Today’s blog entry comes from Lowery Johnson. She’s been able to transform her life and her health by losing over 100 pounds. Truly an inspiration to anyone who has struggled with weight loss. The great thing about Lowery is that she’s committed to a new, healthy lifestyle and she’s taking the steps necessary to focus on foods that will give her a health a boost instead of harming her. I have the utmost respect for anyone who is trying hard to change their physical fitness and health. It’s not an easy journey. It’s especially not made easier by all the mixed messages we get on new health and diet fads. The amount of time and effort it takes to cycle through all this info and try to find what’s truth and what’s a fad can be maddening. What do I think is the best way to maneuver through all this? I try and keep it simple, eat as raw and unprocessed as possible, and make sure that I’m really looking at labels for everything else I’m putting in my body. Lowery takes some time to show us some ingredients in common foods that you may not have known were so damaging to your health. Of course, we make sure Gnarly products don’t have any of these hidden disasters -Joel
By: Lowery Johnson
Eating healthier has turned me into a major label reader. This is somewhat of a blessing and a curse. I’m learning day by day that there are some scary things in our food that we don’t even realize are there. And some of these things we hear about on the news but don’t really care because the food just tastes too good to give up.
From me to you, this is my honest warning about four pretty common ingredients that may be approved by the FDA in small doses, but appear in our food way more frequently that we’d assume making us more susceptible to some of the major side effects.
High Fructose Corn Syrup
High fructose corn syrup is used in place of a more expensive ingredient called cane sugar. Cane sugar is sugar in its natural form. the HFCS industry leads us to believe that because it comes from corn, it is totally safe and even somewhat natural. Wrong. Your body doesn’t process HFCS the same way it would process cane sugar. In short, cane sugar takes time to break down and digest meaning it affects your body slower. HFCS doesn’t require digestion so it hits your blood stream more quickly causing spikes in insulin levels and a more rapidly occurring process of fat storage. HFCS can also cause increased appetite, fatty liver disease and diabetes. The Huffington Post has a really in depth article on HFCS that is worth the read.
Foods to look out for: Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Oreos, Miracle Whip, and even Vicks Nyquil Cough medicine. Click here for a more complete list.
Brominated Vegetable Oil
This ingredient is made up of bromine which is used as a flame retardant. It’s most commonly used in citrus beverage to keep the flavors from separating. So if you drink a lot of Mountain Dew or Diet Mountain Dew you are at risk for something called Bromide Dominance. This is when the bromine builds up in your tissue and prevents iodine metabolism. Iodine deficiency increases risks of breast, thyroid, ovary and prostate cancer. There are several blogs out there with more information on the risks of BVO and why companies use it.
Foods to look out for: Mountain Dew of most varieties
Stay tuned because tomorrow we are going to talk about 2 more foods to keep out of your for as you stroll through the grocery store.
