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!