Clean it up!!!

First of all:

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Hello everyone! I had a lot of cute little images to go with this post but for some reason, the upload machine won't work for me at the moment. :( Oh well, I'll just add them later if I remember :)

I hope everyone is doing well on this fine day! The weather is great, mom's are being overwhelmed with thoughtful gifts, AND....my birthday is tomorrow!!! Yay! The BIG 2...6... :( :)! I will admit that I am scared of being on the other side of 25, but I'm looking forward to the adventure ahead of me with hopes of accomplishing my goals early or on time and enjoying the little surprises that life is sure to give me along the way.

So...time to get down to business. What does it mean when someone says they enjoy "eating clean?"  I am a huge fan of "clean-eating," so to me, the term leaps off my tongue naturally in conversations. I didn't realize (until my last Girl's Night Out) that many people have never even heard of the term. Shocked!!!

NO, I'm not talking about washing your fruits/vegetables off before cooking/eating them (although I highly recommend that as well!!!) and NO, you don't have to run your brownie through the rinse cycle. :)

Clean eating basically means that the food you are putting into your body is natural. Naturally raised and naturally packaged.

PREPARE TO BE GROSSED OUT PEOPLE!

Picture a big bowl of frosted cereal or your favorite kind of candy. Now imagine that someone came by right before you took a bite and added some pig skin to it. Mmmmm, right? Well did you know that many types of frosted cereal and candy sold in stores contain gelatin...which is processed collagen typically collected from animal skin - most typically pigs?

Not gross enough for you yet? How about feeding some delicious secretion-covered candy to your kids? WHAT?!? You don't think it happens do you? Would you be surprised to find out that the shiny coating on most store bought candies is actually created through the process of covering them with secretions from an insect found in Thailand? That's just the candy coating...I'm not even going further into what is placed inside...

Have you ever picked up chicken at the store and thought "$____ a lb seems like a lot!?" Well, would it upset you to know that the people packaging that chicken are injecting it with saltwater to increase its weight and calling it "flavored solution" or "broth-injected" on the package? Would it also upset you to know that by injecting this saltwater into the chicken, they are actually increasing the sodium content by up to more than 5 times the original sodium amount of the meat itself? Think about it...what sounds so delicious about flavored solution??? Feeling grossed out and ripped off yet?

Remember picking up that can of diced tomatoes at the store and thinking to yourself, "this will make things easier tonight...now I don't have to chop the tomatoes myself!" How lazy we have become!!! Well, would you feel just as good about that shortcut if I told you that the chemical bisphenol A was added to the can lining? What is bisphenol A, you ask? Why its good 'ol BPA! You know, that chemical you keep hearing about in the news that is being removed from all drinking cups for babies. Well, if you wouldn't use anything with that product around your child, why would you put it into your own body??? Don't you understand that the chemical seeps into those tomatoes as the can sits on the shelf under the bright lights?

Need a final example of "unclean" food? Let's think about antibiotics for a moment. They are good for us right? They keep us from getting sick, BUT, what about the known resistance our bodies build up to them? Now, think about a rancher trying to make money to feed his family without any care over what it takes. That rancher's ranch could potentially kill thousands due to resistance to the antibiotics that he is shoving down his animals throats. Now, is it important for the animals to be healthy? YES! Are there ways to keep them healthy without forcing them to ingest antibiotics every day? YES! Guess what people? Those animals that are not naturally raised without antibiotics could develop resistance to those antibiotics...which WILL affect you! There you are at the market picking up your weekly supply of meat (turkey, chicken, beef, etc.) which was obtained through the slaughter of an animal that had built up a resistance to antibiotics; therefore, the bacteria growing in the animal before slaughter...WAS NOT KILLED...AND the bacteria growing in the package on the meat...WILL NOT STOP! Now...do you want to eat that for dinner?

I could go on and on...and on...

So, the next time you go to the supermarket: LOOK at the ingredients section!!! If there are ingredients that you can't even pronounce and/or seem to have no point of being listed there...DON'T BUY IT!!! The ingredients should list what the product itself is and that's it AND the product should be made from natural ingredients! Caramels, for instance, should be made up of 5 natural ingredients...not "added coloring" and this chemical mixed with that chemical! Meat should not say that it was injected with "flavoring" or "solution" and it should not be from caged or antibiotic fed animals. Look for "free range," "cage free," "naturally raised," or "no antibiotics" labels and then READ READ READ the ingredients to make sure the label matches the food inside! Don't be a fool to a marketing scheme. This is your only body people...treat it right! KEEP IT CLEAN!

YES, it takes longer to make food from scratch and YES, it may cost a few dollars more at the store, but the money spent today will save in the medical bills tomorrow!

So, clean it up and keep it clean! You'll feel soooooo much better! Clean skin, clean digestion, clean sleeping (not waking up a million times or having horrible dreams), clean minds, etc.

Have a great day!!!

Gross out facts were obtained from http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20588763,00.html