In my last class, it was brought up that while we have all been taught about the 4 tastes of our tongue, the North American diet generally tends to completely ignore half of them. There is no shortage of sweet or salty foods – most would agree that cravings for food tend to fall under one of these two categories, and the processing of food has led our tastes to crave things even more sweet or salty than ever before.

Sour, while not as popular as the other two, still makes an appearance here and there – mostly in fruit (lemon, hot and sour soup, some vinegars and wine).

Bitter, on the other hand, is the most sensitive of the tastes and one that has been pushed to the wayside in flavor of our frenemies, sugar and salt. We have a natural aversion to bitter tastes, and in some extreme cases this is a good thing because it stops us from eating potentially harmful foods. The problem is, there is another reason why we come equipped with the ability to taste bitter – we need some bitter foods in our diets to be healthy! Bitter foods are all rich in phytonutrients which have detoxifying properties and can serve to better our health and prevent against disease.

Not only is it important to consume some bitter foods, it is important to actually taste the bitterness. not only is the chemical makeup of the food important, but in order for the body to properly digest the food and put its contents to good use, the bitter taste sends a signal to the brain letting the digestive system know what to expect so it can use the nutrients optimally.

Here are 3 bitter ingredients and some ideas on preparation:

Dandelion Leaves

A staple in Italian cuisine, dandelion leaves are just what you think they are – the green leaves of the Dandelion flower/weed (I always thought it was mean to call these pretty yellow flowers weeds, but that’s just me.) While I wouldn’t advise you go picking dandelion leaves from your local park to eat for dinner (who knows what they’ve been sprayed with!) you could technically pick them yourself from a source you trusted or just buy them from a farmers market or grocery store. Very bitter to the taste, these greens add interest to any salad or stand well on their own with a less bitter counterpart: a boiled egg, roasted root vegetables, or a simple drizzle of something sweeter like a good balsamic vinegar.

Bitter Melon

The bitter melon often makes an appearance in South Asian and West Indian cuisine. Often served with potatoes or yogurt to provide an offset to the bitterness. In Indonesia, bitter melon is sometimes cooked with coconut milk.

Brussels Sprouts

The vegetable you love to hate, probably because you tried it once when you were a kid and were turned off by the bitterness! I recently re-discovered this vegetable and can’t believe I went so long without eating them. My (not so) secret? Just roast them. Seriously. That is all you need to do. If you want to get a bit fancier (or if they are still too bitter for you) drizzle with a little pure maple syrup and some pecans.

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I’m going to start a little series of posts on some different healthy ingredients and 5 different ways to incorporate them into your diet. When transitioning to a healthier diet, I think it’s much easier to concentrate on adding healthy foods – too many people just cut out all the ‘bad foods’ and are left uninspired and hungry. If you concentrate more on adding more whole, natural foods to your diet, you’ll likely find yourself too full to eat anything else (and you might find your tastes towards food change as well!)

You should probably be eating a little more: Kale!

We all know that dark leafy greens are good for us and we should be eating more of them. According to WHFoods, they contain more nutritional value per calorie than almost any other food. Loaded with Vitamins K, A, and C plus a whole host of other essential minerals and fatty acid Omega 3’s (which most people are deficient in!). Kale is a little bitter and tough when eaten raw – but start experimenting with this luscious leafy green and you’ll be amazed at how versatile and delicious it can be!

Five ways:

1)      Sauteed. Probably the most common way kale is consumed is sautéed (like you would spinach) with a little garlic and oil. If you are using an unsaturated oil (like olive oil) make sure you use only a little and do it on very low heat. Great sprinkled with lemon juice, some sesame seeds, and served as a yummy side to any meal.

2)      In a Salad. While kale leaves are a little tough to eat, they soften up easily with a little “massaging.” You can use oil, but healthier still (and more delicious in my opinion), avocado makes for a great kale-softener and gives any salad a rich, creamy texture. My friend Paul came up with a great massaged kale salad using avocado and swiss chard, and it looks delicious!

