Rule #4- High fructose corn syrup

I waited to write this next posting until my Valentine’s day chocolate sugar coma had worn off. I didn’t go too berserk, but I definitely ate chocolate like I wasn’t going to be eating too much of it again for a while...because the time I have been dreading has come-it’s the beginning of sugar control, once and for all.

Rule #4

“Avoid products that contain high-fructose corn syrup”

“Not because high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is any worse for you than sugar, but because it is a reliable marker for food that has been highly processed. Also, HFCS is being added to hundreds of foods that have not traditionally been sweetened- breads, condiments and many snack foods- so if you avoid foods that contain it, you will cut down on your sugar intake.”

This is downright scary!

I don’t know about you, but along with dissecting frogs, I learned in 10th grade biology that excess sugar in our bodies turns to fat, and I spend way too many dessert-eating-moments in denial of this. I have a hard enough time avoiding obvious sweets. Now on top of this, so many foods that are out there are full of sugar, that aren’t supposed to be? How sneaky and wrong is THAT? There is already some awareness about this, out there, and some products are advertising that they don’t have HFCS or promote that they use real cane sugar, etc..., but MP points out not to fall for this either, because bottom line is that “sugar is sugar.”

High-fructose corn syrup is basically cheap sugar. The food industry uses it to replace sugar to keep their costs low and it is supposedly a flavor enhancer. When Lee and I were getting into this in January, and reading labels, the HFCS was the first thing we started focussing on, because we knew “the time was coming.” It is crazy, really, because it involves so many brands that we are used to, like our BBQ sauce, chocolate syrup and ketchup (you know the ones), to name a few, and even worse is that some of these things list HFCS first or second on the list (we all know that ingredients are listed from largest amount first, to smallest amount last, right?). Chocolate syrup lists HFCS, and then corn syrup as the first two ingredients (cocoa is listed 6th on the label)!! Oh great!! That was one of my lower calorie “go to” things that I have around so I can have a little chocolate fix without having to go too crazy, by drizzling it over a little frozen yogurt or ice cream. I’ll find a better alternative, I’m sure, but that one stings a bit, especially because it has been in my life since I was a little kid. At least I can feel somewhat relieved that many of the major offenders aren’t really a staple in my diet anymore, for a while now... like SODA, flavored yogurts, most snack-y foods and fast food, etc... but having HFCS sneaking around and showing up in foods that you would never suspect, as well , like English muffins, crackers, cranberry juice and supposed healthy cereals AND cough syrup....COUGH SYRUP??- what’s up with that??

Seriously, this HFCS epidemic, really has my attention, because sneaking more sugar into foods makes my sugar intake really difficult to control and balance, and my sweet tooth is bad enough without the additional sugar. I have several loved ones and friends who are diabetic or pre-diabetic, and I am sure if I, myself, don’t curb this now, I may be headed in the same direction. This is not ok. Needless to say, Lee and I are DEFinitely cutting out, or at the very least weaning off, the products that have HFCS in them. Other than staying away from really obvious “crapola”, for now, our approach, that I think is pretty doable, is to pay for slightly more expensive alternatives (that don’t have HFCS) for the things that we happen to use that are not everyday items, and to limit how often we use them ...we’ll have to see how expensive this is AND if we can live with less. As tough as it is going to be, that seems to be the best plan for right now...I will keep you posted! We’ve found some good and not overly expensive alternatives to ketchup and BBQ sauce (yes, at Trader Joe’s, but I am sure there are others out there). Other culprits (like the chocolate syrup), are still “works in progress.” I have to wean off of more than just HFCS and having this blog is helping me to have a conscious about it (nothing like a guilty conscious to keep ya honest) and rule #5 addresses sugar as well, and it really narrows the window for eating it in ANY form. I will get more into THAT struggle, then. It's not going to be pretty.

