Health food doesn't need a definition, does it? We all know
what health food is it's yogurt and granola, whole-grain cereal and organically
grown vegetables and fruit. It's 100% natural, no preservatives or dyes,
unadulterated, pure.
When you put all that together, you should have Health
Meals, yet all too often, what's marketed as health food these days
barely classifies as food, let alone health food.
Take a look at one of our favorite health food choices -
yogurt. It hit supermarket shelves in the early seventies, though it had been
available before that in health food stores and restaurants. Real yogurt has
two ingredients: milk (whole, skim or low fat) and live yogurt cultures. That's
health food - calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, protein.
Next time you're at the supermarket, take a look at the dairy
case. You'll find row after row of hyper-sweetened brightly colored rainbow
swirled and candy-sprinkled yogurt packaged in ways that appeal to our littlest
consumers - children. Millions of parents buy the enticing packages, secure
that because it's yogurt, they're buying food that's healthy for their
children.
One look at the label, though, and it's clear that these
kiddy yogurts (as well as most of the yogurt that's marketed to adults) are a
far cry from heath food. Some of the most popular yogurts for children contain
anywhere from 3 to 10 added teaspoons of sugar.
Considering how many teaspoons of yogurt are in a single
serving, you might as well hand your child the sugar bowl. In addition, most
yogurts include "natural" ingredients that have little to do with health meal Gallery food. Ingredients like pectin (to thicken
yogurt), carrageenan (a seafood extract that gives some yogurts their body, and
annatto (for color) add little nutritionally to yogurt.
They're in the mix to serve one main purpose: to help yogurt
survive its trip from the factory to your table.
You'll find the same situation with other foods that
originally made their debut as health foods in the seventies.
Granola has become granola bars with chocolate chips and
gooey caramel. Whole wheat flour is bleached and denuded of its flavorful
kernels. Sunflower seeds are roasted in oil and salted. Even brown rice comes
in the instant variety.
Healthy food not health food
The secret to feeding your family (and yourself) a healthful
diet of healthy food is to read the labels. The United States Flex
Foods & Drug Administration has laid out strict guidelines for
nutritional labelling of all food products.
The nutrition label will tell you all you need to know to
choose real Health Food. Some things to keep in
mind when reading nutrition labels for health foods:
* In the ingredient's portion of the nutrition label,
ingredients are listed in order by amount. The ingredient that's listed first
is the main ingredient, followed by the next largest amount, etc.
* The nutrition facts label must list each of the required
nutrients even if the food provides 0% of the recommended daily value.
* The nutrition facts label must list what portion of the
food's calories is derived from fat, from sugar, from protein and from
carbohydrates. It will also break down the fat into saturated and unsaturated
fat.
Reading labels on everything you feed your family is the
best way to tell whether a food is really a health food - or just masquerading
as one.
Contact us:
Flex Food
Add: Orlando, Florida 32819
Email: Info@MyFlexFood.com
Phone: 407-906-FLEX
Website: http://www.myflexfood.com/
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