Stuff In Our Food

Stuff in Your Food Be an educated consumer – learn what’s in your food and how you can change it

What’s in our food?
There is a lot of stuff in food
Food can be simple – containing less than 10 ingredients
Food can be very complex – containing a list of 70+ ingredients
Food that you eat can either be supportive to your health or be detrimental to your health

What we are talking about…
Good stuff in our food
Reading food labels
Food ingredients
Scary stuff in our food

Life-giving stuff in our food…
Vitamins
Minerals
Energy (calories)
Other healthy compounds – fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, water, antioxidants, phytochemicals

Water Soluble Vitamins
B-Vitamins
Thiamin – whole grains
Riboflavin – milk products and whole grains
Niacin – animal products and whole grains
Biotin – whole grains, made in GI Tract
Pantothenic acid – widespread in foods
Vitamin B6 – meats and legumes
Folate – whole grains
Vitamin B12 – animal products and nutritional yeast
Vitamin C – fruits, fresh vegetables

Vitamin B12
Works very closely with folate in DNA synthesis and red blood cell
Deficiency – results in anemia, fatigue, degeneration of nerve tissue resulting in paralysis
Food sources:
Animal products (meat, milk, cheese, eggs)
Root vegetables
Fortified cereals
Nutritional yeast

Folate (Folic Acid)
Folate is extremely important for women of child-bearing age
Folate deficiency can affect the neural tube development of fetuses
Folate is great for preventing heart disease!
Food sources:
Whole and enriched grain products
Leafy greens
Legumes
seeds

Fat Soluble Vitamins
Vitamin A – dark yellow orange vegetables, acne medicine Accutane
Vitamin D – sunlight
Vitamin E – oils
Vitamin K – synthesized in GI tract

Minerals
Sodium Calcium
Potassium Phosphorous
Chloride Magnesium

Take a look at potassium and sodium in processed foods

Energy (Calories)
Carbohydrates
Proteins
Fats

Dietary Fiber
Great for your digestive system – gut bacteria feed off of it!
Great for your blood cholesterol level – soluble fiber binds cholesterol.
Diets high in fiber have been shown to reduce the risk of cancer.
Foods high in dietary fiber:
Whole grains and whole grain products
Fruits
Vegetables
Foods low in fiber:
Meats and animal products
Processed foods like candies, cookies, bread, crackers, snacky foods.

Why Whole Grains?
High in FIBER!
High in vitamins and minerals
Great for weight management – foods high in fiber tend to fill you up and keep you full.
Great for your overall health!
Non-whole grain foods:
White rice
White pasta
White bread
Some wheat breads
Cookies, crackers, etc.

Fats, fats, fats, oh My!
Good Fats
Monounsaturated fats
Olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, avocados
Polyunsaturated fats
Vegetable oils – sunflower, safflower, sesame, soy, and corn
Nuts and seeds
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Fatty fish – salmon, mackeral, sardines
Grass fed beef, pastured eggs
Walnuts, flax seeds, soybeans
Omega-6 Fatty Acids
Vegetable oils
Poultry fat, eggs, meats
Nuts, seeds
Not so good fats
Saturated fats
Animal products
Coconut oil
Palm oil
Trans fats
Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils found in processed foods like cakes, cookies, snack foods and candies.

Decoding an ingredient list: INGREDIENTS: Enriched flour [wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid], vegetable shortening (partially hydrogenated soybean and/or canola oils), skim milk cheese (skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes, annatto extract color), salt, paprika, yeast, paprika oleoresin color. Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils – Trans Fats! Avoid these…

Other good stuff in our food…
Water!
Found in most food that we eat
Fruits and veggies are made up of 70% or more water
Phytochemicals and antioxidants
Found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, some animals (very few)
Great great great!
Examples: lycopene, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C

Moving on…
What is the key to unlocking the secret about the stuff in your food?

Reading a food label
Serving Size - what is considered a “serving”?
Servings per container – no, serving size isn’t actually how much that package of food contains
Calories – good ‘ol energy!
Calories from fat – yep, pretty just that!
Total fat – things with >4g of fat you should be worried about if it is coming in a package in processed form
Saturated fat – check out the label – how much of this saturated fat counts towards your daily recommendations?

Reading a food label…
Carbohydrates – fuel for your brain!
Dietary fiber – good sources of fiber have >5g per serving.
Sugars – these tend to be added sugars in processed foods, so anything >10g is questionable …
Protein – yep, this is good stuff; proteins in processed foods typically come from the additives that they use (like whey, soy protein, etc.)
Vitamins and Minerals! – only ones listed are A, C, calcium, and iron

Reading a food label…
The Ingredient List Scale of Scariness:
< 7 items – great!
7 < items < 15 – okay
>15 items – getting scary
>30 items – NO WAY!
Ingredients:
Whole corn, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn, soybean, and/or sunflower oil), cheddar cheese (milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), salt, corn maltodextrin , whey, monosodium glutamate (MSG) , tomato powder, Romano cheese (part-skim cow's milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), onion powder, disodium phosphate , garlic powder, lactose, natural and artificial flavor , dextrose , spice, citric acid , sour cream (cultured milk, nonfat milk), sugar, nonfat milk, lactic acid , buttermilk, disodium inosinate , and disodium guanylate .
Contains: Milk ingredients
This item contains 35 ingredients!

