Posts Tagged ‘partially hydrogenated oil’
Posted by terrepruitt on September 27, 2011
I have posted a lot about soup because a friend showed me how to use the stick blender to make soups. I fell in love with blended vegetable soups. Recently I posted about soup that my friend had made me. In addition to sharing that wonderful recipe with me she also shared a broth secret. I used to buy the bouillon cubes. They are so convenient because they are always there when you need them. Then due to the ingredients (partially hydrogenated oil) I started buying the boxes of broth. But those are somewhat very inconvenient because what I have experienced is that the box is one measurement and I usually need a different measurement to make the soup. So basically I often need only a portion of the box for soup. It is unfortunate to have a half used box of broth in the fridge. When I was at my friend’s house she asked me if I knew about “Better Than Bouillon”. I had not.
It is a jar of bouillon concentrate. Just like juice concentrate you mix it with water. It is brilliant because you can make as much as you need. I was so happy to learn of this. I know, I know, I am probably late in this lesson, but I didn’t know. I purchased the chicken base which has:
Chicken Meat with Natural Juices, Salt, Organic, Cane Juice Solids, Maltodextrin (from corn), Chicken Fat, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavors, Dried Onion, Potato Flour, Spice Extractives, and Turmeric .
I know a lot of these ingredients would not be found in fresh homemade chicken stock, but stock is not one thing that I am inclined to make. I know it is easy and I know many people do make it, but I’m not one of them. Maybe eventually if I continue to make a lot of soup I will start making my own stock, but not at this point in time.
I was happy to see “Better Than Bouillon” chicken base has turmeric in it. Remember turmeric one of the anti-inflammatory foods.
I do still like the box broth so I will continue to buy it and use it. But now I can use a combination of stocks and broths which will enable me to keep my fridge empty of a half used box of stock. With the jar of bouillon, one teaspoon combined with 8 ounces water equals 8 ounces of liquid broth or one cube (which is added to 8 ounces of water also).
My husband and I have been waiting for the cold weather to come so that we can have soup. When I first met him his thought was, “Soup is not food.” But I once made a really hearty potato cheese soup that made him change his mind. He also likes all the other soups that I have been making even though they are pureed vegetables. I am fortunate that he is so kind to let me experiment with different veggies and combinations. So far he has eaten them all. So, c’mon cold weather, get here so we can eat soup!
Did you know about this jar of bouillon? I am really excited about it. You know by now when I learn something and I get excited about it, I have to post about it!
Posted in Food | Tagged: anti-inflammatory foods, better than bouillon, Bouillon Cubes, broth, fresh homemade chicken stock, partially hydrogenated oil, Stock, Turmeric, vegetable soup | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 8, 2011
Yay! There is a grocery store in Willow Glen in the neighborhood where I have my San Jose Nia Classes. This means I can pick up some things on the way home. I can anyway because my regular grocery store is not that far past my house, but sometimes I take the exit for my house before I remember I wanted to go to the store because I start thinking of all that I have to do. Once I am off the freeway and I actually have to pass my house to get to the store, I can easily talk myself into NOT going to the store. Ya know? So this store is pretty much right on my way home.
It is a tiny little market. The isles are so small two carts can barely fit down the same row. Just like the bigger stores they have so many extra bins and displays in the aisles (on the ends) there is no way to have two carts going down that way either. So it is kind of a place where you can actually run into your neighbors. 🙂 I was excited when I saw that there was no added trans fat and high fructose corn syrup. I had walked by the sign quickly so I had thought that all products in the store were like this. But as soon as I saw some products I am familiar with having those ingredients I realized that the sign said that Fresh and Easy products don’t have those ingredients. But they DO have Canola Oil so depending on what you believe in regards to that oil you will have to take that information with a grain of salt.
I did have a yummy sample of vanilla yogurt and granola. I was going to buy some of the granola because it tasted really good in the yogurt. Even though it didn’t have HFCS in it, or any partially hydrogenated oil, it did have canola oil in it so I didn’t buy it. Canola oil is not easy to avoid so when I don’t need the product I am not going to buy it. I am not going to buy a product new to me that has Canola oil in it.
They do have their own brand of Teryaki without HFCS. YAY! I have had teryaki in months because I’ve only seen kind with HFCS in it. It doesn’t taste very “teryaki-y”. Its first ingredient is soy sauce and that is pretty much what it tastes like. But it is not bad.
