Food Nazi
I never thought it would happen. It just wasn’t me. I didn’t care. And then one day, there I was in the grocery store checking labels on everything and I thought, “What the heck has happened to my life?”
It was a gradual build. I wasn’t suddenly a label reading crazy woman. It started off with trying to eat more organic. Then it was avoiding certain ingredients. Then came the high fructose corn syrup up roar. People started talking about these studies and how it causes diabetes in kids, etc, etc. Then it became checking to see if I can pronounce all the ingredients in something. What sent me over the edge is that I read an article one day about studies showing mercury in high fructose corn syrup. Your body can’t get rid of mercury. You store it up until you are poisoned. No thank you! So I started avoiding it like the plague.
In this account please take into consideration that we are not a family that shops exclusively at stores such as Whole Foods or PCC or any other natural organic hippie store. The majority of our shopping is done elsewhere.
Unfortunately high fructose corn syrup is in EVERYTHING. It’s in bread, pasta, soup, drinks. Since it’s a “sugar” it can be found in almost anything edible. Since it was something that was hard to avoid I didn’t try too hard to do so. Then we found sodas at Whole Foods that don’t have it. Cool! The big score tho was finding Coca-Colas from Mexico. They come in the bottle and since they are made in Mexico, they are made with pure cane sugar. We’d come across them from time to time and it was a treat. Then Steven discovered them at the little Mexican store down the street by our bank. He’d pick up a couple every payday since he had to go to the bank. Recently Costco started carrying them in packs of 24. This was a huge deal for us. They are cheaper per unit that way than picking up some here or there at the little Mexican store except as Steven put it “I kinda like going to the little Mexican store”. We still pick up a case at Costco obviously.
Some products it’s easier to find an alternative. Yogurt is an easy one. Connor even knows to check for it in yogurt. If it’s there, move on to a different kind.
Since the “organic” craze has caught on we can now find other things, even snacks we like such as granola bars, fruit snacks, etc. But I made a sad discovery one day. High fructose corn syrup is in Ritz crackers. I had to get a box of organic crackers instead. They’re the same thing tho so not a big deal.
So now there I am in the grocery store reading every label of everything I pick up. There will be things I can’t avoid, especially when eating out, and there will be times when I don’t care because the craving is so bad, but in general I will pay that extra $1 or whatever the difference is to buy the product without high fructose syrup. It can be a struggle between belief and finances tho, that’s for sure.
It was a gradual build. I wasn’t suddenly a label reading crazy woman. It started off with trying to eat more organic. Then it was avoiding certain ingredients. Then came the high fructose corn syrup up roar. People started talking about these studies and how it causes diabetes in kids, etc, etc. Then it became checking to see if I can pronounce all the ingredients in something. What sent me over the edge is that I read an article one day about studies showing mercury in high fructose corn syrup. Your body can’t get rid of mercury. You store it up until you are poisoned. No thank you! So I started avoiding it like the plague.
In this account please take into consideration that we are not a family that shops exclusively at stores such as Whole Foods or PCC or any other natural organic hippie store. The majority of our shopping is done elsewhere.
Unfortunately high fructose corn syrup is in EVERYTHING. It’s in bread, pasta, soup, drinks. Since it’s a “sugar” it can be found in almost anything edible. Since it was something that was hard to avoid I didn’t try too hard to do so. Then we found sodas at Whole Foods that don’t have it. Cool! The big score tho was finding Coca-Colas from Mexico. They come in the bottle and since they are made in Mexico, they are made with pure cane sugar. We’d come across them from time to time and it was a treat. Then Steven discovered them at the little Mexican store down the street by our bank. He’d pick up a couple every payday since he had to go to the bank. Recently Costco started carrying them in packs of 24. This was a huge deal for us. They are cheaper per unit that way than picking up some here or there at the little Mexican store except as Steven put it “I kinda like going to the little Mexican store”. We still pick up a case at Costco obviously.
Some products it’s easier to find an alternative. Yogurt is an easy one. Connor even knows to check for it in yogurt. If it’s there, move on to a different kind.
Since the “organic” craze has caught on we can now find other things, even snacks we like such as granola bars, fruit snacks, etc. But I made a sad discovery one day. High fructose corn syrup is in Ritz crackers. I had to get a box of organic crackers instead. They’re the same thing tho so not a big deal.
So now there I am in the grocery store reading every label of everything I pick up. There will be things I can’t avoid, especially when eating out, and there will be times when I don’t care because the craving is so bad, but in general I will pay that extra $1 or whatever the difference is to buy the product without high fructose syrup. It can be a struggle between belief and finances tho, that’s for sure.