Cream powder, partially hydrogenated soybean oil (trans fat), “flavors,” saturated fats, sodium, controversial ingredients and added sugar. That was dinner for thousands, maybe millions, of babies and toddlers last night who ate Gerber Graduates Lil’ Meals Pasta Shells and Cheese.
Most of us know the healthiest foods are natural and unprocessed like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains. Yet we spend a great deal of our nutrition equity chowing down on chemicals disguised as food. And unaware, feeding them to our children.
So I was excited to find this user-friendly food rating website FoodFacts.com. FoodFacts can help you and your family eat more healthfully by knowing if a food has excessive sugar, fat, salt or harmful chemicals.
FoodFacts.com reviews more than 100,000 popular packaged, non-packaged and fast foods and 20,000 ingredients. Each product or food is graded from a head-of-the-class “A” to a failing “F” based on the quality of ingredients andwhether a food offers any nutritional value.
There’s also a full list of ingredients, nutrition facts panel and bulleted good news/bad news report card for each product. Taste is not considered.
Stanley Rak, FoodFacts’ founder and sole funder, started the site after he was feeding his 3-year-old grandson and noticed the food was sticking to his fingers. “I thought what’s in this?” Rak told me. “So I looked at the label on the jar and couldn’t pronounce most of the ingredients!” Rak then went home and looked at the ingredients in everything in his cupboard. That was the beginning of FoodFacts.com.
I marvel at and support the initiative of one individual doing what he can to protect all of our health. Rak’s aim is to help people eat more nutritiously, eat safely if they have food allergies or dietary restrictions, and create a community where members (it’s free) can share their food findings and experiences.
Rak also hopes FoodFacts.com will influence manufacturers to produce healthier products. For instance, manufacturers can still hide ingredients. “They don’t have to list trans fat on the package if it’s under half a percent,” Rak told me, “but you’ll see it on FoodFacts.” Paid for only by Rak, FoodFacts is entirely transparent and not supported by any advertising.
“Sometimes my neighbors are afraid to invite me to dinner,” said Rak chuckling, but he’s always adding to the site. A recent addition goes back to its roots — a “Baby Nutrition, Allergen and Score Guide” to help new mothers provide their babies nutritious products. “Because,” Rak says, “the abundance of sugar, including hidden sugars, in baby foods is where our lifelong struggle with obesity and nutrition begins.”
Dreamfields Pasta Linguine Low Carb – (A)Low in calories, fat and sodium, Dreamfields Pasta packs a nutritional punch, providing 40 percent of our folic acid and thiamin requirements, as well as riboflavin, niacin and iron.
Little Duck Organics Blueberry Apple Tiny Fruits (A) – Organic freeze-dried apples and blueberries, this product is low in calories, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, contains no controversial ingredients and is an excellent source of vitamins A and C.
Beech Nut Good Morning Oatmeal & Mixed Fruit Cereal (A) – A baby food product with only good news! Low in calories, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium and contains no controversial ingredients. It is also an excellent source of twelve vitamins and minerals.
Bumble Bee Chunk White in Water Tuna Albacore (A-) – Low in calories, saturated fat, cholesterol, contains no controversial ingredients and contains naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals, and is an excellent source of niacin.
Triscuit Original Low Sodium Whole Wheat Crackers (B+) – Low sodium, low in calories and no controversial ingredients, makes Triscuit a great snack. It doesn’t score an “A” because it’s also low in vitamins and minerals.
Hot Pockets Beef and Cheddar Sandwiches (F) – The entire line of Hot Pockets products gets an “F.” This product has multiple controversial ingredients, there is little “good” in this product and it displays a hidden form of MSG. Hot Pockets products have one of the longest lists of ingredients, up to 160!
MorningStar Farms Veggie Chik’n Nuggets (F) – These vegetarian imitation chicken nuggets are high in sodium and contain the controversial ingredients hydrolyzed corn gluten and yeast extract (both are nicknames for MSG). The product also provides little vitamin content.
Arby’s All American Classic Roastburger (F) – Equal parts good and bad — low in calories, cholesterol and contains Fiber, Vitamin C and Iron. Yet highin saturated fat, sodium, contains a moderate amount of added sugar and several controversial ingredients.
