Question Of the Day: Why Would A List of Ingredients for Pre-packaged Sushi List Honey and/or Sugar and Salt?
As I write this, I’m using my crock pot for just the second time. I spent $71.83 at Whole Foods at NE 64th and Roosevelt in Seattle today, wisely avoiding their prepared food (it’s so easy to fill those big cardboard boxes and eat the entire thing at one sitting) and shopped instead for an organic chicken and lots of fruits, vegetables, almonds, yogurt and other items. I think it is the first time in my life I’ve bought a head of cabbage or fresh basil.
Question of the day: sushi, even with rice, would appear to be a healthy, real food choice. After all, as Michael Pollan writes in “In Defense of Food,” someone’s great grandmother ate sushi (it doesn’t have to have been your great grandmother). Then why does fresh sushi at Whole Foods have a label with a long list of ingredients, including (for the avocado roll) “honey and/or sugar and salt?” I could see no packet of sauce that might account for the ingredients. I promise not to pick on Whole Foods; it is a great resource for real food. But now that I have become a reader of ingredients, I’m surprised by all the sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other syrups that are added to our food.
Whole Foods’ Beef Meatloaf, I noticed, contains brown sugar. My grandmother’s recipe had a sweetener in it; I believe it called for molasses, but as I learned young, pancake syrup would do in a pinch.
What do you think about the ingredients in our food?
A journey into the world of "real food" with Seattle-based journalist Rebecca Morris
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22 comments:
It might have something to do with the seasoned rice vinegar in the sushi rice... it has been a long time since I made sushi, but as I recall, that vinegar had both sugar and salt in it!
Very true - I see this all the time! I am allergic to dairy & wheat, and I have learned to read ALL the ingredients on EVERYTHING because so many things have odd ingredients you'd never expect!
Cool blog - I've bookmarked it! Hope you can do fun reviews on farmer's markets this spring/summer. And maybe those farms you can get subscription deliveries to?
Amazing, isn't it? Part of what makes prepared and restaurant food different from what we cook at home. I have been eating real food for about 2 years now as part of a diet and exercise program, but because I am not much of a cook, I eat the simpler frozen meals sometimes. I have decided that when I choose a box-o-dinner for the sake of convenience, I will ignore the actual ingredient list and choose something with a low sugar percentage. In the nutrition info box, there is an entry for carbs with a subentry for sugars; I pick a box with a low ratio of sugars to complex carbs.
The real-food way of eating will work for you; I guarantee it. I have lost 60 lb so far on what I call the grubs-and-berries diet. In my diet, it's all protein, fruits, and vegetables; none of the simpler carbs like rice and potatoes are allowed. Not eating these has made a big difference to me. After just a couple weeks on my diet, I was no longer riding the insulin roller coaster. My body stays on an even keel all day, with no big mood or energy swings, and I am--I swear it--not hungry.
I'm so glad you're writing this blog. Nobody in my circle is trying to eat like this, so I have been starving (ha, ha) for diet companionship.
I'm looking forward to recipes. Since moving to the NW, my husband and I have made pretty good progress in changing our eating habits and cholesterol has gone way down, but now I need to lose weight. One tip: a very slim healthy friend says he never buys anything that lists more than 4g of sugar on the container.
Very inspirational...thanks for doing this. I, too, am trying to incorporate mostly whole foods into my diet. However, I feel like I need to practice moderation in this. If a food has a little bit of pure sugar in it, but is otherwise a whole food, I don't think I will always forgo it. However, if it is loaded with chemicals and high fructose sugar, I have been tending to put those foods back on the shelf (and sigh heavily). I figure that if I get too restictive about this, it will backfire!
My Gramma used to put a pinch (really a pinch) of sugar in her oil-and-vinegar dressing all the time; it cuts the acidity of the vinegar and you don't have to use as much oil. its not uncommon to use salt in a vinegrette, but its not that necessary.
(and to reply to an earlier column: you don't have to give up ice cream. its not that hard to make and has a VERY short ingredient list.)
I've been working on eating healthy for just over 3 years now and I am still astonished at what I find in ingredient lists. Sugars (including HFCS) are in so many products that our taste buds have grown so acclimated to the taste that we need even more to feel satisfied.
I've lost 42lbs so far from eating well. In the process, I've learned to cook, a hobby that I never realized that I loved.
