Outspoken

I can't stand the commercials for crap food anymore. Especially the ones that act like fruit juice* is a health food or pretend that Raisin Bran is a whole food. As if they don't have a butt load of sugar. Or aren't highly processed, stripped of nutrients along the way.

So at the end of every commercial pushing juice, candy, chips, pop, I add, like an announcer, "Plus, when consumed as a primary part of your so-called 'healthy diet' it will give you diabetes, heart disease and increase your risk of cancer."

I did it in the movie theater last week and I did not care who heard me.

Thankfully, the hubby is tolerant enough to still associate with me in public despite my outbursts.

As for Raisin Bran (and cereal in general), I have been participating in a government/university extension food education program put on by a local parenting group.

They all know I'm a nutritional emo goth so were not surprised when I pointed out to the nutritionist that a serving of bacon has less sodium than a serving of Raisin Bran.

"Bacon has too much fat," she said to me rather smugly.

"Well, I've read the current thinking is that science hasn't found a link between heart disease and fat," was my response.

And she did not know what to say to that. Other than to take away all the food labels she'd passed out before I found something else to nitpick.

When I told her we don't buy cereal because we consider it to all be poison, her head exploded.

Truth be told, I'm not trying to make anyone's head explode. However, nutritionists that think cereal is a good thing to eat do not pass muster with me. Cereal is highly processed crap with a lot of sugar. Even the advertised 'high protein' or 'flax' cereals are way too high in carbs to be healthy.

The same goes for yogurt. Yoplait, Dannon, Trix, all the commercial yogurt brands have as much sugar as pop. Compare the nutrition labels sometime. So when I hear an expert telling people to eat more yogurt and acting like Yoplait is a good option, my head explodes**.

(By the way mainstream media is starting to dog yogurt. I've seen print articles pointing out how much sugar name brand yogurts contain.)

I do have 2 nutritionists in my family. One gets it, can see the gaps in their education and we actually have some great conversations about food. The other is lost in low fat everything-in-moderation land, confuses ketosis with ketoacidosis and runs away when the topic of nutrition comes up. Most nutritionists seem to take after the latter as opposed to the former. In my experience anyway.

Sure, I don't have a degree, but I've read thousands of pages of text and studies at this point. Enough to have a well informed, well researched opinion. Something I can't say for most of the professionals out there giving nutrition advice.

Until we get real about food, we aren't going to make a dent in the diabesity epidemic.

*Full disclosure. The toddler gets 2oz of juice mixed with water a day. After that it's lemon/lime water or plain iced tea or sugar free popsicles.

Yes, I would like to skip the juice entirely, but she screams for hours about it. Easier to just use the juice like a water colorant so she thinks she's getting something.

No, I'm not thrilled about the artificial sweeteners in the popsicles for her, but she eschews the reduced sugar ones.

**Is anyone wondering what the heck the toddler eats for breakfast? Eggs (sometimes with bacon!) or organic Greek yogurt. Sometimes plain, sweetened with fresh fruit or reduced sugar jam. On the side, she gets an almond cookie (protein!) or fresh fruit or, if I haven't baked, the best quality granola bar I can find.

(I have made homemade yogurt and we think it's delicious, but the toddler hates it for some reason so I don't bother with it.)