As I look back over my life, especially from my teenage years forward, I can honestly say that I have “tried” to eat healthy. It’s my definition of healthy that has changed over the years.
When I was young, as my kids are, my definition of healthy was whatever my mom or grandmother made for me to eat. It was all about taste. If it didn’t taste good, I didn’t want it.
In my Junior High and High School years, I did go through the “junk food” phase, just as any teenager. I remember living off of what was served in vending machines, concession stands, and whatever treats were being sold to help each of the classes earn money for their future Senior Trips. I even distinctly remember sneaking clear Kool-Aid in my water bottle when cheering at High School Basketball games. However, I did go through the phase where I thought limiting my caloric intake was healthy. I remember bringing simple things like a rice cracker or a tortilla with some fruit for lunch. Then my mom had a dream that I was struggling with Anorexia and I would only eat a ¼ of an orange a day. So, she started making me healthy breakfasts and would watch me eat every…last…bite. Needless to say, that ended that phase of eating really quick.
College was a stressful time. Not only because of my classes and the pressure that comes from those, but because my very first roommate was killed in a car accident only 2 weeks before I took my first semester’s final examinations. I remember living in a fog for the rest of that year and questioning whether I should go back to college the next year. I just ate. I don’t remember caring much about what. I ate because I knew I needed to, not because I was hungry.
I did end up going back for my Sophomore Year and stayed until I graduated. My eating habits consisted of instant oatmeal for breakfast, fruit snacks and peanut butter jelly sandwiches for my lunch, and cheese quesadillas for dinner. I thought they were healthy because that is what the front label said.
Once I graduated from college, I started gaining weight. I guess it was from no longer running up my 4 flights of stairs to my apartment and all over campus to get to my classes on time. I tried Weight Watchers before finding Beachbody. While both of those programs have their advantages, they also have their disadvantages. Weight Watchers promotes that you can eat whatever you want as long as you have enough points. Beachbody promotes removing the junk from your diet and eating a limited amount of food while working out with some oftentimes strenuous exercise programs.
In all of my definitions of health, I was conditioned to believe that I was eating a healthy diet, because that is what the label, a friend, or the person selling the product said. I never once did any research to confirm their beliefs. Why would I? When I put so much trust in the food or products I was being sold. I never thought for one second that I could be purchasing lies.
Fast forward to today, I have cut out practically all processed foods, white flour, and eggs. I eat more fruits and vegetables. I have created healthy boundaries for my life. I have made certain commitments to myself and I keep them, even when it’s hard. I have taken control of what I put into my body and no one (and I mean no one) else is allowed to tell me what is “healthy” for me anymore! I have done my research and I only rely on what I feel is right for me! For the first time in my life, I am more concerned with how I feel instead of those numbers on my bathroom scale! (I cleaned the bathroom yesterday and pulled the scale out from under our vanity and it actually had dust on it. That’s how long it’s been since I’ve used it!) And you know what? I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER! My migraines are practically non-existent, I have more energy, I sleep better, I am in a good mood the majority of the time, and I am proud to say I am in control of my own health!
And you know what? YOU CAN BE IN CONTROL OF YOUR OWN HEALTH TOO!
I honestly believe that most people are trying to be healthy. I believe that most people read the front of the food products they purchase and buy them with good intentions. However, we are putting our trust in large food companies that do not care about our health! All they care about is how to manipulate us out of our money! When we buy and consume most of the processed food items our grocery stores have to offer, we are losing our health with every bite or drink!
What I appreciate most about Food Activist, Vani Hari, is that she isn’t trying to force her way of thinking on anyone. Her main goal is to educate anyone who will listen. In her book, ‘Feeding You Lies,’ she states the facts about the lies we are being told by big food companies about what is really in their food products, the research that supports her findings, and the questions to ask yourself when purchasing processed food or even fruits and vegetables. Then she asks you to do your own research.
This book has opened my eyes to so many of the lies we are being fed and have been fed most of our lives!