I think they have a lot of interesting looking prepared food. I didn’t look at all of them to see the ingredients, but I will check it out as I have the need. They did have water crackers about $3.00 cheaper than my regular store. I was excited to try them. The box I open is very crumbly. They are dry. They are not as good as the water Crackers at Trader Joe’s that are the same price.
One thing that will keep me from filling up my cart and doing ALL my shopping at this new little neighborhood market is self-check out. I don’t want to spend my time shopping and checking out the ingredients, looking, deciding, menu planning and thinking—-just to have to spend even MORE time checking myself out. I only had a few items and it took me what seemed like forever to just find the bar codes on the items. I understand that this is one way that a store can keep the prices down, but I did notice and I heard other people say that many items in the store were MORE expensive than other stores we frequent. I don’t have to check my own groceries at the other stores.
And I don’t need to mention how great the checkers at Trader Joe’s do I? I love the checkers at Traders Joe’s.
Anyway . . . I am excited to have a little market to stop in on my way home to pick up a few things. As I said, I won’t be doing the bulk of my shopping here but it really is a great thing that this area of Willow Glen has a grocery store.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Canola Oil, Fresh and Easy, granola, grocery store, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, neighborhood market, Nia, Nia Classes, partially hydrogenated oil, San Jose Nia classes, self-check out, Trader's Joe, Trans fat, water crackers, Willow Glen Nia class | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on February 10, 2011
The other day I mentioned something about a particular food being poison, my friend “pishawed” me saying it really WASN’T poison. So I started thinking that maybe I had been a bit harsh so I looked up the definition of poison. What came up was wiki and it states, “In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms”. So now I don’t think I was being harsh.
In the context of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)*, Canola Oil, partially hydrogenated oil, and so many of the CHEMICALS that make up our food, I think it is pretty accurate calling them poisons —- if you are of the belief they disturb our natural healthy body functions. If you believe that HFCS actually does interfere with the production/the release of leptin which is the agent that helps notify the body it is full; if you believe genetically modifying a rape seed so is has “less” than the normal of the bad acid AND includes a pesticide so the insects won’t eat it; if you believe partially hydrogenated oil aka trans fat increase the LDL** levels and LOWERS the HDL*** levels; then I believe it is perfectly reasonable to say it causes disturbances to organisms or in short is poison. But that is only IF you believe any of that stuff.
There are a lot of things that we COULD call poison if we want and be accurate; alcohol, antibiotics, medicines, etc. These things also interfere with our bodies systems, but they are not consumed ALL the time. If they are . . . there are issues, as you can agree in the case of an alcoholic. An alcoholic’s body does not function properly and a lot of health issues generally arise. Too much antibiotics without the proper counter measures can lead to OTHER types of infections or issues. So it is, we ingest these types of “poisons” with care, caution, and infrequency. But it is difficult to do that with our food.
There are so many chemicals, our food is sooooo over processed, so much of our food is genetically altered a lot of it can be considered poison . . . in my opinion. So, was a I being harsh? No, I don’t think so. Could be that if we start looking at what our food is doing to us we might see the need to change things. Food is supposed to be NUTRITION, but ours is not so much any longer.
As I always say, I don’t eat perfect. I am working hard to reduce my consumption of overly processed foods, things with HFCS, Canola Oil, and partially hydrogenated oils in them. I believe by reducing my intake of these things cause disturbances to organisms, I am allowing my body to get more out of the food I eat.
What do YOU think? Was I being harsh by calling something that has HFCS, Canola Oil, AND partially hydrogenated oil in it poison?
*HFCS or the new name “corn sugar”
**LDL = Low-density lipoprotein, commonly thought of as “bad” cholesterol
***HDL = High-density lipoprotein, commonly thought of as “good” cholesterol
Posted in Food | Tagged: Alcohol, antibiotics, bad cholesterol, Canola Oil, corn sugar, food being poison, food CHEMICALS, good cholesterol, HDL, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, LDL, leptin, nutrition, over processed food, partially hydrogenated oil, rape seed | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 13, 2011
Prime Rib. That is what I think of when I think of horseradish. When I think of Prime Rib I think first of my hubby because he loves the stuff then I think of horseradish because that is what he eats with it. He likes it really strong. He doesn’t care for the kind that taste more like sour cream (or whatever is used). Well, we are attending a pot luck type of Prime Rib dinner and no one mentioned having horseradish so I asked. I should know better, right? I was assigned to bring horseradish. I wanted to go to a specialty store and see if I could find some fancy kind. But that just didn’t fit in with the present situation. So I just went to the grocery store to buy . . . ? What? I didn’t even know how it is packaged. All this time I am thinking of “prepared horseradish”. Anyway, I ended up with three choices of horseradish. One regular, I guess, and two different brands of extra hot.
