Whole Wheat Hummingbird Cake
As I mentioned before it was my husband’s birthday. I made him
a chocolate tart and fresh mint ice cream on the actual day
then I made this cake to take to my in-law’s house. I know
sometimes people feel like whole wheat equals a really dense
end product but if you choose the right ingredients to
substitute for the refined stuff your cake will turn out
fantastic!
I took the recipe I found here and made a few switches to
ensure I was using the best ingredients I possibly could for
the cake. I was not able to find a recipe online that used
whole wheat flour so I had to adapt my own and pray that for
the effort I put in, my husband would enjoy it. I have to say
he loved it and I would definitely make it again using the
exact same recipe. The cake itself is pretty sweet because of
the banana and pineapple so I went for an icing that wasn’t
overly sweet and it was the perfect combination. I hope your
family enjoys this as much as we did!
*I used Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. Since
discovering this product I use it for most of my baking. It
has worked well for cakes, muffins, and pie crusts and is a
great alternative to bleached, enriched white flours. If you
can’t find it in your local grocery store here is a link to
get it online. I also linked the mascobado sugar which is a
great alternative to standard white sugar. Although sugar is
still sugar and I don’t suggest over-doing it because it is
“healthier,” this is an unrefined and pure ingredient.
Fresh Mint Ice Cream
If there is one thing my household loves it’s ice cream! When
we started eating unprocessed foods ice cream was one item
that disappeared from my freezer. If you take a stroll down
the freezer isle in your local grocery store and read some of
the ingredient lists one thing is clear… there are a ton of
additives in ice cream that do not need to be there. I am not
talking about tons of sugar because the sugar is the least of
worry in this case. Ingredients I have seen on ice cream
containers range from carrageenan to polysorbate 80 to propyl
paraben. I am guessing you don’t have those ingredients in
your house and neither do I. So why allow someone else to put
them in your food?
Making your own ice cream is really simple. All you need is
something to freeze the ice cream in and a few real
ingredients. For my husband’s birthday this year I knew I
wanted to make some fresh mint ice cream to go along with a
dark chocolate tart. If you have never tasted fresh mint ice
cream you are missing out big time! It is so much better then
the store bought stuff! Here is the recipe I used for my
husband’s birthday and it turned out fantastic.
*If you are having trouble finding the Mocobado Sugar at your
local grocery store here it is on Amazon.
Top 10 Ingredients to Start
Avoiding Today
When I started reading ingredient
labels there were some food additives and preservatives I
decided to remove from my household immediately. If your
looking to eat an unprocessed diet, cutting these
ingredients is a great place to start. With many major health
issues on the rise I truly believe some of our issues are
coming directly from these ingredients. If we don’t let our
children smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol then why are we
allowing them to eat foods that are slowly killing them?
1. Trans Fat aka Partially Hydrogenated Oils: I made this the
first one because this ingredient is a huge red flag! The most
common form of hydrogenated oils in packaged foods is
partially hydrogenated soybean oil. This dangerous man made
substance wreaks havoc on your body because it increases bad
cholesterol levels (or LDL). This could result in high blood
pressure, stroke, or heart attack. The FDA has recognized that
trans fats are dangerous and may be working on phasing them
out of our food supply. However,these dangerous oils are still
in a TON of packaged foods (believe me I read labels on
everything, even products I do not consume myself). If I see
companies using these dangerous oils I know I will never be
giving them another dollar of my money because ultimately they
are putting profit over the health of their consumers. I’ve
commonly seen hydrogenated oils in hot chocolate mixes,
microwave popcorn, peanut butter, flavored pretzels, “diet”
bars, “diet” frozen meals, margarine, and other butter
alternatives.
2. Soybean Oil/Refined Soy Products: Cutting any products that
contain soy will help immensely to weed out low quality and
highly refined foods because soy is in almost all processed
and packaged foods. While whole soybeans are nutritionally
dense, the type of soy that is in processed foods is so
refined it is nowhere near nutritional. It is a cheap
alternative to natural, nutrient dense ingredients.Most soy in
packaged foods is also genetically modified and that is a
whole new ball game, as we have no idea how these foods are
going to affect people in years to come. If animals testing is
any predictor the future is looking pretty bad! I know GMO
crops are controversial but we do stay as far away from them
as possible. Refined soybean oil is known to cause
inflammation and disruptions to estrogen levels which can lead
to an array of potential health issues including heart
disease, reproductive problems, and cancer. Soybean oil is in
too many products to list but if you are shopping the isles of
your supermarket you are likely consuming mass amounts of
highly refined soy. Be very careful to check ingredient lists
because even products claiming to use olive oil usually have
more soybean oil in them then anything else. Snack foods,
chips, peanut butter, almost all salad dressings, bread, ice
cream, frozen pizza, tomato sauce, cereal, and boxed meals
all contain highly refined soybean oil and I’m just scratching
the surface. If I pick up any product at the grocery
store that contains soybean oil I put it down and WALK AWAY!
