Label Reading

So long as I have been living on my own and doing my own grocery shopping I have been reading labels. I decided when I moved to college and gained the inevitable freshman 15 that I should start watching what I eat and excercising. So with that I started obsessively reading every label on every item I bought for fat content, grams of sugar, and ingredients that were not made to be eaten, yet FDA approved. Problem was that for a long time even though I read the labels, knew the food was bad for me or couldn't pronounce half of the ingredients, I still bought it. So all that label reading was for nothing. After struggling for some time after college to get to a weight I was finally happy with I decided that I was going to get seroius about trying to eat better and trying to instill these values in Airlie once she starts to eat solid food. Also, after moving to North Carolina you could say that Wes and I have become self proclaimed "foodies" We like to cook and we like to eat even more. With that said I decided that when reading labels I should actually pay attention to all those chemicals and trans fat I have been eating and try to do a better job of not buying products that contain them. Now don't get me wrong, in the past I really have never been a junk food junkie, but I could and would eat an entire box of Swiss Cake Rolls if I allowed myself to keep them in the house. Note to self; never ever buy Swiss Cake Rolls or Ready to Bake Cookie Dough for that matter. Anyway, because of wanting to eat healthier and cook healthier most recently we started buying all the produce we can at the Wilmington Farmer's Markets and we even tried out an organization called the Produce Box that delivers farm fresh local produce right to your door. We realized quickly that the two of us cannot eat 20$ worth of produce each week or that we get vegetables that we're not so fond of, such as turnips. I mean they're ok, but there are only so many ways to prepare a turnip, so we stopped. Now we buy our veggies at the Farmer's Market where we can pick and choose what we want. It's amazing the difference in taste when it's a local tomato versus a styrofoam tasting one from Harris Teeter. Sorry Teet, but you're tomatoes are just not that tasty. Wes also bought a book by the writer's of the magazine called Men's Health called Eat this, Not that. Great book! This book basically walks you through the supermarket and tells you all the products that are out there and which ones are better for you than the others, ie: which ones have hidden trans fats and mega sugar content. Not only that, but the book also tells you what produce is in season, how to know if the produce is ripe and has great healthy recipes on how to cook said produce. I am in heaven. Not only has this book helped me to cook healthier meals, but I am also saving money because I am not buying as many convenient, processed foods. Now, you're probably wondering why I got on this rant today. Well let me tell you. At lunch today I walked the loop and upon returning to my office I was thirsty. I have been drinking water all day and was bored with that. So, I opened the fridge and there sat a case of ice cold Fresca. Hmm I thought, I'll have one of those, but because of my OCD label reading I decided to skim the ingredients, one of them, "brominated vegetable oil." Yum, right, ah, no. So I then looked up brominated vegetable oil where the Wikipedia entry says, " In extreme cases BVO has caused testicular damage, stunted growth and produced lethargy and fatigue." Wow, all just because you wanted to quench your thirst. I think I'll pass and drink some H20!