Peer-reviewed studies don’t always tell the truth. We need to wake up and smell the coffee. Who do you think pays for many of the “studies”? The very industry that wants the public to believe the additive is safe. Experts assured us for 30 years trans fats were better for us than naturally saturated fats like butter. Boy, were they wrong!

Try telling a person, who gets a migraine after ingesting something with MSG, that MSG is “safe” (Chinese Restaurant Syndrome). It took 30 years for the government to admit trans fats were unhealthy. I believe MSG is the next additive to have required labeling/warning. It may take a while, but it will.

Mae is astonished that someone said Nonna quoted a ‘quack.’ (Photo by Frozen Exposure)

MSG is Naturally Occurring
MSG is a flavor enhancer commonly used in processed foods and restaurants, especially Chinese and fast food restaurants. MSG enhances your ability to taste a savory flavor called umami. This is the flavor found in protein-rich food.

My critic has drunk the Kool-aid, “MSG metabolizes in your body the same way foods with naturally occurring glutamates do – milk, tomatoes, mushrooms, seaweed… consuming either MSG or milk will cause you to digest the exact same glutamate. The only thing special about MSG is it’s just been stabilized with sodium so you can easily sprinkle it on foods.”

Oh really? Just because MSG is naturally occurring in food is a misleading statement. Cocaine and the poppy flower are naturally occurring. So are opium and heroin. For that matter, so is marijuana.

MSGTruth.org is a site with the latest independent research regarding the animo-acid based food additives, Monsodium Glutamate and Aspartame. Carol Hoernlein, a former food process engineer and food scientist says,  “MSG sellers argue that MSG is exactly like the glutamate in the human body, therefore it must always be good. It is not so simple.  There are contaminants in processed MSG…The food industry’s claim that free glutamate is as harmless as bound glutamate is disingenuous at best.”

MSG Dangers
The naysayer trusts the FDA’s recomendations, “It should also be mentioned that MSG appears on the FDA’s ‘Generally Recognized As Safe’ listing with a detailed explanation as to why it is considered safe for consumption.” I image being reminded that MSG is on the GRAS list was supposed to put me in my place. It only fired me up!  The FDA was wrong about trans fat, BPA safety and red dye #2 which was banned in 1976 after a link to cancer was found. ( Artificial food colorings are highly controversial as they have been linked to allergies, asthma, hives, and ADHD. They are often derived from petroleum.)

The FDA is wrong about MSG, too! Think for just a moment that MSG is able to pass from the mother to her unborn baby. Those most vulnerable are the elderly, children and infants. Studies in the 1970s found 25 percent (some say today it’s up to 40 percent) of the population react negatively to MSG.

Russell Blaylock, M.D. is a surgeon, author of Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills, lecturer and educator. This is the person the comment-writer referred to as a “quack” in my previous blog about MSG. Dr. Blaylock serves as the medical consultant for the Fluoride Toxicity Research Collaborative. He was recently awarded the Integrity in Science award by the Westin Price Foundation. The playground isn’t the only place that name-calling occurs.

My challenger’s conclusion, “The bottom line is that there’s little reason for adults to avoid foods with glutamates/glutamic acid.”

Come on, he can’t be serious! The Mayo Clinic warns that MSG may cause “headache, flushing, sweating, sense of facial pressure, numbness, tingling or burning in or around the mouth, rapid heartbeats, chest pain, brochospasm, shortness of breath, nausea and weakness.”

Check out these links for more information about MSG (for my critic a little do-diligence might be a good idea before you call someone a quack):

[1] The Silent Killer

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/21/MSG-Is-This-Silent-Killer-Lurking-in-Your-Kitchen-Cabinets.aspx

“The Shocking Dangers of MSG You Don’t Know,” video Part 1

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/08/28/dangers-of-msg.aspx?aid=CD12

[2] Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Samuels, Jack “MSG Dangers and Deceptions”

http://www.mail-archive.com/sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg69736.html

[3] MSGTruth.org “What Exactly is MSG?”

http://www.msgtruth.org/whatisit.htm

[4] eMediaWire “Athlete Alert: Renowned Neurosurgeon Identifies Aspartame & MSG in Sudden Cardiac Death” April 15, 2005

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw225071.htm

[5] TruthinLabeling.org “This is What the Data Say About Monosodium Glutamate Toxicity and Human Adverse Reactions”

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/Proof_AdverseReactions_AR.html

[6] Food Inc.

http://robertkennerfilms.com/films/files/detail_current.php

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

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

Do you know what percentage of food dollars is spent on processed foods, most, if not all, which have added chemicals to enhance flavor?