3)      Kale Chips. I definitely have a taste for savoury snacks and these are a lifesaver to me any time I crave anything really salty like potato chips. They couldn’t be simpler: take a head of kale, break it up into small pieces, massage with a bit of oil of choice (for higher temperatures, I like to use a very small amount of coconut oil as it is more stable). You don’t need to use a lot – once you get in there with your hands it goes a long way! Then, season with whatever you wish: I like a simple seasoning of sea salt and lemon juice, but you can go crazy in the spice cupboard adding whatever you desire (nutritional yeast is a common one you’ll see at raw food restaurants because it gives the chips a bit of a ‘cheesy’ taste). Pop them in the oven at a low temp (around 280) and let them crisp up for about 30 minutes. When ready, proceed to inhale them in about 30 seconds and feel really good about the fact you just ate a whole head of kale and LOVED it!

4)      In a Soup. I’ll let you in on a little secret here: soup is REALLY easy to make. And even if you’re not making your own soups from scratch, there is no reason you can’t be throwing a little extra nutritional ‘oomph’ into them every time. Cut up little strips of kale and throw them into the pot – they will soften right up. A great recipe to try would be the North African Chickpea and Kale Soup from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen (amazing recipe resource!)

5)      In a Smoothie. Those who know me know I’m a little crazy about my smoothies. It’s a pretty great feeling getting in a giant salad’s worth of greens first thing in the morning – it gives you more energy than a coffee could any day! Usually, I’ll throw spinach into my smoothies because it’s mild taste is easily masked by the other ingredients – however every once in a while I want my smoothie to taste “green” and so I will throw a more flavourful one in there – like our friend the kale leaf. A typical breakfast smoothie in my house would look something like this:

-          1 cup almond milk

-          1 small banana

-          1 scoop protein powder (I use plant based ‘superfood’ powders like Vega Smoothie Infusion) OR a healthy sprinkling of ground flax, chia seeds, hemp seeds, bee pollen, anything I have lying around

-          2-3 cups spinach

-          1-2 leaves of kale

-          ½ cup raspberries

-          1tbsp almond butter (If I’m feeling a little nutty)

These are just the most basic ways to incorporate more kale into your diet. The possibilities are really endless – try it and you’ll be hooked!

If you have any great recipes using Kale, please share

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Eggs can be a valuable source of nutrition. They are a good source of protein and contain many essential amino acids our bodies rely on for growth and maintenance of their bodies.

Not all eggs, however, are created equal.

If not otherwise stated on the packaging, your eggs are coming from Battery Hens.

Battery hens are raised and kept in very cramped, dark cages. This method of egg farming is wildly controversial due to the horrible conditions the hens are kept in. Chickens are arguably the most abused animal on the planet. While many have the title McNugget in their destiny, there are millions upon millions of hens that are raised for their eggs – and 99% of these hens spend their lives in tight confinement. They are often de-beaked to prevent cannibalism in the overcrowded environment, are defecated on by the other birds, and live amongst other diseased and dead birds. I don’t feel the need to go into all the gory details when a quick search on Google Video is able to deliver you with enough horrific videos to give you nightmares.

My focus here is mainly nutrition. It’s important to remember not only “you are what you eat” but less obviously, “you are what you eat, eats.” “Millions of tons of meat and bone meal from post-slaughter animal waste are recycled back into animal feed each year, and poultry and hog producers are the main purchasers of these products.” The chicken are also given antibiotics and steroids – not only to keep them “healthy” in conditions where it is clearly difficult to stay that way, but because they can increase the appetite and growth of the birds.

Some alternatives to conventional eggs:

Free range or free run eggs.

This method of farming indicates that the chickens are allowed to roam freely instead of being confined. Both of these terms, however, are not regulated when it comes to eggs and so rules can be bent. Many animal activists would argue that this loosely regulated term is just not enough.

