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Post by jan on Mar 12, 2024 7:32:47 GMT
This round runs from Feb. 12 through March 24 Challengers: Cherry — Do some form of exercise most days Cathy — Honestly track everything Judy — Move more Holly — Maintain Lifetime at Goal Status Bev — More cautious of what I'm eating Jan — Adding more fruits and veggies into my meals, no after-work snacking Hosts: Feb. 12 through Feb. 18 — Cherry Feb. 19 through Feb. 25 — Cathy Feb. 26 through March 3 — Judy March 4 through March 10 — Holly March 11 through March 17 — Jan March 18 through March 24 — Bev Real Food Tips: 10 Common Misconceptions Don’t be fooled by these misleading food myths:
6. The bread that’s being made in the grocery store bakery is “fresh”…wrong (in most cases)!
I certainly haven’t surveyed every single supermarket in America, but all the stores I’ve been to have a bustling bakery where workers appear to be pulling “fresh” baked bread out of their ovens. While it’s true they’re baking the bread right there in the store oftentimes they didn’t actually make the dough themselves, which means it’s full of preservatives and other unnecessary additives like dough conditioners (just read the ingredients and you’ll see what I mean).
7. I was told that margarine and Earth Balance are better for my family than butter…wrong!
As Michael Pollan says in his book Food Rules, “Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not” because it’s best to just stick with the “real” thing as opposed to an imitation. Need I say more?
8. Some people say, “Well, isn’t cheese a ‘processed’ food?”…right (sort of).
Our family actually avoids all highly processed food because even cooking is technically a form of “processing” or changing your food…and we definitely aren’t practicing a “raw food diet.” Mainly to draw the line somewhere we define highly processed food as products containing more than 5 ingredients. But – just for the record – no matter how many ingredients are on the list, if a product is made with anything refined (like “wheat” that’s not whole) or if it’s deep-fried in refined oil then we definitely consider it to be highly processed as well. That means bags of 3-ingredient deep-fried potato chips are out (sorry!).
9. Following the latest food trend (that’s oftentimes led by the food industry) is the way to go…wrong!
If something feels like an up and coming food “trend” I mostly try to avoid it because I prefer to stick to traditional diets that people have survived on for centuries, which certainly didn’t include “boosting your omega-3’s” with a box of enriched pasta.
10. This cereal box says it will lower my cholesterol so maybe I should give it a shot…wrong!
Do not believe – and in fact don’t even read – misleading health claims on the front of food packages. Only trust the ingredients.
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Post by jan on Mar 12, 2024 7:49:59 GMT
Holly, I get (pretty much) a daily email from her and have done several of her challenges- She has a weekly "here's what we are eating this week" email that I usually look at and may or may not check out the recipes for. Its hard for me when I really only eat 2 dinners at home each week.
Back to some of the misconceptions- back when WW first came out with their ice cream bars, people were eating the whole box in one sitting because they were zero fat and so they figured that meant zero calories.
What was said about chickens and beef being called organic made me think of this- in Oregon a law was passed that all eggs must come from "cage free" chickens. People thought that meant the chickens were going to be running around outside all happy. Cage free chickens may still be in a barn with 10,000 other chickens walking all over them, they are just not confined to a tiny cage.
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Post by Holly Gail on Mar 12, 2024 13:04:38 GMT
jan , Thanks for the info about the author of the current article. I'm still going through some of the recipes on her site and have already copied into my own recipes files one or two. And sorry to hear of the poor-enough wording of the Oregon law you cite that it defeats the purpose of "cage-free" chickens... I didn't know about it (although DS and his family live in Oregon too).
I rarely purchase breads "made fresh on the premises" from markets. I do, however, purchase one or two varieties of pre-packaged sliced bread that were once on the "no count" lists (up to 50 calories per slice for "regular" slices) although I limit those purchases to whole grain varieties (which are scarcer and scarcer to find).
I don't remember exactly when or why, but I don't use any of the market "substitute" foods, like the "as good as real" things. When it comes to butter, I treat myself very infrequently to real butter, or else I do without.
I've never considered cheese a "processed" food other than the ones that say right on the front of the package "processed" (as in "Processed American Cheese").
In my entire life, I think I followed only one "current" (at the time) trend, and it wasn't about food. And I knew at the time that it was an aberration for me and chose to do it anyway. (I was around 11 years old.)
I admit to reading the front of cereal boxes. However, if I see something that catches my eye, I will turn the box over to read the ingredients and any additional information that may point me in one direct (purchase) or another (stay away)...
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Post by jasimons on Mar 12, 2024 13:08:39 GMT
6. The bread that’s being made in the grocery store bakery is “fresh”…wrong (in most cases)!
Knew this from working in food service and using frozen, preformed dough (breads, cookies, rolls, etc.), which we baked on site.
7. I was told that margarine and Earth Balance are better for my family than butter…wrong!
I use butter sparingly, I'd rather have the real thing occasionally.
