Crap in Food

After watching Dr. Oz yesterday something clicked in my head.I usually think he's full of crap but not totally as I have found out. What he stated about sugar alcohols and diacetyl rang true so I did some research and what I found out scared the daylights out of me. To think that the popcorn I love and the "healthier" version of butter that I have been consuming could contribute to alzheimers made me want to scream! They have known about this since 2007 but it take a Dr. Oz show to get us the information. I have known that sugar alcohols(malititol) used to take the place of sugar in low and fat free foods make many people including myself, violently ill for about a year now but I didn't know that any ingredient with "itol" at the end is in fact sugar alcohol. I looked at my gum in my purse and sure enough it has one of the "itols" listed in it.

I am now on the hunt for any ingredients in my food that is artificial. I am eliminating all ingredients that it would take a scientist to figure out. No more low fat or fat free. No more butter substitute. My Mom had it right and we ate healthy all of our young lives.Fresh fish,pheasant chickens, vegetables and yes steak every saturday night. Everything was fresh and healthy. I am going to stop diet pepsi and if I am "jonesing" I will have half a regular one.

I need help from my MFP friends.So tell me how you have cleaned up your diet
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Replies

  • wwk10
    wwk10 Posts: 244 Member
    If it looks like food it ok to eat.
    If it comes in a package its not.

    I dont have any studies to back me up, thats just what I do.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
    After watching Dr. Oz yesterday something clicked in my head.I usually think he's full of crap but not totally as I have found out. What he stated about sugar alcohols and diacetyl rang true so I did some research and what I found out scared the daylights out of me. To think that the popcorn I love and the "healthier" version of butter that I have been consuming could contribute to alzheimers made me want to scream! They have known about this since 2007 but it take a Dr. Oz show to get us the information. I have known that sugar alcohols(malititol) used to take the place of sugar in low and fat free foods make many people including myself, violently ill for about a year now but I didn't know that any ingredient with "itol" at the end is in fact sugar alcohol. I looked at my gum in my purse and sure enough it has one of the "itols" listed in it.

    I am now on the hunt for any ingredients in my food that is artificial. I am eliminating all ingredients that it would take a scientist to figure out. No more low fat or fat free. No more butter substitute. My Mom had it right and we ate healthy all of our young lives.Fresh fish,pheasant chickens, vegetables and yes steak every saturday night. Everything was fresh and healthy. I am going to stop diet pepsi and if I am "jonesing" I will have half a regular one.

    I need help from my MFP friends.So tell me how you have cleaned up your diet

    Did you make sure to avoid confirmation bias while researching?
  • Rowan813
    Rowan813 Posts: 170 Member
    If you want to get really creeped out, start researcheing genetically modified food and what is being learned about those. I am getting pickier and pickier about my food choices.
  • avir8
    avir8 Posts: 671 Member
    Don't forget how dangerous Dihydrogen monoxide is also!!!!
  • drmerc
    drmerc Posts: 2,603 Member
    I don't eat any foods that have more than 2 vowels in them
  • jack3Dav3
    jack3Dav3 Posts: 39 Member
    Don't forget how dangerous Dihydrogen monoxide is also!!!!

    ^^ That stuff is no joke. Can be fatal if inhaled.
  • Fay84Vegan
    Fay84Vegan Posts: 225 Member
    I competely agree with you... well aside from the eating meat - I'm Vegan :happy:

    A lot of producst are labelled 'Natural' ... when clearly they're not.

    If it comes from a packet then i will read every ingredient contained in the product.

    I'm sticking to as much home made fresh food as possible, so i know what is going into my body.

    I recently convinced my husband to stop drinking diet drinks because of the nasty artifical sweeteners used in them.
  • belladonna786
    belladonna786 Posts: 1,165 Member
    if you can't read the ingredients don't eat it! Don't get me started on GMO'S research stuff it will scare you into eating well
  • jonward85
    jonward85 Posts: 534 Member
    Don't forget how dangerous Dihydrogen monoxide is also!!!!

