Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Healthy... what does that mean?

Happy Wednesday!  I hope you are all enjoying this very strange weather we're having!  Today in Columbus it felt like Seattle!  SO WEIRD. 

Not to rant, but I have a little nugget for you to think about today.  Last evening, I was on one of my favorite message boards, and someone had posted a question asking about a 'healthy cake' for them to take to a party.  The FIRST reply was a recipe that included a box of devil's food cake mix, a can of diet Dr. Pepper, sugar-free cherry pie filling, and a tub of fat-free whipped topping.

I about fainted.  And then immediately emailed my husband and my sister in amazement... and disgust.

WHY is it that this is perceived as 'healthy'?!  One big cake of chemicals!  YUUUUM-MY!  (gross...)

You better believe that I proceeded to post Ani's Raw Chocolate Raspberry Cake recipe!! 

What is it going to take for us to get out of 1985 and stop thinking that fat-free, sugar-free, CHEMICALS are the way to be healthy?!  Stop it.  Do you see people ANYWHERE else on the planet eating this crap?  No.  Do you see people ANYWHERE else on the planet as obese as the majority of North America?  No.  Do you see people ANYWHERE else on the planet that have as much heart disease, cancer, and diabetes?

NO!

Just out of curiosity, I decided to look up what one of these 'healthy' cakes looks like!! 








Looks yummy... right?  (gross...)  Then, I decided to look up the ingredients that make up the ingredients used to make the Dr. Pepper (death)Cake.  This is what I found: 

ENRICHED BLEACHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), MALTODEXTRIN, SUGAR, MALTITOL, WHEAT STARCH, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, BAKING POWDER (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ALUMINUM PHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE) CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL MONOESTERS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SALT, CELLULOSE, CORN STARCH, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, CELLULOSE GUM, XANTHAN GUM, POLYSORBATE 60, SUCRALOSE (NON-NUTRITIVE SWEETENER), COLORED WITH RED 40, TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID (ANTIOXIDANTS), SOY LECITHIN, CARBONATED WATER, CARAMEL COLOR, ASPARTAME, PHOSPHORIC ACID, ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL FLAVORS, SODIUM BENZOATE (Preservative) CAFFINE, CHERRIES, WATER, HIGH FRUCTOS CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, FOOD STARCH-MODIFIED(corn), SUGAR, SALT, POTASSIUM SORBATE(preservative), CITRIC ACID, CARRAGEENAN, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, ERYTHORBIC ACID, RED NO 40, WATER, CORN SYRUP, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL* (COCONUT AND PALM KERNEL OILS), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, LESS THAN TWO PERCENT OF SODIUM CASEINATE (FROM MILK), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, XANTHAN AND GUAR GUMS, POLYSORBATE 60, POLYSORBATE 65, SORBITAN MONOSTEARATE, SODIUM HYDROXIDE, BETA CAROTENE (COLOR).

 Ho-ly cow.  Those are the ingredients in the box of cake mix, pop, cherry pie filling and whipped topping, combined into one nice yummy cake.  ...o-m-g.

So the moral of the story?  Don't....eat....crap.

Have a nice day :o)

1 comment:

Ali said...

I totally agree! Why do we accept this junk as though it were food? It's not! I could eat glue or playdough and not get sick, but I don't because it's not food! But for some reason, if it looks edible no one questions it.
My dad just had a quintuple bypass. His doctor gave him advice on how to eat healthy to lower his blood pressure and keep his diabetes in check. Do you want to know what they told him? Sugar free products that use splenda or nutrasweet are just fine but no sugar, salt, or bananas. Last I checked splenda and nutrasweet were chemicals and bananas were food.
There's nothing healthy about that “healthy” cake, and there's nothing right about the way that these “foods” are marketed to people. Just because it's low calorie or low fat or sugar free doesn't mean it belongs in you body. It's not nutritious, delicious, or (as far as I'm concerned) food!