In theory, from a dietary perspective, these birds who are able to live more naturally outdoors and with more room to run around would provide us with a healthier product – better tasting, and healthier for you. Studies suggest that GENUINE free-range hens’ eggs have higher levels of Omega 3, Vitamins A and E, and lower levels of total fat.

Organic Eggs.

While it can be argued that the ‘organic’ label on eggs doesn’t make a huge difference except for in price, being a certified ‘organic’ egg does mean that the farmers need to uphold certain standards that are regulated. The chickens are uncaged, get some outdoor access, are fed organic, vegetarian diets. Remember though, just because an egg is certified organic does not mean that it is necessarily ‘humanely raised.’

Vegan Alternatives

Another option to consider is not eating eggs at all. A person certainly does not need to rely on one type of food alone to satisfy any dietary requirement, and there are many other ways to get protein in a vegan (or simply egg-free) diet.

While I would avoid the soy-based egg substitutes (these tend to be overly processed and in general, not the most health supporting alternative), there is a natural egg substitute I just learned about this year that can be used to replace eggs in your baking – the flax egg!

1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed + 3 Tbsp Water = one egg.

Combine and beat until gooey and then bake away!

Drawing Conclusions

If you do choose to eat eggs (as I do on occasion), it helps to be educated on what all the labels mean so you can make the best decision for you – taking into consideration your health, your budget, and your ethical standpoint.

In theory, the best eggs to eat would be both organic AND humanely raised. Unfortunately, the labels you read on eggs in a commercial grocery store can be misleading and are often worthless. The only way to know for certain is to go to the source.

The best thing to do is to buy your eggs from local sources. Farmers markets, community CSA’s, and food delivery services are a good place to start looking.

As I am learning with all things health, there is rarely one ‘right answer’ to the question ”what should I eat?” and there is a ladder to climb when it comes to making the optimal choice for your health. Making a weekly trip to the farmers market to pick up organic free range eggs might not make sense for you or your lifestyle. It might be more suiting to you to try to buy free range eggs every other time you buy them. Maybe you’d rather not eat eggs at all. If budget is your #1 priority, the source of your eggs may fall very low on your priority list. See where you are on the “health ladder” and challenge yourself to climb higher on it – whether it be all the way or one step is up to you.

The most important thing that I have drawn from my studies in nutrition (so far) is that, as corny as it sounds, the most powerful tool you have towards good health is your mind. Become educated about the food you eat and strive to make better choices where you can. It’s impossible to have a perfect diet, we need to pick and choose where we can climb higher on the ladder towards health and when we need to accept things for what they are. Challenge yourself to make more informed decisions about the food you eat!

Some interesting eggy links:

A 12 year old boy with a passion for sustainable farming (smart kids like this just blow me away.) Happy Chickens Lay Healthy Eggs

Rescue chickens in Stratford, Ontario.

________________________________________

Sources

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Just another quick one:

For those trying to be more ethical consumers, a great website to check out is the Good Guide. It gives products ratings based on the following criteria:

Health

Environment

Society

It’s hard to navigate the aisles of the grocery or drug store and not be overwhelmed.  The Good Guide covers not just food, but cleaning products and personal care products as well. They tell you what toxic ingredients you should look for in the particular category, and highlight any ethically relevant issues with the company that manufactures the product.

For those (like me) that never think of these things until I’m at the store – there is a free iPhone application you can download.

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• A Peek Into My Snack Drawer…

Didn’t have as much time as I thought I would today to write a more information-rich post (coming soon). In the meantime, check out some of the delicious home cooked meals I’ve enjoyed over the past few days.

Stovetop oats cooked with frozen mixed berries, homemade almond milk, banana and topped with walnuts and hemp seeds. Pure maple syrup for sweetness.

Operation Pantry Cleanout: Whole wheat cous cous seasoned with lemon juice, pepper, and cayenne mixed with tomato, green peas, and garlic.