(and never come back!!!)
3. Artificial Sweeteners: This includes aspartame, saccharine,
and mannitol (popular brand names Splenda and Equal). I have
bad news for you people… you really can’t have your cake and
eat it too! If you want something sweet you way better off
indulging a little with a natural sweetener and cutting the
fake sugars. I truly believe the companies who manufacture
these harmful, man made sweeteners have changed the way we
think about foods. Brain tumors, diabetes, lymphoma, multiple
sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, fibromyalgia, chronic
fatigue, and emotional disorders like depression and anxiety,
dizziness, headaches, nausea, mental confusion, and seizures
have all been linked to consuming fake sugars. Reading
ingredients and learning to spot labeling that indicates added
fake sugars is key to cutting these out of your diet. If you
see the words “no sugar add” or “light” the product likely
contains some type of added fake sugar. If you read the word
“Sucralose” in the ingredient list this is aspartame. I have
noticed a lot of yogurts that contain them (especially the 100
calorie cups), as well as a lot of frozen popsicles and light
ice creams. Diet sodas and tea also all contain fake sugars.
4. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS): Another reason to read
every single ingredient list… HFCS! It can be found in the
most misleading and unsuspecting ways. All “regular” ketchup
contains HFCS and tons of kids drinks marketed as “all
natural” and “wholesome” (Capri Sun) also contain HFCS.
Yogurts, packaged snacks, most sodas, ice creams, the list
seriously goes on and on.
Let’s cut to the chase here though… what makes HFCS an
ingredient to start avoiding immediately? Well the corn
industry wants us to think that HFCS is “natural” and just the
same as regular sugar. Sugar is sugar, right? Wrong!
Here’s how Dr. Mark Hyman (author of Eat Your Medicine) breaks
it down:
HFCS and cane sugar are NOT biochemically identical or
processed the same way by the body. High fructose corn syrup
is an industrial food product and far from “natural” or a
naturally occurring substance. It is extracted from corn
stalks through a process so secret that Archer Daniels
Midland and Carghill would not allow the investigative
journalist Michael Pollan to observe it for his book The
Omnivore’s Dilemma. The sugars are extracted through a
chemical enzymatic process resulting in a chemically and
biologically novel compound called HFCS. Some basic
biochemistry will help you understand this. Regular cane
sugar (sucrose) is made of two-sugar molecules bound tightly
together– glucose and fructose in equal amounts.The enzymes
in your digestive tract must break down the sucrose into
glucose and fructose, which are then absorbed into the body.
HFCS also consists of glucose and fructose, not in a 50-50
ratio, but a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio in an unbound
form. Fructose is sweeter than glucose. And HFCS is cheaper
than sugar because of the government farm bill corn
subsidies. Products with HFCS are sweeter and cheaper than
products made with cane sugar. This allowed for the average
soda size to balloon from 8 ounces to 20 ounces with little
financial costs to manufacturers but great human costs of
increased obesity, diabetes, and chronic disease.
Now back to biochemistry. Since there is there is no chemical
bond between them, no digestion is required so they are more
rapidly absorbed into your blood stream. Fructose goes right
to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats
like triglycerides and cholesterol) this is why it is the
major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a
condition called “fat liver” which affects 70 million people.
To see more about HFCS from Dr. Mark Hyman click here.
5. Artificial Food Colorings: Food colorings really stick out
in this list for me because I have seen first hand in my own
children the effects of this stuff. I actually hadn’t noticed
it before this specific day but after consuming birthday cake
with artificial food colorings in the icing I saw a huge
change in my son’s behavior. He went from sitting down and
eating to hopping around and screaming. He literally was just
making noises, he couldn’t even form a sentence. I could
almost see his brain in mass confusion. We have been programed
to write it off as sugar but what comes with sugar more often
then not are artificial food colorings. After cutting
unprocessed foods from our lives I was able to see this
difference in his behavior and actually pin point the dyes.
