Monday, April 11, 2016

How Sweet it is.....

Watching some hyperactive children got me thinking about a lot of things but mostly about High Fructose Corn Syrup.
I call it a sweetener on Steroids!
Ralph and I have battled high fructose in our diet for years now and we do not always win. Let's face it the stuff is in everything and often where you don't expect it.
Now look at those hyper children, the ADHD children, children with Autism and all the prescriptions for medication to slow them down. I was born in the 50's. We were poor and lived in the country and sugar was something we did not get a lot of. A birthday cake, a sprinkle of sugar on a bowl of fruit, maybe cookies if we were good. Store bought was a rare thing and a candy bar or gum something of a big event.
We ate simple healthy meals, we played outside and we were safe running all over the farm. Food was made at home, from scratch, processed food was something city people had.

In retrospect we did not have all the things children have today (we were very happy though)  but the cost to give children everything is terrible, the food modern children eat is making them sick.  Allergies to almost everything abound, food, perfumes, dust, cloth, almost life itself. Allergies were extremely rare when I was a child.  Modern children develop medical conditions that require medication to change their mood. They have therapists and seem to suffer from so many more ailments and issues.

To me there has to be a connection,  I know sugar made my brother and I act much wilder than normal, it would have been a change to our system. My mother paid attention to the food we ate. Now it seems even if a parent is careful the chemicals and super sweeteners are in everything around them.

Foods you may be surprised by:

Kelloggs Corn Flakes
Kelloggs Special K brand Red Berries
Kelloggs All Bran Bran Buds
Kelloggs All Bran Original
Kelloggs Rice Crispies
Kelloggs Special K Low Carb Lifestyle

Stove Top Stuffing Mixes

Capri Sun Refreshers [neatly packaged and so easy to give children]
Chocolate Milk
Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice
Starbucks Frappucino
Hanson's Tonic Water
Tropicana Smoothies

Pepperidge Farms Line of 100% whole Grain Breads
Wonderbread
Brownberry Breads
Eggo Waffles

Lifesavers

Heinz Ketchups
Hunts Ketchups
Mayonnaise

Delsym Cough Syrups
Vicks Cough Syrups
Robitussin Cough syrups

Nabisco Crackers [all flavors, yes Ritz crackers are in this set]

Yoplait Yogurts
Cool Whip
Motts Applesauce
Del Monte Petite diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning

Ben and Jerry's  Chubby Hubby (HFCS and Transfat!) - Should we call it Very Chubby Hubby?
 Ben & Jerry's - Cherry Garcia
Ben & Jerry's - Neapolitan Dynamite
Ben & Jerry's - Cherry Garcia Body & Soul
Ben & Jerry's - Cherry Garcia Low Fat Frozen Yogurt Pints
Ben & Jerry's - Cherry Garcia Original Ice Cream Singles

Dreyer's Ice cream

Knott's Boysenberry Preserves
Smucker's Grape jelly 
Oscar Meyer Pickle and Pimento Loaf [Ralph Loves this sandwich meat]

Emeril's Italian Vinegrette
Kraft Salad Dressing - Light done Right Creamy French
Kraft Salad Dressing - Thousand Island Fat Free
Maple Grove Farms Caesar Fat Free
Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
Miracle Whip Salad Dressing - Hot n Spicy
Miracle Whip Salad Dressing - Light
Miracle Whip Salad Dressing - Light Super Easy Squeeze
Miracle Whip Salad Dressing - Non-fat
Miracle Whip Salad Dressing - Super Easy Squeeze
Wishbone Ranch Dressing
Wish-Bone Classic Caesar


A1 Steak Sauce Marinade - Cajun
A1 Steak Sauce Marinade - Chicago
A1 Steak Sauce Marinade - Teriyaki
Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce
Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce - Honey Smoke
Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce - Smokehouse Hickory
Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce - Sweet Hickory Smoke
Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce - Texas Style Mesquite
Crazy Jerry's Alotta Bull BBQ Sauce - Torrid Toro (Hot
Holy Smoke - Sticky Wings Glaze
Holy Smoke - Bar B Q Glaze
Jim Beam Steak Sauce
Jim Beam Herb & Garlic Gourmet Marinade
Jim Beam Lemon & Herb Gourmet Marinade
Kraft Barbecue Sauce
Virginia Gentleman Bourbon BBQ Sauce



Oscar Mayer Lunchables - All Star Burgers
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - All-star Hot Dogs
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Chicken Dunks
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Chicken Strips
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Cracker Stackers
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Nachos
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Peanut Butter Pile-ups
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Pizza
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Pizza Dunks
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Pizza Pile-ups
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Pizza Stix
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Pizza Swirls
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Tacos




