FOOD DYES DRAW SCRUTINY-LINK TO HYPERACTIVE KIDS?

I read an interesting article, in the Seattle Times Sunday March 27th issue, about food dyes. It was a scary article showing that the use of artificial dyes by food makers is up by half since 1990. A British study found that children given food dyes showed  increased hyperactivity. Food dyes are used to make our foods pretty. If foods look colorful, we will eat them more. Many foods contain up to 9 different food dyes. Even healthy sounding foods like fruit roll ups are full of food dyes. Europe requires that foods containing dyes have warning labels on them. American food makers like Kellogg and Mars replaced the dyes with some natural dyes to avoid the labels there. America does not require food manufacturers to put warning labels on products containing dyes.

There have been studies that link dyes to hyperactivity in children, and cancer. In 1990, the FDA banned a red dye in cosmetics because it was linked to cancer, but permitted its use in foods. Go figure that. Not safe on your face, but you can eat it! Food Industry officials say that the dyes are safe and British studies are inconclusive. The FDA and the Grocery Manufacturers Association say these dyes are safe! Many companies are developing natural dyes, which is a step in the right direction.

My advice to everyone will always be the same. Whenever possible eat real foods over processed ones to avoid these chemical dyes. If we avoid foods that contain many dyes we can force large food companies to change their ways and clean up their foods. Do we really need to eat neon orange Doritos?

100 Calorie Snacks

Today I went to the store on a hunt for new 100 calorie food snack packs to recommend. Portion Distortion is the reason that most of us gain weight. Our culture has experienced the super-size me mentality, in a big way! Anything that helps us to control our portions is an idea I can recommend! Sounded good to me! I like to try items before I recommend them because sometimes foods that sound good are not. E.G. The 100 calorie chocolate chip cookies should be delish, but are terrible. So my plan was to purchase a few of the new 100 calorie food choices, try them, and recommend them! Sounds like a fun day to me!

I started in the dairy aisle and came upon the Jello pre-done Mousses and Puddings.  Yummy! I had heard that they are really good. I added the Jello dark chocolate mousse to my cart, but I glanced at the ingredients. Bad move. The first ingredient was water, then xylitol, and then some form of milk, followed by a bunch of ingredients I did not recognize. I was bummed! Dark chocolate decadence, I want you! I slowly put them back because I want to be healthy, and I want you to be healthy too. The 100 calorie snacks are made from junk, literally. They are not healthy, so eat them sparingly. Maybe buy your favorite box but don't plan on buying them by the pallet!

A Greek yogurt with a few almonds and an apple would taste great as well as give you nutrition! That is what I would recommend. Alas, except for buying a box of Lorne Doone 100 calorie cookies, that are my favorite, I came home empty handed. It is just hard to pay good money for junk, especially when the first ingredient is water!

I will post my healthy snack list in the next couple of days, so check back. Real food tastes so good and fills you up!

Happy Healthy Snacking!

*Just a note. I did find other 100 calorie snack packs of more healthy choices like cubed cheeses,  popcorn, nuts and craisins. I would recommend these because they are real foods and not processed ones :)

Calories by the Pound

I was flipping through some of my great books this week and I found a chart I had not noticed before. Calories by the pound. Very interesting! I had never thought of calories like that before. It clearly shows why certain foods cause us to gain weight and others don't. Here it is! Check it out!

FOOD	CALORIES PER POUND
Vegetables	65 to 195
Fresh Fruits	135 to 420
Nonfat dairy foods	180 to 450
Potatoes, pastas, brown rice, sweet potatoes, corn, hot cereals	280 to 650
Legumes: peas and beans, such as pinto, garbanzo, black and lentils	400 to 750
Seafood, lean poultry, lean red meat	400 to 870
Dried fruit, jams, fat-free muffins, and all breads, including sourdough rolls, bagels, pita breads, and baguettes	1200 to 1400
Dry cereal, pretzels, fat-free cookies, fat-free potato chips	1600 to 1780
Regular salad dressing	1800 to 2000
Chocolate bars, croissants, doughnuts	2200 to 2500
Nuts, regular potato chips	2500 to 3000
Butter, margarine	3200
Olive oil, corn oil, lard	4010

*From “The Pritikin Edge” by Robert A. Vogel and Paul Tager Lehr

There is a big jump between Seafood and Dried fruit, which is where the processed foods begin. Big surprise there? It really makes you think about the foods that you eat. How about eating a large bag of potato chips. That is almost the same calories as eating straight butter. Would you ever do that? I sure did not pick up that fact, when the bag of Chips that I was eating, listed the calories as 10 chips for 120 calories. Tortilla chips, my favorite are about the same as chips. Tears, tears, tears! You can still eat your favs., just need to be careful with them. Eating real food will pay of for you in weight control! Eat Healthy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out the website! I have been working hard! http://www.healthy-diet-habits.com

Great weekend to all! Kerry