Monday, July 29, 2013

Hidden Additives

Last night my neighbor (and friend), Jane stopped by with a bag of homegrown tomatoes and onions. Today or tomorrow she promises cucumbers and zucchini. She grows fabulous tomatoes, but she doesn't eat them. Tomatoes are not her thing.

Now see...I can't seem to grow anything except cactus and I'm not always successful at that. However, I DO like tomatoes and all that other stuff so we have a deal. I can make zucchini bread in exchange.

Today I'm researching about canning the veggies. Commercially canned veggies don't agree with me so I'm very excited about the prospect of having home canned veggies. A great friend from Facebook gave me a few tips. If any of you out there have tips I'd appreciate your help.

I remember when home canning was a standard part of summer. My plan is to phase out commercially canned goods (except those in glass jars) and use only the stuff I've canned myself. I suspect there are hidden additives (totally unnecessary!!!) that are making me sick. For instance...

Corn syrup (bad for diabetics)
Aspartame (gives me migraines)
Salt (bad for my blood pressure)
Food coloring (do I really need red dye?)
Preservative chemicals (aren't we already preserved well enough?)
Soy derivatives (bad, bad, bad for folks on thyroid meds)

I look at labels all the time. Soy, especially, is in EVERYTHING. Corn syrup, too.

What's in YOUR food?

8 comments:

  1. We've been trying to cut those because of Z's ADHD. I was astonished at how many fruits have added corn syrup. Why?

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    1. ADHD kids all have different triggers. My kids did much better when I eliminated processed sugars, sugar substitutes, preservatives (hot dogs and bacon) and dyes (especially red and purple). I have heard (but have no experience) that there are also soy issues. Back when my kids were young soy wasn't in everything. For my kids, once we eliminated as many variables as were possible, then we added one thing at a time back to the menu. Most things that were going to affect them were DRAMATICALLY apparent. It's a tough life until you consider the alternative. And they seem to grow out of it by their late teens.

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  2. It's crazy how much unneeded stuff is used to commercially can and bottle food.

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    1. That's absolutely true, NJ. It makes it tough for those of us who can't process the food.

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  3. I'm very careful about how much sugar is in things and unsaturated fat. Radishes give me a rash and despite being on thyroid meds for the old Hashimoto's disease, I'm not had any soy issues.

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    1. According to my meds paperwork, soy is a no-no. I expect each meds is different. Radishes are okay for me but chicken makes me deathly ill...

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  4. Oops, I forgot the cucumbers. By the time you've used the rest, I'll go back to my garden and collect them. Enjoy!

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    1. By then, I'll hopefully have some jars to make pickles... Thank you!!!

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