Same old rant about the food industry

kirsten777

kirsten777

Cathlete
I was just at the store and passed by the mayo and Kraft has come out with a new low or no fat mayo - I forget what the first ingredient was, but the next two were sugar, and high fructose corn syrup, then of course a bunch of chemicals. Think I'll keep eating my organic full fat variety, at least I know what I'm putting in my body and I only eat about a teaspoon of it at a time, the odd time I have a sandwich - maybe once a month, somehow I think I'll be okay :rolleyes:
 
Yes, I agree, I'm sick of it too. It's definitely all about the money, and nothing about the consumer's health, bating people on with the low-fat slogan. Personally, I could care less how much fat is in something - (well, that's not totally true) - especially when the low-fat version ALWAYS has added sugars to make up for the taste. That and when it says No Sugar Added, when they use sucralose instead (yuck!).
 
I was just going to post something similar. I went to the outskirts of Phoenix today for work and wanted to get a simple unsweetened ice tea. I went to Walgreens and they 18 different kinds of tea and EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was sweetened, most of them with HFCS. WTH?????

I actually asked one of the guys who worked there if they didn't have anything unsweetened, he looked at me like I had lost my mind.

Good grief! Do they produce anything without HFCS and other chemical nasties these days?
 
I'm cheap

hiitdogs said:
I was just going to post something similar. I went to the outskirts of Phoenix today for work and wanted to get a simple unsweetened ice tea. I went to Walgreens and they 18 different kinds of tea and EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was sweetened, most of them with HFCS. WTH?????

I actually asked one of the guys who worked there if they didn't have anything unsweetened, he looked at me like I had lost my mind.

Good grief! Do they produce anything without HFCS and other chemical nasties these days?
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I buy tea bags and brew my own. Its way cheaper and no sweetener. :):D
 
It's a shame so many people seem to be easily swayed by a few buzz words, like "low fat," "fat free," "natural," all focusing on one small aspect of food (or "edible non-food items") without taking the time to look at the ingredients and judge whether the entire thing is really that healthful. As long as people buy this crap, we'll keep seeing more and more of it.
 
hiitdogs said:
Good grief! Do they produce anything without HFCS and other chemical nasties these days?
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Very rarely, IMO. Which is why it's best to just steer clear of processed foods.

I looked at the green teas in my local grocery store, and as you said, every single one had HFCS in (and most were promoted as healthy becasue they were green tea!).
 
Oh, may I add one more issue that has nothing to do with ingredients, but rather PORTION SIZES!!!! This time of year sweet potatoes are hard to come by where I live. My local grocer only carries sweets that are cleaned, individually "packaged" and prepped for microwave. Since I eat them per my trainer, I picked up a few. Looking at the label, a serving size is 4 oz, and it says servings per "container" is 1 1/2 - fine - 6 oz. And indeed on the plastic covering it says net wt is 6 oz. Weighed it on my food scale - 16 ounces. I get 4 servings out of this one potato! Imagine the poor sap who is trying to eat healthy and relying on that info for proper calorie content - only to be zapping his calorie and carb numbers. YIKES!
 
Another disturbing thing....apparently the three ingredient mayo is a thing of the past (sorry to keep harping on mayo). I was at the health food store today to pick up more organic mayo and thought I would look at the label so I could smugly think to myself, see, no need for crap. Well, there is no crap, but mayo is only 3 ingredients - this stuff (all of the organic mayos) had honey in it. What is honey doing in mayo?! I looked at Hellman's Best, instead of honey, sugar! I remember when it was eggs, vinegar, and spices (there may have been another ingredient but I can't remember) anyway, I decided that I am going to make my own damn mayo!!!!!!! "Screw 'em!" :D If I had enough money to get there, I would go completely off the grid!
 
kirsten777 said:
Another disturbing thing....apparently the three ingredient mayo is a thing of the past (sorry to keep harping on mayo). I was at the health food store today to pick up more organic mayo and thought I would look at the label so I could smugly think to myself, see, no need for crap. Well, there is no crap, but mayo is only 3 ingredients - this stuff (all of the organic mayos) had honey in it. What is honey doing in mayo?! I looked at Hellman's Best, instead of honey, sugar! I remember when it was eggs, vinegar, and spices (there may have been another ingredient but I can't remember) anyway, I decided that I am going to make my own damn mayo!!!!!!! "Screw 'em!" :D If I had enough money to get there, I would go completely off the grid!
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Preach it! :D

Mayo is not hard to make but for the amount of times I use it per month, it would spoil on a regular basis. But if you have a Trader Joe's, its organic mayo has no sugar. It's not too bad in general. I'm not wild about the soybean oil but...

