How to Feed the Allergic, the Toddler and the Health Conscious, Part Two.

Now, this section deals with my other favorite enemies – High Fructose Corn Syrup and Corn Syrup. I realize a little, a lot, or too just darn much corn syrup isn’t exactly going to kill you; but since it makes you fat, in my mind it might as well be a killer. Again, Dr. Sears tells all his patients about it, and constantly advises parents to avoid corn syrup and its derivatives when feeding their children, so who am I to ignore the good doctor?

Here are a few quotes from a few websites for those who want more information:

From the Health24 website:

Fructose and obesity: Most people are aware of the obesity epidemic that is swamping the world. New research is concentrating on fructose as a possible factor that contributes to this epidemic.

High-fructose corn syrup is very sweet and also inexpensive, which is why it is being added to foods such as canned and frozen fruit and sweetened cold drinks. This trend is particularly evident in the USA. It is estimated that more than 9% of the energy in the US diet is obtained from high-fructose corn syrup.

If we consider that the use of fructose has increased in the USA from 64 g per day to 81 g per person per day in the period between 1970 and 1997, it is perfectly feasible that such a dramatic change in food intake could have an effect on many aspects of metabolism.

From Weston Price on line:

Fat butts aside, there's another reason to avoid HFCS. Consumers may think that because it contains fructose—which they associate with fruit, which is a natural food—that it is healthier than sugar. A team of investigators at the USDA, led by Dr. Meira Field, has discovered that this just ain't so.

Sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. When sugar is given to rats in high amounts, the rats develop multiple health problems...was it the fructose or the glucose moiety that was causing the problems? They repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The male rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy—that means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded. They also had delayed testicular development. In a nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart.

“The medical profession thinks fructose is better... than sugar," says Dr. Field, "but every cell in the body can metabolize glucose. However, all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and cirrhotic."

There. That is my unabashed, unapologetic, unleashed take on healthy eating, for babies and adults.

Now I can hear y'all saying - Lady Miss MOT, thank you for making us all feel paranoid about the foods we have been eating for the past 30 odd years! According to you, what can we eat? What can we buy that’s quick and easy and tasty? My toddlers/husband/school aged child and I just like to eat Devil Dogs and Friendly’s ice cream and Cool Whip and Mc D’s French Fries and we enjoy Kraft Mac and Cheese! And what about my (sorry Preacher Mom!) Coca-Cola!? It doesn't mean anyone is a bad parent for giving a child a Quaker cereal bars! No, this is just a really looooong FYI.

Well, in my Part One post I listed about 25 different foods and drinks that are clearly snacks for y’all to enjoy. Since I also have a baby allergic to eggs, I know of many more foods, egg free, HFCS free, trans-fat free but flavor-FUL, that we gobble up regularly. After years of obsessive label readings, I have learned to only shop the perimeter of the supermarket, and I now know that the following 50 foods are okay in my book:

