No, the only way you can be sure you are eating nutritious foods is to read and understand food labeling. The food manufacturer will do just about anything to convince you that their product is not only tasty, but healthful.

Abby Joy is secure because her mom knows how to avoid label traps! Do you?

1) Whole Grain Trap: The words “Whole Grain” on the front of the package sounds like you’re getting a good dose of fiber.

Truth: The front of the package can say just about anything. The only place you will find the truth will be on the nutrition label. A reasonably good source of fiber has at least 3 grams per serving.

Avoid the Trap by purchasing a food with a whole grain as the first ingredient.

2) Fat-Free Trap: Fat-Free or low-fat on the label means it’s a healthy food.

Truth: When fat has been removed from a product, such as in low-fat yogurt, sugar is added to make up for the deficient in the taste. There is approximately 7 teaspoons of sugar in a 6 ounce container of low-fat yogurt!

Avoid the Trap by purchasing plain (not vanilla) whole milk yogurt and stir in a little fruit-only jam for flavor.

3) Natural Trap: The label says “Natural,” so it must be good for you.

Truth: The FDA doesn’t have an official definition for the term “natural.” Natural can mean anything. Wood is a natural substance, but you wouldn’t want to eat it. On the other hand, USDA Certified Organic means the food is free from chemicals and has been grown without pesticides and GMOs.

Avoid the Trap by purchasing organic foods.

4) Zero Trap: The label advertises zero trans fat.

Truth: If you see “no trans fats” on the label, don’t assume you’re in the clear. Check the ingredients for partially hydrogenated oils, a trans fat. The FDA defines trans-fat-free as less than 0.5 gram per serving.

Avoid the Trap by reading the ingredient list and putting any product back on the shelf which contains hydrogenated anything.

5) Good Source Trap: The words “Good Source” on the front of the package, indicates the product is healthful.

Truth: Foods need only supply 10 percent of a specified nutrient to be labeled a “good source.”  Sometimes the food manufacturer even fudges with that figure, because the 10 percent can be calculated for more than one serving. Look at the fine print.

Avoid the Trap by purchasing whole foods, which are the only good source of any nutrient.

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.

That’s what the label says. I’m NOT kidding.

I wanted to purchase a tub of Cool Whip for a talk I was giving on the “10 Worst Foods of the Decade” and couldn’t find the tub variety, so I bought the aerosol can.

As you can imagine, I was more than a little surprised to see the claim, “0g trans fat” on the label.  Cool Whip is primarily water, chemicals (including trans fat) and air.

So what’s up?

The keys to understanding this ludicrous claim is the amount in a serving and government requirements.  The Food and Drug Administration has decided that for a product to claim zero grams of trans fat a product has to have less than .5 percent of trans fat per serving. Ludicrous! Zero should mean zero, don’t you think?

Avah can’t wait for some real whipped cream.

So how much is a “Cool Whip serving”? Why it’s a mere 2 tablespoons. Dot some Cool Whip on the top of pudding or squirt a little in your mouth and you’ll have a serving.

Of course, if you eat more than a serving, then you are ingesting more than .5 grams of trans fat. If you eat more than 2 tablespoons of Cool Whip (and I imagine most do), then you’ll be over the government recommended limit. That’s the government’s recommendation, not mine. Never mind that trans fat has a half-life of 51 days. That means that it takes 51 days for trans fat to leave your body.

The ingredient panel for the aerosol CoolWhip lists the ingredients as: WATER, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (COCONUT AND PALM KERNEL OILS), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, LESS THAN 2% OF SODIUM CASEINATE (FROM MILK), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CARRAGEENAN, POLYSORBATE 60, MONO-AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM STEROYL LACTYLATE, BETA CAROTENE (COLOR).

(CoolWhip ingredients for the tub variety vary slightly.)

Ingredients are listed in quantity levels, meaning that the largest ingredient is listed first. Lets look at the first eight:

1. Water is the number one ingredient. Actually it’s air, but so far, so good.

2. Hydrogenated vegetable oil comes in second. This is the trans fat. The label states zero grams of trans fat, yet it is second on the ingredient list! Remember, the FDA allows LESS than .5 grams for a zero listing. Cool Whip’s trans fat is derived from coconut and palm kernel oils. They begin with healthy oils and the process to hydrogenate it turns it into an unhealthy creamy product. This gives the product an incredibly long shelf life.

3. High Fructose Corn Syrup. This syrup is adulterated by combining enzymes such as amylase with the glucose. This allows it to be converted to fructose. Fructose is quickly turned to fat in your system.

4. Corn Syrup is sugar, but not just sugar, genetically altered sugar.

5. Sodium Caseinate less than 2% (from Milk). Sodium Caseinate is a protein found in cow’s milk that assists the oil and water to mix together.

6. Natural and artificial flavorings. Artificial flavorings are simply chemical mixtures to replace a natural flavor. Natural flavors are more deceiving, because they can be chemicals as well.