“These multinational companies are really good at selling us fake food, produced in giant factories from a long list of already highly process ingredients. They sell us these products because they are highly profitable, even if it means we’re consuming dangerous chemicals, additives, and toxic ingredients.
And it gets worse than that. Its intentional. Food companies have big R&D departments for this very reason—to make their food addictive. If it wasn’t, they’d have a much harder time staying in business. As a result, American families are compelled to keep gobbling down loads of processed foods, full of way too much sugar and risky additives…fake food. It’s no surprise that this has led to escalating rates of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. But we believe we need processed food—because we’ve been conditioned to crave it. The big companies rake in the profits; we pay with our health. Creating franken “foods” that are bad for us but good for their bottom line.
Nutrition really isn’t that complicated. We know that we should be eating more whole foods and avoiding junk food and processed foods. Alas, in this world of Big Food propaganda, eating real food that’s good for us is bad for business. After all, if we all ate real food…Big Food would practically be out of business.”
In 2016, I had the opportunity to visit a friend who was living in Germany. I wanted to not only experience the culture and the sites, but I wanted to experience the food! I wanted to try everything! Among my favorites were the amazing chocolate muffins and a fruit drink called Trué Fruits.
What I noticed the most was that the food tasted better, even my McDonald’s chicken nuggets. My friend explained to me that Germany has different food laws than the United States, but I never imagined the extent until I read this book.
“Let’s start with McDonald’s. They make their iconic french fries in the U.K. with a few simple ingredients: potatoes, oil, dextrose, salt—but in the U.S. they’re made with “natural beef flavor” and sodium acid pyrophosphate, and are fried in oil laced with the anti-foaming agent dimethylpolysiloxane. (McDonald’s erased dimethylpolysiloxane from their online ingredients list for their fries, but its use is inconspicuously disclosed in the footer of their website—so sneaky!) McDonald’s has found a way to cook potatoes in the United Kingdom without relying on this potentially harmful additive—and nobody seems to miss it—but they don’t seem to think their American customers deserve the same benefits.”
The fact that McDonald’s can make the same product “healthier” in a different country because they are required to, but won’t make the change for all countries because (1) it’s not a requirement and (2) it’s cheaper, is just infuriating to me! McDonald’s is probably the #1 restaurant my kids request when we are eating out and now, I am quite frankly afraid to take them there.
“Food is medicine, plain and simple. If our food is sick (filled with chemicals, additives, artificial ingredients, and/or carcinogens), then collectively we as a country are going to be sick, as well.
The United States spends 2.5 times more on health care than any other nation. However, when compared with 16 other developed nations, we come in dead last in terms of health and amazingly our life expectancy is decreasing for men, and near the bottom for women. While there are many causes behind these dire statistics, undoubtedly one of the primary causes is the American diet, which is full of risky ingredients that are not used to the same extent in other countries. The food in America is overloaded with bad fats, way too much cheap refined sugar, and heaps of synthetic additives. When Big Food companies tell us that they need these ingredients, that it’s not possible to remove them, or that it’s too expensive, we know they’re lying because they’ve already done it in many other countries. The real reason the food industry doesn’t remove these ingredients from their American products is because they don’t’ care about our health, or the astronomical medical bills that are a direct result of us eating their inferior food. Instead, all they care about are their profits.”
I thought that the FDA had regulations and policies that prevented harmful chemicals and additives from being included in our food. I thought that everything we purchase in our grocery stores had been tested and approved as safe (not necessarily “healthy”) to ingest into our bodies. When the truth is that the FDA has little control over the chemicals and additives that are in our foods.
Did you know that in 1958 when Congress gave the FDA authority over food additives, there were about 800 additives? Now there are over 10,000!
Did you know that the FDA has deemed approving food additives before they hit the shelves a burdensome process? “The FDA claims that so as not to waste government resources, they will just let the manufacturer decide whether an ingredient is safe to eat or not. That’s right: all an ingredient manufacturer has to do is hire their own experts to claim under “reasonable certainty in the minds of competent scientists that the substance is not harmful under the intended conditions of use” and the manufacturer may deem it as “GRAS,” which stands for “Generally Recognized as Safe.” This is the green light to start adding it to food products.”
