Conscious Choice: Good Junk: A Look at the Snacking Life

March 1996

Good Junk: A Look at the Snacking Life

by Virginia Love

It seems like most people in the‘90s are juggling many hats and have little time to don the Chef’s hat for homemade snacks or meals. Fast food — also known as junk food because of high amounts fat, cholesterol, salt, refined flour and sugar, preservatives, artificial flavors and colors — has served the preference of our culture to ignore the adage, "You are what you eat."

Unfortunately, many very thorough studies link poor dietary habits with various ailments, including heart disease, cancer, arthritis and other degenerative disease. So a trend is building to find alternatives that serve the body’s needs without adding the burden of cooking from scratch.

Many foods are now labeled "natural" or healthy. The opening ad for the televised 1996 Superbowl was Lay’s Baked Low Fat Potato Chips with 1.5 grams of fat per serving. A later ad showed Skippy’s Peanut Butter with 25% less fat. It is heartening to see more name brand "low fat " items but be aware that most brands still contain artificial additives and refined ingredients.

Some "all natural" breakfast granolas contain high amounts of unsaturated fat and fructose (fruit sugar) calling for discernment even among products with quality ingredients.

"Growing scientific evidence links fat with heart disease, diabetes and cancer," cautions Kristina Turner, author of The Self-Healing Cookbook. "It’s especially important to use less animal fat in the diet" emphasized Dale Buegel, M.D., from the Holistic Health Center of Glenview. Animal fat is a saturated fat, which contributes to increased cholesterol in the body.

Rudolph Ballentine, M.D. author of Transition to Vegetarianism suggests that very little fat is needed in the diet as long as it is of good quality. "Complex carbohydrates, not fat, make the best fuel for the body," Ballentine states. What is good quality fat? Buegel’s preference is for clarified butter used in small amounts for cooking. It is an animal fat, he allows, but points out that it has been part of Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years with many ascribed benefits.

Buegel’s concern with vegetable oils is that many lose their stability at high temperatures, creating free radicals which the body has to deal with. The Macrobiotic diet uses small amounts of unrefined cold pressed oils including olive, sesame, corn, and sunflower. Canola oil has a diagram on the label indicating it is safe at high temperatures but which warns against overheating. Clearly, if one is eating products in which vegetable oil is heated, trust in the manufacturer is needed that the oil is not heated beyond its capacity.

"Foods with chemical additives can cause food sensitivities, and should be avoided by those who experience headaches and other allergic reactions," says Buegel. Some chemical additives, and oils such as cottonseed, are not recognized by the body as food. This creates stress on the liver as to how to process, suggests Ballentine.

Ballentine also warns of the dangers of refined sugar. "Refined sugar has been stripped of its nutritional and protective value. Refined sugar causes cavities, but sugar cane workers who chew on stalks of sugar cane have healthy teeth. Fructose and honey, which is mostly fructose, retain trace nutritional elements and are more slowly metabolized. Fructose requires fewer calories to produce the same amount of sweetness," says Buegel. "Studies show that fructose causes fewer dental caries than sucrose (refined sugar)," says Ballentine.

If refined sugar eating becomes habitual, nutritional elements for the metabolic processing must come from eating additional foods, adding calories, or be pulled from body tissues leading to deficiencies. "Frequent high doses of concentrated sugar puts a strain on the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, perhaps eventually disabling them and interfering with their capacity to smoothly regulate blood sugar levels. Such disorders as hypoglycemia and eventually even diabetes may follow," says Ballentine.

Small amounts of natural sugars are less likely to cause havoc with blood sugar levels that result in hyper energy and then fatigue. Sugar is a fuel, but is most useful as a condiment to a whole foods diet rich in complex carbohydrates.

Sodium in the diet may lead to high blood pressure (hypertension) and less sodium intake lowers blood pressure readings. "Other conditions which have responded to sodium restriction are Meniere’s disease (vertigo, hearing loss and ringing in the ears) and swelling or puffiness as may occur in the face or ankles." said Ballentine. Many physicians agree that adding salt to the diet is not necessary and that salt intake should be kept to a minimum.

Refined flour is deprived of natural vitamins, minerals and plant fiber which serves very useful functions in the body. Plant fiber is beneficial to the transit of food through the digestive system and absorbs and carries out of the body a variety of chemicals and food additives that might otherwise be absorbed.

"Organic foods taste better and eating them frequently reduces the risk of ingesting and accumulating all the chemicals used in commercial food production," said Turner. A study from Rutgers University showed non-organic produce from supermarkets lacking in trace minerals — with as little as 25% of the mineral content of organic vegetables found at natural food grocers.

Healthy Alternatives
There are some alternatives, however — fast foods that are "clean" and nutritious. Natural food grocers carry food brands you can count on, that are committed to organically grown ingredients whenever possible, all natural ingredients, low fat, low salt, no refined flours or sugars, no preservatives or artificial flavors and colors.

