motd Tues Feb 28, 2012

[Guest guest]

SUGAR, EGG

WHITES, POLYDEXTROSE...

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

....water, enriched wheat flour, high

fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated

vegetable and/or animal shortening (soybean,

cottonseed and/or canola oil, beef fat), dextrose,

glycerin, corn syrup...

It's the list of

ingredients from a package of snack cakes sold by one

of this country's most well-known snack food

manufacturers.

Oh, hungry yet? No, you're not getting a chemistry

lesson from me today. You just caught me reading.

And do you know what I was

reading? Well, it's the list of ingredients from a

package of snack cakes sold by one of this country's

most well-known snack food manufacturers. And I'm not

even going to bother telling you who it is. Why?

Because, truth is, read the labels of just about anyprocessed

food in this country and you'll see a very similar

list of ingredients. Oh, don't they sound tasty?

Okay, how many times have I talked to you about the

importance of reading those nutrition labels of the

foods you buy? And hey, from the list of ingredients

on this one item I've chosen today, are you beginning

to see why I say it's so

important?

Now keep in mind, when listing what their products are

made of, the USDA requires manufacturers to list their

food's ingredients in descending order. That means,

the items you see listed first make up the greatest

percentage of what's in that food. In the case of

these snack cakes, the dominant ingredient is...sugar!

(Oh, there ya' go!)

But wait, go back and look again. In addition to

sugar and high fructose corn syrup, you'll see that

plain-old corn syrup is listed...again! I

might as well tell you, (without naming a name), the

snack product I've chosen to spotlight today ends up

in children's lunch boxes all over America...everyday! And I wonder

how many parents eat this same snack right along with

their kids. Hey, no wonder we Americans

have such serious weight and health issues.

How many of you have

followed my advice and begun reading nutrition labels?

How many of you have followed my advice and begun

reading nutrition labels? Well, for those of you who

haven't, today I took the liberty of doing it for

you. And the good advice I've given you all of these

years is still true. If you can't even pronounce the

name of a particular ingredient, then it probably

doesn't belong in your body in the first place. And

oh, we haven't even talked about the calories andfat

grams some

of these products contain.

Well, if you read those labels, you'll never

have to guess about what you're putting into your

kid's bodies...or yours! Now, get with

it and start

reading those labels! Okay, I wasn't finished reading this snack

food's ingredients. So, if you'll excuse me...

Modified corn starch, cellulose gum, mono and

diglycerides, agat, maltodextrin, acesulfame

potassium, titanium dioxide, sorbic acid...

Love,