Sometimes I think I’m not getting enough greens, and then I remember if nothing else I’m usually consuming a head of kale every 3 days thanks to kale chips, nature’s answer to the munchies.

Kale chips, seasoned with lemon juice. Steamed broccoli, tossed with a little sesame oil and seeds.

Currently cooking my way through my most recent cookbook purchase: Veganomicon.

This beauteous dish would be the Spaghetti Squash Mexicana with Tropical Avocado Salsa Fresca. (minus the tropical part – I had all the ingredients on hand except for mango, which would have been yummy. It was still fantastic, spaghetti squash is in season and a great pasta alternative.)

Finally, Gena’s Chocomole. That’s right: vegan chocolate pudding using an avocado. I topped mine with coconut shavings. Don’t take my word for it – try this one, so simple and good.

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The urge to experiment in the kitchen is never stronger than when I’m supposed to be studying.

I’m a little bit pumpkin obsessed. Really, I’m a little bit obsessed with any variety of squash – but you can’t beat pumpkin for it’s ability to rouse some seasonal cheer. Since I’ve gone au natural with my eating, I had to wave goodbye to the infamous Pumkin Spice Latte at Starbucks and get my fix another way.

Andrea and I are planning on having a little thanksgiving dinner for some of our friends in Toronto and want to do it vegan style. She didn’t have to twist my arm too much to convince me to take a study break and test a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks: Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. I can’t post the recipe, but I will show you a few pictures of the process.

Sunflower seeds in the food processor. This forms the “flour” for the bottom of the pie tray:

Next a mix of pumpkin seeds and dates. The recipe yielded a bit too much of this stuff – next time I would use a bigger pie pan or just less of the seeds.

We used some canned pure pumpkin for the filling (NOT pumpkin pie mix). If you follow the recipe by the letter, you would just buy a whole pumpkin and process it, but we had the can on hand so we used that.

Surprise ingredient of the day goes to the bag you see behind the bowl there: psyllium husks. I happened to have these on hand from a cleanse I did a while ago – psyllium husks are best known for aiding the digestive system – ahem – they help you poop. Found also in capsule form, the psyllium husks are often mixed with water (one or two tablespoons, you have to work your way up). It tastes to me like sawdust, but it does the trick. Interestingly enough, the psyllium husk was used in this recipe as a thickening agent for the pie filling – I thought this was a genius way of sneaking a little more fiber into your diet.

And that’s it! The great think about raw ‘un-cooking’ is that most of the recipes come together incredibly quickly – often just tossing a few ingredients in a food processor and pushing a button.

We had a little left over so we made ourselves some mini-pies in muffin tins and sampled those. I thought it was a dead ringer for your traditional pumpkin pie taste wise, with a non traditional but delicious nutty crust. The larger pie looked like it was going to be a disaster to cut up though, so right now its hardening up in my freezer and we will see what that does to it.

Overall we think it’s a keeper and might have to be added to our Thanksgivegan menu.

Gotta get back to the books – the essential fatty acids are calling my name!

Ani Phyo’s Raw Vegan Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie!

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a I’m currently holed up in the back corner of my local coffee shop wearing rain boots, drinking organic chai tea, listening to Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago” (possibly the best rainy day album I’ve ever come across)… and learning everything there is to know about the B complex vitamins.

Day two of Unprocessed October and Vegan Month of Food.

In any case, the day started early with some overnight oats. I really like eating my oats like this, cold, chewy and delicious. When you combine the oats with equal parts liquid (I use almond milk, but you can use anything you’d like) and leave it in the fridge overnight, the oats soften up and you don’t have to spend your time cooking them in the morning.

In my overnight oats were: ½ cup oats, ½ cup homemade almond milk, about a tablespoon of natural peanut butter (just nuts!), chia seeds, berries, hemp seeds, and come coconut flakes. A touch of agave nectar for sweetness.

