Poop Shute

Nutrition

I know most Americans aren't like me when it comes to food. Most Americans don't care about what they put in their bodies. They care only about taste. They care about instant gratification. And they don't care about their growing pants size.

Well, I read those labels. And I encourage my clients, who have expressed a worry about the aforementioned pants size, to do the same. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that confuse many of us when we read food labels.

Here's what I tell my clients about how to best serve their health at the grocery store. I tell them food as close to it's natural state as possible is best. They invariably ask what that means. I usually use a bag of chips as an example. Let's look at a bag of Doritos:

Ingredients: Whole corn, corn oil, salt, cheddar cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), buttermilk solids, whey protein concentrate, romano cheese from cow's milk (cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes), tomato powder, monosodium glutamate, onion powder, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, whey, wheat flour, garlic powder, artificial colors (including yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, yellow 6, red 40, red 40 lake), dextrose, sugar, disodium phosphate, lactic acid, natural and artificial flavor, spice, citric acid, parmesan cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.

That's 25 ingredients, and that's only if you count all those colors as one. I highlighted all the things that your average person would ask "What the hell is that, anyway?"

Now, let's look at a bag of Lay's potato chips:

Ingredients: Potatoes, sunflower oil, salt.

Three simple ingredients. The oil and salt do all the flavoring AND preserving work for us. Now, that is a list we can all get behind, I think. Nothing scary sounding in there. Nothing known to cause cancer there. And that is what I mean when I say "as close to it's natural state as possible."

Now, don't misunderstand, I'm NOT saying chips of any kind are healthy, especially if you are in the middle of a weight loss program. Carrot sticks, or celery, or an apple or something would always be better. But, I am a realist, and I know it's hard giving up those greasy things, and if you absolutely have to have something greasy and crunchy, these are a better choice than Doritios. Have some, just don't eat a whole bag in a sitting. Don't even eat one of those small one-person bags in a sitting. Have a few, and put it away.

You're not likely to ever find MSG or "yellow 5 lake," whatever the hell that is, in an apple.