Changes

First of all, this is Bek, not Em. :) My husband is in medical school and last semester took a biochemistry class that went into nutrition in detail. He came home one day and announced he wanted me to stop buying any food that contained trans fats or high fructose corn syrup. I already tried to avoid things with trans fats, but the high fructose corn syrup was new to me. Almost all my classes in college went over and over why to avoid trans fats so I already knew about those. They're the fats that go straight to the walls of the arteries and clog them, increasing the risk for heart disease an stroke. Trans fats are found in fatty meats, most fried foods, and really processed junk food. My husband educated me on high fructose corn syrup and I read up on it a little bit and here's the basic gist of why it's bad for our bodies: unless your body is in need of glucose (sugar), which most of of don't need because we eat it so often in so many different forms, high fructose corn syrup turns right into fat. Unless your body's been in a fasting mode for more than about 3 or 4 hours, all those soft drinks (especially the ones you drink with a meal) are going straight to your hips! Because so many foods have high fructose corn syrup in them, they really are a huge contributing factor to America's obesity and diabetes problems. Well, that was enough for me to make the change and quit the stuff. However, buying food that doesn't have either the trans fats or the syrup is really difficult. A lot of snack foods have one or both of the two. I've found myself reading every nutrition label at the grocery store. But, to me, it's worth the investment of time to reduce my family's risk for top killers in America-heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even cancer. Don't get me wrong, we're still have some of both every now and then, but we're definitely reducing our intake. If you want to read more, here's a website that has some AWESOME resources for eating better: theculpritandthecure.com. I have all three of Dr. Aldana's book and use them often. Good luck with making the change!
Bek