    Dihydrogen Monoxide is amazingly dangerous...

    1) breathing it will kill you
    2) It's the #1 component in Acid Rain
    3) accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
    4) has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.

    Why do we allow it!!!!!
  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
    If it looks like food it ok to eat.
    If it comes in a package its not.

    I dont have any studies to back me up, thats just what I do.


    This is what I'm striving for as well. Not totally 'clean' yet, but each week a little more. I avoid foods that come in boxes.
  • pixiechick8321
    pixiechick8321 Posts: 284 Member
    If your ten year old can't pronounce it and your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize it, don't eat it.

    I really like Michael Pollan's books - check out his food rules one (it's really short) and it'll help guide you.

    I do try to eat minimal processing and local and what not - it can be more expensive to eat healthy though, so pick your battles.

    Also, look at diaries of people who are clean eaters - for example, my day was:

    Cottage cheese cakes and oj for breakfast (make the cakes - cottage cheese, flour, egg - the cheese was the least healthy)
    celery, carrots, orange for snack
    pasta (could have been healthier if made from scratch, but it's a busy month for my family), baby clams (in water originally, no added stuff), olives, capers, pasta sauce (again, we have scratch but I am using the last of a brand, it's still all pronounceable stuff)
    greek yogurt for snack (here, you can do low fat or fat free, it's just the milk type, any ingredients that sound weird are just natural biotics in there to get the yogurt to culture, I like fage, it's thick)
    no supper planned yet, but probably chicken (redbird) and veggie stir fry or perhaps catfish and avocado salad

    So today for me was pretty clean - minimal packaged foods, recognizable foods, and no soda, candy, etc.
  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
    Oh, and for those who forgot how to use google:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,228 Member
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    a27j0w.jpg
  • Koldnomore
    Koldnomore Posts: 1,613 Member
    I don't eat anything with artificial sweeter - I use sugar, or honey or nothing at all. I don't drink my calories - ever. Water or black coffee. No 'diet' anything.
    90% of the food I eat I cooked myself from raw ingredients, as many as possible purchased locally.
    I try as much as possible also to avoid anything in a box.
  • Healthydiner65
    Healthydiner65 Posts: 1,448 Member
    Conagra, makers of Orville, Act II and Pop Secret removed diacetyl from their popcorn as of 2008 per consumer search.But I have been eating it longer than that!
  • Lift_hard_eat_big
    Lift_hard_eat_big Posts: 2,278 Member
    Don't drink tap water unless you've got a high quality filter. It's full of pesticides other harmful compounds.
  • cmcollins001
    cmcollins001 Posts: 3,472 Member
    drozfood.jpg
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
    I don't eat anything with artificial sweeter - I use sugar, or honey or nothing at all. I don't drink my calories - ever. Water or black coffee. No 'diet' anything.
    90% of the food I eat I cooked myself from raw ingredients, as many as possible purchased locally.
    I try as much as possible also to avoid anything in a box.

    Better ditch the coffee, you're drinking cals. Agree on the box thing though, i drank wine in a box once and felt like death afterwards
  • rjmwx81
    rjmwx81 Posts: 259 Member
    I don't eat any foods that have more than 2 vowels in them

    You must have a very strict diet. Wouldn't want to eat anything with those dangerous, dangerous vowels:

    Bananas (3 vowels)
    Broccoli (3)
    Tomatoes (4)
    Lettuce (3)
    Cauliflower (5! No wonder it tastes so bad)
    Cabbage (3)
    Peanuts (3)
  • Healthydiner65
    Healthydiner65 Posts: 1,448 Member
    Don't drink tap water unless you've got a high quality filter. It's full of pesticides other harmful compounds.

