FitSugar

Label Able: Mono- and Diglycerides

FitSugar — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:00:00 -0700

Reading ingredient labels has become a form of entertainment for me, weird I know, but I see a lot of ingredients I have never heard of, let alone can pronounce. I came across an ingredient so bizarre that it requires a hyphen: mono- and diglycerides. This food combination is considered one ingredient and can be found in beverages, ice cream, gum, whipped toppings, margarine, bread, and other baked goods. Just like partially hydrogenated oils, they're everywhere, and that's what makes me suspect.

To find out if they are healthy or harmful read more.

Mono- and diglycerides are a kind of incomplete fat, but they really have no caloric impact since they're added to foods in such tiny amounts. These not-quite-whole fats are common food additives used to blend ingredients together that don't naturally blend well, such as oil and water. Think of processed peanut butter like Jif. It contains mono- and diglycerides to give it a creamy consistency, and to prevent the oil from separating and sitting on the top. My natural peanut butter separates and I really don't mind. Just like hydrogenated oils, mono- and diglycerides increase the shelf life of foods, but they are on the GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) list according to the FDA.

These fatty food additives may come from an animal source (derived from a pig or cow), a vegetable source (usually canola or soybean oil), or may be synthetically produced. Vegetarians and vegans should steer clear of them since manufacturers aren't required to list the source of their mono- and diglycerides. I'm not vegetarian, but I am trying to avoid processed foods so I'll be avoiding these incomplete fats because I think complete fats are just less engineered.

Meet Alpha Tocopherol, aka Vitamin E

FitSugar — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:30:00 -0700

If you eat processed foods, you eat food additives. There really is no way around that fact. Some additives are benign and might even be considered beneficial, while others you might just want to avoid. I recently came across the ingredients alpha tocopherol and wanted to know which side of the line it fell on. Here's what I learned.

Alpha tocopherol is a form of vitamin E that is added to oils to increase their vitamin E content and to prevent the oil from going rancid. It is found naturally in wheat germ oil, leafy greens, and egg yolks. You will find it most commonly added to vegetable oils like sunflower, corn and soybean or in nut butters.

So, although the name sounds intimidating, alpha tocopherol is A-OK to eat.

Source

Label Able: Malic Acid?

FitSugar — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:00:00 -0700

Another day of food shopping, another weird ingredient. What in the world is malic acid? I found it on the label of Dannon Fruit on the Bottom yogurt.

It doesn't sound healthy to me, but I may just be thinking this because it also contains high-fructose corn syrup – an ingredient I don't like to find in my yogurt. To find out, just read more.

I found it interesting that this food additive is centuries old. Malic acid was first isolated from apple juice in 1785 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. He decided to name it "acide malique," which comes from the Latin word for apple, mālum. Malic acid is actually a natural compound that's found in tart or sour foods. Besides apples, it's also found in cherries, tomatoes, and grapes, and it can be found in wine. It's used as a food additive to give foods and candies a tart flavor. Sometimes it's added along with citric acid to foods such as Jolly Ranchers, SweetTarts, and salt and vinegar potato chips. It may also be added to dairy products, processed fruit, condensed milk, soups, beer, malt beverages, and processed meat. Be warned - if you eat too much, it could irritate your mouth.

Should You Avoid Modified Corn Starch?

FitSugar — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:30:00 -0700

When I was checking out all the yogurts at the grocery store to do the yogurt breakdown, in the list of ingredients on many of the containers, I saw modified corn starch. Although it sounds super unappetizing and something I wouldn't want to eat anyway, I'm wondering, is it something that's unhealthy?

To find out read more

Modified corn starch (also called modified food starch) is an additive that's made by treating starch, which modifies one or more of its physical properties. This change may affect the texture, how fast it dissolves, or how easily it can be digested. The starch can come from corn (as stated) but can also be made from wheat, potato, rice, or tapioca. It's added to foods to act as a thickener, to acquire a certain texture, or to keep foods moist.

Modified food starch is typically added to processed foods such as sauces, pie fillings, and gravies. They're not healthy in the respect that they don't add any nutritional value to food, but they aren't harmful. People who have gluten allergies should stay away from this ingredient though, unless a food containing it is labeled "gluten free."

What Exactly Is Maltodextrin?

FitSugar — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:00:00 -0700

You know I love my Cascadian Farm Oats & Honey Granola. I trust this company, and know the food is organic, but what's with the maltodextrin in the list of ingredients? It doesn't sound very natural, so what is it?

If you're curious to know then read more

Maltodextrin is an easily digestible carbohydrate made from rice, corn, or potato starch. It's a white powder used in a whole array of products from canned fruits to granola, as a thickener or a filler since it's fairly inexpensive. Also used in pharmaceuticals as a binding agent, it is also found in sugar substitutes like Splenda.

This food additive is made by cooking down the starch, and then acid and/or enzymes break the starch down even further, kind of like what the body does to digest carbohydrates. It's usually used in small amounts, so it doesn't have a significant impact in terms of amount of protein, fat, carbohydrate, or fiber. Every gram of maltodextrin contains only 4 calories, which is not really a significant caloric load. Although maltodextrin is processed and is not the healthiest thing on the planet, at least now we know that it's made from real food and not some nasty chemicals.

Fit's Tip: Celiacs beware! In the US, the FDA requires that maltodextrin be derived from corn or potato starch (so it's gluten free), but elsewhere it can be derived from barley or wheat. So it's always good to contact food companies directly just to make sure.

Label Able: Carmine

FitSugar — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:30:00 -0700

As I was researching ingredients for the yogurt breakdown, the word carmine was on a few containers. Any idea what this is? You may not want to know.

