Foods High In Iron

What is the difference between this: and this? As you might expect from the title of this post...a lot! The upper bottle is a bottle of pure, 100% maple syrup made from the sap of the maple tree. For a strong sugar, it is Clean - and in small servings will add a strong maple flavor to your foods. Maple syrup is divided into two major grades in the US: Grade A and Grade B . Grade A is further broken down into three sub-grades: Light Amber (sometimes known as Fancy ), Medium Amber , and Dark Amber . Grade B is darker than Grade A Dark Amber. From left to right: Vermont Fancy, Grade A Medium Amber, Grade A Dark Amber, Grade B The bottle on the bottom is faux syrup - so unlike maple syrup that anything that isn't made entirely of maple sap (besides a pinch or two of salt or other seasonings) cannot legally be marketed as "maple syrup". Next time you see the syrup isle of a grocery store, or you look into your pantry, take a look at all the bottles of syrup in there. I ...

Chocolate - real, honest, dark chocolate - is kind of clean. Ingredients? Ground and tempered cocoa beans, sugar ( CE in the "It comes from the Earth" sense but white sugars are so overprocessed as to be unclean ... ), milk, lecithin ( a naturally occurring fatty lipid that binds chocolate ingredients together ), flavorings like vanilla, and maybe veg oil. Now, most people who are CE only use cocoa powder, as it is much healthier and cleaner than bar chocolate. It adds that chocolate zing to dessert recipes that you may have forsaken in your quest for CE. I'm not purporting real chocolate to be Clean by any means - but I am trying to relay that what you think might be chocolate isn't really chocolate at all. Due to the tremendous increase in the cost of cocoa beans in the last 10 years, many chocolatiers have reformulated their chocolates to be a candy substance that the USDA doesn't even legally allow them to call chocolate anymore. Instead of adding pure cocoa ...

This one saddens me, I have to admit. I like Morningstar and Boca meatless burgers - a lot. Yes, they are proceessed. Yes they are man made , and, unmistakeably, they are unclean. I guess I was turning a blind eye to them. Well, after my research for this piece...I can't, anymore. These will not be part of my diet any longer...and I just got a bunch of killer Morningstar coupons, too! :-( Morningstar and Boca brand burgers are essentially texturized soy protein ( which, in and of itself is flavorless, and I would admit - mostly harmless ) with added colorings, flavorings, and salt...a lot of salt. Some variations have cheese in there ( not labeled as organic in any way ), some with chemicals I just can't even pronounce. Boca Burgers ( All American Flame Grilled ): Water, Soy protein concentrate, reduced fat cheddar cheese ( Pasturized part-skim milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, annatto color, vitamin A palmitate ), wheat gluten, corn oil - contains less than 2% of methylcel...

Next up in our discussion of real versus fake foods is non-dairy creamer.  So many people use this stuff daily - previously, myself included - that you'd think we'd be more aware of what this non-food really contains. The bottle tells the whole story, too. The one I've chosen doesn't even HAVE the word dairy on  it. They just call it a generic term "coffee creamer" Instant red flag. Look at the back label for the verdict: Ingredient list: Corn syrup solids, Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (coconut, palm kernel or hydrogenated soybean), sodium caseinate (a milk derivative but not a source of lactose), Dipotassium phosphate, mono- and digycerides, artificial flavor and annatto color.” So what is it? Corn syrup solids? That's sugar. Partially hydrogenated veg oil? That's your key right there... anything partially hydrogenated is a trans fat.   Sodium caseinate ( a milk derivative - how can it be non-dairy if it has a milk derivative in it?? ) is ...

In this first post talking about real food versus fake food, I'd like to discuss one of my biggest pet peeves: cheese. So much fake cheese is manufactured these days, sometimes it is hard to tell the difference - but because of labeling requirements in the US and elsewhere, you can tell the difference if you look for certain key words. Real or Fake? Yep - fake food. See the words "cheese product" at the bottom of the page? Any time the product says "cheese product" or "cheese food", you know it is not real cheese. The USDA requires fake cheese to be identified this way. Cheese product has had modification of the water and butterfat levels, a lot of substances may be added to pasteurized process cheese food, such as dry milk, whey solids,  and anhydrous milk fat. The list is longer for pasteurized process cheese spread, which can contain sweeteners and stabilizers (substances that prevent separation), such as xanthan gum or carrageenan. In a form...