I want to first start by clarifying that this not an article meant to judge or make anyone feel bad. This is an important issue to me and I wanted to share my perspective.
As a kid I grew up on a farm and was surrounded by fresh produce. Huge varieties of fruits and vegetables. We had meat that we raised and butchered, and fish that my grandfather caught every weekend. We ate everything fresh in season and for the off season our freezers were full of produce and meat. Honestly I took for granted living in this environment. As an adult I did not think about my food sources, I assumed that it was produced in the same manor that my family had done it. I feel very naive admitting to this. It was not until college when I started doing researching and realized that mass produced food is really nothing like the food small farmers produce.
In factory farms the animals are often raised in such tight quarters that they can not even move. They live their life in filth and are given antibiotics to combat the diseases! When we consume those animals we take in those toxins.
I learned that many of our fruits vegetables are genetically modified to resist insects. Mansantos the top producing company of the preside “round up” engineers seeds that have the pesticide right in the genetic code of the food! The seeds produced by the fruit and vegetables don’t even produce viable seeds for planting the next season!
I took a course in nutrition this semester and further educated myself on the science behind food. I learned the negative effects of certain types of engineered fats, known as trans fats. In our bodies these fats causes inflammation, increased “bad cholesterol” and decreased “good cholesterol” and contributes to heart disease and cancer. That Soy oil the top used “cheap” oil in restaurants and processed foods leads to obesity, infertility, and inflammation in the body.
I am a mother and wife and I am the shopper and cook in our house. I take this responsibility very seriously and I am always educating myself and attempting to implement good nutrition.
I am not perfect! Yes we eat sugar. On occasion (rarely) I may fry foods in my awesome deep fryer. My motto is everything in moderation. To be honest I am overweight and working towards a healthy weight, while making sure my daughter never faces that issue in her life. I want my family to live a long healthy life and feel that food is an important aspect of that goal.
The number one thing that I do in my home is to cook at home and to eat as little processed food as possible! Here is why!
I have a bachelors degree in Political Science and the number one thing that we were taught was to question the motivations of each person/company/organization ! What is the goal of that person/organization/business to do what they are doing and does their underlying motivation fit with yours.
A restaurant’s goal is to make money. It is not a crime or a bad thing, its just the truth. We all know that when we buy food from a restaurant it is a business transaction, not a personal one.
My goal when feeding my family is health. I do care about the cost because I have a budget but my most important goal is providing food that will improve the health of my family and provide us with the energy, nutrition, and taste that we desire and need.
For our family we have decided that we will eat the majority of our meals made at our home with ingredients that we trust.
Organic non-GMO fruits and vegetables, Healthy oils, humane free range meats and eggs. Milk, cheese, and yogurt made from cow’s milk not treated with steroids. We eat out at restaurants very rarely, usually for special occasions so less then once a month. My nutrition class reinforced the idea that food is really the building blocks of our whole bodies and honestly I do not trust restaurants or factories to care as much as I do when it comes to the health of myself and my family. Their goal is profit, and using lowering the quality food is often a tool for increasing that profit. Using GMOs, preservatives, cheap oils, high levels of salt, and unhealthy flavor enhancements increases the taste of the food but at a cost to the consumers health. There are hundreds of example were GMO’s, too much salt, poor oils, and preservatives are used so I can not list them all but here are a few.
Subway is often hailed as the healthier option- One look at the ingredients for their egg for their breakfast sandwich tells us a different story. Their “eggs” are really a strange concoction that includes eggs and “premium egg blend.” Some things that are in this special blend include glycerin, a solvent found in soap and shaving cream, dimethylpolysiloxane, a silicone that can also be found in Silly Putty, and calcium silicate, a sealant used on roofs and concrete.
Resturant Salads-Unsurprisingly, most fast food restaurants don’t list the exact ingredients in their lettuce — you wouldn’t think they’d need to — but many places dust their salads with propylene glycol to keep the leaves crisp. While considered safe for consumption, propylene glycol can be found in antifreeze and sexual lubricants.
Gerber Babyfood-In the United States, all of the mainstream baby formulas that are not organic are made with GMOs. Families that are unable to afford organic baby formula have no choice but to feed their babies GMOs. Forcing toxic Roundup laced GMOs on infants is unacceptable.
Here are a list of common ingredients in processed and restaurant foods.
INGREDIENT
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WHY IT’S USED
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WHY IT’S BAD
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Artificial Colors |
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Artificial Flavorings |
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Artificial Sweeteners (Acesulfame-K, As-partame, Equal®, NutraSweet®, Sac-charin, Sweet’n Low®, Sucralose, Splenda® & Sorbitol) |
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Benzoate Preservatives (BHT, BHA, TBHQ) |
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Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO) |
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High Fructose Corn
(HFCS) |
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MSG
(Monosodium Glutamate) |
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Olestra |
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Shortening, Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated Oils (Palm, Soybean and others) |
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Sodium Nitrite and Nitrate |
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