I need so much help in this department! Thanks for doing this. I'm looking forward to ideas and recipes for healthy eating. I try to eat healthy, look at all the ingredients, can't pronounce any of them, and buy it anyway....with guilt.
In regards to the poll on the side I wanted to say that not all "natural" food is organic. I think that your results are going to come out wonky because of how you've worded it.
I'll keep an eye on your blog. I'm not so interested in your end goal but interested in how you are going to go about it.
Good luck with your quest! I am curious about sushi now and plan to try making it myself. I suspect it has a small amount of sugar as a flavor enhancer and that can be replaced with a sweet vegtable like a carrot, or a even an apple cooked with the rice.
Great article - and wonderful journey towards healthy living! We focus too much on weight loss versus feeling healthy - food nourishes our bodies and we need to be conscious of this so we take care of ourselves.
I'm looking forward to reading your postings - and cheering you on!!
p.s. Try Madison Market too.
I was amazed to awaken this morning and find your article in the Seattle Times - as I have been chanting a mantra since yesterday about losing weight starting today. Losing weight by eating real food - I, too, have exhausted Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Nutri System, and miscellaneous others. I am going to cling to a hypnosis plan which encourages me to "Eat Half, Leave Half", however, as that has shown some promise.
I decided that to "cleanse my palate" was the first order of business, as, for too long, I have eaten all the taste-good, feel-good foods - as you said, when I am hungry, not hungry, sad, glad, lonely, surrounded by family, cold, hot, etc. First, is to start with a clean slate. So, this morning, and for the next week at least, I will have a Slim Fast shake (you ought to see the label on it) three times a day, and a nutrition bar twice a day. If I am desperate in between "meals", I will allow myself fruit. I am doing this so that, when I begin to eat real food, I will taste it and hopefully appreciate it - unslathered with calorie-laden sauces and dressings.
You speak of your age, 58, as an element of difficulty. I am 72 - so you are still a spring chicken! It is sad to relate that when I was 49, I vowed that I would not turn 50 overweight. I did. At 59, I would not be fat at 60, and so on. Here I am at 72, and I'm saying that, by the time I am 73, six months from now, I will have lost twenty pounds in a healthy, sustainable way. That may sound like slow going, but, at my age, gravity will work to let every inch of skin not backed up with fat to droop - not a pretty sight! I hope that, six months from now, I will have a well-established habit that will take me through another twenty pound weight loss. This shouldn't be so tough really, as when I think about it, growing up in the thirties, forties and early fifties, there were no processed foods - and I still managed to relish food (and wasn't overweight either - how about that!) I just need to remember what carrots and tomatoes fresh from the garden smelled like and tasted like - and develop some cravings for them! Losing weight, for me, is not for vanity - it is for health and well-being. For the arthritis, for the knees I don't want to have to replace, for the energy I need for my new business, for the example I need to be for my children and granchildren.
I will probably never be a "health nut" - I have friends who travel with their brown rice cookers and they have to cook for themselves as no restaurant could possible have anything on the menu they could eat - and that's not me. But, fresh, organic leafy vegetables and chickens who have not been force fed hormones are sounding pretty good to me already - and I've just finished my first can of Slim Fast!
As to the Question of the Day, I'm sorry - there was no sushi in the 30's,40's or 50's in Texas, where I grew up. I can't get my mind around raw fish!
Good luck to you and to us all!
I have read In Defense of Food as well and agree with the premise, I'm impressed with your mission. I'm looking forward to following your journey.
I refer to WholeFoods as WholePaycheck... I love their stuff but prefer to shop the basics at Albertsons or Safeway and then get to farmers markets as much as possible for the rest.
Try Trader Joe's -- much better prices than Whole Foods. I work hard every day to eat enough fruits and veggies. I start the morning with a cup of organic blueberries from a farm near Sumner. I do have to buy 100 pounds each July and pop them into my deep freezer. I would find it much harder to eat healthy if I didn't have a deep freezer.
Pollen talks about how much he loves bread -- check out any of Peter Reinhart book's and make your own!
I read the ingredients on packages. It's true -- some of them are just downright scary (what is it?). Anytime you have food --even sushi -- that is packaged and sits out for any amount of time, even refrigerated, is going to be combined with ingredients to make them taste and look fresher longer. If you made that sushi yourself, and ate it right away, you might do away with some of the stuff. It would be your choice to add the rice wine vinegar and shoyu (soy sauce), or to take a prepared wasabi versus one you made yourself -- all of course, labor intensive.