Kids are conditioned to these psychedelic flavors. The additives like food flavorings,  high fructose corn syrup, MSG and salt are almost always ingredients in processed foods, especially junk foods. Salt is added to processed foods for longer shelf life as well as taste.

Zachary and Angel love psychedelic colors… not chemical- altered flavors.

MSG is added to food to give it that indescribable taste-explosion that’s found in fast food. These additives become additive. That’s why MSG is found just about everything, including French fries. But you’ll be hard-pressed to find MSG on a food label as it has many aliases.

What about those yummy fruit flavors? Today, chemicals can give candy and gum a strawberry or an apple flavor, but it’s really petroleum. Do you really want your kids to eat petroleum?

Add sugar, especially High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) to the mix and it’s very hard for whole foods to compete with the psychedelic flavors. HFCS fools the brain. It interrupts the signal that your stomach has received enough, so you over eat. Once HFCS is no longer in your diet, you will find that you’re satiated with less food.

Your child’s body craves real food, even if you have a picky eater. Yes, even picky eaters, who refuse to eat whole foods, need them for health. To be successful in transforming a picky eater to a healthy eater, whole foods must replace fast foods and junk foods. ( Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater onto a Healthy Eater explains how you can accomplish this in about a week.) You’ll be fighting an uphill battle if cookies, crackers, chips, candy and sugar-filled drinks are found in your pantry and you regularly purchase fast foods.

Psychedelic flavors alter our perception of food. It changes our sensory expectation of what is tasty. Because of marketing highly processed foods, kids expect a taste-sensation when they eat.

Adjust Your Taste Thermostat
It will take a week or so for your kid’s taste buds to adjust to whole foods. Be assured, they will adjust. Yes, you need to be patient and hold the line.

Your thermostat adjusts your furnace or air conditioner when you change the temperature control. Once the new temperature is programmed in the thermostat the temperature in the room eventually alters.

The same is true for taste buds. Once they’re programmed to whole foods, the sweetness of an orange or a ripe peach will be unbelievable. A sip of soda pop will become excruciatingly sugary. The craving for salty chips will be replaced with desiring the crunch of julienne veggies and dip. Canned soups will become too salty. Boxed macaroni and cheese will loose its appeal. (By the way, the processed dried cheese in mac and cheese is loaded with colorings and MSG.)

Do your children have psychedelic taste expectations? We spend 90 percent of our food dollars on processed foods. Not until you change that statistic for your family will your children begin to appreciate the taste of whole foods.

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

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Not the First to Deceive

The years of controversy ended with consumers being warned of the many dangers. Today, trans fat is being replaced, primarily because the consumer is aware. Nutrition labeling must list trans fat as an ingredient (at least when it contains over a half a gram per serving).

We have a similar situation with the additive monosodium glutamate or MSG. The web is full of sites proclaiming the safety of MSG. It’s common to read statements like this one, “One food ingredient that is commonly on the receiving end of bad press is monosodium glutamate or MSG. However this is unfounded. Monosodium glutamate can be safely used to add flavor and appeal to foods, and even to reduce sodium levels in foods.”

Delphine reacts to the mere mention of MSG.

MSG the Flavor that Kills

Blaylock explains, “Excessive glutamate will not only kill the neurons with the receptors for glutamate, but it will also kill any neuron that happens to be connected to it, even if that neuron uses another type of transmitter. Both glutamate and aspartate can cause neurons to become extremely excited and if given in large enough doses, they can cause the cells to degenerate and die. It is for this reason that the nervous system carefully controls the concentration of these two amino acids in the fluid surrounding the neurons (called the extracellular space). Even small doses can damage these neurons without actually killing them. Within 15-30 minutes after being exposed to high doses of MSG, neurons suspended in tissue culture are seen to ‘swell’ like balloons. Within 3 hours those neurons are not only dead, but the body’s defense mechanism begins to haul away the debris.”