Lets take a look at some food labels/ingredient lists:

Can you guess? Ingredients: Whole corn, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn, soybean, and/or sunflower oil), cheddar cheese (milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), salt, corn maltodextrin , whey, monosodium glutamate (MSG) , tomato powder, Romano cheese (part-skim cow's milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), onion powder, disodium phosphate , garlic powder, lactose, natural and artificial flavor , dextrose , spice, citric acid , sour cream (cultured milk, nonfat milk), sugar, nonfat milk, lactic acid , buttermilk, disodium inosinate , and disodium guanylate . Contains: Milk ingredients

Can you guess?
Ingredients:
Water, white rice, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar

Horchata – a traditional rice milk drink made in Mexico

Can you guess?
Ingredients:
high fructose corn syrup , sugar, water, non-dairy creamer ( partially hydrogenated coconut oil ), corn syrup solids, sodium caseinate , mono- and di-glycerides, dipotassium phosphate.
Contains 2% or less: Sodium silicoaluminate , soy lecithin, whey protein, cinnamon, vanillin, natural caramel color, rice flour, potassium sorbate

Moving on…
What is even more scary than a long ingredient list?
… what those ingredients are!

Chemical Additives
Things added to our food to preserve them, make them taste good, make them a different color….
Chemical Preservatives
Artificial Coloring
Artificial Flavoring

Chemical Preservatives - BHT and BHA -
Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)
Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA)
Most widely used antioxidant in food/drug industry
Not permitted in infant foods
Top 10 of most commonly used preservatives in cosmetics

Chemical Preservatives - Benzoic Acid -
Where does it come from?
coal tar
resin
may be derived from animals

Artificial Colorings - Red No. 40 -
Concerns:
behavioral and neurological effects
hyperactive behavior in children
lower IQ

Artificial Colorings - Carminic Acid -
Comes from:
crushed bodies of the female Dactyolpius coccus – an Indonesian scale insect
Also known as carmine

Artificial Flavorings - Aspartame -
Concerns:
Headaches
Cancer

Artificial Flavorings - Saccharin -
Concerns:
Causes cancer in laboratory animals

Other ingredients thought or known to cause cancer:
Sucralose
Sodium nitrate and nitrite
Artificial and natural flavorings
Acesulfame-K
Potassium bromate
Propyl Gallate

Genetically Modified Organism
Seen by many scientists as the new food revolution of the future
70% of the processed foods in America now contain GMO ingredients
What is it?
Genes from completely different species can be inserted into each other
Scientist in Taiwan have succeeded at inserting jellyfish genes into pigs in order to make them glow in the dark

- Genetically Modified Organism -
Concerns:
allergic reactions, gene mutations, antibiotic resistance, loss of nutrition, damage to environment, social implications
superweeds, terminator seeds
CORPORATE OWNERSHIP

Hormones - rBST or rBGH -
Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rBST)
Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH)
Concerns:
Animal health
Increase in insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in cows – identical in humans

- Antibiotics -
Used in meat and animal production to keep animals “healthy”
Traces found in meat and animal products
Risks – increased tolerance to antibiotics; antibiotic resistant SUPERBUGS!

- Biomagnification -
What is it?
What foods have the highest levels of biomagnified pollutants?
What is being done about it?

- Metals: Mercury -
Food Sources:
- Fish
- High Fructose
Corn Syrup
Concerns:
- harmful to the developing brain

- Metals: Arsenic -
Sources:
Chicken
Water
Other poultry
Rice
Fish
Concerns:
Cancer
Diabetes
Heart disease
Arsenic has been a gov. approved additive in chicken feed for years!

- Pesticides and Herbicides -
Organophosphates
DDT
Dioxin
Concerns:
Cancer
Kidney disease
Birth defects
Poor health
Premature death
Hormone disruption
Nervous system disorders
Reproductive damage

- Mad Cow Disease / BSE -
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
Infectious disease of the brain of cattle
If humans eat the tissue of a cow with ‘mad cow’ disease  Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Prions – infectious proteins

- E. Coli o157:H7 -
Source: Cow Manure
Found in:
- beef
- raw veggies
Concerns:
intestinal discomfort
bloody diarrhea
death

- Bird Flu -

Tips to avoiding nasty things in foods…
Stick with whole food products
Skip processed foods
Read the ingredient list
Limit/avoid contaminated animal products
Eat foods grown without pesticides/herbicides
Cook animal products thoroughly

There is Hope!

Stuff In Our Food

by daniellellee on Feb 06, 2009

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Stuff In Our Food — Presentation Transcript