I forgot to take pictures of my almond milk making process, but it’s really easy. You can do this with virtually any nut and it couldn’t be simpler. I soaked a ½ cup of almonds overnight in water, and the next day threw them in the blender with 5 cups of water. This is all you need to do: although to make it more palatable you can add in some flavour – I did this with a few dates and some pure vanilla extract.

If you really want to get fancy with it, you can strain it through a cheesecloth and use the pulp as an ingredient to some delicious baking or anything you can think of really. I couldn’t find any cheesecloth at my local grocery store so I just let it all mix together – the nut pulp sinks to the bottom anyways and it’s not a big deal. This will be good for a few days in the fridge and yummy with breakfast cereal and in tea and coffee.

Even to those who do drink cow’s milk, almond milk is a surprisingly low calorie and low fat beverage that I used to drink even when I was drinking milk – the nuts are really diluted by the water.

My unprocessed diet couldn’t be happening at a better time – in times of low immunity, you can do nothing better for your body than to increase the amount of nutrient rich vegetables you are eating and go easy on refined sugars. I’m taking a pretty powerful Vitamin C supplement, just to give myself an extra boost since I find when I have a cold my appetite goes and I might not be eating as much as I should.

Andrea cooked up a delicious and nutritious vegetable and ginger soup. Ginger is amazing when you are sick. According toPrescription for Herbal Healing it is the most widely available and widely used herbal remedy on the planet! It’s known for its anti-nausea properties, but is also very anti- inflammatory, and has anti-viral properties. Good for colds, good for flu, good for you! (And yummy.)

It’s so easy to make delicious blended soups on your own, I can’t believe the thought never occured to me until this year. I am a big fan of soup in the winter, few other foods comfort me more on a cold day. The canned versions, however, contain so much sodium! It’s much better and less expensive to make a huge batch on your own and add your own salt to taste.

To make your own soup, start by sauteing some vegetables (today Andrea used onion, celery, carrot, ginger and sweet potato) until they soften. Then just add water, adjusting the ratio of veggies to water depending on how thick a soup you want. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for a while, adding any spices you wish. We stuck with a simple combo of salt, pepper, and cumin. Once the soup starts to smell good, transfer it to a blender and pulse it until it becomes smooth.

Our delicious vegetable ginger soup was garnished with some cilantro, a herb I find people love or hate.

The meal was accompanied by a side salad of spinach topped with some guacamole.

For the record, I have a HUGE thing of spinach on the go constantly so get used to seeing it a lot. This meal was just what my wimpy immune system needed, nourishing and filling and pretty delicious!

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Happy October!

I am a little sad to see my favorite month go, but nonetheless this month sparks the start of the holiday season which I LOVE! Bring on the apples, the squash, and the raw vegan pumpkin pie! Mmmmm.

Not only is today the first day of my 31 days unprocessed experiment (and foray into “food blogging”), October is also “The Vegan Month of Food 2009” aka Vegan Mofo (at least in the blog world.) Vegan and vegan-friendly bloggers from all over will be writing all month about all things veganism.

For the record, I don’t really consider myself a vegan. I cook and eat primarily for health, and as a result,  you will find a lot of my meals and recipes end up being vegan, probably about 90%. Being a healthy vegan requires you to learn about nutrition, how to get all the vital components of a good diet, and sometimes a lot of planning. Done right, however, a vegan diet is nutritionally unbeatable! The ethical and environmental benefits to a vegan diet don’t hurt either.

While I do believe this is the best way for me to eat to feel healthy and full of energy, I recognize that there are many different ways to enjoy a healthy diet and I respect that. There are, however, common elements to ALL healthy diets – variety, balance, and of course, a TON of dark leafy greens!

So in addition to Unprocessed October I will also gladly contribute to Vegan Mofo III as a very vegan-friendly blogger.

