Label Lies Series: Ella's Kitchen: Coconut Milk Nutrtional Shake

Look, I get it, you're tired, the kids  are screaming and sometimes you just want them to hush!
Ok, sometimes they are whining so much and screaming so loud that you want to run into the closet, shut the door and imagine you are sitting poolside, drink in hand, with your perfect pre-baby body and pre-baby "no responsibilities" life! Back in reality, your only resolution is to reach for the most handy "hush tactic"...

What if these "hush tactics" are actually doing more harm than good? What if these "hush tactics" are actually what is causing these emotional breakdowns in your Littles? 

Even the most well-meaning parent can be misled by marketing! This has led me to my new series: "Label Lies"... I will break down the most well-known, yummy-licious kid (and mom) favorites and explain why they are deceiving and potentially dangerous for you Littles!

Let's Begin...

Who has seen these on the shelf?

 



 

At first glance, I would be thrilled to find this (FYI, this was found on a shelf at Target)! Who doesn't want NATURAL NUTRITION for their Littles?!?!

I mean, look at this label heaven:

"Natural Nutrition"

"Coconut Milk Nutritional Shake"

"To Help Little Ones Grow"

"I'm full of (insert pics of real fruit)"

"USDA Organic"

"Gluten Free"

 

They even added an extra bonus of coconut milk spewing from a real coconut! That, my friends, is a marketing genius! Sadly, that is all it is. Flip this beautiful cover around and here is what you will find:

 

Having a hard time reading that?? That isn't photoshop... That is because these items are written so small that it is blurred when the photo is uploaded. Funny how "Natural Nutrition" was not blurred... Again, marketing genius. What busy mom, rushing through Target with an antsy, growing-ever-so- bored-with-every-stop, toddler is going to have time to stop and read this tiny print? Let me ZOOM in for you:

 

 

 

Ok, so now that it is actually big enough to read, at first glance, it doesn't look so bad. You have organic milk, organic banana, organic raisin, organic expeller pressed canola oil... ummmmm, wait, canola oil??? They are putting canola oil in a toddler's Coconut Milk Nutritional Shake? When you think about making a nutritious shake or smoothie in your blender, do you reach for the canola oil? Sounds delicious... hmpfh...

 

What does all of this mean?

 

Organic Grade A Low-fat Milk: My first thought on this is the ever-growing number of people that are lactose and casein intolerant. Most people do not even realize they are intolerant of these things and think "gassy bubbles" in your stomach are just a normal part of the digestive system. However, lactose intolerant or not, WHY are they removing the fat from milk for a little? Here is a great study showing how low-fat milk actually contributes to weight gain. Aside from it doing nothing to prevent obesity, removing fat from milk is basically just removing the cream... the most nutritious element of milk! The cream is what helps keep your blood sugar stable when consuming milk. Take it out and what happens? Blood sugar spikes... and what goes up must come back down. Insert: toddler meltdown!

 

Organic Fruit Purees: Just like canned baby food, in general, the thought of pureeing a piece of fruit, sticking it in a cardboard box, labeling it, shipping it, stocking it and allowing it to then sit on a shelf or pantry, along with a 1-2 year (or even one month) expiration date, then proceeding to feed it to my little is enough to make me sick... Need I say more?

 

Canola Oil: For a parent looking to remove processed foods from their Littles diet, they should just keep pushing that cart right along and pass up this little "heart healthy" gem. The processing that Canola Oil undergoes is cringe worthy and completely removes the "heart healthy" aspect of this product. While I appreciate the fact that they are using expeller-pressed Canola Oil, it still involves an extensive heating process, then the oil is bleached and separated. What does all of this do? Causes it to stink! So, then what do they do? Deodorize it! With what, I don't know... but... As a side note, canola oil is made from Rape Seed, which is actually toxic. Thanks to the over heating and over processing of this oil, only trace amounts of the toxic substance, eurcic acid, is left. Hooray!

 

Agave Syrup: Aka Sugar!

Kudos to Ella's Kitchen for giving Agave Nectar its proper name of Agave Syrup, because that is truly what it is after the processing it undergoes. You can read a lot more about the misconception of agave in this great article.

