A New Monthly Challenge: Healthier Living
September 3rd, 2008Now that we have the responsibility of raising a child, we are looking at our own habits to see what we need to improve. I thought that in addition to our Green Challenge, we could start a Healthier Living Challenge. I’m thinking that this can be a variety of things – eating healthier, introducing a new healthy recipe, or exercising, for example. The first challenge is something we’ve been doing for the past 2 months. We are no longer purchasing any groceries that contain high fructose corn syrup. Adding this to the dairy free restriction has definitely been a challenge. We carefully read just about every label before placing them in our shopping cart!
Here are a few foods that do not contain high fructose corn syrup or dairy (and I know that some of these products are not the healthiest or necessary, but that’s for another month):
Heinz Organic Ketchup: This is the only brand and type of ketchup in our local Harris Teeter store that does not contain high fructose corn syrup. The taste is a little different than normal ketchup. Surprisingly, it seems a little sweeter! I think it’s one of those things that you don’t notice the difference unless you’re comparing the tastes one after the other. We started using this in our Stuffed Bell Peppers recipe and now use it for all of our ketchuping needs.
Thomas’ Square Bagelbread: It’s a challenge to find bread that does not contain milk products or high fructose corn syrup! We have found the tasty Thomas’ Square Bagelbread and love the wheat and everything varieties. Neither contain dairy or high fructose corn syrup. They have been perfect for sandwiches, hamburgers, and breakfast or snacks (the wheat variety with a little non-dairy “butter” and cinnamon sugar, yum!).
Spicy Sweet Chili Doritoes: Snacking is one of our weaknesses. We will possibly address this in a future month, but for now our snack options are at least somewhat limited. I was disappointed to find that Wheat Thins (I love the Sundried Tomato variety) have high fructose corn syrup. I was surprised to find that all Doritos fit our new criteria! I was also excited to find that they have at least one non-dairy variety: Spicy Sweet Chili. As far as I know, this is the only one. This has been great for road trips as junk food seems to be a necessity when I’m driving… Many chips and crackers have high fructose corn syrup, so at least our snacking choices are somewhat healthier now.
Paul Newman Marinades: The majority of dressings and marinades contain high fructose corn syrup. We had to stop buying our favorite marinades and search for new ones. We found that all of the Paul Newman marinades were free of high fructose corn syrup. We haven’t checked the dressings, but I’m guessing that those may be free of it as well. The ones we have tried have been quite tasty so far!
The Immaculate Baking Company’s Better Bakes Ready-to-Bake Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough: We found these in Harris Teeter one day before our avoidance of high fructose corn syrup. I’m not sure if other cookie brands contain hfcs, but the exciting thing about this particular cookie dough brand is that they are dairy free! I’m not sure if all of their varieties are dairy free, but I was excited and surprised to find a chocolate chip cookie that fit our restrictions. Yum!
Quaker Simple Harvest & Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars: We have granola bars for snacks and breakfast-on-the-go all the time at our house. I was disappointed when I found out that the regular ones that we used to get not only contained dairy products but also high fructose corn syrup. We have since discovered Quaker Simple Harvest granola bars. They even have a chocolate chunk variety that does not contain dairy! We love these! The Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars also have varieties that are both dairy and high fructose corn syrup free.
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September 4th, 2008 at 5:57 am
This is *so* helpful! Although we do not practice dairy-free, I would like to push a high fructose corn syrup-free home. It’s difficult as I like a good coke more than once in awhile. But I’ve slacked off on it and especially, on purchasing healthier items. You’ll inspire me to get back on track too.
BTW, I was told that in Europe (and I don’t know if this is true), coke does not contain hfcs…probably should look that up and see if I can find a way to get some…:-)
March 16th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Since you’ve been at this for a while you’ve probably found these already, but just in case. Both Trader Joe and Kroger have proprietary brands of organic ketchups that have not HFCS. The Trader Joe ketchup is, hands down, the best ketchup I’ve ever had. Very tomatoey! Also, the Arnold line of breads contain a few varieties that have no HFCS in them. I was amazed how hard it was to find bread without it. We try to get bread from Stick Boy (here in Fuquay) as much as possible). And we FINALLY found an affordable, good tasting soda without it. We don’t drink a lot of soda and mostly as a digestive aid (very hard to have things like pizza, etc. without a soda). The Jones line of sodas are all made with pure cane sugar.
Kelley can probably fill you in on more stuff and you may have already been talking with her about it