So. Day one. Not going to lie, it didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. Now that I’ve just gone and told you I eat a 90% vegan diet, I have to admit right away that last night I ate a very non-vegan slice of cheese pizza. Given that my diet for the past year has been so low in dairy products, my system was – to put it gently – not very happy with me today. Other than a banana (unpictured, you’ll have to trust me) I could not manage to get any food in all day.

Needless to say, by dinner I was ravenous and decided to cook myself a feast! And what a feast it was.

I decided recently that I wanted to get more in touch with my cultural background (I am 1/2 East Indian) by learning to cook some dishes. My cousin’s wife, who is a fantastic cook, graciously lent me a book called “Mom’s Kitchen” which is a collection of Indian recipes made with ingredients that are widely available in North America.

I’ve never been one to follow a recipe to the letter, I don’t really use measuring spoons and often I modify the recipes in hopes of ‘healthifying’ them up a bit.

Tonight, inspired by the cookbook, I attempted my own version of Baingan Bharta, which is a delicious eggplant dish.

First, I broiled a whole eggplant for 20 minutes, rotating once. After letting it cool off a bit, I peeled it and mashed it into this splendid looking pile of goo:

The original recipe calls for a 1/4 cup of oil. I didn’t want to use that much oil, so instead I used just a hint of coconut oil (since coconut oil is fairly stable and can handle a higher temperature than other types) and sauteed a chopped onion until it was soft. Then, I added tomato, chili peppers, green peas, ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, and sea salt.

Finally, I added the smooshed eggplant and let it all simmer together for a few minutes. The final result was definitely  a departure from the original dish but still a delicious ‘inspired’ version.

While that was cooking, I had a batch of carrot fries on the go. Mmmmm carrot fries – if you like sweet potato fries, you will love these too!

Rounding the meal off with some green leafy spinach – I love spinach so much sometimes I eat it plain, no dressing, no nothing.

Et voila:

A little closer now:

Yummy! And super colourful which is always a good sign health wise (as long as its natural colours!) And enough leftovers to feed me lunches for a few days too, which is always good.

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as of tomorrow…

no frozen foods / foods out of a box / pre prepared foods / foods with a label

exceptions:

packaged food if there is only one ingredient in the package.

example: frozen fruits/veggies

grains/nuts/seeds sold in packages

an item that is ‘minimally processed’ if i am only one degree away from the process.

example: oils, cold pressed, from the farmers market (where I buy direct from the farmer who made them)

breads, fresh baked, no preservatives, from a bakery (where you see the bread being baked in the back room)

alcohol, if it is made locally and organic

is this cheating? i’m not really sure. however i will drink, for example:

organic beer like Mill Street Organic (a Toronto microbrewery)

organic wine like wine from Frogpond Farm

Anything I’m forgetting I will add on as I go. Wish me luck!

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The human body is an amazing thing, and is able to survive on a multitude of different diets that are different due to cultural differences, ethics, environment, or income.

Lately, though, we have not been doing so great at the whole survival thing.

THE STANDARD WESTERN DIET IS KILLING US!

Cancer.

Heart Disease.

Diabetes.

Obesity.

These are not new diseases, but they are more prevalent than they have ever been and on rapid incline. The patients keep getting younger and younger, too.

As some of the top leading causes of death, the link between these ailments and proper nutrition is not even a debate. (Google ‘processed food’ + ‘health risks’ and see if you get any hits.)

Processed food is everywhere. Companies are adding preservatives, sugars, sodium, flavorings, and taking away essential nutrients all to save a bit of money and make you crave more.

I know both from my past eating habits and watching others eat that a sugary cereal for breakfast, Kraft Dinner for lunch, and frozen pizza for dinner is a pretty common day’s menu for a lot of people.

Reader’s Digest put out an article about the 4 most harmful ingredients in packaged food. A lot of these will seem like common sense to you – however if you’re not constantly reading labels it’s easy to forget or simply not realize how at least one of these scary ingredients is snuck into almost every packaged food item on grocery store shelves.