7. Carrageen is extracted from seaweed. It’s considered a natural thickening agent. Although considered natural, it’s come under scrutiny. It may cause digestive problems in some people.

8. Polysorbate 60 comes from processing corn, oil palms and petroleum.  Yes, petroleum. The “poly” is from “polymer, the “sorb” from “sorbitol,” and the “ate” means that it contains oxygen.

YUCK!

Don’t count on the Food and Drug Administration to have your best interest at heart. Next time you want a whipped topping, purchase whipping cream and whip it up yourself!

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.

Society has moved from an agricultural culture to suburban living, where food is divorced from its source. Did you ever wonder what animal the meat came from, because it all looks the same in Styrofoam® packaging? Is the only soup your family eats from a can or box?

Gabriella takes a big bite out of a juicy apple.

Today, many vegetables are purchased frozen or canned. Fresh vegetables from the produce department come layered in plastic and everything has a sticker attached. Mom or Dad are the only ones in the family who touch the food before it’s eaten. Bread used to be made with whole grains. Breakfast cereal was made from scratch and was always hot. Candy was a treat, not a daily routine. Milk and eggs came fresh from the dairy.

Most moms will occasionally bake cookies or cupcakes with their children, even though kids don’t need  encouragement to eat sweets. Set aside at least one day a week in which your children will help you prepare a meal. When your children help with dinner, the food is always more interesting. You may even find that you have a budding chef.

Especially for the picky eater, incorporating ways for her to help prepare meals will definitely increase interest in eating veggies and other whole foods. Although it’s time consuming to have a youngster in the kitchen during meal preparation, it’ll most likely be the most rewarding of all the things you integrate into mealtimes. Think of various ways to include you child in the preparation of new (or previously refused) foods.

To encourage your child to become more interested in nutritious foods, let her help you with their purchase and preparation. The grocery store can be a great teaching experience, when your child is involved in the process. Pick out an item from the produce department which she’s never eaten. Then, let her carry it while you’re in the store. Take this opportunity to discuss its attributes (color, texture, scent, etc.). If you have an older picky eater, ask that he read the nutrition label to identify trans fat that may be a hidden ingredient on items. Ask how many grams are in a teaspoon and then have him figure out the number of teaspoons of sugar in a can of pop or a container of fruited yogurt. Older kids can peel potatoes, write a grocery list, use blenders and hand mixers, read recipes and retrieve all the items needs.

A preschooler is capable of helping with meal preparation, although she still requires assistance. Have her retrieve ingredients from the refrigerator and pantry. Have her help measure ingredients for a recipe. Even a preschooler can toss a salad and use a plastic knife to spread butter or jelly. Look for other tasks your cutie can accomplish by herself: mixing in vegetables, combining ingredients, placing the meat and cheese on a sandwich, and setting and clearing the table.

For more about Multi-Sensory Learning, Click Here.

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Some of the biggest increases in sugar have been in breakfast cereals, and even whole-grain bread has become sweeter. It now routinely contains nearly a teaspoonful of sugar in every three slices. In 1978 Kellogg’s Special K had under 2 teaspoons of sugar per ½ cup, but this has now nearly doubled to 3½ teaspoons—a similar level to vanilla ice-cream.

Ian Tokelove, a spokesman for the Food Commission, which campaigns for healthier foods, said: “Most of us are eating too much sugar, but we are being swamped with it in our food. We naturally have a sweet tooth and manufacturers have been quick to use that to try to increase sales in a crowded marketplace. It’s cheap to use and it’s been one of the first things to be added when companies want to make a product a bit different.”

Food companies maintain that sugar forms a useful part of a balanced diet, but an article in the British Medical Journal warned: “Sugar is as dangerous as tobacco and, in terms of world health, far more important.”

The first step when heading off the sugar tsunami is to read the nutrition label. You might not be surprised to hear that most processed foods are high in sugar and salt. The best foods for your family are whole foods. The next step is to purchase nuts, seeds, fruit, and veggies. Guess what the kids will have for a snack? The whole foods you purchased!

Pictured: Luke-Xavier’s mom is heading off the sugar tsunami by being prepared.
She’s reading food labels and purchasing whole foods.

Click HERE for the book, Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater.

Sugar is produced from sugar cane or sugar beets. In the refining process all the vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes, and other beneficial nutrients have been stripped away. Simple sugars cause a drop in the ability of white blood cells to engulf bacteria, resulting in the suppression of the immune system.

People develop a craving for sweet tasting foods, especially little picky eaters. Skinny picky eaters may grow up to be overweight, as their favorite foods often have added sugars.

Several studies have shown an increase in the number of children diagnosed with type two diabetes. Until recently, only 1 to 2 percent to of children with diabetes had type two. Reports indicate up to 45 percent of children with newly diagnosed diabetes do NOT have type one. Type two diabetes is directly connected to the processed sugary foods people eat and is avoidable.

The average American consumes approximately 2½ pounds of sugar a week!
Kids eat more sugar then their parents.

