Unexpected Ingredients

Hello!

I’m continually surprised by how the minute I let down my guard, I get burned by sneaky ingredients. Examples include:

• Greek Yogurt. Plain Greek yogurt contains milk and healthy bacteria cultures…except for one that also contains corn starch and chemicals. Not surprisingly, it’s the cheapest and tastiest one.

• Ground turkey. Most major brands add “natural flavoring”, and it’s surprisingly hard to find just plain old turkey unless you are at a health food store.

• Some products that are “clean” when sold at Whole Foods (where they have rules about ingredients they will sell) but which are “not-so-clean” when you buy them elsewhere. I’ve been burned several times, when I thought I found a cheaper version of a Whole Foods item, only to find that while the packaging was nearly identical, some ingredients were different. This has mostly happened to me with soups, bouillons and broths, where MSG and trans fats were in the latter version.

• Some dried fruit is “clean” and some is coated in oil and/or sugar…even when the label advertises that it’s all fruit.

• Some soy milks contain only soybeans and water, but many also contain up to 4 tsp sugar per serving.

• Some brands of cottage cheese contain various fillers, gums and carrageenan, while the best ones contain only milk and salt.

• Some tortillas contain only corn and lime while others contain loads of hard-to-pronounce ingredients, and one brand even contains amylase, the digestive enzyme in saliva, to make it softer.

It’s not necessarily so terrible to eat these things, but if you care about ingredients, don’t let down your guard.

Have a good week!

Jill