So I decided to see what is in these bottles of prepared horseradish. What do you think I found? Why was I surprised? Well, I was surprised because it was the two bottles of extra hot that contained High Fructose Corn Syrup. Yeah, HFCS — what they are now changing the name of – Corn Sugar. (Eyes rolling.) I know that my hubby likes extra spicy and I know that he would be really disappointed if we didn’t have horseradish for prime rib, so I actually bought one of the bottles that had HFCS in it. I bought the one that looked less fancy, but the HFCS was much lower on the list of ingredients. And if what they say is true — the ingredients are listed in the order of amount in the product — then the one I bought has less than the other one. But still, yes, I am hanging my head in shame. Especially since, now that I have had some time to think about it, I could have just bought the root, right?
Our hostess said something about mixing it with something, but I was thinking that is not what you need to do because it is already mixed, but she was probably thinking I would just buy the root?
Well, you know what this means don’t you? It means that even though I don’t eat horseradish I am feeling the need for educating myself on it. So . . . .there will be another post about horseradish the root.
Also it means if you are really interested in removing or cutting down on certain ingredients then you need to remember to read the labels. I look at everything now. Even products that I have been buying for years, because some of these ingredients haven’t been around as long as I have been buying the products. The ingredients I am trying to avoid (HFCS, Canola Oil, transfat/partially hydrogenated oil) might have been “snuck” in on me. So . . . check your labels. Why hot prepared horseradish requires HFCS, I don’t know.
Posted in Food | Tagged: Canola Oil, corn sugar, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, horseradish, hot horseradish, hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated oil, potluck, Prime Rib, root, spicy horseradish, Trans fat, transfat | 7 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 26, 2010
On the way home from teaching a Nia class a week or so ago, I went shopping and I remembered — finally — to take a picture of the non-dairy powdered creamer. Since I never got back to putting the picture in my original post about my powdered creamer I decided to add the picture here to a new post giving you an update. Its been about a month and a half and I am still NOT using that white powder. Seriously, that is what it is. It is not food. Just because the ingredients have been deemed edible by the FDA, does NOT mean it is FOOD. It is DEFINITELY NOT NUTRIENTS.
I think I need to have this label adhered to my arm as a reminder.
Corn syrup solids . . . . doesn’t even sound good. While the label might tout 0 grams of trans fat (I don’t know if the label does say that because I didn’t look) it has partially hydrogenated soybean oil in it . . . . so it has trans fat. Then it has sodium casinate . . . something they know no one will know what that is so they kindly describe it for us as a “milk derivative”. . . . then more “stuff”. Yeah, I really needed to be drinking that EVERYDAY!
Again . . . . . I am not a perfect eater. I wish I was, but I am trying to eat healthier than this stuff.
As I said in my other post . . . this (the first picture) was my powder of choice . . . the store brand, whichever store I was at. I preferred that over the “national” brand, but I took a picture of that too.
White powder free 2.5 months and counting. 🙂
Posted in Food | Tagged: Nia, Nia class, Non-dairy creamer, non-dairy powdered creamer, partially hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, powdered creamer, teaching Nia, Trans fat, transfat | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 28, 2010
It has been two weeks since I gave up my non-dairy creamer. I am not talking about liquid, I am talking about that white powered stuff so many people don’t like. Well, SOMEONE must like it because they keep making it. I tried to give it up before but without it my coffee lost its joy. Really it was just a matter of me being used to the taste of coffee with that stuff in it. I have been drinking it that way since I started drinking coffee, so that is how I like it. That creamer is full of all the stuff I don’t like.
I threw away the container before I got a picture but I have a copy of an old label from a nutrition class assignment. The first ingredient is corn syrup solid, the second is partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Yeah, two of the ingredients I try to avoid. One of the reasons I avoided those ingredients like the plague was because of this habit. I thought, “I am getting enough of that stuff in my coffee, I don’t need to have it in anything else.” Well, it is really hard to avoid—especially if you eat out . . .so many things have them it it. . . HFCS is bread for heaven’s sake so even if I am having a sandwich, I just don’t know. So . . . . I decided to try again to see if I could find joy in my coffee with out my beloved spoonful of chemicals and stuff I can’t pronounce and don’t even know what it is.
I have made it longer than the last time I tried. I am surviving. It is fine. I am using milk. I drink 1% so that is what we have in the fridge, so that is what I am using. Whew. I feel good getting that off my mind. Like I have said before, I am not perfect in my health habits, but I am trying to be healthier and help give others ideas and a place to share. So here’s to better health and better eating.
