Category Archives: Nutrition

Food Labels: “Natural” Peanut Butter

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What do you think when you see the word “natural” on a food label? I think, “Great! Nothing’s been added to the main ingredient.”

I have preferred “natural” peanut butter for several years. That’s ground-up peanuts with nothing added except salt. The two brands that have been available to me bear the Smucker’s and Kroger labels. [They contain 150 mg. and 120 mg. of salt per serving respectively.  I might like it even better without the salt.]

“Regular” peanut butter typically adds not only salt but hydrogenated oils and sugar.

Knowing my preference, my husband recently brought home some Jif Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread. The words spread and contains 90% peanuts were the first clue that maybe this wasn’t what I considered “natural.” Sure enough, added to peanuts on the list of ingredients were sugar, palm oil, and 2% or less of molasses and salt.

A Google search led me to Snack Girl‘s post on the subject. According to her research, the only difference between Jif Natural and Jif regular peanut butter is the absence of hydrogenated oil. The problem with that, however, is that although they haven’t hydrogenated the oils in the peanut butter to give it extra shelf life, they have used palm oil, which is naturally hydrogenated!

This is one more example of why you can’t trust the front label on processed foods. They are packaged to sell the ingredients. “Low fat” may mean added sugar, and “sugar-free” may indicate added fat. If we want to eat more food and less poison, we must read the ingredients and nutrition labels.

Have you found any “false labeling” lately?

Shock to the System

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Who, me?

Well, it looks like living to 107 is out! A recent blood test indicated that my total cholesterol level is way too high!

Needless to say, I was shocked. I thought I was taking care of myself!

Surely it’s not diet!

I think I eat well: lean beef and/or chicken breast maybe twice a week, no bacon in months, a quarter-cup or so of grated cheese on salads, occasionally indulging in desserts at potlucks, fresh fruits and vegetables always available.

Fried foods? Rare to non-existent in our house. Pasta? It’s been weeks since we’ve eaten either macaroni and cheese or spaghetti, though we’ve had some rice lately.

Maybe it’s genetic.

Diabetes, maybe, but not heart disease. My mother, who admits to being overweight, was diagnosed with high cholesterol in her 70’s, and although he was a paraplegic the last two decades of his life (the result of a high school football accident), my dad’s heart and lungs were still strong into his 80’s.

What to do now?

First thing, see a doctor for a long overdue checkup. We don’t have many choices in this little town, but from what a friend said, I thought Dr. G would not be quick to recommend medication. And I was right. Continue reading →

Don’t touch that diet!

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Diet Is a 4-Letter Word

Maybe it’s the influence of lessons learned when I lost 20 pounds as a “Weight Watcher” several years ago. Maybe it’s my local TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) group and their emphasis on lifetime weight maintenance. Or maybe it’s the implicit groan I hear when people talk about dieting.

Whatever the cause, I avoid the word diet. For one thing – diet used as a noun simply means “daily intake of food.” If we eat, we’re on a diet – whether it’s high-fat, low-fat, Western, Eastern, or Indian.

Second, “to diet” implies a temporary solution to an ongoing problem. When someone says they’re on a diet, they usually mean, “I’m depriving myself for a while because I need to take off some pounds. Once those pounds are off, I’ll start enjoying myself again.” This implies that to eat healthfully is to deprive oneself of the best things of life.

Continue reading →

Refusing to Take the Cure

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Recently I heard of a casual acquaintance who went to an impoverished African country as part of a mission group. Their aim was to give medical aid to sick children. As is usual when Americans travel to such places, she was astonished by living conditions, particularly the quality of their food sold in open marketplaces with no access to refrigeration.

However, it’s not cholera or dysentery that is killing their people. It’s AIDS and malaria.

An African man asked one of the Americans what our most common diseases are.

“I suppose they’re heart disease and diabetes,” said the American.

“What’s the cause?” asked the African.

“We don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables,” replied the American.

“You mean you can’t get fruit and vegetables in your country?” asked the African.

I don’t know what the American replied, but when I heard the story, I gasped. It makes what we do to ourselves even more tragic. The African man couldn’t fathom anyone having access to prevention and not using it.

Not all heart disease and diabetes can be prevented, but we all know most of it can. It’s an ironic luxury we enjoy – this ability to choose to kill ourselves when we are surrounded by an abundant supply of prevention. It’s like an African country refusing vaccines that would cure their epidemics.

It makes our excuses – too much trouble, too expensive, too many “bad” foods available – seem rather feeble, doesn’t it?

Talk to me. What was your initial reaction to the story? Do you think it’s really that simple, that all we need to do is eat our vegetables?

Fruit, Glorious Fruit

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I just enjoyed my smoothie of choice – one orange, a cup or so of strawberries and a few blueberries thrown into a blender with a cup of ice and 1% milk. By the time I disposed of the orange peelings and strawberry stems, returned the milk and remaining strawberries and blueberries to the fridge and took a glass from the cupboard, it was ready to pour. And I had enough left over to put into the freezer for some iced smoothie tomorrow.

No, this is not a promotion for a blender, but for fresh fruits and vegetables – not only because they’re good for you, which of course they are, but because they’re just good! My aim is to encourage people to speak of fresh produce with the same ecstasy they now reserve for plate-sized grilled steaks, double cheeseburgers, piping hot French fries and smooth, rich chocolate ice cream. Continue reading →