As Baylock mentions, there is another common excitotoxic substance in addition to MSG, it’s Aspartame, sold as Nutrasweet®. Aspartame has been scientifically linked to brain tumors, brain cell damage, and neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Aspartame is found in low-calorie foods and soft drinks.

Children Should NEVER Consume Aspartame or MSG
Some people immediately experience headaches, numbness, pressure in the chest, etc. after eating Chinese food (usually containing MSG) or consuming a product with MSG. It’s easy to believe this is a just a sensitivity or allergic reaction and MSG affects only a few people. It’s not true. This is a toxic reaction occurring in virtually everyone, with some people experiencing outward symptoms.

MSG a Hidden Food Ingredient
There’s a lack of government regulation concerning MSG. It can take a detective to find it in processed foods. Unlike trans fat, which now must be labeled, MSG is a hidden ingredient in various additives with numerous names.

There are some food additives which ALWAYS contain MSG: Monosodium Glutamate, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Hydrolyzed Protein, Hydrolyzed Plant Protein, Plant Protein Extract, Sodium Caseinate, Calcium Caseinate, Yeast Extract, Textured Protein (Including TVP), Autolyzed Yeast, Hydrolyzed Oat Flour, Corn Oil, Malt Extract, Malt Flavoring, Bouillon, Broth, Stock, Flavoring, Natural Flavors/Flavoring (may contain up to 20 percent MSG!), Natural Beef or Chicken Flavoring, Seasoning, Spices.

The short list to avoid is products with these ingredients: monosodium glutamate (MSG), caseinate, hydrolyzed (anything), flavoring, or bouillon.

If you eat out, you’re most likely eating MSG. It’s in most fast food (most dipping sauces), soups, and salad dressings. It’s in Ramen noodles and instant soup mixes, Jello®, Accent®, Doritos®, Cheetos®, and items with cheese powder. This is just the tip of the iceberg of products containing MSG.  For a comprehensive list of foods containing MSG, Click Here for MSG Truth.

The best solution for avoiding harmful ingredients is to eat out infrequently and cook at home. I stopped eating fast food a long time ago. The landmine of chemicals in their food is too comprehensive. I just couldn’t keep up. If you have a baby or a toddler, don’t allow them to eat fast food. I know the play areas are fun, but they are a trap. Not only are play areas a breeding ground for germs, but they indoctrinate kids to the fast food lifestyle.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.

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

Researchers at Ohio State University analyzed government data on 6,500 children and teens, ages 2 to 18. They found the children were consuming an average of 2 cups of fruit, vegetables, and juice combined a day. French fries account for 25 percent of their vegetable intake. Someone consuming 2,000 calories a day should be eating 2 cups of fruit and 2½ cups of veggies a day—over TWICE the amount recorded.

Then there’s the nagging statistic that French fries compose 25 percent of children’s vegetable intake. While writing “Eat Your French Fries Vegetables,” I decided to see if the claim that a Happy Meal will last for years is true. I purchased a Happy Meal on March 3, 2009. To follow Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog, you’ll want to subscribe to the Baby Bites Ezine.

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Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog:

March 3, 2009
My newly purchased Happy Meal smells yummy and it’s very colorful. I receive a PetShop virtual pet dog in a yellow plastic doggie carry-case, along with my child-size hamburger, small fries, and a soft drink. On one side of the cardboard box the meal comes in are cutouts for a pet shop window and door. What little girl wouldn’t absolutely love it? The boy’s side of the box has a Spider-Man scene. The Spider-Man side states, “Meet the spectacular Spider-Man in McWorld at HappyMeal.com and go on your own superhero adventure!” WOW what fun. As colorful as my Happy Meal is, the food is mostly colorless. French fries are made from starchy white potatoes and a hockey puck-size brown hamburger is served on a mini-white-bread bun. There’s no lettuce, cheese, or otherwise healthful topping, just a dab of ketchup and a slice of pickle.

