This is the first post in a series which will detail the health effects of common ingredients in the foods on your supermarket shelves.
#1 – Keebler® Fudge Shoppe® Grasshopper® Cookies
You see 100 calories and immediately feel a sense of elation! “Wow a healthy snack that will help me to lose weight!”
Unfortunately, the misinformation plagues our society, portraying a “pseudo-health” image promoting foods that are sub-par at best.
Below, I will be analyzing some of the ingredients in this popular snack food in attempts to dispel the myth and outline EXACTLY what you are ingesting and introducing to your body.
Here are the ingredients as listed on the label:
Ingredients
Keebler® Fudge Shoppe® Grasshopper® cookies:
ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN, COCONUT, PALM, PALM KERNEL OIL WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS, AND HYDROGENATED PALM KERNEL OIL), COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WHEY, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE), SALT, SOY LECITHIN, MOLASSES, SORBITAN MONOSTEARATE, POLYSORBATE 60, ARTIFICIAL VANILLA FLAVOR, BLUE #2 LAKE, YELLOW #6 LAKE, OIL OF PEPPERMINT, RED #40 LAKE.
Enriched Flour - Enriched refers to the process of adding vitamins to food products. While all of this may sound well, (I mean whats wrong with a few vitamins), why do you suppose they are enriching our food? They add vitamins because in the processing of the whole wheat they STRIPPED out everything that is life-giving. In order to “mimic” the flour’s original state, they added a few B vitamins.
For those of you that know me, I am not a fan of grains, even whole wheat. I try to avoid gluten containing products (more on that in a different post). But, if you eat grains try to ingest those that are as close to their original state as possible. This refers to WHOLE grains with the fiber and vitamins still in tact.
Another free tidbit: The product states that it only has 100 calories, yet removing the fiber from whole grains in the conversion to the enriched flour creates a refined product. Refined flours and sugars elevate the sugar response in your blood, spiking your insulin. Insulin secretion is directly related to weight gain. Don’t be fooled by the hype and marketing.
Therefore, stripping the fiber and nutrients from the flour promotes the insulin spike in your blood (the fiber would have slowed down this process)…the exact same that occurs when you ingest refined sugar…see below.
Sugar: Yes, you all know how much I hate this dreaded ingredient, but do you know why? As you can see above, it is a STRONG proponent of weight gain.
What else does it contribute to? Your body eliminates excess sugar in your bloodstream and carries it to your cells via insulin. Eventually, your cells develop a condition called “insulin resistance”. Have you ever smelled a strong scent, yet after a period of time you do not smell it any more even though you are still in it’s presence? Your cells work in the same manner.
After a period of time, your cells become “desensitized” to the insulin, which results in less sugar moving into the cells and more sugar remaining in your bloodstream. Consequently, insulin resistance is strongly associated with Type II Diabetes.
Diabetes is just one of the side effects of excess sugar intake. See this article to read the 76 other destructions of sugar –> 76 Ways Sugar Can Ruin Your Health
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HCFS)- It’s made from corn, how bad can it be? Whenever you severely process a food, it transforms the molecular makeup. The food changes to a completely new component, eliminating the innate health benefits.
HCFS is the number one source of calories in the United States. It contributes to:
- Cancer
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Premature aging
- Arthritis
- Osteoporosis
…just to name a few
ARTIFICIAL FOOD COLORING – I wont give you the details of every food color in the ingredients…one should be enough to make you wonder…
Blue #2 – We could go on and on about the deleterious health effects of food coloring. Many artificial colors, which were generally recognized as safe in the 60′s and 70′s, have been recalled due to negative health effects over time. I am sure we will see these same artificial colors banned at some point in our history…why be a part of the experiment now?
Here are the requirements for creating the food coloring directly from the FDA website –> FDA requirements for Blue #2
Check out the ingredients. See anything you wouldn’t want in your system? Lead, arsenic, etc.? You might argue that the amounts of these toxic metals are low (10 parts per million) and will not cause any bodily harm. Yes, maybe if we ate them once or twice in our lives, but how many of us have limited ourselves to food coloring only once every 5 years? Heavy metals are not easily removed from our bodies. A cumulative effect results in toxicity over time.
Here is another great article detailing the cumulative effects of the materials present in artificial colors–> Artificial Food and Cosmetic Coloring
Another interesting fact: Due to studies performed in Great Britain on the adverse health effects of food dyes, especially in the research involving the behavior changes in children, they have banned the use of several dyes by the end of 2009.
“When Kraft conducted market research in Great Britain, it found Brits worried more about food dyes than Americans. (Americans worry more about calories, fat and salt content.) So, based on its research, Kraft replaced artificial coloring with natural coloring in its food products for Great Britain.” Source: http://www.informify.com/top-stories/48-health/199-food-dyes-linked-to-hyper-kids-group-asks-fda-to-ban
“The science shows that kids’ behavior improves when these artificial colorings are removed from their diets and worsens when they’re added to the their diets,” Schab said. “While not all children seem to be sensitive to these chemicals, it’s hard to justify their continued use in foods—especially those foods heavily marketed to young children.” (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 6/2/08)
Source: http://www.informify.com/top-stories/48-health/199-food-dyes-linked-to-hyper-kids-group-asks-fda-to-ban
CONCLUSION
Before you pick up the next bag, box, or container, turn it around and look at the ingredients. You have to take charge of your own health. These foods will attempt to rob our quality of life and possibly set us up for a host of diseases. With an increasing amount of propaganda and advertising, I know it is hard to make sense of it all. Unfortunately, disregarding the data does not dismiss it. A little action can make a great difference!
Resources
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/09/23/dramatic-example-of-how-the-food-industry-lies-to-you-about-corn.aspx
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/foods/grains/gigl.html
http://www.informify.com/top-stories/48-health/199-food-dyes-linked-to-hyper-kids-group-asks-fda-to-ban
