Aug. 27, 2014

A healthy and strong body is an essential tool for any survivalist. I don't have to tell you how important it is to keep a close eye on what you eat. Having a healthy diet could mean the extra 10 minutes of swimming or 3 km of running that can make the difference between life and death in a survival situation.

Generally it's a good idea to always check the ingredients on every product. Needless to say the fewer synthetic ingredients are in a product, the better.

Food manufacturers and food companies are in fact NOT trying to help you lose weight, or be fit... all they want is to take your money. If the public craves low fat... they label a product "low fat", if the public craves more low carb products... they will label products "low carb".

Often foods labeled "Health food", “Low in fat/fat free” or ”sugar free” are more harmful than the original product... Here are some examples:

1. Sugar-Free Candies

All carbohydrates turn to sugar in the blood, so there truly isn't any sugar-free treat.

When you look at the ingredients for Sugar-free Reese's candies for example, in a serving size: of 5 pieces you have 27 grams carbohydrates

Although there are 0 grams listed next to sugar, remember carbohydrates turn to sugar in the body. Also, 27 grams of carbohydrates is equivalent to the carbs in an entire baked potato.

On the back of the package in small print you will see this warning: 'Individuals sensitive to sugar substitute may experience a laxative effect.' In other words if you eat too many of these you WILL get diarrhea. This side effect can come from any food with significant amounts of sugar alcohols which are what gives sugar-free products a sweet taste.

2. Fat-Free Salad Dressings

Many vitamins in fresh salads are fat soluble, including vitamin A, D, E, and K, meaning you need fat to absorb them... you need healthy fat in your diets. Let's have a quick look at what regular ranch sauce and fat free sauce contain:

Regular Ranch: Vegetable oil, water, egg yolk, sugar, buttermilk, natural flavors + 14 ingredients that compose less that 1 % of the product including seasonings and spices.

Fat-Free Ranch: Water, corn syrup, maltodextrin, sugar, modified food starch, buttermilk, salt + 22 ingredients that compose less than 2 % of the product including preservatives, artificial color, MSG.

Comparatively regular has 140 calories per serving while fat free has 30 calories per serving. The first ingredient in the fat-free product is water!.*Label Reading Tip: The ingredients are listed from highest content to lowest so if water is the first ingredient, the product is mostly water. They took the original product, removed the fat, and added more sugar ie. maltodextrin and food starch (starch turns to sugar in the body). This manipulation applies to most if not all fat-free dressings.

3. Peanut Butter (Regular, reduced fat, and certain 'natural' ones)

Peanut butters are tricky. You really have to read the ingredients label in spite of the claims and misleading words on the front. What would you guess are the ingredients in peanut butter? 99% of people will respond with... peanuts. And they're wrong...

Smucker's Natural PB with oil on top: peanuts, less than 1 % salt Reduced Fat Smucker's: maltodextrin, reduced fat ground peanuts, salt Regular Jif: Peanuts, sugar, molasses, fully hydrogenated veggie oil, mono and diglycerides, salt Reduced Fat Jif: peanuts, corn syrup solids, sugar, pea protein, less than 2 % salt, fully hydrogenated veggie oils, mono and diglycerides, molassess, Mg oxide, niacinamide, and the list goes on...

The list goes on and on... included on my banned list is 'Simply Jif' peanut butter, whose ingredients label is anything but simple, honey peanut butter, all no-stir peanut butters, and any other product that has more than 2 ingredients. *A good rule of thumb for the grocery store is to start with the products with oil on top then check the ingredients list.

4. Margarine

This has been a long time debate. Hopefully after today there will be no more questions of which to choose.

Butter: pasteurized cream, salt

Margarine: liquid and partially hydrogenated soybean oil, water, butter + 8 other ingredients that compose less than 2 % of the product including preservatives, artificial flavor, artificial coloring.

Butter clearly appears to be a more natural product. Included in this margarine is likely the #1 most harmful food additive there is... TRANS FAT.

Can you spot it? ...right... because food companies, despite popular belief are still putting trans fat into your food but are listing 0 grams trans fat on the label. Anytime you see 'Hydrogenated' or 'Partially Hydrogenated' on a nutrition label this is code name for trans fat, put it down and slowly back away.

How can they label 0 grams you ask?! If the food product per serving has less than 0.5 grams of trans fat they can legally list 0 grams. Any amount of trans fat, even 0.5 grams is very harmful to the body.

5. Baked Potato Chips

While you make think these chips are healthier because they are baked and not dumped into the deep fryer, looking at the ingredients may change your mind:

Baked Chips: Dried potatoes, corn starch, sugar, corn oil, salt, soy lecithin, corn sugar. (If flavored contain more ingredients including sugar)

Regular Chips: Potatoes, vegetable oil, salt

If you feel like eating potato chips, and you really can't help yourself, buy the real thing, enjoy, and just watch your portions. Don't make it a daily occurrence. Am I suggesting that potato chips are a health food and should be eaten daily, absolutely not!

6. Most Granola bars

The only thing separating most granola bars from candy bars is the name. In order to make what started out as a healthy whole grain treat taste irresistible, they have to add oils and a lot of sugar. You should also never trust a ' health food' that has a shelf life greater than 9 months.

Their health claim: "Research suggests that people who have higher fiber intakes tend to have healthier body weights." ...an awful lot of vague words strung together in an effort to sound very true and science-based. What does "healthier body weights" mean anyway?

Fiber-One Bar: The most basic bar contains 24 ingredients including many different kinds of sugars and oils. One bar contains 9 grams of fiber.

Lara Bar: Peanut butter cookie bar aka my favorite includes dates, peanuts, salt,7 grams of fiber.

Not sure about you but I would prefer to have 21 less ingredients vs. 2 extra grams of fiber.

7. Egg Beaters

Firstly, do not be fooled by the healthy looking heart on the label fool you, the claim that it can help lower cholesterol is false. Scientists have measured cholesterol levels in those who eat egg beaters and those who eat real eggs. The results show that it is safe to eat real eggs and that dietary cholesterol (cholesterol from our food) does not significantly influence our blood cholesterol.

Secondly, just look at the ingredients. Egg beaters are made of: Egg Whites, Less than 1%: Natural Flavor, Color (Includes Beta Carotene), Spices, Salt, Onion Powder, Vegetable Gums (Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum), Maltodextrin. Vitamins and Minerals: Calcium Sulfate, Iron (Ferric Phosphate), Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol Acetate), Zinc Sulfate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (Thiamine Mononitrate), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin D3. Normal eggs are... eggs.

As such: egg beaters contain 20 ingredients, including sweetener, thickeners, coloring, extra flavorings, and vitamins/minerals. In order to taste or even look like actual food they have to add all of these chemicals and unnatural ingredients to egg beaters. Real eggs only have 1 ingredient... eggs. No need to fortify with vitamins/minerals as it already contains these without the added gums and sugars.

As a general rule, you should always try to buy organic food or even better... grow your own! It will keep your body a lot fitter and give you more energy and stamina.

Stay safe. Stay healthy.

Jason Richards

support@familysurvivalkit.org