The Food Babe Way

I was lucky enough to be selected to receive an early copy of Food Babe's brand new book to review on my blog. What a fantastic read! I could barely put it down, it's fascinating.

Most of it contained information I already knew regarding the food industry and how they have hijacked our food supply, flooding it with toxic and outright offensive "food" ingredients, but nonetheless a very informative read. I highly recommend it for everyone- especially for people who are sick of being sick and tired all the time! She breaks down the offending toxic chemicals, shows you how to be your own food ingredient detective and gives you healthier options so you can live a healthful fulfilling life as a non-toxic real food consumer. The food industry does not have your health and well being in mind, all they want is to sell more products (yes products, it's not even real food) for profit. One of my favorite quotes from the book really hit me hard and I wanted to share it with you:

"As you stroll down the aisles of the grocery store, start thinking about the shelves of boxed & packaged foods as caskets holding dead food. It's all embalmed with preservatives that will make you feel dead too."

Another excerpt I found particularly effective (and horrifying) is where she broke down a typical day of "food" from her highschool days. Just seeing all those chemicals she was consuming in just ONE day and realizing this is how most of America eats is frightening. No wonder we as a society are gaining weight, suffering from skin & hormonal issues and seeing rates of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, allergies and other horrible health ailments rise. 

I wanted to share this portion from the book with you (the ingredients in bold are particularly concerning):

Breakfast:

• Florida Lemonade: Water, lemon juice, sugar, grapefruit juice pulp. (27g of sugar!)
• Apple Cinnamon Nutri-Grain Bar: Crust: whole grain oats, enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, vitamin B1 [thiamin mononitrate], vitamin B12 [riboflavin], folic acid, whole wheat flour, soybean and/or canola oil, soluble corn fiber, sugar, dextrose, fructose, calcium carbonate, whey, wheat bran, salt, cellulose, potassium bicarbonate, natural and artificial flavor, cinnamon, mono- and diglycerides, soy lecithin, wheat gluten, niacinamide, vitamin A palmitate, carrageenan, zinc oxide, reduced iron, guar gum, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B1 (thiamine hydrochloride), vitamin B2 (riboflavin). Filling: invert sugar, corn syrup, apple puree concentrate, glycerin, sugar, modified corn starch, sodium alginate, malic acid, methylcellulose, dicalcium phosphate, cinnamon, citric acid, caramel color. (12g of sugar!)

Lunch:

• Buddig Turkey Meat: Turkey, mechanically seperated turkey, turkey broth, salt, less than 2% of: modified food starch, potassium lactate, dextrose, sodium phosphate, carageenan, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbatem, sodium nitrate, honey, natural flavoring. (I was eating WHITE SLIME- leftover turkey scraps- and nitrates almost every day in highschool!)                        
• Nature's Own Whitewheat Bread: Unbleached enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, sugar, wheat gluten, fiber (contains one or more of the following: soy, oat, cottonseed or cellulose), yeast, contains 2% or less of each of the following: calcium sulfate, soy flour, salt, soybean oil, cultured wheat flour, calcium carbonate, dough conditioners (contains one or more of the following: sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium stearoyl lactylate, monoglycerides and/or diglycerides, distilled monoglycerides, calcium peroxide, calcium iodate, DATEM, ethoxylated mono-and diglycerides, enzymes, absorbic acid), vinegar guar gum, citric acid, monocalcium phosphate, sodium citrate, soy lecithin, niacin, iron (ferrous sulfate), thiamine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, ammonium sulfate, natamycin (to retard spoilage).
• Fruit Roll-Up: Pears from concentrate, corn syrup, dried corn syrup, sugar, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, citric acid, sodium citrate, acetylated mono-and diglycerides, pectin, malic acid, natural flavor, vitamin C (asorbic acid), color (Red 40, Yellow 5&6, Blue 1).
•  Doritos: corn, vegetable oil (sunflower, canola and/or corn oil), maltodextrin (made from corn), salt, whey, monosodium glutamate (MSG!) buttermilk, romano cheese (cow's milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), onion powder, natural and artificial flavor, dextrose, tomato powder, artificial color (including Yellow 6, Yellow 6 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Yellow 5, Red 40 Lake), spices, sodium caseinate, lactose, lactic acid, citric acid, sugar, garlic powder, red and green bell pepper powder, skim milk, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate. 

Dinner:

• Lasagna Noodles: seminola, durum flour, niacin (processed flour!).  
• Ragu Sauce: Tomato puree (water, tomato paste), diced tomatoes in tomato juice, sugar, vegetable oil, (corn and/or cottonseed and/or canola), salt, onion powder, spices (basil, oregano, spice), dehydrated garlic, citric acid, dehydrated parsley, and flavoring. (Inflammatory oils!)
• Polly-O ricotta: Pasteurized milk, whey, milkfat, salt, vinegar, guar gum, carageenan, xantham gum. (possible hormones plus antibiotics!)
• Kraft shredded mozzarella: Low-moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese (pasteurized part skim milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), cream cheese powder (milkfat, nonfat milk, milk, sodium phosphate, salt, carob bean gum, cheese culture); cellulose powder; natamycin. Cellulose powder is wood pulp! (possible hormones plus antibiotics!) 

Now imagine eating this way everyday. All of those toxins x 365 days- think of all the toxic chemicals, antibiotics, hormones & GMOs in one year of consumption! Think of 10 years! Our bodies are being faced with chemical warfare at this point.

In an article from The Atlantic titled "Science compared Every Diet, and the Winner is Real Food", an independent study (from the Annual Review of Public Health, 2014) reviewed every major diet and concluded that "a diet of minimally processed foods close to nature, predominately plants, is decisively associated with health promotion and disease prevention." 

It's time to take back our health America. You and only you are the only one who truly cares about your individual health, so start acting like it. Become your own food detective. Read ingredients. Choose real, whole foods in their natural state. Put those boxes of "food" with unrecognizable ingredients back on the shelf. The more we buy real food, the more real food options will be given to us. We as the consumer, the one with the money, have the spending power to change the food industry so let's exercise our power and fight for our health back. 

The Food Babe Way is officially on sale today so go buy it and learn how to take your health back! (This is not a "diet book" but a book that teaches you how to become a real food eating superstar & get your body back to functioning the way it was designed to- chemically free!) 

**I was in no way paid to write this. I was simply sent the book and asked to review it. These are all my own opinions.