Trans Fats.

In order to give food a longer shelf life, hydrogenated oil is used in so many products in the place of ‘heart-healthier’ unsaturated oil that could go rancid more quickly. Using low grade vegetable oils and adding hydrogen is much cheaper than using naturally saturated oils (like palm oil and coconut oil). Vegetable oil itself (aka Canola oil) is highly refined to begin with and rapeseed, which is what Canola oil is made out of, is genetically modified. In fact, Canola oil itself is REGISTERED AS A PESTICIDE. Not even kidding. Mmmm. Pesticide spiked muffins. Breakfast of champions!!

Where you’ll probably find them: margarine, baked goods, chips, French fries, microwave popcorn

What to watch for on labels: “partially hydrogenated,” “shortening”

Refined Grains.

Refined, or ‘white’ flours and grains. These are not just in packages of bread, but less obviously on your pizza crusts, in your cereal… there is pretty much no nutritional value left in these items. In fact, check the ingredient list on a package of white bread – not only is it made with white flour which has been stripped of all the nutrition and fiber, there has probably been a lot of sugar added. High on the Glycemic Index as it is, eating a piece of harmless looking white bread will cause your blood sugar levels to soar, forcing your adrenals to go into overdrive sending out hormones (like insulin) to level everything out. Too much over use and you’ll tire them out, possibly leading to any one (or all) of the conditions I have listed at the top of the page.

Where you’ll probably find them: Breads, pastries, pizzas…

What to watch for on labels: “made with/contains whole grain” (usually this means it’s not 100% whole grain). For example: Subway’s ‘9 Grain Wheat’ bread might sound like a good choice because of the variety of grains, but if you look at the ingredients, you’ll see that the first ingredient is refined flour, and whole wheat flour does not appear till ingredient #5 – AFTER high fructose corn syrup (more on this later). Blegh. You might be skinny, Jared, but what do your insides look like?

Sodium.

As the Readers Digest article says, ¾ of the sodium in our diets is not from adding salt to our food but is hidden in processed foods! Salt acts as a preservative, making your tomato soup last pretty much forever. (Food lasting forever seems a little unnecessary to me since I’m not presently living in a bomb shelter.)While sodium is an essential mineral, too much sodium can be deathly serious – constricting your veins and arteries and forcing your system to work much harder to dilute all the salt.

Where you’ll probably find it: canned foods (soups, vegetables, and sauces), frozen dinners

What to watch for on a label: “reduced sodium/light in sodium” – what was the sodium content to begin with? Usually, half of ‘too much’ is still ‘too much’.

High Fructose Corn Syrup.

This cheap sweetener made from corn (one of the most over-produced crops in the world) is in EVERYTHING. Research is surfacing that suggests its link to heart disease and diabetes, and depletion of your body’s nutrients. And disgustingly, per person, we are consuming 63 pounds of it per year.

Where you’ll probably find it: where WON’T you find it? Breads, beer, bacon, ketchup, soft drinks… I was saddened to see it in the ready-made sushi you get at the grocery store…

What to watch for on a label: “corn sweetener,” “corn syrup,” “corn syrup solids”

Not to be a Negative Nelly here, but seriously, if you are eating a highly processed diet, if most of your “cooking” involves pressing a few buttons on a microwave or adding water and stirring – you are probably consuming a ridiculous amount of these dangerous additives on a daily basis.

Start reading labels! You will be surprised what you find. I constantly am!

The thing is – it can be hard to avoid in a world where it’s easier to get your hands on ‘apple drink’ than a real apple. But my personal challenge for the next entire month is to prove to you (and myself) that it is possible, and enjoyable, to eat a diet free of processing, preservatives, and unnecessary junky additives.

Unprocessed October starts in 2 days – that’s right, no candy corn for me this year – but I have a feeling by the time the 31^st rolls around, I won’t be too upset about it.

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