What's wrong with processed food?

Wrapping my mind around why it was important to cut back on processed food, was something the article below helped me understand better. First of all I am not perfect at cutting out all processed food, but something that this article explains is the difference between processed and chemically processed foods. I try to avoid the chemically processed. These are foods that have had a lot of non food, artificial, or chemicals added to them. I'm learning to look at labels more to see what I'm actually eating. A lot of foods that I thought were healthy are actually not. For example I still use frozen and canned vegetables, these foods have been minimally processed but nothing has been added to them. One rule I've been told is that if you look at the ingredients and see things you don't recognize your best bet is to put it back (if only my husband and kids would agree!). The hardest thing for me to find that fits the clean eating lifestyle is bread and crackers. And yes I know I could make these myself, and some weeks I do try to make my own bread, but in reality most weeks it doesn't happen. So what I do is try to pick the healthier options the store offers by getting 100% whole wheat or whole grain and looking at the ingredients. If any of you have harpers whole wheat bread at your store, I've heard that one is considered clean :) In my opinion, the best thing to do is eat whole real foods as much as possible, but if you're not ready to make everything from scratch, raise your own chickens, livestock, milk cow, and grow all your own produce, don't worry you can still eat healthy by just looking for the healthiest options your store offers. When I first started looking into clean eating I thought it was impossible because I thought I would have to do all those things, and I was not ready to change my life that much! But after reading a few articles/blogs I realized most people who consider themselves to eat clean are not perfect at it either. Everyone is just trying to do the best they can in their own circumstances. Hopefully some of this made sense :) If you have questions please ask http://authoritynutrition.com/9-ways-that-processed-foods-are-killing-people/

Sugar, why we should eat less of it!

Sugar was and still is probably the hardest thing for me to cut out of my diet. For one thing it's been added to a lot of foods, and the even bigger reason is I have a huge sweet tooth! I mean seriously I was the kid who would eat all of her Easter or Halloween candy within 1 to 2 days. Which is probably part of the reason I got put on medication for insulin resistance in my teens. One of the reasons I try so hard to exercise everyday is because exercise was one of the main things that helped me reverse my insulin resistance, the other was trying to eat less sugar. Many of the articles I have read lately have said that sugar not fat is the main cause of obesity. Which is ironic since many of the fat free foods claiming to be healthy have added sugar. So what's the deal with honey and pure maple syrup and other natural sweeteners. Where sugar has absolutely no nutritional value, honey and 100% pure maple syrup do have some vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. However, they are still very high in calories and can still raise blood glucose levels. But they are a healthier choice to sugar if eaten in moderation. For me personally if I tell myself I can never eat sugar again, sugar is all I will be able to think about. So what I have tried to do and am still trying to do is only have sugary treats once in a while and a smaller portion, it would probably be best to completely cut sugar out but just decreasing my sugar intake significantly has made a huge difference for me. Here is an interesting article I found about sugar. I find the more information I read about why certain foods are bad for me, the more determined I am eat to less of them. http://authoritynutrition.com/10-disturbing-reasons-why-sugar-is-bad/