“A manufacturer can voluntarily send their GRAS determination to the FDA, but this is not mandatory. Even worse, if the FDA raises questions about an ingredient received in a voluntary GRAS notice, the manufacturer can just withdraw the notice and still use the ingredient in food products! This practice is nothing short of terrifying, and allows companies to skirt around the FDA and essentially put whatever they want into our food.”
No wonder the food in Germany tasted better to me! It blows my mind that large food companies can make the same products for other countries using half of the ingredients they include in their American counterparts! Meanwhile our country accepts and consumes the unhealthy version in mass quantities!
“The FDA is asleep at the wheel and Big Food is in charge. The government isn’t helping because no one has made it a priority for a very long time.”
If the government isn’t regulating what’s being added into our food because it’s too burdensome for them and the big food companies aren’t changing their ways because it’s not profitable for them, then what can we do to change things? It’s as simple as voting with your dollars. If you don’t purchase food products from big food companies or unhealthy restaurant chains, then eventually they will have to change their ways in order to stay in business!
I think I have stressed this in every post I have published: READ YOUR INGREDIENTS LABEL! If you see an ingredient that you cannot pronounce or you don’t know what it is, DON’T BUY IT!
Ms. Hari suggests asking yourself 3 simple questions when becoming your own food investigator:
1. What are the ingredients?
2. Are these ingredients nutritious?
3. Where do these ingredients come from?
If you are like me, grocery store visits usually include at least one of the following: screaming kids, the phrase, “Momma I want ____,” and/or I am on some kind of time restraint to get all of the shopping done. So, the only question I usually have time to answer is: “What are the ingredients?” However, the 2nd question is a very simple one. Does the ingredient come from something you can easily recognize or is it a big long word that is not easily pronounced? It’s best to stay completely focused on the ingredients you know are healthy for you and your family: whole foods and avoid anything that is processed.
“A food that is “whole” simply means a food as found in nature. Whole foods are typically “one-ingredient foods” and they don’t contain any preservatives, dyes, or any additives.”
Please remember this one piece of advice from Ms. Hari when looking at food labels, “Instead of focusing on the quantity of calories, fat grams, or carbs we eat, it’s more important to emphasize the quality of those calories. Seek out nutrition first and the rest will follow.”
For me, the answer to the 3rd question comes from research that I do at home and not while I am standing in the grocery store isle with my 3 kids.
Let’s discuss a few common additives found in popular-purchased food items. WARNING: Once you know something you cannot un-know it!
ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
Artificial Sweeteners include: Sweet’N Low, Splenda (Sucralose), and the worst one of them all: NutraSweet (Aspartame).
Here are a few examples of drinks that contain Aspartame: Coke Zero Sugar, Diet Coke, Fresca, and even some brands of flavored water. Just because a drink says “Zero Sugar” doesn’t mean that it’s Aspartame-Free!
Did you know that Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than just normal sugar? 200 times!
Did you know that Artificial Sweeteners are typically distilled from cheap ingredients such as coal tar and methanol? YUCK!
Did you know that even though Artificial Sweeteners do not have any calories, they lead to weight gain?
“Studies have found that animals fed sugar substitutes had slower metabolisms, displaying lower body temperatures and exercising less after ingesting sweet-tasting foods. This effect exists, the researchers say, Artificial Sweeteners lead to a “dysregulation” in the brain, since the presence of intense sweetness no longer signals the arrival of energy (i.e., calories). Over time, this leads the animals to lose touch with the most basic needs of the body. Instead of eating in response to hunger, they start eating all the time. Additional research suggests that people who drink the most diet soda actually show reduced brain responses to the taste of sugar—and scarf down even more calories—to experience the same amount of pleasure and satisfaction as someone who doesn’t drink lots of diet soda.
