I Am Never Eating Again.

What's the old saying? You don't want to know how laws or sausages are made...

I try hard not to think about where stuff I like to eat comes from...

Dawn

We begin to die the day we are born. Sorry, but overall I do not freak out about all these food warnings and I use common sense.

I try to stick with whole grains, raw foods like fruits and vegetables and limit the rest. I try to stick to the 90/10 rule and do 90 % good and 10% not all healthy.

I will NEVER feed my kids chicken nuggets

I will keep feeding them : broccoli, brown rice, quinoa, fruit,veggies, pasta, meat, cheese etc.

Stop reading all the bad food news and just continue eating healthy. You will be fine!

I think stress is worse for you than most of the bad foods out there. I try to keep some of the crappy foods out of the house but I don't stress about it either. That's why god gave us a liver. :)

Eh, we eat what we like.

Eating engages all of the senses, it's a very sensual thing. It's to be enjoyed not constantly fussed over. Sometimes what we enjoy is good for our bodies AND good for our souls, sometimes what we eat is only good for our souls.

I do get the humor in your post. And I do educate myself as well. And then I use my own common sense. Why not enjoy life while you have it?

:)

Today this food is good and tomorrow the fad is that it's bad. People who frantically give up this or that according to what the media say is good or bad really have no idea what is good healthy foods.

We eat real food. I understand you have a little one with an illness that prohibits that but we eat real food. We use real sugar, real fruit, real butter, real milk 2%, and we don't eat certain foods or stop eating anything because someone else said it's bad.

We were made to be meat eaters. We have the ability to choose for moral reasons or personal choice to eat meat or not. But a diet that is low in carbohydrates, not totally free of them but lower than stuffing the face with pizza numbers would be...lol, seems to me to be the diet our bodies were made to have.

My FIL did a lot of research on diets when he found his cholesterol and triglycerides were extremely high. He was also borderline diabetic.

He had a heart attack at a Gem show in another state. It was literally across the street from the heart hospital. Within 20 minutes of the first pain he was in surgery to have a stent put in.

He ended up a couple of years later having to have open heart surgery and quad bypasses.

He decided to research diets at that time because the heart healthy diet seemed to be making him worse.

He decided to do low carbs. The heart doc told him that he'd be dead within 6 months if he continued to eat like that. BUT within a couple of months my FIL's levels all went to almost perfectly normal. He eats bacon and eggs nearly every morning for breakfast. He has all the meats he wants and more. He is actually healthier because he went to a diet that is what our body is meant to live on.

The heart doc has started putting other patients on the low carb diet to see if they can do the same thing and he's seeing it almost across the board. They are all starting to level off in the near normal range.

So I am convinced. Our bodies were made to eat certain foods. Normal natural things. It knows how to process these foods and get the most good out of them. So I think that fads come and fads go but eating food that is meant for us is the food that comes from plants and animals without all the stuff that is man made and fake.

Now you know why the older generation scoffs at any new info. We have seen everything go on and off the "good for you" list and "bad for you" list.

Myself, I am going to live till God calls me home and not a min sooner or later.

I have gone back to stuff my great grandparents ate. I stopped diet soda. Woo Hoo. I have pushed my exercise so I will face old age leaner. Still not going to live longer than what my Father has set.

We don't feed our family farm-raised fish.
We don't do conventionally-raised apples, berries, bell peppers, peaches (plums, nectarines), leafy veggies - those are organic only for us.
We don't do soy - most is GMO, and that, along with the estrogen-mimicing properties of that have turned me off of it.
We don't do partially hydrogenated oils
We don't do food dyes
We don't do preservatives, ESPECIALLY sodium benzoate, or sodium nitrite/nitrates
We no longer do soda, although for YEARS we'd each been having a Diet Pepsi or Coke Zero daily.

Other than that--it's all good

What we will NEVER quit feeding our kids: lentils. I am so obsessed with them ;-)

Also, we will always have at least some red meat in our diets. It just tastes good! ;-)

ETA: Must be hard to eat whole foods when you live in the SPAM heartland, eh? Oh well, at least Hormel has some really great all natural deli meats available.

i hear ya.
within reason i buy local organic food from farmers i trust. we eat whole foods as much as possible. we grow some of our own.
but i refuse to be a food hostage. sometimes we throw caution to the winds and buy stuff at grocery stores and eat at restaurants.
nobody gets out of here alive.
khairete
S.