1. Lu brand Petite Beurre cookies
2. Lu brand Petit Ecolier cookies, with milk chocolate, dark chocolate and/or hazlenuts
3. Walker Shortbreads
4. Annie’s Shells and Cheese
5. Annie’s Spaghetti in a Can (All Stars, Bernie O’s and Cheesy Ravioli)
6. Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies crackers
7. Annie’s Bunny Grahams - regular and chocolate
8. Trader Joe’s Cat Cookies, both vanilla and chocolate
9. Trader Giotto’s gelato is egg free and comes in vanilla and chocolate - yes, I like chocolate!
10. Trader Joe’s turkey baloney
11. Trader Joe’s nitrate free bacon
12. Trader Joe’s nitrate free sausage
13. Edy’s frozen fruit bars are all juice, have no corn syrup and come in lime, raspberry and strawberry. Available in yer grocer’s freezer! PS Lime doesn't stain as badly as the other flovors...
14. Fage Greek style yogurt is just too scrumptious! It's thick and creamy and can be used for cooking. Try some, it’s only about 10 cents more than Dannon.
15. T.J.’s makes corn syrup free jams.
16. or get the Polaner All Fruit, or
17. try a fruit conserve, instead of a jelly. Unfortunately, all the grape jelly I have seen has HFCS, so if you meet a brand that’s corn syrup free, lemme know!
18. Enviro-Kids cereals, like Gorilla Munch, Rain Forest Crunch and Koala Crisp
19. Pirate’s Booty,
20. Smart Puffs,
21. Tings,
22. The whole line of Amy’s frozen Foods, like three cheese pizza and veggie lasagna
23. Crackers by TLC; ranch, cheddar and sesame
24. Late July biscuits
25. Newman’s own cookies are huge around my place. We get the Newman O’s in hint o’ mint and the Fig Newmans all the time. You can get Fig Newmans at Costco for $7.00 for three packs, instead of $3.50 for one pack at Stop and Shop.
26. Actually, I have found Horizon Organic foods at both Costco and Cub Foods
27. All the Apple and Eve juices are HFCS free.
28. All Knudsen’s juices are HFCS free.
29. All Santa Cruz juices are HFCS free too.
30. Most supermarkets, like Big Y, Kroger, Stop and Shop, Shaw’s, Albertson’s and Publix have their own store brand organic line. These lines are usually much cheaper than the big name organics and available in most stores, no matter where you are. I have found store brand organics in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Texas, California and Oregon. The names I know are Big Y’s Circle of Life (start singing, you Lion King fans), Stop and Shop’s Nature’s Promise and Shaw’s organic brand is Wild Harvest.
31. Get Turkey Hill Philadelphia Style ice cream, not the regular Turkey Hill; Philly is HFCS free.
32. Breyer’s ice cream is egg-less and corn syrup-less too, but not all the flavors, so read the label!
33. Heinz makes an organic ketchup, which is corn syrup free
34. Heinz also makes a “low carb” ketchup, which is also CS free. One translation of Low Carb is Low Sugar, and corn syrup is sugar, so
35. for that matter, look out for any low carb condiment to save on HFCS – like mustard, mayonnaise and salad dressings. A lot of the Atkins brand products are on sale these days; because the company is bankrupt.
36. Smart Balance makes a kettle corn, without corn syrup or trans fats.
37. Newman’s Own Ranch dressing and
38. Newman’s Own Olive Oil and Vinegar dressing are yummy,
39. or make the MOT’s dressing – crush a clove of garlic in a bowl, drop in a tsp of mustard and mix in 2 tsp of cider vinegar, a pinch of salt and fresh ground black pepper. With a whisk, beat in olive oil until smooth. Finish with a few drops of lemon juice.
40. If you are not allergic to eggs, put one egg yolk in the bowl with the garlic and mustard, then proceed as above. The dressing will be smooth and yummy!
41. Use regular cream or light whipping cream, instead of Reddi-Whip or Cool Whip. The calorie count is almost identical – one tablespoon has 50 calories for regular and 45 calories for light real cream as opposed to 50 calories for Cool Whip. Reddi-Whip is actually MORE expensive than real cream, has HFCS in it and doesn’t last as long in the fridge. Therefore, logic tells us to get real cream – save money, calories and reduce cellulite too! Cool Whip is sooo toxic; it has hydrogenated fats, high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup in it and has the same number of calories as real cream. It makes sense to switch.
42. Drink flavored seltzer instead of sodas. Store brand seltzers are cheaper than name brand sodas in every store, in every state. I know the caffeine/taste/emotional thing is not the same, but sodas are just not worth the corn syrup, to me. I’d rather stay fat eating candy.
43. If you like fresh squeezed juice but think it’s too expensive, get the Horizon brand juices, both fresh and frozen. They are sold all over, except in SD and WY, and taste just like fresh squeezed.
44. Cascadian Farms makes a lot of different cereals, including Clifford Crunch - yum!
45. Cascadian Farms also has a delicious frozen broccoli in cheese sauce – quick and healthy!
46. They also have, in the frozen food section, French fries with no trans fats or HFCS, as well as hash browns, shoestring potatoes and spud puppies – all designed to be baked, not fried.
47. Cascadian Farm makes frozen juices without HFCS, in lemonade, grape and apple.
48. Stonyfield Farm makes ice creams, frozen yogurt and non fat frozen yogurt too; all HFCS free!
49. Reed’s Premium Ginger brew is about $0.99 a 12 oz long neck bottle, and great fun to drink as you drive! I’m just waiting to get pulled over and for the cop to see the words "ginger brew" on the label! Ha ha! Hee hee! Ho Ho! It hasn’t happened yet...
50. And candy! What candy can one buy without HFCS? Well, a lot of the trail mixes are yummy and super sweet and have no added sugars...okay, I’ll shut up. I know, it’s not the same as a Milky Way – so I’ll eat T.J.’s organic 3 bars for $2.00 candy and hunt on line for cane sweetened licorice whips and watch in envy as you sink yer choppers into a Twix.

I actually went on the websites for Cascadian Farm, Horizon Organics, Newman’s Own, Stonyfield Farm and Annie’s foods and found they really are everywhere! Except there are no stores selling Horizon foods in South Dakota and Wyoming, and no stores selling Newman’s own in either North or South Dakota, Oklahoma or Washington D.C. Hmm. Annie’s is available in all 50 states, including Wyoming and the Dakotas, which I found rather reassuring. The sites for these organic foods usually have mailing lists and on-line give aways running. They always have coupons around to encourage you to try and buy their foods too.

Here’s a link to Stonyfield for coupons and free stuff: http://ecards.stonyfield.com/subscriptions.cfm

Here’s a link to Annie’s for coupons and free stuff:
http://www.annies.com/newsletter/e-news.htm

Here’s a link to Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen for shops and more information:
http://www.cfarm.com/

And finally, here’s a link to my Mecca; Trader Joe’s. I hope there is one near you!
http://www.traderjoes.com/locations/index.asp

Happy eating...