Of course, the place to go is your local health food store. Most of our food items are organic or mostly organic" said Terry Gatechair, who works in grocery and frozen foods at Oak Street/Whole Foods Market in Evanston, Illinois. "It’s our job to teach customers that organic is higher in nutrition, contains less pesticides and most important of all, tastes better." Organic foods are more expensive but production is matching increased demand and prices are coming down, Gatechair states.

A stroll through the aisles of natural foods grocers finds an abundance of healthy fast food choices whether in the deli, salad bar, fresh and fresh refrigerated, frozen foods, grocery or bulk produce bins area.

"The deli contains about 80 salad entree and dessert items to satisfy both the traditional and vegetarian palate" said Linda Wilson, deli employee at Oak Street/Whole Foods Market. "About 75% of deli items are both low fat and low sodium. New items are continually introduced. Our attitude is what do we like to eat and how can we make it better" Wilson explained. A recent addition is the improved turkey meat loaf which is now all white breast meat and contains only 8 grams of fat per serving compared to 14.8 grams in the old version. Meats used in sandwiches and entrees at natural food delis are free of nitrates and hormones. At the Oak Street location, a Tempeh, lettuce and tomato (TLT) is a lower unsaturated fat alternative to the old favorite, BLT. "Natural sweeteners are used in deli desserts including fruit juice, barley malt and rice syrup. Canola and olive oil, organic flour and tofu are staple ingredients", said Wilson. Barley malt and rice syrup are "less sweet" natural grain sweeteners which are approved for the Macrobiotics diet.

"The frozen Veggie Pockets by Ken & Roberts are very popular," said Gatechair. There are 11 varieties including Oriental, Greek, Broccoli & Cheddar and Bar-BQ. Ingredients are all organic and include vegetables, soy cheese, spices and whole wheat flour crusts. "They heat very fast — one minute in the microwave and three minutes in the oven," explained Gatechair. A similar product, one of Gatechair’s favorites, is Amy’s Organic Breakfast Burrito. The black bean variety has five grams of unsaturated fat, five grams of fiber, four grams of unrefined sugar and nine grams of protein.

A popular pizza choice is the all natural Supreme Pizza Garden Patch which is lactose and cholesterol free and high in vegetable fiber. "Most of our pizzas are made with soy cheese and whole wheat crusts and they taste great!" exclaimed Gatechair. A pizza with a rice crust is available for for those with wheat sensitivities.

Taj is a popular brand which features twelve varieties of Indian vegetarian frozen dinners including Channa Masala. Rice and most vegetables are organic. This dinner heats in the microwave in 5 minutes and in the oven in 20 minutes. Another frozen entree is Amy’s Lasagna which is prepared with vegetables, tofu and soy cheese. The frozen Natural Touch Nine Bean Loaf and Lentil Rice Loaf save lots of preparation time.

"The Having a Ball Tofu Burger is one of our best tasting and most popular burgers," said Gatechair. Produced in Chicago, this product is available fresh. Ingredients whet the appetite: tofu, sunflower seeds, oats, zucchini, carrots, onion, tamari, organic whole wheat, sesame oil, parsley, olive oil, sesame seeds, garlic.

Another popular fast food is the dried Cup of soup by Fantastic Foods. It is available in many flavors including Creamy Broccoli, Minestrone, Couscous & Lentils, and Pesto Pasta. All items are labeled low fat and some are low sodium. "A cup of boiling water is added to the cup which is ready to eat in eight minutes," said Gatechair.

And if you’re still looking for something a little more traditional, a little more junk-like, take a look at snacks by companies such as Garden of Eatin.’ All the ingredients in Garden of Eatin’s Red Hot Blues corn chips are organically grown. They are sometimes high in fat content, but at least the oils are fats that the body recognizes as food — non-hydrogenated expeller-pressed safflower and sunflower oil. Filtered water is used to cook the corn

You can also find cookies with whole wheat flour or cookies made with with rice and barley flour to provide low-gluten alternatives. Many are fruit juice sweetened, or sweetened with barley malt or rice syrup. For example, one fat-free cookie from Obies Chewy Oatmeal Raisin cookie mix has ten grams of natural sugar. A fifteen-cracker serving of Hain Animal Grahams has only three grams of fat and six grams of sugar — from honey and molasses. (A note of caution: don’t serve foods containing honey to a child under the age of twelve months without consulting your physician first.)

Barbara’s Bakery offers a low fat alternative to Ritz Crackers. Rite Lite Rounds, an all natural cracker, are made with organic flour and have 80 percent less fat than Ritz crackers.

And this is only a start. As you troll the food aisles in search of "good junk," you may find that these healthier foods are actually more appealing. Soon, some of these foods will become your new favorite foods — and one day you will astound yourself by saying truthfully, "I really don’t eat any junk."

Virginia Love is a yoga teacher and Ohashiatsu practitioner in Evanston, Illinois.

Resources
Dale Buegel, M.D., Holistic Health Center, Glenview, Illinois. 847-486-0400.
Diet & Nutrition, a Holistic Approach by Rudolph Ballentine, M.D.
The Self-Healing Cookbook by Kristina Turner
Transition to Vegetarianism, An Evolutionary Step by Rudolph Ballentine, M.D.

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