With the food industry being what it is today, it’s hard to know what to eat and what not to eat. We try to follow a simple rule in our house. If you don’t what it is, don’t eat it. Now, I’m not talking about the weird-looking vegetable in the produce aisle. There’s always room for exploring new and interesting foods, but if you buy processed food, which is anything that can sit on your shelf or in your refrigerator/freezer for a long time, do you know what’s in it? If you looked at the list of ingredients could you explain what each ingredient is? Or would you need a dictionary to figure out not only how to say it but to tell someone what it is?
It seems simple but you would be surprised at how many things you probably have in your kitchen that contain things that you have NO idea what they are, how to pronounce it or what it could be doing to your body.
The thing about this approach is that you take matters into your own hands. You start reading labels and empowering yourself and your family to know what you’re putting in your body. There is one factor though that you have to be able to count on when looking at food like this. You have to be able to trust the label or what I really should say is you should be able to trust the label. But, food, like anything else, is a product that is being sold and when something is being sold, there’s usually a marketing push behind whatever it is. It may be in the color scheme, the name of the brand, the words that they use to describe the food. The “marketing’ behind the food is what’s in place to help sell it. This is where we have to be even more discerning and understand that we can’t always trust what is being said on the label or at least really know what the truth is behind the words.
Eggs are a perfect example. Over the last few years there’s been a huge push to label eggs as “free range”. The truth about what that means might be hard to swallow. Unfortunately, what’s being exposed by people investigating what this term means is that it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to be eating eggs from chickens that are running around on green grass, eating bugs and grass as they should be. Here’s a little movie that was put together by “Lexicon of Sustainability”.
Bottom line, if you really want to be eating eggs from chickens that are running around a field, eating what they should be eating, bugs and grass, buy eggs that have “pasture raised chickens” on the label. They cost more, yes, but they’re packed full of vitamins and minerals. I found this chart that breaks down exactly what is in an egg white and an egg yolk and it’s pretty interesting. So many things that are good for our bodies. (If you eat a lot of red meat and processed foods, having more than 4 egg yolks a week probably isn’t the best idea).
Hope this helps shed a little light on the subject of eggs. I think I’m a little passionate about this because eggs and breakfast are my favorite meal! I’ll leave you with one of my new favorite breakfasts: (Thank you Rick and Lesley for turning us on to this!)
1 cup of brown rice
a small handful of minced kale
a large pinch of sprouts
avocado
salsa
1 egg over easy
YUMMMMM!!
If anyone wants to know more about this recipe, just send a note or leave a comment!