In the meantime, I want to confess about 3 HFCS “foods” that were a part of my life, until very recently, and how I have swapped them out for better:

1. Fake maple syrup! I am embarrassed to say this, but for some bizarre reason, as a kid, I preferred the fake maple syrup over the real stuff, because I never thought real maple syrup was maple-y enough, and the maple flavor was stronger in the fake stuff. Lee introduced me to more flavorful real maple syrup (Grade B), but I still kept the fake stuff on hand, and especially the “lite” kind, due to calories, ever since Weight Watchers (WW), and I use it once in a while when I want to regress. You ready for this?... the word “MAPLE” does not even appear in the ingredient list...AND HFCS is the FIRST ingredient. I yelled at that sweet lady on the front with the big smile - how dare she? Then I yelled at myself and called myself a few “names” too. Looks like it’s the expensive, real stuff only, from now on, but just not as often, for diet and budget reasons (Lee and I love pancakes or waffles on the weekends, so it looks like that’s changing to every other weekend, or so...whether we like it or not!). NOTE: I have not thrown that bottle away, but instead, I have it sitting on the counter, to be a grim reminder to pay attention and to keep me motivated.

2. I also had a very bad fat-free half-and-half problem up until a few weeks before I started blogging. I would drink it in my iced coffees (2-3 per day), every day that it is warm enough in southern California (which is most of the year!). I quit that bad habit, and I had known for a few years already that it had HFCS in it and I STILL used it (I know, I know...what??). I now use real half-and-half, and I am working on drinking one iced coffee a day. That one isn’t too easy, but I am working on it. I also gave up artificial sweetener, and use real sugar or agave now, so it helps keep me drinking less, because I SEE how much sugar I am using. Still...not easy.

3. Fat-free or low-fat ice cream or frozen yogurt - HFCS to the brim!! There is now a 1/2 gallon of regular vanilla ice cream, no HFCS in the freezer, that I am terrified of. Ice cream is a MAJOR vice of mine, and I am challenging myself to eating the real deal, but waaaay less (what’s that word?...oh yeah, moderation. Ice cream + moderation= nnnooooooooooo!!!). Wish me luck with this one, and Lee too, because I have appointed him the "ice cream police." This isn’t too hard right now, with 50-65 degree weather, but once it starts hitting 100+ degrees in a few months, I may lose my mind and/or need to be restrained.

PS: If you haven’t already seen the documentary “King Corn”, I strongly recommend you see it. It is really entertaining and eye opening and will blow you away to see how corn is in almost EVERYthing, especially as HFCS (thanks, Kirk!).

Rule #3- "Can I borrow a cup of Xanthan Gum?"

Rule #3 “Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.”

This rule is MP’s 3rd way of “driving the point home”, for the most part, that we should stay away from food that has chemical additives and preservatives in it. MP goes on to say “if you wouldn’t cook with them at home, why let others use these ingredients to cook for you?” Of course these “others” are the food scientists that strive for “making old food look fresher and more appetizing than it really is, and getting us to eat more,” MP says (this is true and we know it!).

Wow. This makes “painfully true” sense of this foundational food rule!

I cook and bake, and for anyone else that does too, we all know what we cook and bake with, and cellulose and Xanthan gum and ammonium sulfate aren’t in any of my recipes...how about you?

Ya know, in just this short time of starting to adopt “Food Rules”, I am already feeling pretty grossed out by the food that has all this chemistry added in. I have been turned off by a lot of the really salty (sodium laden) and really fakey stuff for a long time anyway, so fine tuning this and eliminating even more shouldn’t be too hard for me, per se. It isn’t easy to avoid, when I am busy or stressed, and one of my biggest problems is that Lee and I are finding out that a lot of the products that we thought were better alternatives to some of the really horrendous stuff still have some ingredients that are suspect. However, I truly believe, from personal experience, that if you start by paying attention and really try to avoid the seriously mainstream packaged chips and cookies, or fast food, etc... in your daily life, and just set your mind to it, eventually you don’t crave it. Even better...when and IF you do go back to eating it , it doesn’t taste very good (too salty or fake-y, etc...). For example, when I joined Weight Watchers 7 years ago, I stopped eating ANY fast food and cut out a huge amount of junk food. I still don’t really eat fast food very often at all, and a small amount of junk food here and there, but no where near what I used to. When I do, it doesn’t taste that great, and I usually regret that I bothered.

To me, nothing really tastes as good as either “homemade” food, or food in a restaurant where you know they make everything from scratch.... “made-with-stuff-from-your-pantry-kinda-stuff!".

This rule was a good reminder of that for me. Thanks MP!

