As with many people, I began the year with the intention on eating healthier and also working on our food budget. I’m not sure what possessed me to tackle two major things at once, but I felt they went hand-in-hand really. Towards the end of last year, we not only let our daily eating habits take a giant slide backwards (thanks holiday foods), but we also let ourselves get overwhelmed with stuff and we ended up either eating out a lot or ordering take-out a lot because we hadn’t pre-planned our meals. This not only added up in extra pounds for us, but also in extra money out the door. I wanted to get a handle on both these things as quickly as possible.

It honestly hasn’t been as difficult a change as I thought it’d be. Once a week, prior to grocery shopping day, we pick out some recipes for meals and snacks that we’d like for the upcoming week. Since I like to be pretty organized with grocery shopping, I then break the recipes down and create a grocery list from it. This also helps me to not forget anything, and on a more positive note it help me stick to only what we need to buy and not randomly wander through the store making impulse purchases. (Can you tell I’ve done that once or twice before?) Since I’m also on the quest for saving money and budgeting, I like to check out different brands and their price-points. This is where I found one day that not all things that area labeled the same are made equally!

One of the items on my list that day was vegetable broth. You figure this type of thing would be made the same across brands right? I mean, it’s pretty much just vegetables cooked in water for a long time if you really want to get down to it, with maybe some seasoning thrown in. WRONG! I was looking at different organic brands and what caught my attention at first was the price points; Pacific was the highest, going for 2 for $7,  followed by Emeril’s Organic 2 for $5 and Cento Organic 2 for $4. Now, the penny pincher in me wanted to go for the 2 for $4 Cento Organic, however something told me to look at the ingredients first and I’m so glad I did!                                           

I was pretty shocked by what I saw in the ingredient list on both the Cento Organic and the Emeril’s Organic: CANE SUGAR!!! Why do you need sugar in your vegetable broth?! Yes, it may have been organic cane sugar but come on people, vegetable broth doesn’t need added sugar to it!  So I opted for the Pacific Brand since it was the one without cane sugar and truly just vegetable stock. This time I was okay with paying a little bit more and not consuming extra sugar in something that truly doesn’t need it.

I share this story with you because I know many of you are trying to eat healthier and to reduce certain things in your daily diets. We’ve all been told we should read labels of all packaged foods, but I know it can be daunting, tough and so time consuming at times. However, you really should because I learned we can all easily be tricked as this little enlightening moment of mine showed me. Even though all 3 brands were labeled as organic (which we all trust is healthier), two of them still had added sugar in them. It’s true when we hear that sugar is added in to so many things, and just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it’s okay. I’m by no means saying you need to buy all things organic (in all honesty, I don’t…I pick and choose certain food items to buy organic) but please, please start reading your labels of packaged food…you’ll be shocked to see what you find you’re really consuming and didn’t think you were!

-Dr Jen