I eat a variety of foods, ranging from whole to processed. I buy and cook as much real food as I can, as my schedule permits. Certain things I'm picky about - real butter is one. I won't buy margarine. I hate the taste. I buy sodas made with real sugar - I can taste the difference in the ones made with HFCS and I don't like the taste. I don't buy anything made with Nutrasweet, Splenda, etc. I can taste the difference in those things as well. I don't eat white bread because I don't like the texture. I only like Hebrew National hot dogs.
Otherwise, everything in moderation.

Lilpiggietoes - cellulose is not evil. Yes, it's found in wood. It's also found in every cell wall of every crunchy vegetable - it's what gives plants their structure - their skeleton, if you will.

There isn't anything I wouldn't feed my family. Moderation is key.

We have our own chickens and eat our own egg's. I grow a garden and when it does really well for me I can a lot of it or freeze it for later use, but I just don't stress over food.

Everything in moderation.

I don't feed my family processed foods. Meaning - I don't buy frozen pizza. I don't buy frozen vegetables with the sauce already on them. I don't buy premade pasta sauce or lasagna (or pizza sauce).

I do buy canned tomato sauce and I am hoping that because I don't see the white liner in the cans of the organic sauce I buy (at Costco) it is not laced with BPA.

We did buy a 1/4 cow from a small WI farmer this winter - and I am happy about that decision. He's the father of a friend, it's relatively local, and essentially grassfed (although he does fatten them with grain a bit before butchering). It was so reasonably priced ($2.17 with the butching costs per lb!).

I do raise a garden and we eat pretty much fresh vegi's from it all summer long... I do worry about what might be in our suburban soil...

I am with you 100%. I freaked out recently when I heard that we are only supposed to eat fish once a month (ocean anyway) and I also worry constantly about the depletion of the worlds oceans of fish anyway...

We don't eat much soy - but I worry about my Mom and her sisters (family history of breast cancer) because they use soy milk all the time...

Have you read the Omnivores Dilemna? Or In Defense of Food? Great books.

Grow your own veggies. Raise your own chickens for eggs and meat. Raise a goat for milk. Go vegan, so grow lots of beans for protein. Find a organic farm nearby and buy a share. I think their produce is delivered to you. Or participate in a community organic produce store (co-op). Buy and eat only locally grown food. Wash your food thoroughly with that wash that is available at organic stores. Hunt for deer meat. Buy a share from an organic farm for meat. Cook everything from scratch and freeze the leftovers / extra. Can fruits and vegetables for the winter months.

Or not. I do a few of those things, and then I can't follow through on all of them due to time constraints and the fact that I have shade and cannot grow vegetables at home. My city does allow me to raise chickens.

I know, it is overwhelming. Pick what is essential to you, and try to work in the rest of it as you are able.

Personally, I try not to think about it. Too much care can take the joy out of life.

You are wise to be aware of the issues . . . thanks to the revolving door at the FDA and other government agencies it's hard to know whom or what to trust.

I'm trying to get back to local eating, as whole food oriented as possible. In other words we try to eat stuff as close to the way it comes in nature as possible.

I'm not sure what they've done to soy - all I know is that most soy makes my throat close up. Most soy in the US is genetically modified so maybe that has something to do with it, maybe not.

I'm pushing to label any genetically modified food, just like they do with ingredients. Big Food fights this tooth and nail. Why?

I think once you're awake it doesn't do you any good to become paranoid and fearful. Just do the best you can where you are with what you have. But good for you not being foolish about it either.

I think its true that our food supply is in trouble, but be careful with your internet searching. Look for people who are providing sources for their information.

I have given up tofu, but still enjoy some veg. based proteins like Morningstar brand veggie meats.

I'm eating almost zero meat (except when at in-laws house), and cutting my diary down drastically to a couple servings a week.

switching my grains and breads to organic when possible (corn chips, bread, cereals, tortillas....)

buying most my produce organic, but can't help but buy costco berries, bananas and tomatoes, the organics are so pricy on those.

I still enjoy eating out, and an occasional fast food, I just keep it vegetarian. I also still buy some costco ready made foods, but trying too cook from scratch most of the time.

I also gave up coffee and switched to those instant grain beverages (Pero, Roma, Postum...)

From there I will let the chips land. I can't control everything!

I have tried to be more conscious about somethings - one of the things I have been trying to pay more attention to is bread...I heard in a lecture once that so many breads are not as good as they claim to be. It is quite simple to just look at the label. It sucks though that the "good" ones are so much more expensive!!

Another thing with us is it depends on the season here - we eat so much better in the summer than the winter because we go to the farmers market and get LOTS of fresh produce for fraction of the price. Last year I bought some broccoli and cauliflower at the market, flash boiled it, and froze it to see how it would hold up. I just steamed it the other day and it was pretty good! I will be doing that more this summer so we don't have to rely so much on buying it during the winter when it is more expensive.

