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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 10:15 am
Talking grapefruit here: Anyone know if the jarred grapefruit by DelMonte is a bad alternative? (Compared to the real deal?) The ingredients are: grapefruit, reconstituted grapfruit juice, corn syrup, sodium benzoate & potassium sorbate, ascorbic acid, citric acid. I just like the jar ones cuz I HATE (cannot tell you how much I HATE) the "strings & skin"stuff that I get when I cut a grapefruit myself. And at a buck a grapefruit, I know I am wasting close to half of it. The jars are great, cuz you get whole entire sections and no skin or strings... Plus you get like the fruit (or o it says on the jar) of 5 to 6 grapefruits for only about $3.29. BUT if all that corn syrup and bezoate stuff is really bad for you...
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 10:35 am
Also, can you guys tell me some healthy lowfat snacks? Until about a month ago, I ate all sorts of bad foods. Chocolate candy every day, McDonald's virtually ever single day. My diet was very very bad. Not sure what has inspired me. Well, we are looking into adoption, so I want to slim down to look good so we get picked!!! So that is part of it. Actually my dh and I started Atkins at first. He dropped like 20 lbs easily. Not me, I hardly lost a thing. Plus I hate eating that stuff. I used to love bacon, but I overloaded. Plus it just does not seem very healthy. So now, I am getting some healthy type cereals (for example Weight Watchers Flakes N Fiber and those big shredded wheat things.) Also some lowfat yogurts (aren't brown cow and stonyfield the healthiest?) I am also drinking some pomegranite juice. (Man is it expensive to eat healthy!) Any other ideas would be appreciated.... (keep in mind even if I am eating healthy, I still can't cook worth a darn.) So any prepackaged foods or ready to eat foods are what I am more interested in.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 12:39 pm
corn syrup??? um..no. strings and such? cut the grapefruit in half and then just eat it with a spoon or peel it like an orange. It is expensive to eat healthy, but so is prepackage food!! It's not hard to take boneless chicken breasts lightly season them with garlic, salt pepper, a little lime and grill them. Go to www.tupperware.com and buy their microwave veggie steamer. Then you just chop the veggies up, spray a little 'I can't believe it's not butter' spray, salt and pepper them and micro for about 6 minutes. My kids LOVE brocolli cook this way. Get bag lettuce and then cut up a tomatoe, celery, cucumbers and an avocado toss with low fat dressing and you have a great meal. You can add whole wheat pasta or brown rice if you want. Learn to read labels. The least amount of ingredients is the best. I eat Dannon Plain Non fat yougurt and then add fresh or frozen blueberries or raspberries to mine. (if frozen, get the fruit only NOT in syrup). I love Uncle Sam's cereal with fresh fruit. healthy snacks...Laughing Cow low fat cheese and triscuit, celery and hummus, veggies and low fat ranch dip, fresh fruit. a great site for info is the American Heart Association. South Beach Diet is a good diet too.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 1:31 pm
Veggies -- better to steam than nuke. You lose vitamins, etc. when nuked.
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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 1:56 pm
Julieboo -- I'd say that any fruit with corn syrup (read: sugar) as an ingredient can't really be considered a healthy snack, unfortunately. For grapefruit, I also find them messy and a chore. I bought a grapefruit spoon, and just cut my grapefruits in half and dig the meat out with the spoon. It's a bit juicy, but you don't have to deal with the "white bits." Agree with Texannie here. I munch on baby carrots, and sweet cherry or grape tomatoes -- yum! Sugar snap peas are great to eat raw. Almonds are also a good snack food -- they have fat, but it's the "good" kind. You can also have a handful of that healthy cereal, sans milk, for a sweet, non-raw veggie snack. I'm not a huge fan of salads (unfortunately for my butt), but when I make them, I buy the pre-packaged kind. Much easier and simpler. Oh, and pomegranite juice is very good for you, but VERY expensive, as you noted. I "cut" it with sparkling water to make it last longer. It's also very rich, so I find a little goes a long way. I bought bottled water in one-liter and 2-liter sizes -- and keep one at my desk or bedside at all times. I find that I drink more water if it's in a bottle. Our tap water here is fine, so instead of wasting $ on buying more bottled water, I refill the bottle with filtered tap -- but because the bottle is next to me all the time, I find myself swigging more than I would if I had to keep refilling a glass. Agree that a great source for info is the American Heart Association. While I do purchase pre-packaged foods, I find it is healthiest to buy foods that are the most "pure." So I read the labels (again agreeing with Texannie) to buy pre-packaged foods that have the least number of additives and the most "basic" ingredients -- i.e., "tomatoes, water, and basil" versus "tomatoes, water, basil, coloring, corn syrup, etc." Hope this helps a little.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 4:22 pm
the tupperware steamer does steam them and retains the nutrients.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 4:43 pm
Thanks for those suggestions. I am so not a salad person. I never will be either, so I am not even willing to try! But I think I will try some snap peas and almonds. I will also get that tupperware steamer. I will do some veggies, just not salad. Looks like Trader Joe's has tons of good food. You guys have one by you?