Although studies on these colorings are not definitive I don’t
need any study to tell me something I have already seen with
my own eyes. What is also really important to remember here is
these colorings do nothing other then make the products look
more appealing to consumers.
Hyper-activity unfortunately is the least of concern among the
other potential health hazards these colorings may
bring. Kidney and adrenal tumors, thyroid cancer, and
chromosomal deterioration are all potentially linked to food
colorings. I don’t know anybody who would willingly consume
anything with those potential effects but for some reason we
tend not to question food colorings or only link them to
hyper-activity in children. Another great reason to cut
processed foods!
6. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): Another ingredient that you
will find in the most unsuspecting places! I can’t tell you
how many times I have picked up a package and read the
ingredients only to be shocked that it contained MSG. I’ve
found it in Gazebo Room Salad Dressing, Blackened Seasoning,
many canned soups, premade stocks, bullion cubes, and many
other products. As someone who likes to make soups at home I
know for sure I have not found any type of boxed stock that
does not contain some form of MSG. Although many of them claim
they are MSG free, there are also other ingredients that are
almost the exact same thing as MSG. Other names I commonly see
are autolyzed yeast and yeast extract. These potent flavor
enhancers over-excite your brain cells and can lead to
headaches, migraine headaches, depression, fatigue,
disorientation, and obesity. What I also hate about MSG and
other similar ingredients is that these are the type of
additives that have people coming back for more. One packaged
food I stopped feeding my children that contains autolyzed
yeast is Goldfish Crackers. Yes, those seemingly harmless
little fish are actually telling your child’s brain they
should eat more. Shame on Pepperidge Farm for adding an
ingredient like this to a product they know is consumed mostly
by young children! Bottom line, you really have to read
packaging because this is one of those ingredients they try to
hide.
7. Sodium Nitrate/Nitrite: Even people who know next to
nothing about food ingredients can tell you Nitrates cause
cancer. You will find Nitrates in almost all lunchmeat,
hotdogs (another product pushed on children), and bacon. They
use this stuff to preserve meats in place of regular salt. If
you are used to eating a sandwich with lunchmeat or you are
packing these types of meats in your children’s lunch you
should start looking for alternatives. Although eating a piece
of bacon or two once in a while probably won’t hurt you, most
people who consume these product are doing so on more of a
regular basis. Lunchmeat and hotdogs are so highly processed
they have no place in our diets to begin with!
8. BHT and BHA: Just to prove a point with how widespread BHT
is I challenge you to go to the grocery store and find a
cereal that does NOT contain this preservative. Believe me,
you will be looking for quite a while before you find one.
Practically every single cereal in the “cereal isle” will
contain BHT. BHT is one of those ingredients that is banned in
a ton of other countries. Why? Because it doesn’t have a place
in any food supply, anywhere! What’s so bad about it? Well
let’s start with the fact that it is also used in embalming
fluid, jet fuel, rubber petroleum products, and transformer
oil. Still not convinced? The National Toxicology Program
calls is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” and
the Material Safety Data Sheet says “BHT should not be allowed
to enter the environment, can cause liver damage, and is
dangerous to aquatic organisms.” Eliminating BHT can be harder
then you think if your family is used to eating commercial
cereals. However, once I educated myself about what BHT really
was I had no problem putting my foot down and saying
absolutely not in my household! I knew I was not comfortable
with my children consuming BHT and they have never asked for
any of those products again anyway (its funny how quickly
children forget about the foods that aren’t in the house
anymore). The good news about this is that there are a lot of
alternative cereals that do not contain it but you do have to
read every label just to be sure.
9.Mono and Diglycerides: This is an emulsifier that mixes
ingredients together that normally wouldn’t mix, like oil and
water. This ingredient is a hidden source of partially
hydrogenated oil aka trans fat. The trans fat used in this
emulsifier does not have to be listed on the nutritional panel
so therefore it goes unnoticed in a lot of products. I have
seen this in most breads, ice cream, non-dairy creamers, heavy
cream, and chocolate syrups.
10.Carrageenan: This one is tricky because technically it is
“natural” so even organic companies can use it and still be
able to label their products as organic. It is another
emulsifier used in dairy products, ice cream, yogurts, half
and half, and soy milks. The reason why it is considered
“natural” is because it is extracted from red seaweed, which
sounds harmless. However, this ingredient has been studied for
years and the data collected isn’t looking good for dairy
lovers. Carrageenan can cause inflammation in our bodies and
therefore lead to some serious health issues like Alzheimer’s
and cancer. I have seen carrageenan first hand in organic
products and its a good way to weed out companies who don’t
care about your health, organic or not. If you search the word
carrageenan in Google there are dozens of articles about it,
but here is one that I found helpful.
