. At the very center of that grain is a carbohydrate, or sugar. When you see “enriched” on a nutrition label, that means this is a really healthy grain stripped of all the good stuff…and you are left with the sugar at the center. This is what you are eating if you eat white bread, white pasta, white rice, etc. You really might as well eat an Everlasting Gobstopper, because it has the same effect in your body. It spikes your blood sugar, and inhibits your body’s ability to burn fat. Why do they do it? That’s an easy answer…$$$$. Producing food items with enriched grains is much cheaper than using whole grains. Who cares about our health, it’s all about the money…right?
Hydrogenated Oils – A hydrogenated oil is a nice, healthy oil that has been butchered. During the hydrogenation process, essential fatty acids (for your body) are altered by “shoving” hydrogen molecules into the oil, turning them into the popular term “trans” fats. Why do they do this? Well, hydrogenated oils keep much longer on a grocery shelf (again with the cost cutting measures). Trans fats are associated with some unpleasant stuff; increased bad cholesterol, decreased good cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity just to name a few. It’s probably hard to avoid entirely, as it is still in countless ready-made baked goods and fast food (though many chains are coming around), but as you have been taught by Dr. Oz on Oprah, if it’s in the first 5 ingredients on a label….stay away!
High Fructose Corn Syrup – “But I thought corn was good for you?” Perhaps, but not high fructose corn syrup. As with the enriched grains, high fructose corn syrup is cheap to use because it’s sweeter than regular sugar, and much less has to be used to sweeten some of your favorite foods accordingly. That’s saying something, considering the fact that it’s one of the first few ingredients on some of your favorite sodas. It is much cheaper to produce than regular sugar from sugar cane. What is it? Really, its just sugar derived from corn. The problem with it is that it is converted to fat more readily than regular sugar, and thus has been linked to major weight gain. Some research also suggests that it hinders nutrient absorption, and contributes to bone loss. So all you soda drinkers out there beware!
These are just a few of the ingredients that have been wreaking havoc on metabolisms for decades now. Again, hard to stay away completely, but a conscious effort to read labels and avoid these will go a long way, especially if you are a habitual user of these products.
Stay tuned for more weekly tips and info from your source for fitness and weight loss, BodyBack! Boot Camps.
Here’s to feeling great all of the time by ridding yourself of all the junk…
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Yours in Health,
Jason Goggans
