Choosing Healthy Foods: 8 Key Words to Look For
Posted: Monday, February 09, 2009
by Mogama
http://www.mogama.info
In the 11 years that Harriet and I have been shopping and eating healthy, we have found that words can be misleading if not flat out deceiving when it comes to how foods are labeled. So the health-conscious grocery shopper should take time to read the list of Ingredients on the label to make sure you are getting real health food, not one in name only.
Frankly, some so-labeled natural foods and drinks are just as junky as French Fries, salty potato chips, and soda drinks (Coke, Pepsi, etc).
In general here are eight key words that we look for when choosing foods that are truly good for our health.
1. Raw: Honey, Apple Cider Vinegar, Vegetables
2. Organic: Eggs, Fruits, Vegetables, Seeds, Nuts, Grains
3. Whole Grain: Bread, Grains, Cereal, Waffle, Pancake
4. Free Range: Livestock (chicken, turkey, beef/cow, etc)
5. Herb, Herbal: Tea, Supplements, Vitamins
6. Unprocessed: Sugar, Flour used in bread
7. Non-Saturated ( Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated): Fat, Oil, Butter
8. Non-Hydrogenated: Fat, Oil, Butter, Spread
Remember, you are the watchdog for your own health. There is really nobody else looking out for your health, or who can care about your health as much as you can.
Please don't tell me that your doctor is the guardian of your health. By no means. Your doctor has his own health to look out for. Strangely, many doctors are actually unhealthy; some smoke and most have a destructive diet. Have you not seen doctors who smoke like a chimney, or doctors who are overweight, obese, and fat?
That is why you must become and remain the guardian of your health. Look out for your own health. One way my wife and I have done this is to guard our food decisions by looking for the eight key words above as our watchwords to shop healthy for ourselves and our children.
Speaking of the ingredients list, consider the following words to mean hazards to your health - stay away from foods that have these "sick" words on the label:
- Saturated as in fat, oil, butter or spread
- Enriched as in enriched flour. Your typical bread is made from enriched flour, whether loaf, sliced or sandwich.
- Preservative / Preserve - chemical added to preserve food on store shelf is usually pro-profit and anti-health.
- Sweetener the healthy sweeteners are than natural sweeteners like honey, cane juice, organic brown sugar, Stevia, or the naturally occurring sugar found in fruits like grapes, oranges, apples, etc. That means, you shouldn't touch Sweet-N-Low, and other manufactured sweeteners of that breed.
One crucial life-and-death decision you can make about the quality of your life and health is to educate yourself about what foods are healthy and what foods are dangerous and destructive to your health. Why should you be so concerned about what you eat? Because food is the most important factor in determining how healthy you will be. It's true: you are what you eat.
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