 

Coconut Water: Finally! They are using some form of coconut something in their "Coconut Milk" drink. It scares me that this word is listed first in the name, yet 7th in the line of ingredients. I actually love coconut water and occasionally will give it to my Littles too... in its purest form, where "coconut water" is on the label and "coconut water" is listed as the first and only ingredient.

 

Soy Lecithin: We have a pretty firm rule in our house, which is that if you cannot pronounce it, you should not consume it. Aside from that, this explains how soy got in this product. Yuck. According to this article, soy lecithin has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, fertility problems and issues in brain development. Furthermore, it is not regulated by the FDA.

 

Carob Bean Gum: This is used as a stabilizer and texturizer in processed foods. Basically, when you add milk and pureed foods together and stick it on a shelf for a few months, something gross would happen inside that cardboard box. This keeps that grossness from happening. I guess...

Finally, I will close with this: This "Natural Nutrition" contains 17 grams of sugar in one tiny drink, which is the equivalent of almost one tablespoon of table sugar. To put this in perspective, there are 39 grams of sugar in a 12 ounces Coke can. These little cardboard boxed sugar drinks are 8 ounces. That is a lot of sugar in one tiny little body. And we wonder why they throw tantrums when they want more of this drug...

 

PRIMAL MOM UNPROCESSED FOOD ALTERNATIVE:
Grab a blender, a cup of spinach, some yummy organic fruits, along with some protein (I use pure almond butter!) and blend away!

 

BLESSINGS...

 

 

Don't go Paleo?!?! Here's the Real Reasons Why Jane is wrong...

This morning, I had something pop up in my Facebook newsfeed that annoyed me. Instead of responding to it on there, I figured it would make a great addition to my blog.

Here is what popped up: "If you believe in science, don't go Paleo. Here's the real reasons why."

First, I do not eat Paleo. My family and I eat unprocessed foods, which are mostly in the original form you would have found them in the Paleolithic era. In two and a half years of eating as clean as possible, I have ran into an abundance of naysayers!

"Meat gives you cancer."
"Eating meat is the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day!" (my personal favorite!)
"This is not sustainable!" (hmmmm)
"You need the iron from grains." (soooooo wrong!)

And now... "If you believe in Science, don't go paleo!"

She points out that real cavemen would have eaten insects. Thanks. I will pass and take my chances. She babbles on about how uncredentialed the original founder of the "Paleo Diet" really is, because her PhD was actually in exercise physiology... while Jane has a degree in journalism.

She acknowledges a few positives about eating fresh produce, lean meats (FYI, I also eat fatty meats!) and eliminating processed foods by saying that these paleoers "lose unwanted pounds, rack up personal best with each 10k, and generally feel reborn." Dang... that sounds miserable!

What Jane so astutely left out is the fact that people have eliminated body aches, skin problems (like eczema, psoriasis, acne), had complete reversal of post partum depression, migraines, Tourette's syndrome, high cholesterol problems, low blood pressure, vitamin/nutrient deficiency and everything related to being overweight... ALL by ONLY eliminating processed foods from their diet, including grains and poor quality dairy. I say all of this because these are the problems that MY family eliminated in just a few short weeks after removing this garbage from our diet. I suppose it could all be in our heads. That would require some amazing brain power!

Next, Jane says that she turned to an actual evolutionary biologist to get her take on going Paleo. This actual evolutionary biologist says that "you cannot assume (yes, she says assume) that it's impossible for us to change. Sometimes evolution is slow, sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's in between.[...] The poster child for evolution in humans is dairy tolerance." First, which is it? Have we evolved to be able to handle processed garbage fast, slow or somewhere in between? She doesn't say. Yet, we are crazy for assuming there is a possibility we have not evolved to handle these things that could potentially be making us sick, fat and everything "in between". Next, this actual evolutionary biologist (who has a book coming out against going Paleo. Shocker... $$$), points out that the fact that we tolerate (yes, she says tolerate) dairy is proof of quick evolution. Funny, because I can give you a list of people I personally know that do not tolerate dairy. Furthermore, just because you tolerate something does not mean that it is the OPTIMAL thing to put in your body. I could probably tolerate a line of cocaine...

To be clear, my family does eat dairy in moderation. To be even more clear, "I can't believe it's not butter" is NOT the dairy we eat.