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 6:36 pm
We have been having some discussions of high fructose corn syrup at another discussion board. Go Google high fructose corn syrup and read about how bad it is and how it is making Americans obese in addition to endangering their health. Friend of mine says do not buy any food that has high fructose corn syrup, or fructose or corn syrup or corn sugar as one of the first four ingredients. If you start doing that, you will be just amazed. That shit is in EVERYTHING. You have to check things you would least expect, like bread and bacon! Salad dressings, of course everything that you think of as sweet.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 6:52 pm
Juju, it's amazing how much sugar is in things once you start reading labels!!!
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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 7:02 pm
p.s. -- congrats on the adoption plans!
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 7:03 pm
Eat organic fruits, veggies and meats as often as possible to ensure you are getting the nutrients you THINK you are getting in the good things you eat. If you don't, you are only guessing that the pesticides used to grow non-organic produce and the irradiation they undergo as a safeguard hasn't killed them all. You can start small and try some fruits and veggies. Yes, they are more expensive. But you'll be presently surprised at the taste difference and, perhaps, at your blood work results from your next physical. Try buying the bagged, frozen organic fruits as a substitute for desserts or snacks. They are absolutely delicious if eaten frozen! Frozen peach slices are to die for! Corn in any form is what Sugar Beaters calls one of the worst foods. The only sugar I consume now is an organic, all natural, zero calorie, zero carb liquid (use the dropper to add to your tea, cereal, etc--it does come in dry form, too--just doesn't taste as good) called STEVIA. (Found at Natural Food Stores and Trader Joe's).
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 7:32 pm
I don't eat very many organic fruits and veggies because they are much more expensive than those with lots of pesticides, but I notice a huge difference in flavor with most organic foods (especially things like bananas--they're like a whole new fruit!). But je suis pauvre et je ne peux pas me permettre des produits organiques. Since I was diagnosed with heart failure, I have eaten low sodium everything. It's pretty easy. Julie, I think you have a Trader Joe's near you and they have lots of healthy products at inexpensive prices--I got a box of Trader Joe's Cheerios cereal this week for $1.99! They also have good chicken and vegetable stocks to make homemade soup (very good healthy meals) and very good organic yogurt that is comparable to Stonyfield Farms for less--it's what I get when I can't get to Whole Foods. [Oh I see you mention TJs upthread. Forgive me...but I love them and they have great/chep low sodium tuna, tomatoes, etc. They also have very good, reasonably priced cheeses because, after all, we have to live, don't we?) Learn to love rice and lentls. Make lots of fish. There's also a very good book called A New Way to Cook that tells you something you already know but need to have reinforced: you can eat bacon, beef, and sugar if you really want to, but you can also do it responsibly. That book has good recipes to teach you how to cook well and responsibly--there's also a good show on Food Network that has healthy, hearty recipes but I'm blanking on its name right now. I can assure you it is NOT Paula Deen's show or the Barefoot Contessa, though! To me, the decision to start cooking for myself for virtually every meal--made after I almost ended up with a heart transplant--has made all the difference. The more you cook your food from scratch, the better off you will be. I'd even suggest you take a class at a place like Sur la Table in knife skills or something and buy yourself a couple nice knives (a Santuko and a chef's knife, for example) as a way to inspire you to cook. The right tools really are an inspiration. G-d bless Wustoff knives and Le Creuset pots/dutch ovens.