One thing that has grossed me out when I read it was about cow's milk...it seems so yucky to think about...but its MILK!!

I would love to take a leap back in time before all of this processing and convenience foods started to take over and live in a simpler time!

I am with you all the way on everything you said. I also am concerned with the ever growing list of GMO everything they keep changing. It's so sad that Monsanto can have such a big hand in all of this and nothing our government will do about it or just choose not to. I'm grateful to the states that have passed the GMO free laws and those that are trying to get it passed. But Monsanto is a huge company and putting up a big fight. Have you seen their commercials on tv these last few months. They make themselves look so wholesome for the American family. Most European countries have banned GMO and others at least label it. Why can't the U.S. at least do that. It's sad that so many people are so uneducated on what they are eating. No wonder why there's an ever growing cancer population here. Sure cancer has been around forever but a lot of it was hereditary, unfortunately these days that's not the case when it comes to cancer.

I just read a small article on the 25 foods not to buy any more ok can't remeber them other than the fiber bars or the like if they contain an ingredient Celluose (spelling maybe incorrect) but I was shocked to read it's wood shavings.Not that I buy these but good to know

I don't worry about any of this stuff. Why?

My great grandma lived to be 105, my grandpa is turning 90 this year, and my grandma is turning 84 this year. Grandpa is still out on the tractor every day. Grandma is in great shape.

They are dairy farmers. They eat lots of meat, and even more dairy products. They go through about 3 pots of coffee a day (And that's if they DON'T have company over). They eat the processed food. They eat it all.

Did I mention that they are 90 and 84 and still in great shape? Ya. I'm not worried

Everything in moderation and you'll be fine!

I get migraines from processed food ingredients...there is a huge list of ingredients I need to avoid or else I get stuffed up, achy, and then start getting a migraine. You can look up these ingredients on the "msg myth" webpage. It took me till my mid-30s to finally figure it out. I also try to avoid nitrates and sulfides. These ingredients are in almost everything! It's so annoying. I try to make a lot of foods from scratch now. Salad dressing is so easy to make. Spag sauce and enchilada sauce is easy to make. Broth is easy to make - I have bags of it in the freezer for cooking or making soup.

Try to stay natural. Try to eat beans, whole grains, and lots of veggies. I try to eat meat rarely and only the organic stuff...gah, it's way too expensive though! We like wild caught Alaska salmon every week. We eat real butter and real sugar...but in moderation. We mainly use olive oil. I guess if it is a new-fangled product that is obviously man made I try to avoid it. For junk food plain tortilla chips or plain potato chips have no weird ingredients. I make my own cookies. I do love coffee but only have 2 cups in the morning...then I switch to water. Good luck with your shopping! It's not easy!

I hear ya LOUD AND CLEAR!

I call this the Dr. Oz effect. The media hypes something, Dr. Oz touts it and boom, we are sent into literally an anti-feeding frenzy.

This may sound really boring and repetitive but (yawwwn) moderation, moderation, moderation. Hell on Heels got it right: Too much information is sometimes a bad thing. Consider the source: Extremist news channel? Extremist animal rights group?

You might want to start "fresh" by tuning out all said health reports and just going by your own intuition.

Food marketers have definitely honed in on the whole grain craze. Yes, whole grains are much better for you, but really, Lucky Charms? A "good source of whole grain?"

See: Intuition.

Becoming awakened to what's REALLY going on out there with our food supply IS scary stuff. Research and learn all you can, so that you know and can protect yourself and your family as much as possible. Take pains to truly change what/how you eat. If you're able, join the national lobby groups that are working to change these issues, and send in e-mail action alerts to let your representatives know what YOU as their constituent want. They don't know how many people are for or against something if they never hear from you.

In the end, though, like another poster said, it doesn't pay to get fearful.

Use the knowledge you've gleaned to empower yourself and your family. And then, talk to other people. Don't push, don't get insulting; if they don't want to listen, leave them alone. They're not awake enough yet to hear what you have to say. When you do find someone who is interested in what you have to say, give them a little information, then nudge them toward some good Web sites so they can start finding out for themselves what's been going on. One of my favorite places to get unbiased information is NaturalNews.com. Mercola.com is also very good.

The deception goes way beyond our food. Once you're awakened in one area, the light comes on in the others.

Read Michael Pollan's book: In Defense of Food. It will forever change how you think about food--one of the best books I have ever read!!