It can be overwhelming to know where to start when you want to make changes in your family’s eating habits. The important thing is that you are starting and it is one of the most important decisions for your family’s current and future health.
One of the first and easiest steps to eating healthier is to become a label reader. Read the labels on everything you buy! You will be surprised at the difference from one product to another, and between different companies. The important thing to remember is that you are voting for absolutely everything you purchase. It does matter what you spend your vote on.
The less ingredients, the better! If the label on the product has a long list of ingredients, or ingredients that you cannot pronounce…find something else.
Peanut Butter – Peanut butter should be just that. Peanuts. There are all kinds of cheap “fillers” added to peanut butter (and most processed food) like high fructose syrup, palm oil and sugars. Choose peanut butter with one ingredient. Peanuts. Easy.
Dairy products – If you cannot afford organic dairy products, look for cheeses, yogurt and of course milk with NO rBGH growth hormone used. If your product is not organic and does not have this on it, it most certainly does have it! Sour creams, heavy cream, cheeses, should all have one ingredient.
Avoid aspartame, always! There are too many links and articles on this one to narrow it down. Aspartame is in a great deal of processed foods; yogurts, children’s vitamins, soda, gum and much more. There are lots of alternative products that do not have aspartame.
Avoid high fructose corn syrup. This is in everything from ketchup to breads. Avoid it.
Avoid fake colours. Easy, there is no need to have “blue colour number 4″ (for example) in your child’s yogurt.
GMO – Specifically look for products with the Verified NON-GMO seal.
This week’s guest post comes from Nicki aka Island Girl from Little Island Studios (http://littleislandstudios.blogspot.com/) She write about family fun, cooking with kids and design for kids! Read her introduction here.