A note about diet -- read the label...

[kinzel]

I got out of the house yesterday for a doctor's visit and a trip to the drugstore. We stopped at the local CVS where I looked in the food freezer while waiting for my prescription to be filled. I'm afraid the whole store wondered what was wrong with me when I broke out laughing -- whee, what a thrill! I'd been getting bored with oatmeal and saw they had ... a frozen "breakfast bowl" that sounded kind of good. I picked it up, turned to the end panel and ... the product in question, labeled 1 serving .... had 123% of daily suggested cholesterol and 64% of suggested sodium. And then if I had a

Seriously.

So you know, if I went ahead and had that for breakfast, being a good boy and having a cup of milk and some cranberry juice along with --- I'd be up to 70% of my daily sodium well before lunch, not to mention a hellacious amount of fats. And if I added a Lean Cuisine dinner to the day I'd be at 85% of my sodium and 151% of my cholesterol with no lunch or snacks thrown in... sigh.

So what in-store food items have you seen that ought to be labeled a danger to humankind?

OH yeah -- meant to include this from the start -- reducing salt slightly can save US billion$ a year --
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121092008.htm

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Our list of in-store danger items gets somewhat skewed by gluten intolerance, but I'll throw in the "rice crackers" that include wheat starch. Likewise the "pea soup" . . .

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

My husband would never touch a Marie Callendar item because they usually started at 1400 Sodium and went upward from there. "What is this? A salt lick?"

And I will not touch any breakfast item with sausage because it usually kicks up the calorie count hugely. A bacon and egg item is 220, a sausage and egg item is 450. No thanks.

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

Around here in the large chain groceries all the meat seems to have been "brined" before packaging. Luckily there are a couple of local producers that sell meat at the food co-op and city market that is as it should be, unadulterated.

Most anything in the frozen food aisle (except some vegetables) needs a toxic warning.

[mardott.livejournal.com]

I won't have any of it in my house. I cook from scratch, with just a few exceptions (for instance, I buy tomato sauce. And salsa, except in the summer when I can make my own.)

I have all kinds of reasons for doing this, but basically, I like controlling what's in my food.

[fridayflute.livejournal.com]

I have always found ingredient lists to be one of the best diet aids out there. By the time you're half way through, your appetite it totally spoiled. Big food seems to be incapable of producing any prepared food without doubling or tripling the amount of salt needed by any sane person, and adding sugar where it's totally inappropriate. HF corn syrup in hummus for gawds sake! Back when I was a wee'un Dannon made a Garden Vegetable flavored yougurt, no sugar but pieces of pepper, celery & carrot. Now you can't taste the yogurt for all the junk they put in. I often find my weight bounces by 1 to 1 1/2 lbs for about 24 hrs after eating commercial or restaurant food, even when the calorie count is perfectly OK - it's water weight caused by the salt. Yuck.

[sraun]

I've got a friend who has celiac (wheat intolerance), and a step-daughter who is fructose intolerant. I wouldn't be surprised that there's not a single pre-prepared item at our local big-box grocery stores that both of them could eat.

I'd love to have the time and money to buy & cook practically everything I eat from scratch. Not going to happen unless I win the lottery.

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

Can't even get most varieties of pickles these days without petrochemical by-product food coloring.... the "turmeric" that used to be in pickle jars, seems to have been replaced by yellow dye....