Hydrogenated Soy?????

I have to start by saying that I am home with the flu today. Part of me can't help wondering if it's the flu, or if just a few days of nearly no processed foods is kicking my body into detox. I'm leaning towards actually having the flu, because hubby has been home sick two days previous to today.

I'm done "Food Rules". One of the best things about this book is that it is not a dense read, or difficult to understand. It is a simple and straight forward manual to recognizing what qualifies as real food, and how much of it you really should be eating.

The most surprising thing I've come across so far is a slew of negative information about soy... that's right, the wonder food of vegetarianism is being modified in ways that, like corn, sugars, etc. are exceptionally bad for you. The rule that led to my research advises that you not eat foods that are pretending to be something they are not, and lists soy-based fake meats as an example. So I've done some online research, and as with any other food there are pro and con advocates. Much of the negative research seems to link soy oil with suppressed thyroid activity, which leads to weight gain. The bottom line, so far as I can see it, is that much like any other food soy should be eaten in moderation. The problem? Much like corn, it is starting to show up in EVERYTHING. Case in point: I'm making dinner last night and I pick up my pre-fab spice mix (I won't mention brands here... just read your ingredient labels), and I figure this must be safe, it's just a mix of spices. I was shocked to see that I was completely wrong... the spices were some of the last things on the list of ingredients. I was not shocked to see salt had been added, however I was taken back by the addition of hydrogenated soy... hydrogenated soy? Now hydrogenated is one of those bad buzz words that has my back up immediately, but to be honest I didn't actually know what it meant. Thank goodness for Google... what did people do before they could look things up online? Here's what I found: Essentially this is the process of heating oil so that the fatty acids can acquire hydrogen, making the oil more butterlike, but cheaper to produce. So what is this doing in my spice mix? I can only guess that it's there to add flavour... bah.

This got me curious. What other seemingly harmless things were lurking around my kitchen? Well, tons... chili paste, canned coconut milk, more or less all my condiments... at this rate I'm going to be making my own mayonnaise soon. So how am I going to manage this without becoming one of those people everyone dreads having over for dinner, because they can't eat anything? The answer to this one comes straight from my mother's rule book: control what you can eat, when you can... when you can't don't stress about it, just enjoy. My mother is one of the most health conscience people I know, and she hasn't eaten red meat in years, but even she will graciously eat a hamburger on the rare occasion when some unsuspecting host serves her one.

Now this all begs the question, what am I eating? And the answer is: plenty! Hubby and I made a stew in the slow cooker the other day... tons of veggies, a small roast from the butchers, chopped up, flavoured with a mix of spices, port (MP advises one glass of wine a day!), etc. We ate that for a dinner and packed some up for lunch the next day. The rest went in the freezer for next time we don't feel like cooking. We almost always have a batch of home made curry of some sort in the fridge, so I've been eating that with rice. Home made hummus is something I'll have a little of between meals, or with pita and salad for lunch.

I'll be honest, most of the from scratch foods in our house are not made by me. The one thing I do really well is marinara sauce from scratch, so last night I decided it was my turn to do up a home cooked meal. The secret ingredient in my sauce? My pre-fab Greek Spice. That's when I made the disturbing discovery mentioned above. In fact a few of my key ingredients are now verboten. I usually add a teaspoon of sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes. I wound up replacing the sugar with a bit of honey and used garlic, basil, oregano, chili flakes, pepper and salt to flavour. Caramelized onions also help to add sweetness. What I ended up with was a surprisingly simple sauce that was really delicious. I poured the sauce over whole wheat noodles and then topped the dish with something really exciting - a little bit of grated FULL FAT cheese to add a bit of protein. I have been hiding from those two words for more than ten years. What does MP have to say about this? To simplify, the disease/obesity epidemics in our society coincide with the advent of "low fat" foods. The problem being with all the other crap we've had to add to our foods to replace the fats. Not to mention that fact that we seem to believe that because something is "low fat" we can gorge ourselves on it, and end up overeating. The key to eating full fat foods? Not too much!

Ta da! A delicious, filling meal with minimal amounts of processing. Even hubby was impressed... and that's no small feat.

Assuming I'm feeling better, we're going to try making bread this weekend. So more on that next time.