On a related note, I took my niece to her karate class yesterday and was surprised to see them selling junk food at the dojo! Behind the counter they had Cheez-its, potato chips, those gummy "fruit" snacks and an array of junkie juices. It's a fantastic dojo with a great reputation, so I was disappointed to see that. :(
 
Speaking of mayo you can add ketchup to that list. There is a sweetener in all of the ones I can find even in the health food store. Is this a new trend? Did they up the amount of sugar in these products? I had been thinking that it tasted sweet and sure enough it does for a reason. As I said that included the ones my local health food store carries as well. Luckily we eat so little mayo and ketchup and now will eat even less just because I don't like the way it tastes.
 
I purchased Green Way Organic Ketchup from my local food store. It does contain 2 grams of sugar per serving but I figure that's better then HFCs found in the other brands I used to buy.
 
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PhyllisG said:
Speaking of mayo you can add ketchup to that list. There is a sweetener in all of the ones I can find even in the health food store. Is this a new trend? Did they up the amount of sugar in these products? I had been thinking that it tasted sweet and sure enough it does for a reason. As I said that included the ones my local health food store carries as well. Luckily we eat so little mayo and ketchup and now will eat even less just because I don't like the way it tastes.
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I know!!! Even organic salad dressing has sugar in it - I just don't get it. I can't imagine why we have an obesity epidemic, and these last couple of generations (24ish & younger) are getting the worst of it. At least when I was growing up (I'm 38), the food supply was still relatively healthy unless you went out of your way to buy unhealthy food from somewhere like KFC.

Sparrow13: Thanks for the tip about mayo, I love Trader Joe's so will check it out. I don't have mayo very often either, maybe once a month if that, so this will work out much better. Cheetos and Karate, there's a great combo :rolleyes:!
 
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hiitdogs said:
I was just going to post something similar. I went to the outskirts of Phoenix today for work and wanted to get a simple unsweetened ice tea. I went to Walgreens and they 18 different kinds of tea and EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was sweetened, most of them with HFCS. WTH?????

I actually asked one of the guys who worked there if they didn't have anything unsweetened, he looked at me like I had lost my mind.

Good grief! Do they produce anything without HFCS and other chemical nasties these days?
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There are a few, but I've noticed that they cost at least twice as much as the sweetened junk. I paid $2 for a small bottle of Teas' Tea the other day. I'm glad it's available when I want it, but it's too expensive for me to buy on any kind of regular basis.
 
PhyllisG said:
Speaking of mayo you can add ketchup to that list. There is a sweetener in all of the ones I can find even in the health food store. Is this a new trend? Did they up the amount of sugar in these products? I had been thinking that it tasted sweet and sure enough it does for a reason. As I said that included the ones my local health food store carries as well. Luckily we eat so little mayo and ketchup and now will eat even less just because I don't like the way it tastes.
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Some raw food books have recipes for fabulous (raw) ketchup (using fresh and dried soaked tomatoes--the dried tomatoes are what give it a bit of a cooked taste). There is sweetener (either dates or agave), but you can always determine how much to put in.

Here are some I found online (note, I have not tried these specific recipes, so can't vouch for their tastiness, but they seem good!):
1 cup fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons ginger
1/4 cup onion, chopped
8 fresh basil leaves
6 dates, pitted
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon Nama Shoyu
or 1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt​


Throw all the ingredients into a blender and puree. Last 2 weeks when refrigerated. Makes 1 1/2 cups.​

​
by Juliano​

1/2 cup dried tomatoes, soaked 2 hours
1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup onion powder
1 tablespoon salt
- from Sergei & Valya Boutenko's "Eating Without Heating"


BASIC RAW CATSUP AND BBQ SAUCE (from http://www.dld123.com/newsletter/newssweet32.html )

Will keep up to two weeks in the refrigerator. Makes about 2 cups. Each tablespoon contains less than 1/4 teaspoon honey.
1 cup fresh ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 8-ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
1 small clove garlic, grated on a microplane grater or very finely minced
1/4 cup raw honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

  1. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor, including all the oil in the jar of sundried tomatoes.
  2. Blend until very smooth.
ADDITIONS TO CATSUP
Here are some additional flavorings that go well with tomatoes, which you can add to the recipe for variation: basil, black pepper, hot chiles, chives, cilantro, onion, oregano, parseley, rosemary, or thyme.
 
nancy324 said:
There are a few, but I've noticed that they cost at least twice as much as the sweetened junk. I paid $2 for a small bottle of Teas' Tea the other day. I'm glad it's available when I want it, but it's too expensive for me to buy on any kind of regular basis.
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I agree, I know there are a few and it's usually available where I live. But this time I had to go out in the boonies for work and the only thing they had was Walgreens and a gas station, nope no Starbuck either. :p

I usually make my own tea and drink water when I am on the go. But this time the day was dragging on and I thought maybe some tea would wake me up. I never even thought about maybe not being able to find unsweatened tea. Maybe I am not getting out enough :eek:

Hmmmh, I put maple syrup, honey or agave nectar in my salad dressing. I guess I am going to get ticketed by the sugar police :eek:

Thanks for the ketchup recipe, Kathryn. My kids are addicted to ketchup and I hate the store bought stuff, even the one at the health food store. I have to give it a try.
 
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