These studies capture an emerging scientific consensus: fake sugars are definitely not the miracle products we were promised. Coca-Cola wants you to believe you will lose weight if you drink their diet sodas, but the truth is far more complicated. That Artificial Sweetener is messing with your head, making it harder for you to regulate your appetite. This is why a lot of people never reach their weight loss goals: they are constantly being pushed around by these chemical Artificial Sweeteners that trick the brain and body.”
CANOLA OIL
For years I have thought that Canola Oil was healthy! I actually switched from Vegetable Oil to Canola Oil in an attempt to eliminate unhealthy oils. However, several of the books I have read, including this one, and several Nutritionists I follow have said that Canola Oil is extremely unhealthy.
“This oil goes through intense processing with chemical solvents, steamers, neutralizers, de-waxers, bleach, and deodorizers before it ends up in the bottle. It is most often extracted with the neurotoxin hexane, and some hexane residue can remain in the oil. The FDA doesn’t require food manufacturers to test for residues. Canola Oil is extracted from rapeseed plants that have been bred to have lower levels of toxic erucic acid, which causes heart damage in lab animals. Before it was bred this way, it was called rapeseed oil and used for industrial purposes. It later got the fancy new name “Canola,” but it still contains trace amounts of erucic acid (up to 2%, which is considered “safe”). In 1995, conventional farmers began genetically engineering (GMO) rapeseed to be resistant to herbicides, and now almost all canola crops in North America are GMO. Research has also found some trans fat in canola oil, created during its heavy processing, these trans fats are not labeled.”
Canola Oil is not only sold in bottle form, but it is an ingredient in most chips, breads, and dressings.
SOYBEAN OIL
I never really gave much thought to Soybean Oil until I started reading food labels. I have noticed that this type of oil is in nearly every kind of chip, bread, or even used in some brands of nuts.
“Here we have one of the most unhealthy oils around. It increases the risk of obesity, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. Unless it’s organic or Non-GMO Project verified, it’s almost always made from GMO soybeans. When researchers tested GMO soybeans, they found that they contain high levels of residues from the herbicide glyphosate (Monsanto’s Roundup), compared to non-GMO soybeans. To extract the oil, the soybeans are subjected to intensive chemical refining with toxic hexane, bleach, and deodorizers.”
STEVIA EXTRACT (REBAUDIOSIDE A OR REB A)
I remember when Stevia Sweeteners were the way to go. They were proclaimed as healthy and good for your body.
While a Stevia leaf can be healthy, “this is not the same as a whole stevia leaf that you can grow in your backyard. The extract is highly processed using a patentable chemical-laden process that includes about 40 steps to process the extract from the leaf, relying on chemicals like acetone, methanol, ethanol, acetonitrile, and isopropanol. Some of these chemicals are known carcinogens. Most stevia formulations on the market also contain natural flavors, along with either erythritol or dextrose. Look for “whole leaf stevia” or an extract that contains no additional additives instead.”
This sweetener can be found in several different kinds of drinks, along with protein bars and yogurt.
NATURAL FLAVORS
“The processed food industry adds flavors to almost everything. Wonder why? When a food is heavily processed with machinery in a factory, pumped full of preservatives, and poured into a package that gets shipped across the country to get stored on a shelf for months, it loses flavor. That’s why there is a multibillion-dollar flavor industry dedicated to creating chemicals that make all that processed food taste like…well…real food.”
When I read “natural flavors” on a food item’s ingredient list, I think “hmmmm…it says natural, so it must be healthy.” Right? WRONG! Natural flavors means that it made from something in nature (plants, animals, etc.). “So, the flavor is derived from natural things, but it’s important to remember that this isn’t all it contains. Flavors typically contain preservatives, emulsifiers, solvents, and other “incidental additives” that can make up 80% or so of the formulation, even the “natural” ones.”
Remember, that the flavor can come from something that isn’t even close to what it’s supposed to taste like! For example, did you know that castoreum from a beaver is used to imitate some strawberry, vanilla, and raspberry flavorings? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to be having beaver butt along with my flavored treat! YUCK!
