Letter from The Publisher

As I was reading the informative articles on nutrition in this issue, my mind kept wandering to the topic of ingredient checking. I have looked at the ingredients on every box, bottle and package I’ve picked up at the store since I can remember, and all I can say is, wow, have things changed over the years.

Back in the day, cereals like Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies didn’t have any sugar, and we actually added sugar if we so desired. Now, those two cereals, and almost every other cereal, come with refined sugar (or high-fructose corn syrup) added already. On top of that, when I used to eat corn flakes I wasn’t worried that the corn was genetically modified—I didn’t even know what that was!

I have never used a lot of bottled condiments, but items like ketchup and chili sauce are two that I use from time to time. They used to be pretty basic, with no bad ingredients to speak of. Not so anymore! I don’t know when they started sneaking in “our friend” high-fructose corn syrup, but it came as a shock to me one day when I tasted the chili sauce and thought, “Hmmm, that tastes sickly sweet,” and when I looked at the ingredients, there it was… The good news is that some of the health food stores have ketchup and chili brands that are quite tasty, so I don’t have to abandon my favorites entirely.

And my favorite crazy ingredient example of all time, table salt. Before I started using Himalayan sea salt, I still used a little regular table salt. One day, I was casually looking at the ingredients on the box; I mean, what would be in table salt besides salt? I had to take a closer look to make sure my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, but there it was, sugar listed as an ingredient in my table salt!

What I’ve learned is that we have to be vigilant about checking ingredients, as they seem to change on a regular basis. It’s not sufficient to check once and deem a product okay; it needs to be checked periodically to make sure they haven’t snuck a not-so-nice ingredient into the mix. And even if we shop at healthier stores, they too can have products with some unhealthy ingredients when you get down to the fine print—which, by the way, gets finer as I get older!

I hope you enjoy this issue of Natural Awakenings!

Tracy