PS-

Rule #4 ALERT!!- I am purposely waiting until AFTER Valentine’s Day and the 3-day weekend, to blog about Rule #4, because it is BIG, and it involves my biggest enemy...sugar (high fructose corn syrup, to be more specific). I am going to enjoy a rational amount of V-day treats, and I hope everyone does the same...but once Monday rolls around, the gloves are coming off and the first “one” to go down is sugar. FYI, rule #5 continues on about sugar too...so here we goooo!

A real moment.

I will post the next rule later today, but for now, I have had this blog entry in mind for a few days, and I need to catch up first.

I didn’t expect to have almost a week-long absence, so soon, from posting. I had something “come up” that took priority, but ironically, that something was an unexpected surgery that a close friend had to undergo. The irony is that the surgery was a direct result of diet (a large gallstone) and what was supposed to be a simple laparoscopic procedure ended up being full surgery. Even though I didn’t have time to blog throughout her 3 days at the hospital and helping out since she came home on Sunday, it has kept me very focussed on thinking about food and diet and how it affects your health, and more importantly, how we have a hand in preventing certain things from happening to our health.

”Easier said than done”, right?

Needless to say, I felt even more convinced that I am moving in the right direction with adopting Food Rules and blogging about it.

In the meantime, I want to share with everyone about a “moment” I had the other day .

I wasn’t sure I was going to write about this, but then I realized that the whole point of this process is to be honest as I do this, whether it be a good or bad moment. This moment only lasted about 10 minutes.

On Saturday, I started feeling pressure, suddenly thinking that I wasn’t going fast enough with my food make-over, and I had the urge that I wanted to go against everything I have said about taking this process slowly. This happened when I was standing in line at the supermarket buying vegetables for a healthy veggie soup for my friend in the hospital, so I admit I was already extra sensitive about food at the time. A lady in front of me was buying 3 things- 2 giant bottles of regular soda (1 orange and 1 cola) and a gallon of organic milk...I’m not making this up. I have been feeling good about my steady progress thus far even though I have only just started to reform my food, and yet seeing that woman in front of me, set me off into a roller coaster of reactions. I was so struck by this visual and I didn’t want to judge her, but I couldn’t help it. This woman appeared to be leading a double life of someone trying to be food conscious, but still stuck in the rut of bad habits. The scariest part was that it made me realize, that I am in that same tough boat, minus the soda. I happen to already have given up soda, other than on a very rare occasion, for several years now, and I think it is pretty obvious that soda is really a major problem. However, I don’t want to seem like I am above this. That lady’s vice, at that moment, was soda, but I could identify with her (I could name many sugar filled things that I could have been buying that are just as bad) and it made me feel panicky and wanted to run home and get to the next 10 rules right away. I kept thinking “Oh no..I have to do more”... “I am not far enough into this”... “I have to get moving with my blog”... “I have to get to the rules that specifically address sugar...and EVERY other bad and good food habit we need to work on”... “I know I am doing this for me and Lee, but how can I reach more people and get them on board?”, etc... I was “freaking out” a little.

I know it’s good to see things like that, and have the reaction be motivation, but then I “went somewhere” very dim. Intimidation, and then pessimism crept in, especially because I was standing in the type of supermarket that I am used to shopping in, for years, along with millions of people, feeling outnumbered. I knew in the back of my mind, that ultimately I should be shopping there as little as possible, or at least eventually that is the goal. Here came the question...“How am I going to get there???” It felt so impossible and unreachable all of a sudden. I started to doubt that I am going to be able to really DO this and I started to feel really defeated about it, and I have only just begun this uphill battle! All I could feel at that moment was that people like me and Lee, who are trying to implement changes toward better food, are not the majority, and how long will it take before it changes so that we are, and how hard is that going to be? Am I kidding myself to think that Lee and I can change such ingrained food-shopping and eating habits that we have had for so long, especially when you consider the time commitment and the cost of avoiding crap food and putting more healthy and well raised food on your daily menu? I don’t know why I suddenly felt like this was so pointless, as if I was the only one with the burden of trying to do this, but I did.

Boy, that lady buying soda really “stirred it up”. I was bummed out until I got into my car, but fortunately that daunting feeling went away and I snapped out of it. I reminded myself it is for the better to treat this like a new relationship and take it slow and steady, to “get to know each other” so that the commitment lasts. And Lee and I already eat better and have more access to better food than so many others, so I really shouldn't complain. Still, for me and Lee, this is a huge thing we have taken on, and I knew going into this that it will be challenging or frustrating at times..ups and downs...good days and bad days.