Try fresh sashimi and rice instead! Fish is ---fish. Steamed rice with nothing added but water. If you want soysauce, go for a lite formulae, but know that that's where the preservatives are for that meal. If you find that white rice leaves you hungry, try brown rice for a longer "burn". Only, note that if you are not used to rice, it may influence the frequency of your bowel movements.
Hi Rebecca,
I read your column with interest today. I am a physical therapist up the road from you in Bellevue, and I have a scientific weight loss program that is seriously effective that I will happily comp to you to help you on your journey. People in our program improve their body composition by 20% or better in less than three months. It is true that you need to diet (eat healthy nourishing foods) to lose weight, but it is also true that you need to exercise regularly in order to keep weight off. Thats where I come in. we utilize technology to measure your metabolic profile and use that data to build you a personalized exercise program. We retest and remeasure periodically, in order to keep the exercise component optimized for your personally. During my review of the medical literature, I also learned a few secrets to weight loss that I am happy to share with you if you are interested.
Please read this review of my clinic, including mention of our weight loss program:
" In addition I have started to shed my 100+ excess pounds on the "smart metabolism" program. Thanks to the positive influence of Sports Reaction Center, at 50 years old I now enjoy training with my boys and husband. Neil Chasan's physical therapy practice has positively changed our family and we are so very grateful. As long as we are in the Greater Seattle area, we will be going to Neil for all our physical therapy needs!! (Janet B from Yelp.com)"
I look forward to hearing from you!
Best wishes,
Neil
--
Neil Chasan, PT, MMT
Sports Reaction Center
Hidden Valley Office Park
1750 112th, NE, Suite D-154
Building 3
Bellevue, WA 98004
425 / 643-9778
www.srcpt.com
Kudos to you! I look forward to following along on your journey. I haven't read his latest book, but really enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma. I saw a very short interview with Michael Pollan in Sunset Magazine recently and his "if it contains more than 5 ingredients chances are it's not real food" comment really struck home with me. I've been trying and have found that it gets dicey on those chaotic schedule nights when pulling some pre-fab meal out of the freezer would be so much quicker and easier. Looking forward to some recipes!
neilc,
honey, your post is pretty close to what's known as comment spam. Advertising disguised as a comment is poor manners and not done.
The sugar and vinegar is used to make the sticky rice that is used in almost all sushi
First of all I'm annoyed that I have to sign up on yet one more spam service to leave a comment. But ok. I'll sign up and then resign. It is annoying though, how everybody scratches each other's corporate backs.
Second I would like to recommend PCC, Puget Consumers Co-op aka PCC Natural Markets. I'm not unbiased, because we are a PCC family since 1980. But they are local, and they put their money where their mouth is, in the Farmland Fund. And they are union employers. They are besieged now by the admittedly lower prices of Trader Joes and the admittedly vaster selection of Whole Foods. They might not survive. That would be a shame. But, all's fair in business. I hope people will see they are more worthy. They have stores on the Eastside at Kirkland, Redmond, and Issaquah.
Good luck in your efforts. The real food really does taste better, smell better, feel better (even if it's more expensive). It's not about being virtuous. It's all about enjoying life.
Theano
* Let me put in a good word for Costco as a source of less-expense simple foods. We get berries, cream, eggs, nearly all our basics there (of course, it can't beat any farmer's market.)
* I like to stick to the things that have only ONE INGREDIENT, and do without the rest. For example, I used to crave ice cream until I put cream on frozen berries. Now even Ben and Jerry's taste artificial.
* The crockpot is your friend! You can have soup available ANY TIME, and made from scratch with very little effort. That's a MASSIVE money saver, and the health side is good too.
* Yesterday, The Seattle Times printed an article with ways professionals make portions seem larger than they "really" are, see The incredible shrinking restaurant portion
* Thanks for blogging on a very interesting subject matter - and Have Fun With Your Food!
I just discovered your blog and look forward to following it. I too was raised by a mother who put me on diets, fasting (when I was 11, and still slim!), and Metrecal (remember?). I have maintained a 20 to 30-pound weight loss for 30 years, primarily by falling in love with movement, slowly changing my eating practices, and finding the support group of OA as a weekly vitamin.
Another book to add to your list--one you may find particularly relevant because the authors live in your corner of the world--is a memoir called "Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally," by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, in Vancouver, BC.
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