Have you taken anything out of your diet that you want to share about?
(Ha, I put this in the “food” category but I am not really convinced it is food. Oh, I also hope to stop by the store tomorrow to see if I can get a picture.)
Posted in Food | Tagged: Coffee, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Non-dairy creamer, partially hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, white powered creamer | 15 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 10, 2010
After dropping a friend off at the San Jose Airport, I went to the store that was on the way home to get some vegetables. Not my “usual” store. I decided to get some pasta to have with the chicken and salad I was planning on serving. I like to have the Buitoni Pasta that is stored in the refrigerated section. We have that every once in a while. I walked up to the case and I saw a couple of choices that I would normally choose. $4.59. And then I saw another brand, Monterey Gourmet Foods, and I thought, “Oh, I think I had that before and I liked it.” So I looked for something that sounded familiar and I didn’t see it but I saw the price $5.79 and I thought, “Over a $1 more, well that’s a no-brainer.” But then the brain, the one I have in my head, said, “Hey why don’t you look for HFCS in the Buitoni. It’s in everything else.” Well, it didn’t have HFCS, but it has corn syrup solids and partially hydrogenated soybean oil. So I looked at the one that was a $1.20 more, neither corn syrup solids nor partially hydrogenated soybean oil.
I stood there for a minute and thought not to get either, but then I thought, “Well, I want to try this Whole Wheat Spinach and Cheese Tortelloni.” I’ve had the whole wheat before and I thought it was to thick. But I don’t remember which brand, but I didn’t care for it.
Well, I liked this. It was light. The pasta didn’t seem thick. I was glad my decision to avoid the corn syrup solids and partially hydrogenated soybean oil and spend the extra $1.20 worked out good.
Now what that means is I will have this type of pasta even less often than I did before, because now it costs more. Yeah, I know $1.20 isn’t that much, but . . . . it IS more. Oh well.
I FEEL better about not eating the corn syrup solids and partially hydrogenated oil in my pasta. Transfat is in a lot of other foods, so I try to avoid it when I can.
I am going to point out that the tortelloni I had didn’t have corn syrup solids and partially hydrogenated soybean oil in it whereas the toretellini from Buitoni did, but . . . the website shows that the tortelloni does not. The store I was at did not have Buitoni tortelloni, nor Monterey Gourmet Foods tortellini–not even sure if they make tortellini. So . . . . if you are so are interested in seeing what is in the food, read ingredients. Often times different companies will make a similar product without certain ingredients you might be trying to avoid.
Posted in Food | Tagged: Buitoni Pasta, cheese tortelloni, corn syrup solids, HFCS, Monterey Gourmet Foods, partially hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, San Jose Airport, San Jose Workout, spinach, toretellini, transfat, whole wheat | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 20, 2010
Some people Tweet what they had for lunch I blog about it! I think I was actually born to the wrong family because I love tortillas. As far as I am concerned you can put ANYTHING in a tortilla and you have a meal. The issue is that most tortillas are made with lard or loads of fat. The ones I used to get are low fat, but made with . . . . . guess? Yup, you got it partially hydrogenated oil. Even though the label says “Og TRANS FAT per serving” it stills has transfat (that’s the partially hydrogenated oil).
I found one without it. Doesn’t taste the same, but it is not bad. The other day I was craving veggies. Lucky me we had a lot in the fridge.
Here is what my lunch looked like
It was a low fat tortilla (98% fat free) with 8 grams of fiber (whoa!), then I filled it with broccoli, asparagus, and mixed greens. I had some cheese in there too! It was so yummy. I need to write about it when I am eating it from now on otherwise I end up wanting it again as I type!
I hear it is asparagus season (at the time of this post), which for us in San Jose, just means it get down to a reasonable price. Because otherwise we have it here all year round. Might not be at its peak, but . . . I like having it all the time. If you don’t know, I love asparagus.
Usually I roast it, but I had chopped it and sauteed it the night before and it workout that we had leftovers, so for this burrito that is what I had used.
So, tell me what do you put in your tortillas? How do you prepare them? Grilled? Micro-waved? Right out of the package? Does anyone make their own? I would love to learn how to do that!!!
Posted in Food, Vegetables | Tagged: Asparagus, broccoli, fiber, low fat, mixed greens, partially hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated oil, San Jose Workout, tortilla, Trans fat, tweet, Veggie burrito | 14 Comments »
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