Freaky Food Lady

I mentioned earlier a reference to calling myself a bit of a 'food freak'.  I didn't just one day randomly decide to become freaky about food and start throwing things out.  It came about innocently enough, a little reading here, talking with someone over there, picking up literature on this or that and all of the sudden I realized how much CRAP is in our food!  It disgusts me and makes me irate with the policies and practices supposedly in place to protect us!  That is a whole other topic that frankly, I am not willing to get in to.

So what else has been removed from our household:

1. MSG - really it's a flavor enhancer.  Meant to make all your food taste WONDERFUL!  One of the reasons those fast food burgers are so mouthwatering.  It also tends to make you want more.
2. Artificial sweeteners - yep you won't find anything marked 'sugar free' or 'fat free' in our house.  Aspartame is a neurotoxin, it messes with your brain in a toxic way.
3. Regular white sugar - do you know what makes it white?  BLEACH!  So, I purchase organic sugar through Costco.  It cooks/works exactly the same as it's bleached counterpart.
4. Food Dye - really 'google' it!  It is gross!  For example, yellow #5 has tartrazine in it, it is a derivative of coal tar!  Red dye contains erythrosine, another coal tar based compound and there is suspicion that it is carcinogenic.  Side note:  since removing food dye from our house our daughter sleeps better, is more pleasant to be around and has lost the 'edginess' and fidgets no more!  She is calm, can concentrate and is a totally different kid!  When she gets food dye in something we know it!  Plus she gets a rash! 
5. High Fructose Corn Syrup - not much to say on this one, than other I believe it is overused and unnecessary.  It is a cheap way to sweeten everything from ketchup to soda.
6. Pesticides/chemicals sprayed on our food - we eat a lot of organic produce.  Google the 'dirty dozen' and you will find a few suggestions on what to always buy organic.  Onions for example, repeal bugs by themselves so really no pesticides are needed...so I don't worry if my onions are organic or not.  Apples however can have up to 50 different pesticides/chemicals sprayed on them!  They permeate the fruit, go into the flesh - so really just washing doesn't rid the food of them.  You are eating them!
7. BHT - a food preservative that I am just learning a bit about...

I know my list must look a bit overwhelming and maybe you even think 'really, what is left to eat?'...well there is TONS left to eat!  I just got home from a great shopping trip at Trader Joe's.  We have the usual junk food - chips, TJ's cheetos, chocolates etc...but I know that everything I put in my cart from there will be free of MSG, free of food dye and free of HFCS!  I LOVE Trader Joe's!  I can buy pickles, ketchup, soup, and know I only need to be concerned about reading a label for gluten.  Whole Foods is very much the same!  Unfortunately, neither store is super close for me so I stock up when I go!  We also belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture) that supplies us with 22 weeks of fresh local organic produce.  It is a cost up front but is well worth it when my fridge is stocked with good quality food.  I also plan ahead...this summer I picked 32 pounds of chemical free blueberries and froze them!  We enjoy them in GF muffins, smoothies, GF pancakes and just eating them frozen!

Again, I caution that these are my opinions and what I have seen work for my family!  I encourage you to consider one step at a time...this has been a 14 year process for me!  It started out slowly with the bulk of our change coming in the last three years...but I didn't do it all in one day!