What is the affect of the stuff in our food?

J

jennifer1907

New Member
Just want to thank you all for your imput regarding my question about white flour (on the ask Cathe forum) and if it, in and of itself, causes excess fat or weight gain. This helps me a little. I make my own breads, this is why I am asking. I've made whole wheat before, but the tase of it isn't my fav. So with that I have also added whole wheat flour to my white, and thats not too bad. The more I cook "from scratch" the more I see how much flour, is such a staple in life (at least mine!) So in my cooking world, I am looking at my cooking ingredients, they are very basic, but I still want to know the value or damage of them. I have looked at the bleaching, brominating, and enriching process of white flour. Yuck!! I just found an organic flour mill up the road and I am on a venture of giving this a try. That brings me to the question of oils, what is better, canola or veg. oil? I'm sure olive is absolute best, but my pocket book doesn't always think so!!!! So whats next in line for oil?
We have seen a few documentaries on the foods we eat here in America, and that has given me more of a drive to cook "from scratch" and to grow my own fruits and veggies. Learning about high fructose corn syrup for an example, very scary stuff this product can do in high doses, yet it is the cheepest sweetener made, so it is in EVERYTHING!!! Corn in general is just designed for quantity, not nutritional quality anymore. It is one of the MANY veggies created in a LAB! Designed to feed the masses junk! Can you say GMO's!!! It's very sad to me how our culture is COMPLETELY loosing sight of how perfect God created the foods in our world originally, without people needing to so called improve our food! It is laziness if you ask me, they want to create more food with less work, and they have, but in doing so our food is losing the important nutritional properties that it once started with and alot of the animals being raised are ill cared for (not necessarily on purpose, it's just when there is so many in one place sickness can't be prevented. It is a commercial enterprise now). That is why they get sick and need anti biotics, or are given hormones or other drugs to make them grow faster or produce a higher quantity of meat, milk, eggs. That brings me to another question, what are the affects of the preservatives and additives (including growth hormones) in our foods, on our health and weight? Is there anyone out there that may have any info on these sort of things, and any affects they may have? Well thank you all for hearing my rant!!! I figured this may be a good place to ask such questions since most of you all look at the foods you eat, and get your view on the deal. Thanks, Jen
 
Hello!

Thanks for your post-I live in white flour lovin' Alabama, and I can say that whole wheat products can be an acquired taste...but after a few weeks or months, you probably will grow to enjoy them. Breaking habits and forming new habits take time... After months of complaining about the "yukky bread," my seven year-old asked for "that sprouted stuff" in reference to the sprouted, especially tasty, organic bread we now eat. :cool: Also, the "honest kids" juice, which tastes watered down when you're accustomed to sugary drinks, is also something he likes.

The ladies at the checkout counter at our supermarket look at me a bit oddly when I show up with a cart full of organic products ("Ten bucks for that tiny little chicken?" :rolleyes: ), and yes sometimes I cringe at the cost, but it's well worth it for the health benefits.
 
Regarding switching to whole wheat flour -- I personally like to bake with whole wheat (mostly I make banana bread or similar). However, if you want your bread to be a little lighter, I've had success with substituting whole wheat pastry flour instead of white flour. It will give you a lighter weight product. You can also use half whole wheat and half whole wheat pastry flour.

My understanding is that, nutritionally, it has the same fiber content as whole wheat but does not contain as much protein. If someone knows anything more about the difference between the two, I'd be interested too.
 
You can also sub barley flour (which is naturally sweeter) for wheat in some foods.

IMO, wheat is a grain that should be limited. It's been hybridized quite a bit, and is high in gluten, and is in a LOT of foods, either in an obvious form, or under a name that makes it less obvious. This makes it apt to cause sensitivities in people.
 
Jennifer,
I'd say that the majority of foods in the grocery store (prepackaged especially) are no longer "food": containing chemicals and artificial colors and flavors and genetically modified ingredients, and so on.

Even the produce section is iffy, especially with non-organic food.

I do believe that buying (organic or sustainably-grown) from food coops and farmer's markets, growing some of one's own food, and making many things from scratch using ingredients that you know the origin of, is the ideal for both our health and the health of the planet.


As for oils: canola is one of the worst: high in omega 6s (which most people get too much of vs. omega 3s) and not really a food for humans (IIRC, farmers in Europe and Canada? used to feed their pigs canola (rapesed), until they noticed heath effects from it. Here's some info (a random site I just found, I haven't vetted it thoroughly: http://www.cidpusa.org/Canola%20Oil.html ).

Definitely avoid 'vegetable oil', as it can be a combo of who-knows-what (probably corn, of which most is GMO, and canola). If you use oil (IMO, it's a processed food, and should be limited), raw, extra virgin olive oil (Bariani is the best, IMO!) is good. Hemp and flax oil have good omega 3 to omega 6 ratios (but go rancid easily, as do most oils that aren't processed up the wazoo).

(A suggestion: I enjoyed reading your post, except for the huge block of undivided text, which makes it hard to read for me. Dividing online posts into short paragraphs makes it much easier to read.;) TIA)
 
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Just wanted to throw in one more comment - Jillian Michaels is podcasting again and her latest episode was an interview with an endochronologist who said - most people would benefit from a gluten free diet even if they are not allergic to wheat. Benefit being lose weight and bloat,less fatique, less taxing on the auto-immune system.
 
cindi1 said:
Just wanted to throw in one more comment - Jillian Michaels is podcasting again and her latest episode was an interview with an endochronologist who said - most people would benefit from a gluten free diet even if they are not allergic to wheat. Benefit being lose weight and bloat,less fatique, less taxing on the auto-immune system.
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I believe it.
There are several books out about how gluten grains are not that good for us.
 
cindi1 said:
My opinion...vegetable oils are not healthy. Olive, coconut, butter are better choices.

Here's a link with some information...http://www.marksdailyapple.com/healthy-oils/

But in the interest of full disclosure - this site supports a paleo diet so there is going to be some bias.
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Love this site, followed his primal style pretty closely for 7 months, I recently have started slipping in a few non-primal items on some days, like some rye or grain toast or polenta if it's in a really yummy dish :D but that 7 months has really changed what foods I crave and what I used to think I LOVED. Fake foods taste really fake and bad to me now, so even though I'm not as hard core as I was, I really benefited from his advice and feel I just make better choices overall when I eat.
 
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