Regardless, I have to stay optimistic that awareness about food is increasing, the food revolution is gaining momentum and I have an opportunity to be a part of it and figure it all out and keep going!

End of story.

Thanks for listening.

PS. I promise I wont always go “on and on” this much every time I blog and “stay tuned” for the upcoming more specific rules.

What would Grandma say?

Rule #2 - Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

I never had a great-grandma (not even a grandma -both were deceased before I was born), but I DID have a great-aunt who assumed that role. MP notes that “if your great grandmother was a terrible cook or eater, you can substitute someone else’s grandma...a Sicilian or French one works particularly well.” I wouldn’t call my great Auntie Anna a great cook, but she wasn’t a bad eater. I remember a lot of fruit and yogurt, and she was always making marmalade. I also remember there not being a whole lot of food in her Greenwich Village apartment, probably because she bought fresher things as she needed them. That’s a luxury to be able to do that nowadays...at least to me, it is. Regardless, the idea with this rule is to eat “old school” meals, with real food, and stay away from anything that would be foreign to Auntie Anna.

The phrase that MP uses for processed foods, which basically your great g’ma wouldn’t recognize, is “edible foodlike substances”, his example being yogurt in a tube, but as you can imagine, that term encompasses WAY too many things . Even though I cannot imagine anyone from my Auntie Anna’s generation even GOING to a modern day supermarket, I am picturing shopping with her and having to explain what all these edible foodlike substances are, which is stressful, especially considering she never had her hearing aide turned up high enough. She would be 116 if she were alive today. I feel embarrassed even imagining all the ‘splaining I would have to do, and I know she would give me a look as if to say “you are messing with me, right?” Maybe we should pretend that someone from two generations ago is with us, next time we shop at a mainstream market, and without even having to think too hard, it will help “keep a lot of bad stuff out of the cart,” as MP says.

It also has me seeing products that are already in my house, that my Auntie Anna is haunting me over. Yesterday, in her honor, I threw out a container of lite chocolate syrup, hot dogs (that were in the freezer leftover over from last summer’s BBQ) and the remaining lo-cal mini cakes and cookies that I had already grown tired of, but had felt the need to hang on to “just in case I want one.” Again, those were easier things to let go of, because when I really thought about it, I didn’t even think tasted all that great to begin with....so who was I kidding?

Rule #1- Eat Food

Rule #1

Eat Food.

How simple is that?! Well, rather than quote all of the text of this first and most fundamental rule, this rule is just the beginning of addressing eating real food and avoiding processed and packaged foods that are full of chemicals and additives. This rule comes across as “setting the stage” and then future rules elaborate on this, so I wont get too far into it other than to say that the first sentence of the paragraph that follows “Eat Food”, says “These days this is easier said than done, especially when 17,000 new products show up in the supermarket each year.”

So how do we begin? What’s the plan? This is how we started gearing up for our focus on real food: Lee and I have been wrapping our minds around doing this for a few weeks, and we have been reading labels like crazy. Every time I take something out of a cabinet or the fridge, I read the label. Several things, that are easier to let go of, have already hit the trash can. For example, the half eaten bag of baked BBQ chips that had about 25 ingredients, and there are several other things that need to go next, like the embarrassing reduced-fat, little, square, orange cheezy crackers that glared at me from the snack cabinet yesterday. Those were blatant offenders, without even getting into the detailed rules that follow, and those kind of things will be the first “to go.” I am aware that there are a lot of better, affordable alternatives to those, like real cheese and the almonds and dried fruit that we already eat a lot of , and we are not major “junk food junkies” anyway. In fact, we eat a lot less of that stuff and a lot more fruits and vegetables, than most, already. BUT, it is eye-opening to see how much food in our kitchen IS in the realm of “no good” and to realize which things are going to be harder to part with than others.