It's actually a bright-red pigment that's obtained from female scaly insects such as the cochineal. It's used in food, artificial flowers, paints, makeup, and ink. Nice. Just what I wanted to be eating. I'm sorry, but last I checked, the strawberries in my yogurt were red, too. So why do they need to add insect pigment to make it even pinker? I guess they figure it will be more appealing to consumers. I'm sure they'd pass it up though, if they knew what was really in their yogurt. No thanks. I'll stick to foods that are naturally colored.

Fit's Tip: If you're creeped out about consuming pigment made from an insect then you should know that carmine is also called Crimson Lake, Cochineal, Natural Red 4, C.I. 75470 or E120.

Should You Avoid Carrageenan?

FitSugar — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:30:00 -0800

If you're a label reader, and let me tell you I sure am, you might have noticed carrageenan listed as one of the ingredients. When I first saw it listed on a Ben and Jerry's pint (yes, ice cream is OK when eaten in moderation), it brought up a couple of questions for me – What exactly is carrageenan and is it something I should avoid?

Carrageenan is actually extracted from red seaweed, and the name comes from a type of seaweed found growing on the coast of Ireland. It's used as a food additive and sometimes is referred to as kelp extract. It helps to stabilize, thicken, or emulsify dairy products, reprocessed meats (like sausages or beef jerky), dog food, toothpaste, pudding, salad dressings, and even shoe polish.

Carrageenan is a safe ingredient and should not be confused with poligeenan. This is a chemically degraded derivative of carrageenan, which is used for industrial (non-food) purposes. It was improperly named "degraded carrageenan" for a while which gave the true carrageenan a bad name. Research indicates that poligeenan creates unfavorable health effects, but food-grade carrageenan has no known toxicity or carcinogenicity, and is recognized as safe by the FDA.

So go ahead and enjoy foods made with carrageenan, especially Ben & Jerry's (in moderation of course).

Food Additives To Avoid

FitSugar — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:00:00 -0700

As we're all moving away from the unnatural these days we look for the obvious in the list of ingredients for trans fats (aka partially hydrogenated oils), but there are some additives that the Center for Science in the Public Interest also suggests that we should avoid all together that may have fallen through the cracks amidst all the trans fat talks. Here are a few that caught my eye.

Source

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Processed Food: News Roundup

FitSugar — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:00:00 -0700

The health food nut's arch enemy has been in the news a lot lately. Yep, I am talking about processed food. In this day and age, with our busy lives, it is hard to live without some processed foods. Here are three news stories that might just sway us to make a little more time when it comes to food and nutrition.

A microwave popcorn enthusiast was diagnosed recently with "popcorn lung" - a rare life threatening disease with the medical name broncheolitis obliterans. The diagnosing doctor believes the onset was caused by inhaling fumes of the extra buttery flavored microwave popcorn that contains the chemical diacetyl, which has been linked previously to the disease. The man ate two, and sometimes three, bags of the popcorn daily!
Just a caution, especially if you are looking to sleep, citrus flavor sodas can have more caffeine than colas. The consumer groups involved in a recent study are not anti caffeine; they just think caffeine content should be listed in the packaging.
This really comes as no surprise, but a new British study found food additives may make children more hyper active. The culprit here is artificial food coloring and preservatives. Although the study was not conclusive and is being questioned by some experts, the U.K. Food Standards Agency, which funded the study, has already revised its advice to parents about what to feed their children.

Source

Don't Blow Your Healthy Habits at the Movies This Weekend

FitSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:53 -0800

It's a big movie weekend, for sure. With New Moon finally out, I've already committed myself to spend an afternoon at the theater - the only complication is that I'm not so fond of the movie-theater fare. It's an admittedly challenging place to stick to healthy food choices, since there usually aren't any to begin with. Just in case you don't believe me, recent research is revealing just how unhealthy movie popcorn can be - and it's probably a lot worse than you think.

An article from WebMd highlights the Center for Science in the Public Interest's findings on the state of popcorn, which claims movie theater popcorn is just about as bad for you as "a pound of baby back ribs and a scoop of Haagen-Dazs ice cream or maybe two Big Macs" - and that's before you even add the butter. For the study, researchers sent samples of popcorn and toppings from three different movie theater chains and compared their findings to the chains' own nutritional information. What they found is likely to make you rethink how you view your movie treat.

The study's results show that the calorie count of movie theater popcorn ranges from just about 400 to 1,200 calories, and contains an alarming serving of saturated fat that's equivalent to three days worth of your daily recommended portion, and anywhere from 200 (in the smallest 6-cup size serving) to 1,500 milligrams of sodium. Additionally, the study revealed that both AMC and Regal theaters pop their popcorn in coconut oil, which has a saturated fat content of a whopping 90 percent. Cinemark theaters, which pops their popcorn in canola oil, earns the rep as the healthiest chain, with a significantly lower saturated fat content - ranging from 2 grams in the 420-calorie small size to 5 grams in the 910-calorie large popcorn bucket. But, keep in mind that popcorn is usually just a part of the order - add a soda or your choice of candy, and your order is easily nearing 1,700 calories.

To learn about healthier options at the movies read more.

To avoid a serious caloric overload on your movie outing, the solutions are simple. Opt to share a small, unbuttered popcorn, and request that it be popped without salt (according to the article, these chains will happily oblige), or knosh on something healthy before you head out. If you can, bring a small bag of almonds or a piece of fruit along. Be smart about your choices, and don't let one afternoon at the movies spoil your healthy habits. It's totally fine to indulge every now and then, but a 1,200-calorie serving of popcorn that packs more saturated fat than you need in three days is hardly a treat for your bod or health.