When I eat junk...

Okay. I have said this before, I'll say it again: sometimes, I eat junk food. Sometimes (particularly when avoiding an unpleasant task) I eat LOTS. Here are some of my favourites:

CHOCOLATE. Num. Thing is, in addition to becoming a ridiculous coffee snob (MASSIVELY dark roast only, 18% cream - my only source of dairy- and honey- three swirls around the cup) I am a total chocolate snob. I no longer have any love for the vending machine fare. I must have DARK, between 70-85% cocoa, and my favourite is called Zing by Zazubean. Oh...MY...WORD. It is so good, it's sinful. It's also over 4$ a bar, but unlike the vending machine chocolate, this is one I savour in 3-4 servings. I have never eaten this kind of bar all in one sitting. Mainly because you don't need to- it's SO dark and rich, you just need a piece..mmmmmm. So Zing has espresso chunks, and 70% dark chocolate. The "zing" part comes from the espresso of course, but also from astragalus, ginseng and maca. That is my ultimate weakness. I also like Green & Black's bars too. YUM.

So, when I have a SALT craving, here it is: plain Ruffles chips and jalapeno hummus. To...die...for. Okay, chips—totally not a good choice, but they do only have a handful of ingredients, all of which I recognize and can buy myself in any store, and at least the hummus has protein, fibre, and even iron. Is it the best source? Nope. Does it taste totally freakin' good on occasion? Yup.

Just wanted to share my weaknesses as I know we all have them. I never pretend that I don't sometimes indulge in food that is NOT the best choice. But you know, it's all about balance. Take the bad and drown it in the good. I had chocolate today, and sweet potato chips (yum) but I also had two salads, a bowl of fruit, a bowl of veggies and a quinoa burger on a rice tortilla. All in all, a successful day.

Celebrate your successes today. If you figure you missed the boat, don't be too hard on yourself. Tomorrow, drown the junk in good stuff—you'll be glad you did. :)

When I eat junk...

More on hydrolyzed protein, and on the need to read—and understand—labels

More from our friends at Wikipedia.org:

"Hydrolyzed protein


Hydrolyzed Protein is protein that has been hydrolyzed or broken down into its component amino acids. While there are many means of achieving this, two of the most common are prolonged boiling in a strong acid (acid-HVP) or strong base or using an enzyme such as the pancreatic protease enzyme to stimulate the naturally-occurring hydrolytic process.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, hydrolyzed protein is used to enhance flavor. The chemical breakdown of proteins may result in the formation of free glutamate that joins with free sodium to form monosodium glutamate (MSG). When added this way, the labels are not required to list MSG as an ingredient.[1] ."

Brilliant!! It's a way to sneak ingredients into your food, without the need to actually LIST them as something harmful. Wow, that is awe-inspiring. I mostly think there's nothing in the world of "industrialized" food that can shock me these days, but I'm almost speechless...almost. :)

I wanted to show you a few pictures of a soy sauce marketed in commercials with lovely families and whatnot. You recognize this? VH soy sauce...come on, we've all seen it, heck, I bought it (and have since drained and recycled it).

So yes, you've seen it, likely bought it, etc. It's been in my fridge a while, but this is a clear case of taking your new "investigative" eyes, and looking at labels of things you consistently buy and trust. Allow me...

Yum. Don't you just want to tuck into that? Water, salt, caramel (which is made by "heating a variety of sugars"), then hydrolyzed soy protein—that lovely chemical that then BINDS with the salt to produce MSG (GENIOUS!!!! SO SNEAKY!!!) then corn syrup and glucose-fructose (two more sugars!!!) and my personal favourite, sodium benzoate. Awesomeness.

Now, for just a minute, I want to go back to why I buy organic. There are SO many reasons, but one more to add to the list, is that producers of organic food are in a niche market. They are appealing to people who care about the ingredients in their food. People who have a little more money to spend (or simply choose to devote more of their resources to good nutrition), granted, but those that have decided that they don't want to pass over the ingredient list, ignoring the things they don't understand, so that they can obtain a cheap and yummy product.

Now let's move to the organic, gluten free version I started buying a while ago.

Now taste-wise, this is okay. It doesn't have that syropy sweetness we're all used to, but it's good. Please have a look at the ingredient list...