What is our “diet” crazed
nation teaching our children?
“Diet”
products and their marketing have literally taken over. I
can’t turn on my television, my radio, my computer, or walk
through any store without seeing them. Nutrisystem,
Hydroxycut, Green Tea Extract, Slim Fast, a cleanse, a detox,
a fat burner… I mean really I could keep going but we all know
who I’m talking about. I have to say, I’m really over it now.
Why? Simply because they are pushing their
inferior and
unhealthy “diet” products, and brainwashing a new generation
instead of telling the truth. The truth is if we just ate
simple, natural, unprocessed foods along with small portions
of quality meats and whole grains then most people wouldn’t
need to turn to any of the dangerous junk these companies are
trying to sell. Let’s cut the bleached flours, the GMO sugars,
the fake sugars, the processed meats, the unhealthy fats, and
the packaged foods and see how many of those “diet” products
we need then.
Why are we so brainwashed?
As an adult looking back I can remember seeing all of these
products growing up. The big one then was Slim Fast. When
someone I knew was dieting I’d see them carrying around their
cans of Slim Fast. As a kid I was always so intrigued by the
deceptive chocolate shakes. I wanted to try them! I wanted
their dessert too! What I didn’t know is all of those cans,
the adds, the marketing, the meal systems, were putting the
idea in my head that if someone wanted to diet then this is
what they would turn to…… fake food!
Where was the real food? Why didn’t anyone talk about that?
Why did dieting come out of a can or a bottle? As a parent I
have realized the effects of marketing
on kids. I can
remember around Valentine’s Day this year my 7 year old said
to me “Does every kiss begin with Kay?” I laughed about it
then and was wondering what I was supposed to say. However,
thinking back now it isn’t funny. Children remember these
things and their opinions about life are persuaded by
advertising. Not only are these companies selling products
that are bad for your health, they are selling ideas to
children that are even more unhealthy.
As parents it is time to educate our children about real
foods. I’ve heard the phrase “because I said so” come out of
the mouth of more parents then I ever really wanted to. While
everyone has their own parenting style (and that’s a whole
other topic!) this phrase is just not going to cut it when it
comes to food and “diet” products. One of the most important
things to teach children if your cutting processed foods is
why. If you’ve been serving a lot of processed stuff its time
to fess up and tell the truth about why these products don’t
do anything good for your body. Yes, there might be resistance
but that provides the opportunity to talk about what nourishes
their bodies and what doesn’t.
I have also heard mothers talk about why they don’t call
themselves “fat” in front of their children (daughters
specifically). What we really need to pay attention to is the
fact that it goes beyond the home. Our children are influenced
by more then just what comes out of their parent’s mouth. Our
children see skinny people being idolized, and a society that
sets standards about body image and weight. Our children see
the Nutrisystem adds, the pill bottles at the grocery stores,
and celebrities touting yo-yo “diets.” This is why we need to
help a generation being brainwashed by a “diet” crazed nation.
We as parents need to lead by example. Here a few things you
can start doing to address these issues:
Take your children to the grocery store. If they see
everything that is there they will begin to notice the
isles you shop and the isles you stay away from.
Show them ingredients. Compare products, read
ingredient lists, talk about what makes one thing better
then another.
Discuss why we avoid certain ingredients and what those
ingredients do to our bodies.
Teach them how to cook! This is super important. It will
help your children in 5, 10, 15, 20 years and beyond.
Your children will become more interested in ingredients
and understand food can be fun, enjoyable, and a time
spent together as family.
Eat a variety of unprocessed foods yourself. This is
huge. Your children will probably never have to think
about “dieting” later in life if we just teach them
what food was meant to do for us to begin with.
Address the issue directly. Talk to your children about
why these products do more harm then good in people’s
lives. After all, if any of these products actually
worked there wouldn’t be such a huge market for this
stuff.
Just to highlight one thing in the list… your children will
probably never have to think about dieting later in life if we
just teach them what food was meant to do for us to begin
with. This is the best piece of information to take away from
this. Give your children a good, healthy relationship with
food and the chances they will ever need to turn to any of
this dangerous junk are reduced!