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 7:34 pm
Prepackaged anything is not the best choice, Julieboo--unless it is organic. It means the food has been processed to death. Get a good book about nutrition. Get another about organic foods. Get into the habit of reading labels. Learn about the conditions you now have or that run in your family. Bet you will make some changes. It feels like a huge conspiracy by drug companies, doctors and food manufacturers to keep us unhealthy. We eat all this prepackaged junk, develop all kinds of conditions related to our diet, and then go to our docs and demand a fix with a drug. Does anyone have a doc who told them to change to a macrobiotic or organic diet? I am betting no. I won't go that far with this conspiracy theory, (but my dd does) because I think most of us KNOW well enough what is healthy and what is not and what we should be doing opposed to what we do. We say it takes too much forethought and planning to eat/plan meals that are actually good for us. We're lazy. We're busy. And when we're young, we think we're invincible. So it's just not a priority. When you think about adult onset diabetes, which is a precursor to many other conditions, that alone should be enough to 'scare us straight.' But sigh, the flesh is weak. (I know too well.) Still, I read, I am more knowledgable now, and I try to improve. I'll keep trying til I get it to be a part of my routine instead of an interesting experiment.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 8:22 pm
My grocery store just started selling a new line of organic foods. Cheese, milk, pasta sauces, (theres quite a few others but those are what I can think of off the top of my head since I just bought them today, lol.) I think, and it could just be in my head, that they taste better. But what I've noticed is that most of the time they are cheaper than other brands. The cheese for example when I buy shredded (2 cups worth) was $2.50 today on sale. The organic shredded cheese, same size bag, was $1.99 regular price. I've switched pretty much everything I can to the organics. The amount of sugar (and it can be found under several different names) in foods and what foods you find it in is amazing, isn't it? I keep a pretty strict eye on the amount of sugars in food cuz of Kota and when I first started it used to take forever going through every brand of pretty much everything to find one that had no or even low amounts of it. One of the things I noticed it in a lot is the quick, take it on the run snack foods. I like to keep cereal bars and granola bars on hand for when we're running late and the kids need something they can munch in the car and it was hard to find something that would not only work for her but that they'd eat. Hehe, a few weeks ago I found out they'd started carrying those cheap sugar free popsicle, you'd have thought I'd hit gold! Popsicles are a biggie around here in summer, I'm pretty excited that now I can give the kids some with no sugar. Best part about it is that the kids love them. I'm not even sure they've noticed the difference.
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Friday, May 19, 2006 - 11:35 pm
I like those popsicles, too. I have them in my freezer now! War, my dd taught me that just because a product says organic doesn't necessarily make it good. You still have to scrutinize the list of ingredients and pay attention to how much processing is involved. (The more processing, the fewer nutrients.) So sometimes the 'organic' label is applied as injudiciously as the word 'natural' which doesn't guarantee a darn thing. (For example, you don't want to buy organic cornbread because corn is a no-no.)
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 5:04 am
Another piece of advice. Shop the outside rim of the grocery store. That's where all the fresh stuff is. The inner aisles have all the processes stuff.
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Jewels
Member
09-23-2000
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 8:10 am
Something to keep in mind... When reading the Sugars on a food label, 4 grams of sugars = 1 sugar cube If a food has 16 grams of sugar there are 4 sugar cubes in there! Take a look at that when you label read and you will be shocked at how much sugar there is in food.
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Dahli
Member
11-27-2000
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 9:06 am
If you have to buy packaged or refined food of any kind and if these ingredients appear in the first five spots on the label, leave them in the store; enriched flour; sugar (any type);HFCC (corn syrup); salt; saturated fat; hydrogenated or trans fat. Tex and HP are right on the money, and if I could suggest -- avoid sodium. THROW OUT your refined salt! instead buy sea salt - make sure it lists the 50 (minimum) minerals and use it regularly Add sea vegetables to your diet. Finally water, increase your intake of pure water daily. Take your weight divide it in half and drink that amount in ounces at least. Avoid caffeine and for any caffeine beverage add an additional cup of water. It's very possible that these things can change your life.
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Dahli
Member
11-27-2000
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 9:49 am
ps - forgot to address the grapefruit topic ;) That white stuff is full of vitamin P! bioflavenoids which are a very important part of a healthy diet - another reason to stick to the real deal if possible. Everyone that has contributed suggestions to Julie in this thread has offered such good advice!!
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 9:58 am
Wow guys! Thanks you all so much. I have so much to learn. Please keep coming back with more tips and suggestions!!!
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 9:59 am
Talk bread to me. What are some good ones?
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Dahli
Member
11-27-2000
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 10:33 am
I'm not a big fan of grains, especially wheat but bread is basically the same deal.. as a processed food all the same rules apply, try to find some without sugar, corn syrup, enriched etc and the first ingredient should be 'whole grain' of some sort. If you are able to find it spelt,quinoa, kamut and other ancient grains are good, avoid artificial anything especially sweeteners, the body really doesn't know what to do with them. Good luck!
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 11:08 am
I buy bread from a company called " Food For Life" that I get at Trader Joe's, but that's just because of the sodium restrictions I have. Most breads are fairly high in sodium and Food For Life isn't... They have a very good sprouted grain bread that I normally buy. They also have a very low sodium bread--I think it's called Ezekial 4:9--but I just can't eat it. I'm accustomed to eating low sodium, but it's like cardboard to me. The only drawbacks of these breads is that they go bad pretty quickly. I don't eat a lot of bread, so a loaf can last several weeks in my place. But this bread doesn't wait several weeks before it starts to develop mold!
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Dahli
Member
11-27-2000
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 11:20 am
Oh yes Tish if one eats a lot of bread, then sprouted grains are far and away the BEST!! It's practically a live food!
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 11:26 am
Can you freeze those types of bread? I buy bread at Costco and cuz the kids wont eat what I buy and the fact they come two loaves to a package, I take out what I know we'll use and freeze the rest.
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