That’s right, even government agencies are joining the movement. This week the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the release of the new 7th edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. According to the press release, more than one-third of children and more than two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese. I believe it.
According to the press release, the following are tips the USDA and HHS offer to provide consumers some ease in incorporating these guidelines into their everyday lives. This tips are quoted from the official press release:
- Enjoy your food, but eat less.
- Avoid oversized portions.
- Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
- Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.
- Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals – and choose the foods with lower numbers.
- Drink water instead of sugary drinks.
There it is. “Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals – and choose the foods with lower numbers.” Now, let’s take those sage words of advice and apply them to the other ingredients placed in our foods. Sodium is one, but let’s also read labels for ingredients such as TBHQ, carrageenan, BHT, BHA, hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose (synonymous for corn syrup) and artificial food dyes Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, Red 40, and Blue 1 and Blue 2. These are ingredients that are on my radar both as an advocate for Children’s Nutrition and as a Mom. I’d love to hear from you Dietitians and Certified Nutritionists about the ingredients on your radar. Please share them with us so that we might all improve our food additive vocabulary and steer our families clear of these undesirable ingredients.
Click HERE to read the Press Release from the USDA and HHS
Click HERE to read the 7th edition Dietary Guidelines for Americans
This week, in honor of our new Dietary Guidelines I am going to compare the sodium in a couple popular processed products with the sodium in two of our previously published Out of the Box recipes. We’ll take a look at Eggo Buttermilk Waffles and Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter vs our Out of the Box recipes for these products. It’s amazing what we can accomplish just by reading the labels.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Salt vs Sodium Conversions According to the American Heart Association:
1/4 teaspoon salt = 600 mg sodium
1/2 teaspoon salt = 1,200 mg sodium
3/4 teaspoon salt = 1,800 mg sodium
1 teaspoon salt = 2,300 mg sodium
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Eggo Buttermilk Waffles – 370 mg sodium for two waffles
Out of the Box Waffles & Pancakes – 171 mg sodium for two waffles (based on 14 waffle recipe)
—
Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter – 150 mg for 2 tbsp.
Out of the Box Peanut Butter – 0 mg per 2 tbsp.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Check out our previous ingredient comparisons for these two products. See if you can spot the hydrogenated oil and TBHQ.
Click HERE to view the original ingredient comparison between Eggo Buttermilk Waffles and our Out of the Box Waffles & Pancakes.
Click HERE to view the original ingredient comparison between Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter and Out of the Box Peanut Butter.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Out of the Box Food will be adding Food News to some of our weekly posts. There is so much happening right now in the movement towards healthier food so rather than tuck these bits of information under our RELEVANT READS tab, I have decided to feature them in some of our weekly posts. So now in addition to product comparisons and recipes, you will also get relevant news from the world of healthy food.
Next week we’ll deconstruct a favorite packaged cookie…Ahoy for now! Until next week…