March 4
Happy Meal greets me as I walk into my office this morning. It’s perched on a shelf behind my desk and there is a faint smell of French fries as I enter the room. My husband is concerned about the odor. I ask, “What do ya mean?” After all it smells yummy. He says, “What about when it putrefies, decomposes, and turns rancid?” I answer, “That’s the point of my experiment. It’s NOT supposed to decompose, only a natural food would do that! If it does, I’ll move it into a glass container, to control any unpleasant smell. Then, I’ll have more to report.

March 5
Day three, my cheery Happy Meal’s yummy smell is hardly noticeable as I come into my office. I can’t help but think about the hidden ingredient in much of McDonalds’ food. It’s even in their fries …MSG. MSG is an excitotoxin, which over-stimulate brain cells to the point that they die. Many people experience headaches when this occurs. MSG is an excitatory neuro-transmitter or “excitotoxin.” Excitotoxins are chemical transmitters allowing brain cells to communicate. Unfortunately, excitotoxins over-stimulate your brain cells and they die. It’s a toxic substance. As you would guess, children are most at risk from ingesting MSG in Happy Meals. It can pass the blood brain barrier and even the placental barrier, affecting unborn children. Morgan Spurlock, from the movie SuperSize Me, experienced extreme headaches on his McDonald’s diet. In his movie and book, he says his health team was at a loss for the reason. It’s a shame they missed the connection to MSG. For more information about MSG, Click Here.

March 6 AM
I now own my very own McDonalds’ Spiderman toy. Yep, I went back to McDonalds and purchased the toy alone. Now I have a toy for each side of the McDonalds’ box. A toy meant for a girl and one for a boy. I was motivated to purchase the second toy, because yesterday, Kelly wrote a comment on my Facebook page after I mention the “Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog.”Kelly observed, “Sadly, with all the marketing it seems to be more about the toy.” And then offered her solution, “I often will make them a healthy lunch at home, and then go thru the drive thru and just buy the toy!”Checking my original receipt, I found my purchase of a Happy Meal cost me $3.02 (after taxes, before taxes $2.79). The toy with the Happy Meal is listed on the receipt as zero.  When I purchased the toy alone, it cost $1.69 (of course, plus tax). Using a rule-of-thumb that the cost of an item is doubled, the toy most likely cost McDonalds about 80 cents. It would be my guess the paper products (the box, napkins, and cup) were next in expense for McDonalds. That alone speaks volumes about the quality of the food.

March 6 PM
YIKES, I’m becoming a regular McDonalds’ costumer! Yes, I went back there today and purchased a second tiny hamburger. Yesterday, I realized my experiment hamburger had ketchup and a slice of pickle on it. I was afraid these two toppings would alter the result, so I went back and purchased a PLAIN tiny burger. It cost me another 89 cents, plus 6 cents tax. Now, I have a control burger without toppings, albeit three days fresher. While I was there, I checked out what it would cost to purchase a small order of fries: $1, plus 7 cents tax. That means that the FOOD and PAPER portion of my original Happy Meal cost me $2.02 and the toy $1.00.

March 7
You’d think at least the ketchup your child is dipping her French fries in and the dab on the hamburger is healthy, after all it’s made of tomatoes. Tomatoes are a super food, right? Not so fast. Ketchup is usually one-third sugar (unless you purchase a healthy brand at a whole foods store).The ingredients on the McDonald’s Fancy Ketchup read: “Tomato concentrate (not whole tomatoes), distilled vinegar, High Fructose Corn Sweetener, Corn syrup, water, salt, natural flavorings.” When you add the High Fructose Corn Sweetener with the Corn syrup, most likely sugar will be the real first ingredient. Ketchup is sugar and worst kind of all. Click Here for more info on High Fructose Corn Sweetener.

March 8
It’s day five, and somehow I don’t feel consoled by McDonald’s website reassurances: “McDonald’s offers a range of menu options to help meet your family’s nutrition needs. When it comes to eating with your kids at McDonald’s, you can feel good knowing that our Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals contain important nutrients that growing kids need. Many of the foods we serve at McDonald’s are the same trusted brands you might purchase for your family at your local grocery store.

