My husband does the grocery shopping in our house for a few reasons, the main one being because I can spend almost twice as much as he does! While we both end up getting things that are not on my list, my things are usually fairly expensive health foods to try, and of course, wine. His unlisted items consist of the 3/$5 bags of chips, to which he usually feels the need to purchase all 3 bags.

So, I send him to the store with a list and a child, and back he comes with the ingredients I need. He will typically call me 5 times within that hour questioning something, telling me he can’t find another, or asking why we need something else. This week, one of the items on my list was Fat Free Vanilla Soy Milk. I liked this milk so much last week in my coffee and in the Bulgur Buckwheat Pancakes, that I thought I’d have him purchase it again. I did the shopping last week, and only bought a small one, because I had never tried it before. I should have read the label, because I was shocked this morning when I read the label for the fat free version. ( I know I didn’t buy fat free last week because it made my coffee a different color). Anyway, have a look…

Here’s a link to 8th Continent Soymilk, should you want to check out their other products. I’m pretty sure I got the regular (full fat) Vanilla last week.

My point? I was mislead. I was thinking…”mmm Soy Milk. I need to put soy in my diet, I love vanilla flavor, how could this be bad“? Well, let me take a second to point out why I was so shocked this morning. The second ingredient on the list is SUGAR! The third ingredient is fructose, which is a fancy way of saying sugar that is found food. I thought I’d check out the website to see if the sugar was just so abundant in the flavored varieties… nope. It’s the second ingredient in all but the full-fat chocolate, in which case fructose is second, and sugar is third.

Last month, I purchased General Mill’s Whole Grain Total Cereal. I was happy with my purchase because I spent the time to look at the label. Only 100 calories per serving. I wished a serving size was one full cup, instead of 3/4 of a cup, but ‘Oh Well’. I was happy I was going to be getting “100% Daily Value of 12 vitamins & minerals”, “Fiber” and “100% Whole Grain”. I failed to read the entire label, though.

Guess what the SECOND ingredient is? SUGAR! When I started The Rule of Three Diet, I went through my pantry to get rid of all the temptations. I checked out this label one day and was shocked. How could I rightfully feed myself or my family a bowl full of whole grain wheat (the #1 ingredient) with all kinds of sugar, corn syrup (#3 ingredient) and vitamins sprinkled on top? No thank you, I’ll take that multivitamin and a bowl full of Steel Cut Oats, please.

So, check your labels! Not just part of a label, either. Read the whole thing. Serving size, Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and the Ingredients. If sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or anything ending in ‘ose’ are in the top 5 in the list, think twice before purchasing the item. Do you really want that in your body? Would you feed it to a toddler? If your answer is no, why would you feed it to yourself? (Of course this does not apply to wine.)

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Article tags: bulgur buckwheat pancakes, general mills, Rule of Three Diet, soy milk, total cereal

Posted: September 17th, 2007 under Food Information.
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