Remove the Junk Now

Does your family snack too much on junky foods? Are you ready to clean your pantry of all the junk that sits in wait for you to consume it and fill your body with toxic ingredients like sugar and salt. In determining what needs to go you have to take the time to look into the pantry and find all foods that are processed, hydrogenated, and artificial and even some things that have a long shelf life.

One for the first items you will want to remove is those packets of Kool Aid and other dry juice mix products. Unless they are made from whole fruit, you can forget any nutrition being a part of it. Juice is not a big thing in my home. I make fresh lemonade, herbal teas, and hibiscus punch. Green tea has many beneficial antioxidant effects which help fight disease in the body and as an extra bonus has been shown to help speed up weight loss. Every now and then we buy juice but it is always 100% with no extra additives. A wise thing to keep in mind with juice is that frozen brands of juice have more 100% versions than the bottled.

Most juice has been sweetened and even 100% natural juices make it easy to consume more calories than when you eat fresh fruits. Some fruit juices have up to 150 calories or more per glass.  If juice is not 100% fruit juice it is usually loaded with high fructose corn syrup which gives you a false sense of energy and then brings you way down. Plus, what it converts to in your body is nothing but fat and possibly bad teeth.

And as far as soda, the bottom line is that it is toxic for the body (even the sugar free varieties). There is zero nutritional content in a soda and yet we seem to drink tons of it per year, causing a possible 8 to 20 pound weight gain. This stuff really isn’t good for your body and if you are a soda drinker you should make a pact to give it up altogether.  If that’s too much to start, than limit yourself to one per day until you can eventually wean yourself off it for good. I left sodas alone in November of 2005 and it has been a wonderful change in my life.

Why not just switch to water?

By switching to water as your main source of fluids you may be cutting out a huge number of hidden calories you didn’t even know you were consuming.  If you get bored of water add some lemons, lime, or other fruit for a different flavour. You can also try La Croix carbonated waters. Or add cranberry juice concentrate for some added colour.

The next thing you need to do is remove all hydrogenated cookies, cupcakes, and junk foods. Can you say sugar high?

Even most crackers are bad for us. There are a lot of artificial ingredients in a box of crackers, not to mention that the sodium intake is usually out the roof.

A serving of 5 Keebler’s Original Townhouse cookies has 80 calories with 40 of them being fat calories. There are 140 milligrams of sodium and a transfat issue. Transfat is that fat that does not run through your arteries like saturated, but rather it lingers and collects causing issue with the heart and arteries. Now that is only for 5 crackers. I used to eat an entire row of those crackers.

Then there are Oreos, Chip Ahoy and other cookies. Another fat converter!  Forget about how appealing they may look they are full of junk!

Why continue to put these items in your pantry?  It may satisfy you for a moment but the long term effects are not worth the efforts.

There are wholesome alternatives on the market.

If you want the cookies and crackers, look for product lines like Newman’s Own, Late July, and Yum Yum Snacks. No one said you couldn’t enjoy snacks, just get rid of the bad stuff.

What about peanut butter and jelly. I love a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich, however we use only all natural brands or make our own. My husband, Rupert, made a wonderful peach jam for breakfast one morning and it only took him about 20 minutes to make it with fresh peaches.

Other ideas for healthier snacks are nuts, raisins, hummus and pita bread or chips and salsa. Also try having a couple of pieces of fresh fruit on hand daily as a quick healthy snack.  Keep these items on hand so you aren’t tempted to grab something less appealing for a healthier home.

One thing I do is grab a handful of nuts like almonds or pecans and an apple. I eat the two together and have a glass of water afterwards. This combination keeps me full until my next meal time.

Snacks are fun, but they need to be healthy and wholesome as well.

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