Sugar is seductive as it may take years before sugar makes you overweight, ruins your pancreas, your adrenal glands, and throws your endocrine system out of whack. Sugar is included in most processed foods. It’s in everything from soup, to cereals, to ketchup, to lunch-meat.

In my book, Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater,” there are practical solutions on how to avoid sugar. First, you must become familiar with all it’s aliases. Buy the Book at the Baby Bites Store Now! Click Here

Sugar is listed on the nutrition label under 40 different names!

Various Names For Sugar Commonly Found in Processed Foods:

• Amaske (brown rice)
• Barley malt (grain)
• Beet sugar (root)
• Brown rice syrup (grain)
• Brown sugar
• Cane juice
• Confectioners’ sugar
• Corn sweetener (grain)
• Corn syrup (grain)
• Date sugar (fruit)
• Dextrose
• Fructooliosaccharides (fruit)
• Fructose (fruit)
• Fruit juice concentrate (fruit)
• Galactose
• Glucose
• Granulated sugar
• High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) — If you were to avoid only one sugar, HFCS would be the one! According to physicians Mehmet Oz and Michael Roisen, high-fructose corn syrup is the worst sweetener added to our food supply. In their book, “You: The Owner’s Manual…,” they state: “One of the biggest evil influences on our diet is the presence of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a sugar substitute that itself is a sugar found in soft drinks and many other sweet, processed foods. The problem is that HCFS inhibits leptin secretion, so you never get the message that you’re full. And it never shuts off gherin, so, even though you have food in your stomach, you constantly get the message that you’re hungry.”
• Honey (natural)
• Juice concentrate
• Lactose
• Licorice Root
• Maltodextrin (corn syrup solids)
• Malted barley (grain)
• Maltose
• Maple sugar (natural sweetener)
• Molasses (natural sweetener)
• Powdered sugar
• Rice Syrup & Yinni Syrup
• Raisin juice (fruit)
• Raisin syrup (fruit)
• Raw sugar
• Sorghum syrup
• Stevia—Stevia is really a healthy sweetener. It’s a herbal sweetener that’s two to three hundred times sweeter than sugar and no calories. It’s presently sold in the U.S. as a dietary supplement, although it has been used as a sweetener for hundreds of years in Latin America, Japan, and Asia and now in Europe.
• Sucanat
• Sucrose
• Sugar cane
• Turbinado sugar
• White sugar

Update on Sugar Alcohols and Polyols

Polyols include: Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysates (HSH), Isomalt, Lactitol, Maltitol, Mannitol, Sorbitol, and Xylitol.

Polyols are slightly better than artificial sweeteners, but in light of the following information, I would strongly caution parents in purchasing foods for your children with Polyols listed in the ingredients.

Polyols are made from sugar. Polyols average 50 percent fewer calories than sugar. Although, they can have adverse side effects: dehydration, equilibrium loss, vitamin and mineral depletion, and malnutrition. Polyols can adversely effect the digestive system with bloating, gastrointestinal distress, diarrhea, and anal leakage at 1 1/2 teaspoons a day. Although in some individuals (possibly more so in children) these side effects may occur at a lower level.

Children have immature digestive systems it’s best to avoid Polyols as well as artificial sweeteners. I would NOT recommend Polyols for children, even though you’ll find them in candy, chewing gum, chocolate, baked goods, cough drops, cold medicines, mouthwashes, and ice cream.

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• Natural only means the product is edible: Look for “100% All Natural”, “No Preservatives”, or “Certified Organically grown.”
• Fortified, Enriched, Added, Extra, and Plus: You can be sure these products have had the nutrition removed and artificial ingredients have been added. Look for 100% whole-wheat bread, high-fiber, and low-sugar on cereals and breads.
• Fruit Drink: This product is mostly sugar. Instead, purchase products that say 100% Fruit Juice. Then if you really want to save money, even 100% fruit juice contains a lot of natural sugars, so dilute the fruit juice before drinking.
• Made with Wheat, Rye, or Multi-Grains or Whole Grain Goodness: Sounds healthy, doesn’t it? Look for the word “whole” before the word “grain” to ensure that you’re getting a 100% whole-grain product.
• Organically Grown, Pesticide-Free, or No Artificial Ingredients: This can be a healthier product, but to be sure trust only labels that say “Certified Organically Grown.”
• If the front of the package states: Sugar-Free or Fat-Free-Don’t assume the product is healthy or low-calorie. The manufacturer most likely compensated with unhealthy ingredients. Sugar-free is usually loaded with artificial sweeteners. Fat-free products always have added sugars to make up for the lack of taste when the fat’s removed.

Don’t be fooled into believing that so-called healthy foods are necessarily lower in sugar. Yogurt is probably one of the worst offenders. Mom’s think they’re giving their babies a healthy food, when in fact it’s loaded with sugar. Fruited and even vanilla yogurts have between 6 and 7 teaspoons of sugar per serving. Food manufactures, rely on your being in a rush and not taking the time to read or understand the nutrition label. You no longer have to be myth-tified. You now know the tricks of the trade.

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