“My Happy Meal looks pretty much the same as the day I purchased it. The only difference I can tell is the ketchup and the pickle are being absorbed into the mini-white bun. Of course, the plain burger I purchased looks the same, so do the fries. If this were real food, there should be some decomposition. In Morgan Spurlock’s (Super Size Me) McDonald’s experiment found fries are turning black from decomposition by 2 weeks. But, McDonald’s fries never did decompose. That can’t be food, for food to nourish your body it needs to decompose.

Could the lack of decomposition be because of trans fat? I thought McDonalds said they no longer use trans fat, but according to the McDonlds website their French fries are prepared in hydrogenated soybean oil, corn oil, or canola oil. Any hydrogenated oil is a trans fat! Trans fat is created when a vegetable oil is overheated. Restaurants use their frying oil for a week. It’s heated over and over again. Trans fats can’t release any useful mediators. Their shape keeps them from being recognized by enzymes. Explains a lot, don’t you think.

March 9
How many times have I heard “It’s cheaper to eat out than cook at home“? I don’t know maybe a million! I don’t get it. A Big Mac Meal costs $5.39 and a Happy Meal, $2.79, plus tax. For a family of four that’s $16.36 or a mom and one child $8.18; not including taxes. Not a bargain when you think what that could purchase. Last Spring, I worked out a food budget for two people on food stamps. ( Click Here for my Food Stamp Budget blog.) With a meager food stamp budget of $300 a month for two people, about $10 a day you can feed two people whole foods. One trip to McDonalds would cost almost as much as a day’s groceries. If you ask me, that’s NO bargain.

March 10
Today, is day 7. My Happy Meal still looks happy. The fries haven’t changed a bit, although the French fry smell is faint. The hamburger itself looks like it did on day one. The ketchup and slice of pickle have dried. The mini-white bun is now hard and has split. If you look closely at my original photo at the top of this blog, you can see a vertical crease in the bun. It looked as if it had been squished or bent before the patty was placed on it. The split is in the crease. (My second PLAIN Burger, purchased three days after is still perfect.)

March 12
What is a natural flavor, exactly? McDonald’s says their fries contain a natural flavor. A substance can be natural, but it may violate a religious or dietary restriction or it may cause allergic reactions in some people. It turns out that today, “natural” can mean just about anything. The natural flavor in McDonald’s fries is beef flavor containing hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients.

March 15
The Happy Meal was launched in 1979, by 2003 the Happy Meal accounted for 20 percent of all meals sold at McDonalds! It was pure marketing geniuswhen Ronald McDonald became their mascot. In commercials, Ronald McDonald inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland. He has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. Our kids have been taken captive, by a clown. According to Barna Research, kids ages 2 to 7 watch an average of 25 hours of television a week and see about 40,000 television ads per year. It’s no surprise Ronald McDonald was number two on a list of the most recognizable people in the world. This, of course, relates directly to our kids’ addiction to junk food!

March 16
My Happy Meal is 12 days old. I’m taking it off my shelf, just for a little peek to see how it’s doing. Ya’d think that there would be some sort of decomposition going on by now. I don’t see any…nope none at all. My Happy Meal is still looks perky.

March 19
It’s too bad that even in the midst of the recession, parents are finding the financial wherewithal to keep their kids supplied with Happy Meals. February’s sales were up 5.4 percent above last year. January’s global comparable sales leaped 7.1 percent. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if parents cooked whole foods at home? No only would they save during these tight financial times, but their kids would be healthier, too.

March 30
Do you know the:
1) percentage of potatoes which end up French fried: 22
2) age when a toddler first eats a French fry: 6 mo
3) percentage of toddlers who eat French Fries everyday: 21

March 31
I’m taking my Happy Meal on its first field trip. It’s going to be my show-and-tell for tonight’s presentation to preschool moms in Littleton, Colorado. No one will believe my Happy Meal is one day shy of four week’s old! It looks as good as it did on day one.

