Replacing-Not Substituting-Dietary Offenders

After going to The Big Carrot on the Danforth and spending an afternoon in Noah’s of Toronto’s Bloor Street, I was surprised by how much junk food I found in these health foods stores.

I’ve learned from Meghan to be a much more discerning grocery shopper; just because a label reads ‘organic’ does not necessarily mean it’s good for me.  If a product is made from whole ingredients it is not automatically healthy.  One of the problems with health food stores, is that they trick buyers into purchasing the ‘healthy’ version of the food offenders that they should be eliminating. One of my weaknesses–a ‘forbidden food’–is chips. I love them.  Lay’s BBQ chips WERE one of my favorite indulgences. They are salty-sweet with a hint of spice–perfect for my hormonal cravings.  Noah’s and The Big Carrot both sell “healthy” versions of these BBQ chips.  I don’t believe that chips should be outlawed, but I do think it is contradictory to dress up a chip bag in a ‘health food’ costume; even if the chips are fried in sunflower oil, they’re still fried, some of the flavouring is still artificial and the salt and sugar is high on the ingredients list.

Part of entering Diet Rehab is about eliminating the foods without much nutritional value and replacing them with vitamin-filled, highly nutritious foods.  Diet Rehab is not about substituting my junk-food with low-fat or low-calories snacks.

I’m not saying that it is easy; it’s an on-going process with which I sometimes struggle. On Monday, I did a lot of running around and by the time I got home I was hungry and tired. The old me probably would have boiled some pasta, topped it with a jar of ready-made sauce, parmesan cheese, salt and thrown a few greens in a bowl. Since I no longer have those products (apart from my sea salt) in my cupboards, I had no choice but get my sorry self up and out of the house and over to the Depot to buy some carrots so that I could make another pot of Meghan’s Carrot-Ginger soup.  At the end of the day, I saved money (2lbs of carrots for $0.99! That’s about 10 carrots!)

Learning to eat well is better for me, for you…and my wallet.

Thanks to Noah’s for the pic