Campbells Vegetable soup (in microwaveable bowl)


Cocktail Peanuts

This is a tiny part of the food with High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. We have tried or eaten most of these brands until we got smart about reading the labels. I think the ones that bother me the most are the one that initially promote healthy eating. Yogurt is good for you but add HFCS and it defeats the purpose.
Kids and ketchup......they can get more sweetener than they need with the ketchup on one serving of french fries. How many busy parents send children to school with Oscar Meyer Lunchables? We used to keep a few around for quick snacks as they are convenient.  Ben and Jerry's, they cut the fat and still add HFCS! The cough syrups....so many of these things are items we use, they are subtle ans permeate our homes.

Yes the hyperactive children are still hyperactive, I wonder what they had for lunch or breakfast or snacks?


Take care and God Bless



10 comments:

  1. I had an eye-opening experience when I went on my no-sugar diet. It IS in everything! Once it's in their systems, it is so hard to get it out. I wish more parents read labels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always thought of Ocean Spray and Motts as healthy good for you snacks or treats. It is disturbing, maybe thats why parents don't read as much as they should? Or they feel incapable to change things.

      Delete
  2. Not only the HFCS, but all the gmo wheat and wheat gluten that are added as filler into some of those products. Unhealthy gut bugs add to unhealthy people and animals. When we did a gluten-free experiment (for a month) it took me nearly an hour to go through the grocery store the first time, reading labels on everything. And I don't buy a lot of 'boxed' products. Stuff that was labeled as 'healthy' had a lot of crap in it.

    We are lucky, Fiona (you, me & others) who can grow our own food. People really need to education themselves on what is good for their bodies and not rely on the government or govt paid 'experts' to tell then what is healthy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is terrifying when you start to read labels and avoid GMO, HFCS and Chemical Preservatives. Our parents ate wheat prodcts with few issues but that was "Real" wheat and it grew without round up and pesticides. We are noticing fields that were green are now brown, killed with Round Up before seeding the summer crop,most likely GMO corn for processing. I have to research.....do good bourbons use GMO corn?

      Delete
  3. I was born in the late '30's, when food was food. Breakfast was eggs or slow cooked cream of wheat. HFCS is killing us all and our children. I don't make jam and could not find any American jam without HFCS or made with GMO beet sugar so buy the occasional jar made in France when they still use cane sugar. Wheat gluten doesn't bother me, and I only buy organic flour since I bake everything from scratch. Organic only around here. You are right, sugar is inflammatory and in everything. It is also the reason we are the fattest nation. Between the GMO's and HFCS we are all being slowly killed off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I make our own ketchup...Ralph loves ketchup but commercial Ketchup is loaded with HFCS. Even the recipes for home made Ketchup use a lot of sugar. I cut the sugar down by half and added spices and Ralph likes it a lot....no it is not Heinz or Hunts but it is real tomato ketchup with no GMO's, no HFCS, and no preservatives either. I do make jam and cut the sugar back a lot. I found my mother's recipe for Ginger Jam and was surprised at how much less sugar it called for then many modern Recipes.

      Delete
  4. Fiona - you are dead right...and as exhaustive as your list is - there are still hundreds of other products out there with artificial this and that, yellow #4 (what the heck is that)...and when a product says natural colouring - what is that? over the past 10 years jam and i have been trying to grow as much of our own food as possible and we are very careful about products we purchase.

    it's absolute madness that companies can put this crap in food and our countries' health departments allow it.

    as for kids with autism, nerve disorders, add, adhd, asthma, allergies, diabetes, etc. - it's weird. i never knew a single kid growing up right up to high school that ever had any of that. now it's every second kid has some kind of "condition". i wonder, like you, could it possibly be the crap food they are eating? ya, sure. it couldn't be that, could it?

    sending much love. your friend,
    kymber

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SO many more foods that are HFCS laden but these are just one we have used. Since we grow as much of our own food as we can and I cook from scratch more now we are "home" it is such a relief to find this list is vanishing from our world. Your adventure with your eating habits shows we have to be more vigilant about our food. The food industry should be ashamed.

      Delete
  5. You have given a good dish list. I have seen ADHD kids. They will be very active and can do more than one thing at a time. They will be intelligent too...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes ADHD does not mean slow mentally at all. When I think of all the chemicals we have in processed food and then the drugs for kids....it cannot be a good thing for them!

      Delete