April 10
You remember the jingle, “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” What’s in the  Big Mac® special sauce: Soybean oil, pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), spice extractives, polysorbate 80], distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar, garlic powder, vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat), caramel color, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric (color), calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor). CONTAINS: WHEAT, EGG AND SOY.
Looks like sugar is the number one ingredient in the Big Mac® Sauce.  (And by the way, the Happy Meal purchased on May 3 looks as good as it did on day one.)

April 29
Since I began this blog, I’ve written another post about Monosodium Glutamate. MSG is a common ingredient in McDonald’s food.  Click Here to read “Hidden Toxin in Food.” Unappetizing as it is, my Happy Meal is just as perky as the day I bought it, nearly two months ago!

June 3
How sad are Americans? Despite all the cautions about fast food, a recent poll found that 44 percent of Americans say they like the taste of fast food too much to give it up. Greg Chu, senior vice president of health care for Synovate in North America, says people in the USA have “a love-hate relationship” with fast food. “We love the convenience. We love the taste. We love the assurance that you can count on it. But we know it’s not good for us.”

December 14
I wish I could say that my Happy Meal has changed in some way. But it looks pretty much the same nine months after I purchased it. The bread is crusty. That’s all!

March 3, 2010
Read about my Happy Meal’s first birthday, CLICK HERE.

Click Here for a synopsis of “Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater”

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.

We lie most about what we eat. Because we desperately want to believe we eat a healthy diet; we comfort ourselves with lies and food myths. We believe we eat better than most of the world!

Americans are fatter than the rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean that we eat better. We can afford to eat out a lot and statistics show that people eat out at least 4 times a week. Nearly half of our food budget, that’s 46 percent, is spent on eating out-most of that at fast food restaurants. Even picky eaters will eat fast food, in fact junk foods are usually the picky eaters favorite. Depending on where you eat, eating out can be twice as expensive as cooking at home. In addition, cooking has changed from preparing whole foods to heating up or assembling processed foods.

Our eating habits are costing families more than dollars. It’s not only cheaper, but healthier to do your own cooking. You have no control of what’s in the food you purchase out. Foods in fancy restaurants and fast food restaurants have a commonality: Trans fat, sugar, and MSG.

Pictured: Zach, Angel & Joshy eating an ice cream treat.

Morgan Spurlock, producer, director, and guinea pig of Super-Size Me, shocked America by documenting his month-long fast-food binge. I had no desire to watch his movie…until last week. I thought the premise was preposterous, after all, who wouldn’t expect to gain weight after eating exclusively at McDonalds?

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Supersize-Me, actually shed light on the not-so-obvious perils of regularly eating fast foods. Spurlock became a fast-food lab rat for one month. He calls it his “month in Hell.”

A team of health advisers documented his experiment. By day 18, his whole body was in a meltdown: headaches, body aches, and lack of energy. No surprise, his cholesterol and tryglycerides skyrocketed. What’s worse, his liver began to fail. Despite this, he found himself craving the foods that he was consuming! Morgan’s health team neglected to make a couple of significant connections. They were at a loss for the cause of his headaches.

MSG is a hidden ingredient in much of McDonalds’ food, including fries. MSG is an excitotoxin, which over-stimulate brain cells to the point that they die. Many people experience headaches when this occurs. It seems likely that MSG was the cause of Morgan’s headaches. It’s a shame that Morgan’s health team missed this important connection.

They were also at a loss as to why Morgan’s liver began to fail after only eighteen days. They concluded it was because of the saturated fat he was ingesting. It was a red herring! They neglected to isolate Trans Fat from natural saturated fats. Trans Fat is manmade and can’t be properly metabolized into your body. Fast foods (as are all restaurant fried foods) are loaded with trans fat.

The government recommends that we, and especially children, don’t eat any trans fat. Since 2006, it became mandatory to list trans fat on nutrition labels. In fact, McDonalds website lists the trans fat in their foods. A small fry has 3½ grams; medium 5 grams, and a large fry 8 grams. Happy Meals, purchased for small children, fall somewhere between 4 and 5 grams of trans fat.

Trans fat can be found in most of McDonalds foods: salads, shakes, hamburgers, all fried foods including chicken McNuggets, sandwiches, cookies, biscuits, burritos, and of course their fries. Morgan was ingesting trans fat in just about every bite of food. No wonder his liver began to fail!