It’s important to remember the difference between “Natural Flavors” and “Natural “X” Flavor.” Natural Flavors are what we just discussed and can come from anything found in nature. Whereas, “Natural “X” Flavor (An example of this would be “Natural Cinnamon Flavor.”) is made only from whatever food item is listed. (“Natural Cinnamon Flavor” would be made solely from Cinnamon.)
“Flavor in nature is almost always a mark of nutrition. Flavors are the cue that tells us where to find the nutrients we need. The flavor, in other words, is a chemical sign that tells your brain there’s good stuff in here—you should eat one. However, junk food turns this healthy instinct against us. Our stores are full of foods that taste like all kinds of different things but don’t come with the same nutrients. You can create a food that tastes like a tomato or blueberry without any nutritional value at all—and that’s a problem. Those natural flavors can make you eat things you wouldn’t normally eat.”
SUGAR
Ms. Hari quoted John Yudkin, a British Nutritionist, saying, “If only a small fraction of what we know about the effects of sugar were to be revealed in relation to any other material used as a food additive, that material would be promptly be banned.”
Did you know that it’s been estimated that Americans today consume about 3 pounds of sugar per week which equals about 152 pounds of sugar a year? Over 200 years ago Americans ate only 2 pounds of sugar a year, which is still less than we consume in a week! WOW!
I think what is even more shocking is that big food companies are trying to market sugar as “healthy.” When the truth is that sugar leads to weight gain, aging, inflammation, liver problems, tooth decay, fatigue, irritability, brain dangers, poor immunity, and heart problems. Yet, we are led to believe that drinking Vitaminwater (32 grams of sugar in a 20-ounce bottle) and eating a Clif Builder’s Protein Peanut Butter Bar (22 grams of sugar) is healthy! That is the same amount of sugar as drinking a Coke and eating two Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!
My husband has been working on rebuilding the upper level to our garage. He puts in long hours on a sunny day and comes in very dehydrated from working so hard. He guzzles a Gatorade, thinking that it is helping to rehydrate his body, because that is what he’s been told. However, when I read the list of ingredients it says, “water, sugar, dextrose, citric acid, salt, sodium citrate, monopotassium phosphate, modified food starch, natural flavor, glycerol ester of rosin, red 40, and caramel color.” This drink that says “Thirst Quencher” right on the front of the bottle isn’t “quenching” your thirst, it’s actually making you want to drink more…of it! Just look at the 2nd and 3rd ingredients…both are SUGAR! There are 21 grams of Total Sugar in each serving and there are 2.5 servings per container. That equals 52.5 grams of sugar per bottle!
So, when my husband reached for the Gatorade after working all day on the garage this past weekend, I said, “Just so you know, that crap is doing nothing for you! Water will rehydrate you much more than Gatorade!”
(Here is a little video of my husband tearing down our old garage last summer!)
BEWARE! There are 58 different names for Sugar! Be on the lookout for all 58 when you are trying to limit or remove sugar from your diet!!
‘Feeding You Lies’ has been a quite informative and jaw-dropping read. It has left me feeling more aware of what is going on behind our backs in the food industry. I feel frustrated and disappointed in not only the major food companies, but also in the nutritionists and scientists who are lying about their “professional opinions” to get a large paycheck. I am also frustrated and disappointed in the FDA and how they regulate what is safe in our country.
I am grateful for Vani Hari and other food activists that are using their voices to shed light on a subject that has been left in the dark for far too long!
Please remember, “We can’t control what they are doing to our food, but we can control what we put in our mouth! The best diet food is real food!”
I encourage you to take the time to read this book, rid this junk from your diet and your home, and make today your first day of living a happier, healthier life!
All quotes where taken directly from
‘Feeding You Lies’
By Vani Hari
I encourage you to follow Vani Hari on social media. I enjoy her posts revealing the ingredients in various food items and providing a similar but healthier option. She also provides several yummy recipes.
To follow Vani Hari, please visit the following:
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