She Says: Food Like Substances Without HFCS & A Question Answered
Hello! Hope everyone is having a fabulous Thursday. It’s very warm here today.
As promised, I complied a lists of foods I found during HFCS Awareness Month that do not contain the Goop. But first, I wanted to answer a question I received in the comments.
Question about food and foodlike substances – if, say, you make that apple cereal bar from scratch using “food” (oatmeal, apples, cinnamon, honey) would the resulting product be a food or a foodlike substance? I like the idea of food v. foodlike substance, but was curious about this grey area.
In my humble opinion eating oatmeal + apples + cinnamon + honey is definitely food. Sounds like a tasty treat, too. I don’t know what Michael Pollan would say, but I can tell you that in the book he advises against eating anything that your grandmother or great grandmother would not recognize as food, for example, hot pink yogurt in a squirt container. I guess your cereal bar is a grey area, but to me it seems like something that is not minimally processed and has grains and fruit, two foods I love! What do the rest of you think. Real food or food like substance?
Now, let me tell you a true story. Sunday, my super duper cute 11 year-old niece was eating a FruitaBu fruit roll up. My grandmother asked her what it was and my niece replied, “A fruit roll up.” My grandmother looked confused and asked to see it. She asked again,(I should say she’s kinda deaf, but she was also actually not sure what it was) “What is it?” It went back and forth a few times. I think my grandmother thought my niece was eating leather or something. Finally, my niece said, “It’s organic,” like that would make any question my grandmother had disappear. Now, my grandma eats a lot of sweets, so she’s no pillar of “healthy eating,” but isn’t it interesting to see the difference in their thinking about what makes something a good food?
Ok, so here are the products I ate/used during the month. What is your favorite HFCS Free find?
Bread
Pepperidge Farms Small Slice Breads
Crackers
Pepperidge Farms Entertaining Quartet
Kashi Stone Ground Seven Grain Crackers
Condiments
Annie’s Natural Organic BBQ Sauce
Homemade Roasted Tomato Ketchup
Drinks
Sweets
Misc.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:52 am
HFCS sux!
and to answer your question from like last week (sorry), L.I.M.E was this idea that formed when my friends and i thought it would be hilarious/awesome to form an acronym with the first letter of each of our names. it was cute at the time, i swear.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Cute story about your grandmom! My grandmom tried an apple pie larabar the other day and hated it. She was like, “if I want apple pie, I will just eat the real thing!”
October 9th, 2008 at 11:13 am
lol..cute story. I think that your apple bar sounds great! Love the lists!
October 9th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Thanks for the list.
I think that it would be a recipe using whole foods rather than a foodlike substance.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I love your list! Those bars would definitely be considered real food to me!
October 9th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Awesome list! I definitely love the Pepperidge Farms Goldfish (had some last night) and Pepperidge Farms crackers (had some today). And I had a Kashi bar today!
I definitely want to try out all those other products you listed!
October 9th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Thank you so much for the list. Much appreciated.
Re: food or foodlike substance? Definitely a food. I was JUST thinking about maybe making my own granola type bars as I think 1 a day of them is too many, even if they are kashi or clif z bars… and I will consider them food, when I make them.
Funny about the fruit roll up. It is really crazy to see the different viewpoints… i have friends who think they won’t gain weight eating pails of organic mac and cheese because it’s organic… they just don’t get it.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
That’s a great list! Let’s make it grow.
I’m at work, but off the top of my head I’d say Adam’s PB. I’ll consult the pantry when I get home.
I love your real-life Grandma story. Just what Pollen was talking about!
October 9th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Ooo thanks for the list! I agree with Erin – there should be somewhere where people can recommend HFCS-free awesome foods
I can only imagine what my grammie would say about some of the foods people eat… She grew up on a farm and EVERYTHING was homemade.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Thanks for the list!
I would agree homemade from scratch things are ‘real food’. This weekend I made cupcakes and debated making them completely from scratch or using a box mix and store-bought frosting (which would have been much quicker!). When I looked at the ingredients on the mixes at the store, I was pretty appalled- trans fat in both and HFCS in the frosting. I think the real issue is how many ‘real’ ingredients are involved.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Aww, cute story about your niece
). When I was in high school, I loved those organic fruit roll-up/leather things because I could quietly eat them in class.
October 9th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Fabulous story and list!! My list definitely has salsa on it (The Green Mountain brand).
October 9th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
“It’s organic.”
I almost spit out my soup at the computer screen at that one. That is hilarious!
I think that the apple cereal bar in BeeElle’s question is definitely food and not food-like substance. If you could make it at home with normal pronounceable ingredients, it’s food. My only question is this: why bother to make a bar from scratch? Why not just eat some fruit with a handful of granola or some whole grain crackers?
October 9th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
To Hil:
I guess the reason I would bother to make a bar from scratch (which I’ve done once, it turned out ok, I need to try again) is that I love having the combination of flavors baked into eachother. Also, I appreciate the portability and size of a bar. And I very much enjoy baking!
October 9th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Hil: Sometimes I like the chewiness of a bar. I liked baked treats and a bar or healthy cookie works for me. It makes me feel like I’m eating cookies!
October 9th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Fair enough.
The husband’s the baker in our house, which probably skews my opinion!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
[...] liked the list of HFCS Free Products I posted. If you want to make the list grow, just comment on that post or email me (HangryPants@gmail.com). I think it would be a good idea to keep track of our finds and [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Haha, that story about the FruitaBu bar is hilarious! I can totally see that happening between my little bro and my grandma.
Thanks for posting all of your HFCS information! I agree that there is some grey area for baked goods, but to me anything that is homemade should count as food.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:47 am
good story! when i first went into a whole foods i had the same thought (organic=good for you), but then i started looking at the labels and realized that organic did NOT necessarily mean good for you!