Unjunk Your Junk Food!

We eat pretty healthy in our house. I don't normally but a lot of processed crap, well, I have been more so lately as I the baby must have them but I recently read a book that really opened my eyes in more ways than one. 

Unjunk Your Junk Food: Healthy Alternatives To Conventional Snacks does just that in help you enjoy your favorite foods but give you better alternatives with more recognizable ingredients. Most of the time, we look at the Nutrition label but ignore the ingredients, which I have found myself doing more often since Brady was born. Sometimes, I don't read the ingredients because I assume that what I'm buying is ok but I can't do that anymore! 

Brady is obsessed with these. I assumed, dumbly that they were okay since well, they are made from 'Yogurt' and raisins! Well, one of the first ingredients is Partially hydrogenated oil (a trans fat!) and also has Titanium dioxide(a possible carcinogen!) as well as an artificial vanilla flavor. Here I thought, I was giving my kid something decent...ugh!


What I took most from this book was what to look for on my own as well. They nailed down 'The Scary Seven' ingredients we really need to avoid! 

1.  HFCS: High-Fructose Corn Syrup (AKA glucose-fructose in Canada)
2. TRANS-FATS: Anything listed as ‘partially hydrogenated’ or ‘hydrogenated’ (includes vegetable shortening)
3.  MSG: Monosodium glutamate
4. ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS: Any artificial flavoring
5. ARTIFICIAL COLORS: Any type of artificial dyes;
6. ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS: Chemical sweeteners including Aspartame, Splenda (sucralose), Ace-K (Acesulfame Potassium), Saccharine, etc.
7.  PRESERVATIVES: Polysorbate 60, 65 & 80, TBHQ, Sodium Benzoate, BHA, BHT, Sulfur Dioxide (sulfites).

"You don’t have to give up the foods you love, just give up the toxic ingredients. Take the junk out of your junk food."

The Edible (R)evolution is a 4 step process:

Step 1:     Take the ‘Worst Ingredients’ chart along with your shopping list on your next trip to the grocery store
Step 2:     Before you blindly toss a food product into your cart, read its entire list of ingredients (even before you read the nutrition panel)
Step 3:     Refer to the ‘Worst Ingredients’ chart as well as the glossary in Unjunk Your Junk Food to make sure you understand the meaning of EVERY single ingredient listed on the label
Step 4:     Decide whether or not the ingredients in the product you’re holding are what you want to purchase and put into your body. If not, use Unjunk Your Junk Food to help guide you to comparable products with cleaner ingredients

Unjunk your Junk Food can be found at most retail sellers including Amazon and Barnes and Noble or check out Naturally Savvy for more information. 

Disclosure: I was given this book to read as part of this review but the thoughts and opinions are all my own.