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More Things to Know About Buying and Storing Food
Unlike packaged food, there are no "ingredient" labels on fresh fruit and vegetables. If you've decided to buy organic produce, how can you tell what you're really getting?
Fortunately, you can look at the labels on your fruit and vegetables for the answer. Those little stickers tell a story. The particular designation or "PLU Code" will tell you whether your produce was conventionally grown, organically grown or genetically engineered, even if the bin is unlabeled or mislabeled. The guide below explains how the numbers work, using broccoli as an example:
ORGANIC:
94060 |
Organic produce has a five-digit number beginning with a 9. Organic broccoli, for example, would be labeled with 94060. I recommend looking for and choosing organic whenever possible. |
CONVENTIONAL: 4060 |
Conventional produce has a four-digit number beginning with a 3 or 4. Therefore, the number on conventionally grown broccoli would be 4060. Choose organic when possible. |
GENETICALLY MODIFIED: 84060 |
Genetically engineered produce also has a five-digit number on the label and begins with an 8. The number on genetically altered broccoli would be 84060. Avoid! |
Where did I learn this stuff? Once again the good folks at Healthy Planet kindly allowed me to adapt and reprint information from their Healthy Shopping Survival Guide.
Speaking of other stuff to avoid, I think by now you already know to stay away from dietary trans fats. Mounting scientific evidence shows that consumption of saturated fat, trans fat, & dietary cholesterol raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad cholesterol," levels, which increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, over 12.5 million Americans have CHD, & more than 500,000 die each year. The following foods are those that the FDA says contain the most trans fats. Avoiding these foods will go a long way toward cutting your consumption of these harmful substances:
| |
Percent of Foods Containing Trans fats |
40% |
Cakes, Cookies, Crackers, Pies, Bread, etc. |
21% |
Animal Products |
17% |
Margarine |
8% |
Fried Potatoes |
5% |
Potato/Corn Chips, Popcorn |
4% |
Household Shortening |
3% |
Salad Dressing |
1% |
Breakfast Cereal |
1% |
Candy |
Data based on FDA's economic analysis for the final transfatty acid labeling rule, "Trans Fatty Acids in Nutrition Labeling, Nutrient Content Claims, and Health Claims" (July 11, 2003)
To cut way down on harmful trans fats, read labels. If you see ingredients like "partially hydrogenated," "hydrogenated" or "shortening," that's your first tip-off. Also cut back on commercial baked goods (cookies, pie, donuts, etc.), buy the right kind of margarine, and eat fewer fried foods.
HFCS
You also know to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), right? Fortunately, HFCS is relatively easy to spot. It's right there on the label, usually pretty high up on the list of ingredients, meaning there's a whole lot of it in your food or beverage. Do yourself a big favor and steer clear of that nasty stuff.
What to Keep it In?
One last thing to mention: choosing safer containers for your food. Unsafe ones can expose you to toxic chemicals and even synthetic hormones. Want to know something scary? Less than half of the over 80,000 chemicals mass-produced today have yet to be tested to assess toxicity. Even less have been assessed for impact on growing bodies, and virtually none have been tested for synergistic effects when combined with other chemicals. It is up to us to avoid exposure whenever possible. One way to protect ourselves is to avoid certain plastics containing estrogen-mimicking chemicals that may leech into your water and food. Each plastic container is marked with a number from 1 to 7, which indicates the kind of plastic used. Look for the following symbols on your food or beverage bottles and follow the rules below:
A word about Healthy Planet
Healthy Planet is a mostly-volunteer group whose mission is to promote food choices and lifestyles that respect our bodies and our shared environment. The organization educates people about the deep connection among all life on Earth, and the powerful effect our everyday choices can have on creating a cleaner, healthier and more compassionate world. Their community programs include a Healthy School Lunch Program; a popular, long-running Dinner/Lecture Series: "The Healthy Planet Radio Show"; restaurant outings and more. Healthy Planet teaches people of all ages that many of the world's most daunting health, environmental and social problems have their solution in what we choose to eat three times a day.
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