My student’s faces tell all as we examined the ingredients of ‘food’ in the Bellevue College refrigerator. Week 3 of a 5 week course called ‘You Are What You Eat’ is about reading labels. It’s up to us to educate ourselves about what’s actually in our food. The front of the packages are simply marketing. The nutrition label on the back of the package is where the truth is… and the truth will set you free.
To be free is to be natural, unaltered. The food we found in the staff kitchen on our field trip was loaded with chemicals, preservatives, artificial coloring, and MSG. Anything but natural. The more of these toxins we take in, the further we get from our natural, highest expression of our authentic selves.
These trailblazers had the curiosity to look up any ingredient they didn’t know or couldn’t pronounce. (There were a lot of them) What we learned was depressing and at the same time refreshing. Awareness is a good thing. I remember the first time I realized that major food manufacturers really didn’t care about my health. I felt a chunk of my innocence slip away. I realized that they’re in it for the bottom line, to make money. The more preservatives they add, the longer it can stay on the shelf. Like Kris Carr, author of Crazy, Sexy Diet says, “I don’t want to eat anything that has a longer shelf life than me.”
So take a look in your fridge. Ask to see the labels of food when you’re not sure if you want to eat it. With limited vegan choices in the cafeteria, I thought I’d opt for peanut butter on a bagel. The peanut butter looked harmless enough, but I still asked to see the label. This is what I saw.
Dextrose: Do I want to be hyper & hypoglycemic?
Corn Syrup: Do I want to gain weight?
Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil: Do I want saturated fat that hurts my heart?
And since it isn’t organic, you can bet you’d be getting a high dose of genetically modified organisms in each spoonful.
Bottom line, take food with you. Shop at farmer’s markets or organic health food stores. Be an informed shopper.