Most of us don’t eat exclusively at McDonalds,  but you should be able to eat at ANY restaurant for a month without your health failing —even if you put on a few pounds.

It DOES matter what we eat! Desperate parents often give in to their picky eaters, who willingly eat junk foods. CLICK HERE for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater. The cost of eating well is measured in not only dollars, but health.

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Following is information concerning some of the most horrible things found in our in food: Trans Fat, Interesterified Fat, and MSG. Because these ingredients are commonly found in processed and junk foods, children and even picky eaters frequently ingest them.

Trans Fat

Trans fatty acid is created when the molecular structure of a vegetable oil is altered to a hardened form found in margarine or shortening. Because trans fat increases the shelf life of foods, it’s most commonly found in restaurant foods, fast foods (French fries, fried chicken, and chicken nuggets), snack food, packaged bakery products (cookies, crackers, donuts, and cakes), microwave popcorn, potato chips, peanut butters, and salad dressings.

In the United States, typical French fries have about 40 percent trans fat, and many cookies and crackers range from 30 to 50 percent trans fat. Doughnuts have approximately 35 percent trans fatty acids. A couple of the worst offenders are found in many kitchens—stick margarine and Crisco®.

Trans fat is far worse than natural saturated fat ever could be. The production process of injecting liquid fats with hydrogen gas converts them into indigestible trans fatty acids. Trans fat can’t be metabolized in the human body. In fact, trans fat has a half life of 51 days. That means three months after consuming trans fat, you’re body is still dealing with it.

Trans fat molecules are absorbed into your cells, compromising the cell’s metabolism. Trans fat lowers the HDL (good cholesterol) and increases the LDL (bad cholesterol), leading to heart disease. In pregnant women, trans fat, like alcohol, drugs, carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke, and pesticides, pass through the placenta to the baby, affecting the baby’s metabolism in direct proportion to the amount ingested by the mother. In addition, there’s a correlation between trans fat and Type 2 Diabetes. To make matters worse, trans fat inhibits the absorption of vitamin K (vital for bone growth). Trans fat is a toxin interfering with all membrane function.

Beware! Only with government math will zero plus zero equal more than zero. The labeling requirement has a loophole. Food products with trans fat above .05 grams per serving are required to be listed. Because you could be purchasing smaller amounts (and remember there’s no safe level) without realizing it, read the entire nutrition label.

If you see zero trans fat on the nutrition label, double check to see if there’s any hydrogenated vegetable oil, partially hydrogenated oils, shortening, and margarine listed. These are all trans fats.

Eating out can be more of a challenge than reading food labels. Unfortuantly, picky eaters love fast food! Five small chicken nuggets from a fast food chain may contain between two and four grams of trans fat. A large order (six ounces) of McDonald’s® French fries contains a whopping eight grams of trans fat!

Intersterified Fat

Wouldn’t you know it, just as we’re eliminating trans fats, up pops a new one. Believe it or not, this one is even more dangerous to your health. Interesterifed fats are like trans fats raising the blood levels of the “bad” LDL cholesterol. At the same time, lowering the “good” HDL cholesterol levels.

According to the January 2007 journal Nutrition & Metabolism, interesterified fats not only negatively affect the cholesterol levels, but also negatively affect blood sugar levels!

Yet, the Food and Drug Administration has given the go ahead to food companies and restaurants. Avoid any food product with interesterified soybean oil, interesterified vegetable oil, fully hydrogenated oil, high in steric acid, or stearate rich on food labels.

Frying food at high temperatures destroys most of what’s beneficial in food, regardless of what fat is used. Food services usually use the same oils for cooking fish, chicken, and other foods as they do fries. As a rule, it’s best to avoid all fried foods (especially chicken and French fries) when eating out, as these are most likely fried in a hydrogenated oil—a trans fat and now interesterified fat.

At home, throw out any trans fats, such as Crisco® and stick margarine. Use natural cold-pressed fats such as extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and butter instead.