8. Some people say, “Well, isn’t cheese a ‘processed’ food?”…right (sort of).
I think it sounds like she's trying to explain or define her choices. I kind of have my own rules as well - I try to avoid overly processed foods (example, chips). Frozen fruits and vegetables work for me because there's less waste...but I understand they might not meet the rules some have for processed.
I have the "100 Days of Real Food" cookbook written by Lisa Leake (the author of the blog). In the cookbook, she lists the items she considers to be real food and includes the phrase "more a product of nature than a product of industry".
9. Following the latest food trend (that’s oftentimes led by the food industry) is the way to go…wrong!
Jan, I also remember people adding fiber (powder?) to make ice cream or other items free or lower points in one of the WW programs. I do think some food trends can be healthful (kale, for example).
10. This cereal box says it will lower my cholesterol so maybe I should give it a shot…wrong!
Some package health claims do have a meaning. However, I understand she is saying not to base choices on just one thing and a person should understand the claims. The blog/book author mentions to use "local, pastured" meats, but as Jan mentioned, these terms might not mean what we think they mean.
I don't mean this to criticize the rules the author has chosen - the ways she has chosen are certainly helpful and her books and blog lay out good plans.
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Post by cherryt38 on Mar 12, 2024 16:16:40 GMT
I don't consider frozen fruits or vegetables as processed as when you thaw them they are still in their original form with nothing added to them. Highly processed foods to me are things like summer sausage, pepperoni, hot dogs, bratwurst, Polish sausage, potato chips, Doritos and other kinds of snack crackers.
Same with milk as it has been pasteurized but still remains in the form of milk some with some of the butterfat removed.
When my family was young and we were living on the farm we had milk cows, raised beef cattle and saved some for butchering for our freezer, I helped milk the cow we had for milk (different breed than the beef cattle), separated the milk, used the skim milk and sold the cream, I made my own cottage cheese, made butter, butchered chickens to eat and for the freezer, had chickens for laying eggs, made bread (white bread, but nevertheless home made). Whole wheat flour was hard to come by back then. One time we ran out of meat in the freezer, and the steer wasn't ready for butchering yet, so we lived mostly on eggs for about a month. I made eggs in all the different ways I could think of. My oldest son got so tired of eating eggs that to this day he won't eat eggs, unless they are in potato salad or some other form of food that has eggs in them but are not as noticeable as eggs, like other kinds of salads that contain chunks of boiled eggs as a minor ingredient.
I still bake my own bread but I use a recipe that is 100/% whole wheat, a mix of white whole wheat and regular whole wheat. And today I'm going to bake a loaf, as I used the last slice for breakfast this morning.
I don't use margarine but I keep a butter spread on hand to use if I run out of butter. It is made with cream and canola oil and is easy to spread right out of the fridge. The real butter I use is Kerrygold Irish butter from grass fed cows.
I don't go along with those other myths either. Plain Cheerios were sanctioned by WW in the Simply Filling plan, as they only had 3 grams of sugar and counted as zero points.
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Post by bmazzo on Mar 12, 2024 17:38:25 GMT
I am not a hoarder by any means. I will through most anything out if I am not using it. One of the few things that I regret getting rid of is my bread machine. I hadn't used it for a long time, so I took it to the Good Will. When the pandemic hit & everybody was making bread again, I wished I had it back. I have never wished it bad enough to buy another one. I would like to make my homemade bread again by hand. I have all the ingredients, I have the flour, the yeast etc. but I just never seem to get around to getting started on it. A few years ago, you could walk in to our local Kroger or Publix stores (which both have "bakeries") & you could smell the wonderful breads baking & the cakes baking. Not anymore! I know that they are getting it in already baked. In fact, I think the cakes come in already baked & frozen. They may decorate them locally, but that's it. The bread is just put in paper bags & on the counters. It doesn't say "in store baked", but you just assume that it is.
I keep both real butter & light margarine on hand. I only give DH real butter as he is not well. Sometimes, I will have the lighter margarine for myself. Mostly, I just try to avoit butter for myself all the way around.
I do enjoy a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I try to limit I to cherrios, rice crispies & corn flakes. I never buy the sugary cereals. Once in a while, I will buy rice Chex.
When I was a kid, we moved around a lot, but dad always owned an old farm. We would move there & stay a couple of years then we would have to move away for a couple of years so that mom & dad could make some money. At the farm, we always lived off the land. Almost everything that we ate, came from the farm. We raised pigs to butcher, but we had no refrigeration, so the pork had to be salted & smoked to preserve it. We ate a lot of wild game, squirrels & rabbits, etc. I dont' know if we were healthier or not, we almost never went to the Dr. Of course, we had no such thing as health insurance, never even heard of it & we had very little money to pay a Dr, so we mostly got buy with home remedies, unless we were very sick.
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