After making the polenta Wednesday night, my culinary muscles were sore and I turned to ease and simplicity tonight. 

I had a Rudi’s Organic Honey Sweet Wheat Bagel with hummus and cheese and some broccoli and cauliflower. Have you had these bagels? They’re small (130 cals., 1.5 g. fat 6 g. protein, 6 g sugar) and not bad when toasted. Obviously, these do not compare to a nice fresh bagel, but they do the trick. 

Ingredients: Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Organic Sugar, Yeast, Organic Honey, Organic Wheat Gluten, Organic Oat Flour, Organic Vinegar, Salt, Organic Oat Fiber, Organic High Oleic Sunflower Oil, Organic Guar Gum, Organic Cultured Wheat Starch, Organic Corn Meal, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Natural Enzymes.

Anyway, back to my dinner. Sometimes, I like to make half Laughing Cow/half hummus sandwiches. I like to have some of each on the piece of bread so I can get a couple of bites with both the cheese and the hummus.

I would also like to note then when you put Laughing Cow French Onion wedge on a bagel it tastes like a frozen Lender’s Onion bagel, which I ate all the time growing up. I always put a slice of Land O’Lakes American cheese on each half and popped it in the toaster. I love cheese + bread.  

So, I’ve been really into hummus lately. I usually like to make my own bean spreads because it’s fun and they usually taste good, but because they lack preservatives, they go bad after a few days, so it’s sort of a waste. I wish cans of beans came in smaller sizes. Anyway, I’ve been on the hunt for the best packaged hummus. This Joseph hummus is pretty good, but so far my favorite has been the Simply Enjoy brand from Stop & Shop. It’s creamy and delicious. What’s your favorite brand of hummus? 

I found a new cracker snack, too. Ian’s Organic Wheat Crackers come in 100 calorie packs. I used to love 100 calorie packs and then I realized I was eating 100 calories of crap, so I stopped eating them. In this case, however, they are helpful. I’m going to eat crackers anyway, and it’s probably a good idea to have a clear beginning and ending to the cracker-fest. Maybe one day I will just say no to crackers, but not quite yet. 

They are like Cheese-less Cheez-Its. Thick and crunchy. Perfect for my cracker needs. 

HFCS in the News

HFCS Awareness Month is over, but those new ads from the Corn Refiners Association are are alive and kicking. This article from CBS News reveals what I already assumed: research for the studies that serve as a basis for the ads comes from companies that have a financial stake in the success of HFCS. These companies include Pepsi and the American Beverage Association.  Do they think we’re stupid? I know this is not entirely the same, but it reminds me of all the tobacco cover-ups that are coming to the surface these days. I wish someone would just do some health and nutrition research without any financial motivation or hidden agenda. 

Also, I’m glad you 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 I can create a page doing that right here. I may be sick of reading labels, but inevitably I will eat packaged foods from time to time. Of course, I want to make smart decisions, so comment away on your HFCS Free favorites!

I bought this foodlike substance from a vending machine Thursday. It does not contain HFCS. It has a green circle with a check mark telling me I made a “Smart Choice.” It contains Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, 230 calories, 8 g of fat and 410 mg of sodium.  

Worry and Eating is Not Enjoyable

This picture represents the frustration I had during HFCS Awareness Month and the relief I have now that it is over. If you read Mark’s post about his feelings toward the month, you might understand. We didn’t discuss our feelings about this throughout the month and it was interesting to see how it affected both of us in similar ways. I hope I can convey the uneasy feeling I had during HFCS Awareness Month without sounding like I am complaining about something self inflicted.

First, let me say that I learned a great deal about Goop (defined  by Mark as all corn syrup derivatives). I have an understanding about the controversy that I did not have one month ago.

Now, let me get on with my feelings.  What else did I learn? I learned that I eat way too much stuff in a box or bag that has ingredients for me to read in the first place. Unlike Mark, I cook for myself a lot, but this month that seemed less important as I compulsively read every label and ingredient list within my reach. Overall, I felt nervous and anxious. Unlike Meatless Month when I focused on new, fresh foods, this month I found myself thinking about snacks and boxes and labels and I did not like it. The times I enjoyed my food this month had nothing to do with what was in my food (i.e. BBQ Apples and Tofu) and more to do with creating. I think this says a lot about my basic discomfort with “tracking” what I eat. 

This brings me to what I learned from Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. The first sentence, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” reflects Pollan’s attitude toward food, which he breaks down and explains for the remainder of the book. His aim, he explains, is to reconnect people to their health and happiness as eaters. Amen. 

Two points from the book really got me thinking about my own relationship with food and eating. 

Food and Foodlike Substances

First, Pollan encourages people to avoid foods with HFCS and with unpronounceable, unfamiliar or more than five ingredients. Things with less ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients at all, are going to be actual food as opposed to the foodlike substances that Pollan advises against. It goes hand-in-hand with his suggestion to shop the perimeter of the market. If, during HFCS Awareness Month, I’d followed this advice, I would have had fewer labels to read! For example, an apple is food, but an apple cereal bar is a foodlike substance. The apple is the better choice whether the cereal bar has HFCS or not. The apple does not require me to even consider what is in it (pesticide issues aside). I don’t need to worry when I eat an apple and worrying is not something I want to do when eating. It makes me grumpy. Ask my mom or Mark.

Nutritionist Thinking and Worry

Second, Pollan questions what he calls “nutritionist thinking,” the idea that food should be judged based on whether it promotes physical, biological health and that we need someone else to tell us what we should eat. This part interests me because I wonder how nutritionists and registered dietitians respond. Pollan, like me, thinks that food is more than something eaten for necessity and nutrients, but rather it is also about pleasure, family, community, etc. This next part is my favorite. Pollan points out that no other group of people worry about their food choices like Americans. Again, I do not want to worry about food. Who does? According to Pollan, the infamous “thin French” are thin because they do not worry about what they are eating. They enjoy it and move on. I am not sure if this applies to the French, but it does apply to those I know who maintain their natural weight with relative ease of mind and body. This doesn’t mean you get to eat boxes of cookies or crackers without thinking, but if you’re eating mostly “food” and not “foodlike substances” that wouldn’t happen anyway. 

Back to Basics

What I am trying to say is that this month I worried about food more than during Meatless Month where every meal was like a new adventure.  Overall, I embraced Pollan’s guidelines, which are similar to my own food ideals, much more during Meatless Month than during HFCS Awareness Month. I can’t be sure because I didn’t “weigh in” before, but I also think I gained a few pounds this month. If it’s not reflected on the scale, it’s reflected in my posture. I feel slumpy and sluggish.

I am glad the month is over because I think I need a fresh start. Of course, I am not going to start purposefully eating HFCS foods. But, I am not going to purposefully eliminate them either. Instead, my aim is to eat more food, less foodlike substances. I was happy to read that Mark is more or less on the same page with our next challenge and his goal to prepare more of his food at home. We’ll work out the details of the challenge and post them soon. I am already excited!