Propel Zero Berry Flavored Fitness Water (D+) – This product has no calories, fat or sugars, but gets a poor grade due to its very controversial ingredients, like acesulfame potassium, potassium sorbate and other preservatives. A great example of a product that looks healthy based on the nutrition label, until you read the ingredients. Plus, researchers are linking 1 in 10 deaths in the U.S. to overconsumption of salt, and this flavored water has over 160 mg of sodium!
Apple and Eve Grover’s No Sugar Added White Grape Juice (D) – While most believe 100 percent fruit juice is healthy, it’s mostly sugar. A single eight-ounce serving of this grape juice contains 38 grams of sugar and 130 calories. Comparatively, Coca-Cola contains 27 grams of sugar. This product also contains “natural flavors,” a label food manufacturers are permitted to use for any number of chemicals that they don’t have to disclose. This usually indicates that the real thing (often fruit) has been left out.
Let me open this by saying that I love food. I enjoy buying it, preparing it, and consuming it. I wish I could spend more time exploring my creative side…
Therefore, the answer to the question as to which of these two algae should you take is that you should definitely have both of them in your
diet. Whenever you purchase Vega, be sure you buy it from recognized retailers to achieve the real merchandise.
I think most of us bought into this promotional title Superfoods but when last time the ‘mortal’ continental cucumber was claimed to be one of the Superfoods, I woke up.
ATD FOURTH WORLD is a human rights based anti-poverty organisation, with over 50 years experience of tackling inequality and promoting social justice in the UK.
Working in partnership with people affected by poverty, ATD Fourth World has, since 1968, concentrated its efforts on supporting families and influencing policy through work at Frimhurst Family House and our National Centre in London.
Our Family Support Programme aims to give the most vulnerable and excluded families, the time, space and resources they need to build upon their strengths, develop their support networks and access public services in their community. Through our advocacy work with families in crisis, we seek to create the conditions that will allow parents, children and professionals to understand one another better and work more successfully together.
At the same time, our Policy, Participation and Training Programme empowers people with experience of poverty to express their views and offer solutions to the problems affecting their lives while offering policy makers an invaluable insight into fighting poverty from the bottom up.
OUR VISION is of a world without persistent poverty, where everyone is valued, can participate fully in society and fulfil their potential.
OUR MISSION is to build a network of people, groups and organisations committed to overcoming persistent poverty.
and bring them together with other members of the public, including professionals, academics, and policy makers:
Reaching the hardest to reach: Many target led services fail to reach the most disadvantaged people. We believe that families and individuals who have the most difficult lives hold the key to understanding and overcoming persistent poverty. They are at the heart of everything we do.
Taking people seriously: When people are in difficulty the focus is often on their problems or perceived short comings. Our approach is to recognise the strength, determination and resourcefulness it takes to just get by. We build on the important roles people play in their family and community and support them to realise their dreams and aspirations.
A long-term commitment: Whereas persistent poverty is enduring, complex and deep-rooted, much of the support society offers is short-term, narrow and results driven. We are committed to accompanying people over the long run, moving forward with them at their own pace and building our projects around their hopes and ambitions.
Giving people a voice: The socio-political debate on poverty rarely includes those who are the most affected, even though their knowledge and insight is vital. We believe that everyone’s voice matters and that people living in persistent poverty should have the chance to speak out on issues that concern them.
Working collaboratively: We are a membership organisation, not a service provider. Our members include full-time core workers, families living in persistent poverty, supporters and volunteers. All are encouraged to get involved in every aspect of what we do, from project planning to evaluation, from fundraising to campaigning, from administration to governance.
If you live in zip code 30363 and are on the lookout for professional garage door services, you’ve found it! At Capitol Garage Doors, we deliver the finest garage door solutions and are renowned for our quick response times, low prices, excellent quality of workmanship and reliability. From humble beginnings, we’ve now come a long way and are now the most-sought after garage door service company in the region. Getting here wasn’t easy; we had to overcome a slew of obstacles, defy the odds, strive hard to redefine the preset quality benchmarks and emerge as a leader in the industry.
We’ve hired an outstanding technical team, invested in the most advanced tools and equipment, teamed up with the best brands and top manufacturers to ensure that our customers in Atlanta, GA 30363 receive outstanding service.
Eightfivezero threefoureight seventwofivetwo if you not satisfied at home experiance a good time with me