    The only time I use tap is when I am boiling it.Like when I make spaghetti. Do you think this is o.k. I live in an area that may have radon. Now that I think about it I better do some research with my water company!
  • Just because it's got a long and scary sounding name doesn't mean it's not "natural"

    From wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol

    "Xylitol is found in the fibers of many fruits and vegetables, and can be extracted from various berries, oats, and mushrooms, as well as fibrous material such as corn husks and sugar cane bagasse, and birch."

    OMG! It's a natural product. Sure, because it's a hydrogenated form of carbohydrate it can by synthesised. But one set of Hydrogen, Carbon and Oxygen molecules in the same arrangement is the same no matter the source.

    Natural things can be good (Tomato) and bad (Nightshade) - same family, both natural. Whereas there are whole families of "synthetic" molecules which I'd quite happily eat stacks of.
  • Arrabindi
    Arrabindi Posts: 169 Member
    Don't drink tap water unless you've got a high quality filter. It's full of pesticides other harmful compounds.

    That really depends on where you live!
  • Thomasm198
    Thomasm198 Posts: 3,189 Member
    I prefer not to eat foods that have crap in them. I'm not into scatology.

    Anything else? Who cares if I can pronounce it or not. I can't pronounce the names of the ingredients of a lot most medicines. Does that mean I shouldn't use them if I get sick?
  • opuntia
    opuntia Posts: 860 Member
    How does popcorn contribute to Alzheimers? It's one of my favourite snacks, so I need some hard evidence before I abandon it!
  • Jacwhite22
    Jacwhite22 Posts: 7,010 Member
    I competely agree with you... well aside from the eating meat - I'm Vegan :happy:

    A lot of producst are labelled 'Natural' ... when clearly they're not.

    If it comes from a packet then i will read every ingredient contained in the product.

    I'm sticking to as much home made fresh food as possible, so i know what is going into my body.

    I recently convinced my husband to stop drinking diet drinks because of the nasty artifical sweeteners used in them.

    You are very pretty
  • LittleBallofFurr
    LittleBallofFurr Posts: 242 Member
    Don't forget how dangerous Dihydrogen monoxide is also!!!!


    LOL I love this
  • gruvkitty
    gruvkitty Posts: 12 Member
    You're going to get all kinds of responses on this, as food choice drives folks nuts.

    Eat "real" food- not chemically altered crap. Eat small amounts of it- or the appropriate serving size. "Fat free" garbage and chemical sugar substitutes are disasters for our bodies and our health.

    I think this approach annoys a lot of people b/c they don't want to have to think about what they eat, aside from calories and fat. Dr Oz is okay, but there's lots of good info out there about eating real, whole foods.
  • Healthydiner65
    Healthydiner65 Posts: 1,448 Member
    Just because it's got a long and scary sounding name doesn't mean it's not "natural"

    From wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol

    "Xylitol is found in the fibers of many fruits and vegetables, and can be extracted from various berries, oats, and mushrooms, as well as fibrous material such as corn husks and sugar cane bagasse, and birch."

    OMG! It's a natural product. Sure, because it's a hydrogenated form of carbohydrate it can by synthesised. But one set of Hydrogen, Carbon and Oxygen molecules in the same arrangement is the same no matter the source.

    Natural things can be good (Tomato) and bad (Nightshade) - same family, both natural. Whereas there are whole families of "synthetic" molecules which I'd quite happily eat stacks of.

    The problem with the "itols" is that it makes alot of people ill with GI problems.That is why we don't eat it. disguising it in other names is misleading that is why we are starting to see it listed as sugar alcohol as a main ingredient.
  • kenazfehu
    kenazfehu Posts: 1,188 Member
    I stick as close to nature as I can afford, but I refuse to get myself in a knot over this stuff. Nobody lives forever, and I'm not going to lay there wondering why I'm dying of nothing.
  • Better ditch the coffee, you're drinking cals. Agree on the box thing though, i drank wine in a box once and felt like death afterwards

    Haha! Love this! Well done:)