MSG

MSG was first added to processed foods in the United States in 1948. Processing and long shelf life decreases the flavor of foods. MSG is a flavor enhancer. This is a benefit when transitioning people from food prepared in their home kitchens to the convenience of canned foods and fast foods. As you would think, MSG has been added to many, if not most, processed foods. MSG is even a common ingredient in fast food French fries, because it gives food that extra pop in taste. But it’s really flavored poison.

MSG is an excitatory neuro-transmitter or “excitotoxin.” Excitotoxins are chemical transmitters allowing brain cells to communicate. Unfortunately, excitotoxins over-stimulate your brain cells and they die. It’s a toxic substance. As you would guess, children are most at risk from ingesting MSG. It can pass the blood brain barrier and even the placental barrier, affecting unborn children.

MSG has been linked to Anxiety (Panic) Attacks, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD and AHDD), allergies, blindness, brain damage, cloudy thinking, migraines, neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s, MS, ALS, Alzheimer’s, rage, and stroke.

You can cut the time in reading labels if you look for a few key words: Flavoring, Hydrolyzed, and Extract. These words are meant to sound nutritious, but are in fact hiding MSG as an ingredient.

Common ingredients which contain MSG:
Bouillon (chicken and beef)
Broth flavoring
Gelatin
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)
Yeast Extract
Malted Barley
Malt Extract
Rice Syrup or Brown Rice Syrup
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
Hydrolyzed Protein
Hydrolyzed Plant Extract
Malt flavoring
Natural Beef or Chicken Flavoring
Plant Protein Extract
Sodium Caseinate
Yeast Extract
Texturized Protein
Autolyzed Yeast
Hydrolyzed Oat Flour
Calcium Caseinate
Natural Flavoring/Seasonings

Flintstone’s vitamins for children show that they contain some of the following substances (depending on variety): Artificial flavors and three different types of food dye, glucose syrup, gelatin and modified starch (which both typically contain MSG), the neurotoxin aspartame, and hydrogenated oils.

Read More on MSG.

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I couldn’t have been more wrong. Supersize-Me, actually shed light on the not-so-obvious perils of regularly eating fast foods. Spurlock became a fast-food lab rat for one month. He calls it his “month in Hell.”

A team of health advisers documented his experiment. By day 18, his whole body was in a meltdown: headaches, body aches, and lack of energy. No surprise, his cholesterol and tryglycerides skyrocketed. What’s worse, his liver began to fail. Despite this, he found himself craving the foods that he was consuming! Morgan’s health team neglected to make a couple of significant connections. They were at a loss for the cause of his headaches.

MSG is a Hidden Ingredient
In much of McDonalds’ food, including fries, there’s a hidden ingredient…MSG. MSG is an excitotoxin, which over-stimulate brain cells to the point that they die. Many people experience headaches when this occurs. It seems likely that MSG was the cause of Morgan’s headaches. It’s a shame that Morgan’s health team missed this important connection.

They were also at a loss as to why Morgan’s liver began to fail after only eighteen days. They concluded it was because of the saturated fat he was ingesting. It was a red herring! They neglected to isolate Trans Fat from natural saturated fats. Trans Fat is manmade and can’t be properly metabolized into your body. Fast foods (as are all restaurant fried foods) are loaded with trans fat.

Children Shouldn’t Eat Trans Fat
The government recommends that we, and especially children, don’t eat any trans fat. Since 2006, it became mandatory to list trans fat on nutrition labels. In fact, McDonalds website lists the trans fat in their foods. A small fry has 3½ grams; medium 5 grams, and a large fry 8 grams. Happy Meals, purchased for small children, fall somewhere between 4 and 5 grams of trans fat.

Trans fat can be found in most of McDonalds foods: salads, shakes, hamburgers, all fried foods including chicken McNuggets, sandwiches, cookies, biscuits, burritos, and of course their fries. Morgan was ingesting trans fat in just about every bite of food. No wonder his liver began to fail!

Most of us don’t eat exclusively at McDonalds,  but you should be able to eat at ANY restaurant for a month without your health failing -even if you put on a few pounds.

It DOES Matter What We Eat
Desperate parents often give in to their picky eaters, who willingly eat junk foods. The cost of eating well is measured in not only dollars, but health. CLICK HERE for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater.

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

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