Week 2 Challenge: Just say no…to processed foods! 

(5.7.12 – 5.13.12)

The following is a list of a few of the ingredients of an item often times found in fast food restaurants and in many products in grocery stores, lets see if you guys can guess what item it is that has these ingredients. Leave your guesses in the comment box, prize for anyone that gets it right! The ingredients are…

Amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isoburate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate ethyl hyptanoate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, hydroxyphrenyl-2butanone, a-ionone, isobutyl butrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, methyl benzoate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, y-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent.

Looking forward to your guesses as to what item would contain these!

Now, if you found those ingredients a bit of a shock, here is a bigger shocker, the FDA has these all listed as Generally Regarded As Safe or GRAS. This means that any ingredient that is GRAS does not need to be listed in the ingredients, all they need to say is “natural ingredients” or “natural flavors.” It has been found that on average, Americans eat the equivalent of their body weight in additives each year and 15 lbs of this will be from preservatives and flavoring agents or dyes that are found on the GRAS list. Another thing to keep in mind is the FDA is not the ones monitoring the GRAS; the food additive manufacturers are the ones who are doing the monitoring and notifying the FDA of the status of the ingredients. This is like asking the tobacco manufacturer if their products are safe, makes no sense! And we wonder why the rates of cancer and other diseases have increased.

This is why this week our challenge is going to be to eliminate any processed foods from our diet for the whole week! When going shopping try to stay away from any boxed foods. Try to shop the peripheries of the grocery store more than the isles! Think to yourself, would my great great grandmother have had access to this? If not, then put it back, if she wasn’t eating it, you probably shouldn’t have it either!