Again, as I mentioned in my first post, I also personally don’t think it is practical to clean out everything all at once and “crash course” it. I think it is smarter for us to get rid of things in waves. Some things we are going to get rid of completely, but there are a lot of things we will just work on substituting with a better version (i.e. organic, if a reasonably priced one exists ...eh hem, at TJs!!) or hopefully a better choice that still satisfies.... a little at a time. This way we can slowly get rid of bad habits while replacing them with good ones, so ideally these changes will last! FYI, sugar is going to be my most challenging thing to wean off. I have a major sweet tooth and my sugar intake is too high, and I need to reduce that to a minimum. I KNOW that will be one of the keys to losing weight , too!

As I mentioned above, the food rules get much more specific, very soon, and I will be too.

For now, Lee and I are identifying the foods in our house that are most likely on their way out, and starting to think of how we will replace them and/or let go of them completely (sigh.....).

Let's get REAL with Food!

4 weeks ago, Michael Pollan appeared on Jon Stewart, promoting his latest book, "Food Rules." Michael Pollan was already on my "radar", as Lee and I had recently watched "The Botany of Desire" on PBS right before Christmas. I also knew who he was, from being aware of his other books. Then, we finally watched "Food, Inc" that same week, and and it became crystal clear to me what I needed to do. I went and bought “Food Rules”, and decided to start this blog.

It is time to jump on this food revolution “band wagon”, once and for all. I did a lot of thinking, and the fact that I have actually HAD a food conscience for years, made me think about "why haven't I done this sooner?" I have several friends and family members who make serious efforts to eat real foods as opposed to processed ones. Even so, I am one of the many, many people in this country who has had a habit of eating mindlessly and doesn't pay close enough attention to what is IN the food I eat, or how it is made or where it comes from, etc...

Why?

Well, this is the key to what I plan to do with this blog:

In a perfect world, Lee and I would just let go of any bad food habits we have, clean out our fridge and cabinets, and then ONLY shop at whole food markets and farmers markets, or raise all of our own food. We’d stop eating any packaged "edible foodlike substances", as MP calls them, and cook at home most of the time and make real food choices everyday. Well right there is part of my answer to “why.”

If I could AFFORD to shop at all these preferred places, and if I always had the TIME to prepare food, with NO daily living distractions from making healthy choices (like that silly work thing that many of us have to do), I would definitely already be eating better than I do. We already have an extensive garden, and I DO cook at home a lot, and a larger portion of our meals are already in the direction of MP’s books (and I know there are a lot of great foods that are affordable at TJ's). However, like many other people, I am sure, I have habits and attachments and addictions to foods that are very hard to let go, especially ones that involve eating in restaurants. I am very aware that most of it has to do with sugar and flour and salt, but knowing you have to cut certain products and foods out of your diet and actually DOING it are two different things.

There has got to be a way to do this, and not be so overwhelmed by it, as I am, and I am willing to bet, many others are too. Well, here I am. I am going to address my everyday diet , using MP’s “Food Rules” as my guideline, and one step at a time, start eliminating “edible foodlike substances” (processed foods with “mystery” ingredients) and approach his main concept of “eating real food, and not too much, and mostly plants” in a REALISTIC and PRACTICAL way. My idea is to do it in phases and layers, one step at a time, and hopefully achieve major changes in what I eat, and make these changes stick, forever!

So you may be asking, “Why Blog about it?” Well, as a former Weight Watcher, who lost 100 lbs, 6 years ago (yep, but I have gained 60 of it back...another reason that I am “here”), I can tell you that one of the best things that helped me, and is part of the philosophy of being successful, is to be accountable and open about what you are doing. It helped me, incredibly, to be open and accountable, and I have the experience with knowing that it truly works. I have changed a lot of eating habits already, but there is still a long way to go, in the direction of eating well.

Also, why not help myself, but maybe also try to help spread the awareness of this very necessary change to anyone and everyone who wants to participate, whether it be just to read and “listen”, or to be inspired to be an active part of the “conversation” and/or to “come along” with me? I am not an expert in any related field. I am just a regular gal, just doing this.

I am sure there are many people already eating within MP’s guidelines, and have no problem, financially or time-wise, in eating this way, and they have no problem avoiding manufactured and processed food. I am not one of them. If you are, then great! I look forward to your advice, support and input! If you are not, then feel free to join me in this scary and exciting journey towards better health and figuring out how to clean up my eating act (and who knows, maybe inspire others to clean up their eating act along the way)!