Four things. Water, organic soybeans, salt, organic alcohol (for the fermentation process I guess). I'm sure you also notice the warning about wheat among other things. They are required to label a product that is made in the same factory as allergens, even if they're not made on the same line. This product is certified gluten free.

This is a huge lesson to me to stop ignoring the items on the label, and to look back at the items I've bought and trusted all this time. Join me...you might just be as surprised as I am! Email me if you find anything shocking. I'd love to hear from you! missdropsie at hotmail dot com.

More on hydrolyzed protein, and on the need to read—and understand—labels

Food recalls

I truly believe that as we industrialize the production of food, you will see an increasing number of food recalls. A massive recall of "snack foods" is expected because an ingredient produced by a Las Vegas company may contain salmonella. That ingredient is called hydrolized vegetable protein or HVP.  Let's take a moment to examine what the heck that is (for those who care, it definitely falls into the category of "if your grandmother wouldn't recognize it as food, you may choose not to eat it").

Let's have a week peek at what Wikipedia says about HVP:

"Acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP,[1] is produced by boiling cereals or legumes, such as soy, corn, or wheat, in hydrochloric acid and then neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide. The acid hydrolyzes, or breaks down, the protein in vegetables into their component amino acids. The resulting dark coloured liquid contains, among other amino acids, glutamic acid, which consumers are more familiar with in the form of its sodium salt, monosodium glutamate, or MSG. It is used as a flavor enhancer in many processed foods."

Huh. This would really be a case of not knowing what is in our foods, huh? I had no idea that MSG could sneak into my foods in the form of hydrolyzed vegetable protein. Sound innocuous enough, no? If I were scanning over a list of ingredients and saw that, I'd think "well, vegetable, protein, must be okay".

Wiki also says:
"Because of the high levels of MSG in hydrolyzed vegetable protein, people sensitive to MSG should avoid hydrolyzed vegetable protein.[2]

In the case of soy sauce, a residual of the soy protein hydrolyzation process creates the carcinogen 3-MCPD."

Nice. REEEEALLY great. MMMMmmmmm carcinogen (à la Homer Simpson). This is what happens when we are so removed from the source of our food, that we turn a blind eye to how it was created, what went into it, and what we are doing to ourselves by eating it.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: read the ingredients. If there's something on there that you don't recognize, or that a grade-three student couldn't pronounce, don't eat it. It's not worth it.

Food recalls

Allergy test results

Okay folks! So, the verdict is in- here is the summary from my allergy tests...

The biggest thing i'm reacting to is soy. :)  No surprise there, because I substitute soy for a lot of things. However, my dairy reactions are all low. There are two reasons for this: 1) I hardly ever eat dairy, so I'm not producing antibodies to it, and/or 2) my reaction to dairy is not allergic, but rather a lactose intolerance. So all in all, I am going to work dairy back in- just in cheese though. Obviously having soy cheese is not a good idea right now. I basically have to "give it a rest" on the soy.

The second-biggest thing I'm reacting to is egg. Yup. Egg white AND egg yolk. That's weird. I don't eat a ton of eggs, but the reaction is quite high.

Third-biggest thing I'm reacting to: Gluten. Yup. Now, keep in mind that I have not knowingly eaten gluten for the better part of a year. The test actually states that if you haven't eaten something for "several weeks" you may have no reaction to it. Well, the better part of a year later, with cross-contamination as the only possible source for gluten, and I am STILL reacting to gluten, rye and wheat. Wow! This is crazy.

Next on the list is oysters, which to the best of my knowledge, I've never eaten, so whoop dee do. Don't care.

There are a few other things I have a low reaction to, like almonds, peanuts, kidney beans. This would be the type of situation where I wouldn't eat all those things in the same day. Know what I mean?

I am going to follow up with the naturopath, and I'm going to take these results with me when I go see the gastroenterologist at the end of the month. Really nice to have one piece of the puzzle.

Haven't got "the boy's" yet...but his will be way more interesting because he hasn't avoided any food except straight milk. Funny though, since we've been back from my sister's, I haven't let him have any dairy and he has stopped complaining of stomach pains...except for the one day when he accidentally got a grilled cheese at school...

To be continued.

Allergy test results