I’m sure you’ll agree, there’s just some things that are not meant to be eaten.

Before you pat yourself on the back for keeping your kids from munching on wood, they’re probably ingesting it on a daily basis. Even if you regularly read the nutrition label, you may miss this one. That’s because “wood pulp” can be listed as cellulose or even dietary fiber.

Unbelievably, wood pulp is an approved FDA ingredient. Cellulose is a common filler added to crackers, puddings, baked goods and even ice cream and shredded cheese. You’ll see it in various forms on the nutrition label: cellulose gum, powdered cellulose, microcry stalline cellulose, etc.

Kaylie wouldn’t think of eating wood. However, pumpkins are another matter altogether.

Why is Cellulose Added to Food?
Now, humans are unable to digest cellulose. Although we need plant fiber to keep our digestive track healthy, we lack the appropriate enzymes to break it down.

So why is it added to our food? Cellulose is an inexpensive filler. The most important feature of cellulose is that it’s cheap. Its main purpose is to extend the food product.

As food continues to rise in price, we will see more fillers in processed foods. Food producers save as much as 30 percent in ingredient costs by opting for cellulose as a filler or binder in processed foods.

Carefully Read Labels
Cellulose is in hundreds of popular foods. Are you purchasing items, which are low-fat or high-fiber, in order to be healthy? Cellulose is common in processed foods, often labeled as reduced-fat or high-fiber. It’s in products like breads, pancakes, crackers, pizza crusts, muffins, scrambled eggs, mashed potato mixes, and even cheesecake. It’s found in products from General Mills, Kellogg, McDonalds and Kraft Foods.

Wood pulp isn’t a food, even if it’s approved by the FDA. You can get all the natural fiber you need when you eat vegetables, fruits, beans and whole grains.

The only place I want to see wood in my food is on the end of a Popsicle.

CLICK HERE for the Baby Bites Store.

For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.

For info about the FREE Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE

There are three big problems with processed food:
What’s Added
With the advent of processed foods, there has been a massive explosion in the chemical adulteration of foods with additives. There are scores of additives used in food to keep it lasting longer and to make it taste, look and smell like something that it is not. They enable food to sit on a supermarket shelf, or in our cupboards, for several months without going bad. To add insult to injury, salt, sugar and fat are added to processed food to mask to mask the metallic taste of the scores of chemical additives.

What’s Removed
Nutrients are removed from processed food during the refining process. You often end up eating more of it since it’s not meeting any nutritional need. For example, to get white rice, the outside bran is removed (which is where the fiber and most of the nutrients are found).

Without the fiber, you need to eat more white rice to feel full, you get constipated. White bread is also dead. Highly processed white flour (“enriched wheat flour”) is also missing the two most nutritious and fiber-rich parts of the seed: the outside bran layer and the germ (embryo). You end up eating more food in an attempt to get the nutrients your body needs.

Charlotte thinks it’s discussing what they do to processed foods.

What’s Left
Not much. In addition, to the nutrients being removed white flour is chemically bleached. What is left are the refined carbohydrates which are the simple sugars. A diet of refined foods leaves many people malnourished, constipated, enervated and vulnerable to chronic illness.

Do You Know Processed Food Facts?
1. Percentage of potato crop that ends up French fried?
2. Percentage of government subsidies for farmers who grow fruit and vegetables?
3. Teaspoons of sugar in ½ cup (one serving) of instant oatmeal?
4. Number of new candies, desserts, ice cream, and snacks introduced in 2006 alone?
5. Number of new vegetable and fruit products made each year?
6. Teaspoons of sugar in low fat yogurt?
7. Percentage of food dollars spent on processed foods?
8. Number of products in typical grocery store?
9. Percentage of antibiotics given to livestock in the .U.S.?
10. Percentage of salt consumed from processed foods?
11. Number of chemicals added to our food supply?
12. What are artificial colors and flavors derived from?

Answers:
Answer for 1 is 22%
Answer for 2 is less than 1%
Answer for 3 is 2½ teaspoons
Answer for 4 is 2,800
Answer for 5 is 230
Answer for 6 is 6½ (31 grams)
Answer for 7 is 90%
Answer for 8 is 40,000
Answer for 9 is 70%
Answer for 10 is 75%
Answer for 11 is over 3,000
Answer for 12 is petroleum

CLICK HERE for the Baby Bites Store.
For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine,  CLICK HERE

It’d been a while since I last ate at a salad and soup restaurant. Dick, my husband and I used to enjoy eating at Sweet Tomatoes, another salad/soup restaurant in our area. The choices are numerous and you can eat as much as you like. My mom was a picky eater and loved soup and salad restaurants, because she could choose whatever she wanted to try and if she didn’t like it, she could go back for something else.

Grace and Elijah are happy to hear
some restaurants are trans fat free.

I stopped eating at salad and soup restaurants, when I read the information on the additives, especially trans fat, that were found in their food items. I was surprised when I saw trans fats were in more than bakery products. They were in things you wouldn’t normally expect, like creamed soups. So, I was happy to see that Souper Salad posted signs stating they were “trans fat free.”

Later, I checked out the Souper Salad website and contacted their “food scientist” (I wasn’t sure what a food scientist is, so I checked it out online. A food scientist works in research and development of food processing companies. They analyze food content.), just to be sure. This is the reply I received from Karen Schroeder, their food scientist:

“Regarding fats:
Gingerbread uses palm oil—0 trans fat
Blueberry bread uses palm oil—0 trans fat
Bread-sticks uses soybean oil—0 trans fat
Cornbread uses partially hydrogenated corn and cottonseed oil—0.11 grams / square. (This is a trans fat.)