Jane's final point, after she uses the word "assume" a few more times, is that eating Paleo "can be construed as uncomfortably elitist," because of the "expensive meat- especially if you hew to the only certified-organic and grass-fed caveat." She even says that this expensive meat "means all of God's children can't come to the table." Jane, my dear, let me show you my grocery bill. $125-150 a week to feed a family of five: breakfast, lunch and dinner! Let me show you my past dermatology bill with the expensive creams my husband had to use to treat his severe eczema (for years!), which vanished two weeks into eating unprocessed foods. Let me show you the medical bills from the doctors and allergists that poked and stuck needles in my one year olds back to try and determine what was causing his red, inflamed cheeks every single day. Come to find out, they found nothing and I took it upon myself to remove poor quality dairy (you know, the stuff we have evolved to 'tolerate') from his diet and his skin is perfect. Let me show you the expensive steroids they wanted to treat my teenage son with to help 'control' his severe tics, caused from Tourette's. Guess what? He never took a single dose of those steroids and his tics are gone after we dropped processed foods from his diet. Let me show you the price of the medication my doctor wanted to prescribe for me, after the birth of my middle son, in order to treat post partum depression. Guess what? Every single symptom of my PPD disappeared a few weeks into removing processed food from my diet and never came back. Furthermore, I went on to give birth to my daughter a year later, while eating NO processed foods, and rocked my post partum recovery. I could go on and on, but you get my point, Jane.

I will not even touch the Carnegie Mellon "Greenhouse Effect" study that you closed your article with, because you clearly have 1) not read it 2) know nothing about what eating clean really means 3) must have horrendous gas from all the junk you put into your body, just like the grain-fed cows in the study.

I did learn something from Jane's article. Eating unprocessed foods, as a key to health, was actually brought into light by gastroenterologist Walter Voegtlin in 1975. I want to get a copy of his book now. Thank you, Jane!

If you want to read the original post, here it is:
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/01/30/jane-says-if-you-believe-science-dont-go-paleo

Primal Mom Easy Chicken Nuggets

Primal Mom Easy Chicken Nuggets
Author: Amber Butcher- http://primalmomintheburbs.blogspot.com/

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds organic boneless chicken breasts: cubed
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup almond flour
• 3 eggs (cage free/free range)
• 1 cup organic coconut milk (unsweetened)
• 1 T salt
• 1 T pepper
• 1/2 cup raw, unfiltered honey (preferably local)
• 1/2 T paprika

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, coconut milk and honey.
3. In another large bowl, mix the coconut flour, almond flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Break up any clumps in the flour.
4. Mix your cubed chicken into the egg mixture. Using your hands, coat all pieces of chicken. Transfer the egg covered chicken into the flour bowl. Using your hands, coat the pieces of chicken with the flours.
5. Transfer the chicken pieces to a foil lined pan. Bake 15-20 minutes. flip the nuggets halfway through cooking. Cut into a piece to make sure they are done, as oven temperatures vary. Done!

Suggestion: Great served with sweet potato fries!

Primal Mom Ginger Sauce

Primal Mom Ginger Sauce
Author: Amber Butcher- http://primalmomintheburbs.blogspot.com

Ingredients:

• 4 T tamari
• 1/2 T raw honey
• 2 T rice vinegar
• 2 T ground ginger
• 1 T sesame seeds
• 1/2 T sesame oil
• 1 t garlic powder

Mix all of the above and pour over your favorite cauliflower rice dish!

Primal Mom Chocolate Chip Muffins

Primal Mom Chocolate Chip Muffins
Author: Amber Butcher - http://primalmomintheburbs.blogspot.com/

Servings: 10-12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup organic dark chocolate chips
• 2 eggs: whisked (free range)
• 2 t apple cider vinegar
• 1t baking soda
• 1/2 cup organic, pure maple syrup
• coconut oil for greasing

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease the muffin pan with your coconut oil.
3. In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, coconut four and baking soda. Break up any clumps in the flour.
4. Mix in the whisked eggs to your flour, then mix in the maple syrup.
5. Add the chocolate chips and apple cider vinegar. Stir and immediately fill each muffin cup with your mixture.
6. Bake on 350 for 25-30 minutes. Done!