The government allows us to claim 0 trans fat if a serving size has 0.5 grams per serving or less. Some items contain naturally occurring trans fat so it would be impossible to claim 0 trans fat for everything without this government disclaimer.”

While I was at it, I asked about MSG. This answer was also encouraging:

“There is one product at Souper Salad that contains MSG. It is in trace amounts in our Jalapeno Cheese Sauce that is found near the baked potato section of our bar.”

Then I asked about one of the worst sweeteners, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). I am happy to say that there weren’t a lot of items on this list. As you might expect, HFCS is in some of their desserts. This is the list of products containing HFCS:

“Caramel Topping
Ketchup
Oreo Cookies
Crushed Pineapple Topping
Chocolate Pudding
Fruit Smoothies
Chocolate Syrup

Our breads do not contain high fructose corn syrup.”

The only way you’ll ever know what you’re eating, is to check out your favorite restaurant yourself. Obviously, if you or a family member is sensitive to other food additives, eating out is more of a challenge. Today, most restaurants have websites offering nutritional information. Understand, that you probably will have to email their “food scientist” from their web page to get the information you really need.

Learn more about trans fat, CLICK HERE.
Learn more about High Fructose Corn Syrup, CLICK HERE.

Food manufactures want us to believe we’re purchasing a healthy product, even if we’re not. They do everything they can to convince us that their processed food is in some way nutritious. Today, 90 percent of the foods in our grocery stores are processed with over 3,000 chemicals.

Learning what’s in the food we purchase is vital for every family. Eliminating additives and chemicals from your diet will increase the overall health of your family. In Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, I explain the difference between natural and organic:

“The terms natural and organic don’t mean the same thing. They’re not interchangeable. Certified USDA organically grown produce is produced without pesticides, synthetic herbicides, sewage sludge, irradiation, preservatives or additives, and doesn’t utilize seeds from Genetically Engineered Organisms (GMOs). USDA Organic means it’s grown, handled, and processed differently than conventionally processed foods. At least 95 percent of the product is organic.

On the other hand, the word “natural” on the label means absolutely nothing. Natural isn’t a term designating how the food was grown or produced or handled. The term “natural” indicates the product is edible. The food hype includes the whole food industry, which is growing by leaps and bounds. Just because the word organic is mentioned, don’t think the product is free of sugar or white flour. Reading labels is still your best bet. ”

Listen to the Podcast… CLICK HERE.

Buy the Book at the Baby Bites Store… CLICK HERE.

My journey to whole foods began when Jenny, my third daughter, was diagnosed as hyperactive. Her pediatrician wanted to write a prescription at her two-year check-up to control her symptoms. I resisted and I resisted again at her 3-year and 4-year check-ups.

Jenny was constantly moving and she had a short attention span. We found ourselves adjusting our routines just to accommodate her. More worrisome, Jenny had great difficulty falling asleep. Bedtime took hours for her to settle down.

I knew in my heart that Jenny wouldn’t be able to function in a school setting and I would be out of options at her next annual check-up. I began to search for solutions at a time where there weren’t many. Although, it didn’t take too long and I found a book, Why Your Child is Hyperactive, by Dr. Feingold. He was the first to make the connection between food additives in processed foods with hyperactivity. Today, you can find many resources through the Feingold Association.

After reading Feingold’s book, I knew I had to change my purchasing habits, not only for Jenny, but for the entire family. I figured, I didn’t have anything to lose. I was a mom on a mission. I didn’t wait to gradually replace the food I’d previously purchased, but took an afternoon and cleaned out my entire kitchen. I read every label and gave away 5 bags of food.

In about a week, we began to see a new child emerge from the cloud of chemicals. Jenny, who exhausted US at her bedtime, was now falling asleep in minutes. This alone was worth any perceived difficulty or for that matter cost in changing our diets. Jenny’s attention span increased. She was more at peace. We always knew when something hidden in our food got past us, in our own accidental double-blind studies. After ingesting hidden chemicals, Jenny would once again experience sleep difficulties and, of course, hyperactivity.

I became a master sleuth, locating the additive culprit and then eliminating it. It typically took three to five days to clear her system. Unfortunately, in the last 30 years more chemicals have been added to our food supply. Today, 90 percent of the foods in our grocery stores are processed with over 3,000 chemicals. I believe this is why we are seeing an alarming increase of Autism Spectrum Disorder, which includes: Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD, ADHD, Sensory Integration Disorder, and of course Autism.

Learning what’s in the food we purchase is vital for every family; whether or not you have a sensitive child, like Jenny. Eliminating additives and chemicals from your diet will increase the overall health of your family. Although our nutrition label is more complete, today, manufactures have added to the confusion. They want us to believe that we’re purchasing a healthy product, even if we’re not. They do everything they can to convince us that their processed food is in some way nutritious.

In Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, I explain the difference between natural and organic: “The terms natural and organic don’t mean the same thing. They’re not interchangeable. Certified USDA organically grown produce is produced without pesticides, synthetic herbicides, sewage sludge, irradiation, preservatives or additives, and doesn’t utilize seeds from Genetically Engineered Organisms (GMOs). USDA Organic means it’s grown, handled, and processed differently than conventionally processed foods. At least 95 percent of the product is organic. On the other hand, the word “natural” on the label means absolutely nothing. Natural isn’t a term designating how the food was grown or produced or handled. The term “natural” indicates the product is edible. The food hype includes the whole food industry, which is growing by leaps and bounds. Just because the word organic is mentioned, don’t think the product is free of sugar or white flour. Reading labels is still your best bet. ”

If you liked this article, then you’ll want to read “The Picky Eater and ADD/ADHD:  CLICK HERE

Buy the Book at the Baby Bites Store!!!

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.