Food and Drink

Some would call me a fanatic when it comes to reading food labels. So, when we started living in Uruguay, one of the first things I did was read the labels of everything at the grocery store that we would normally buy. I was in for quite a surprise (some good; some bad)!

Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, sucralose, fluoride, partially hydrogenated oils (aka trans fat) and more… I try to be conscious of what our family puts into our bodies, and these are things we try to avoid whenever possible (well, except for the sugar; we try to minimize it but sometimes you just need dessert!).

If you don’t know a lot about food additives, I’ll give you a brief overview of some of the key ones, but I highly suggest doing a little research on your own.

High fructose corn syrup… it’s made from corn, so it must be healthy, right? Well, that’s what the ads the Corn Refiners Association in the US has put out are saying, but if you do a little research, you’ll find quite the opposite. High fructose corn syrup is made by changing the glucose molecules in corn starch to fructose. It’s a very cheap, man-made sweetener that has replaced sugar in most processed foods and beverages in the US. It has almost an indefinite shelf life and serves as a great food preservative, which has also made it appealing to food manufacturers. Unfortunately, the health concerns aren’t widely publicized thanks to the US corn industry.

Our bodies don’t know how to handle this man made compound, so it’s stored as fat rather than broken down as energy. And, because our bodies don’t know how to process it, our brains don’t get the signal that we’re full. So we just keep eating and eating, or drinking and drinking those cokes. That’s why you see people in the US drinking multiple Super Big Gulps full of Coke each day. Their bodies just don’t understand how many calories they’re consuming. Add to that concerns over genetically modified corn and recent studies that have shown mercury contamination in high fructose corn syrup, and it’s enough to make me run for the hills.

Artificial sweeteners… A lot of people have turned to diet foods and drinks containing artifice sweeteners because of the reduced calorie content. Recent studies have shown that people who consume artificial sweeteners actually gain more weight than those consuming sugar. This could be because these artificial sweeteners mess with your body’s ability to monitor your calorie intake, so you end up overeating. Why risk consuming these carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds when they aren’t even helping you lose weight? I’m only scratching the surface here, but do a little research and you’ll probably want to put down that Diet Coke.

Hydrogenated/ partially hydrogenated oils (aka trans fats)… Trans fats are made when you heat oil and pass hydrogen through it. The fatty acids in the oil acquire some of the hydrogen, making it denser. If you fully hydrogenate the oil, you get a solid. But if you stop part way through the process, you get a semi-solid “partially hydrogenated oil” with a consistency similar to butter… only it’s much cheaper to produce and extends the storage life of the foods it’s used in.

Due to its low cost and “buttery” consistency, food companies often use it as a substitute for oil or butter. If you read nutrition labels, you’ll find it in many foods like doughnuts, cookies, pastries, crackers and more. Some restaurants fry food in it as well. What makes it bad? Trans fat is known to increase blood levels of “bad” cholesterol, while lowering levels of “good” cholesterol. It can cause major clogging of arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems, and was found to increase the risk of heart disease. Again, this is just scratching the surface of an in-depth subject.

Fluoride… This is one topic where there is always serious debate. We’ve been taught that fluoride is necessary for dental health, so we should use fluoride toothpaste, drink the fluoridated water in our communities, etc. I’m still studying fluoride, but I have concluded based on my research that it is toxic and I don’t want it in my family’s food or water supply.

A great website I’ve found on the topic of fluoride is http://www.fluoridedebate.com. Just this one passage alone from the site should make you want to do more research before consuming fluoride: “The chemicals used to fluoridate 90% of water fluoridated in the US are not pharmaceutical grade. Instead, they come from the wet scrubbing systems of the superphosphate fertilizer industry. These chemicals are either hexafluorosilicic acid or its sodium salt. They are contaminated with toxic metals and trace amounts of radioactive isotopes. In other words, the public water supply is being used as a vehicle for hazardous waste management! By law, this waste cannot be dumped into the sea but the EPA allows it to be diluted down with our public drinking water.”

So, now that I’ve given you a little bit of background on some of the key food additives to be aware of (no matter which country you live in), I’ll share a few of the discoveries we made when reading the food labels in Uruguay:

Fruit Juice
In the US, it’s quite easy to find 100%, not from concentrate fruit juice with no additives, even at a normal supermarket. In Uruguay, we have to make our own (which is fine since produce here is so good and inexpensive). Whether it’s sugar, high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners like aspartame, you’re guaranteed to find at least one of these additives in almost every carton of juice you buy (juice is sold in cartons here).

I have only found one brand of apple juice (and only their apple juice), Conaprole, that doesn’t have any of these additives. But, it is from concentrate and when you pour it out of the carton, it just doesn’t feel “natural.” The color is off (I think it must be colored even though the package doesn’t say it) and it doesn’t taste the same as the apple juice we used to buy in the US.

So, one idea we got from a restaurant we ate at one time was to put some shredded apple in a blender with some water. Put it in a cup with a straw and Zoë loves it. We also cook down pears when they start to get over ripe into a pear sauce. Add a little cinnamon and it’s the perfect treat. We also like to buy a few kilos of oranges each week at the feria to make fresh squeezed orange juice.

Soda
Living in San Diego, we always enjoyed the fact that we had access to “Mexican Coke” at several of the taco shops. If you’re not aware, the US is one of the few countries in the world that use high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener in soda (rather than sugar; although you can get “all natural” sodas sweetened with sugar or cane juice).

Whenever we’d go pick up a burrito down the street at Rudy’s Taco Shop in San Diego, we’d also get a couple of “Mexican Cokes.” So, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the sodas in Uruguay are also sweetened with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. It tastes better and it’s one of the few times you’ll hear me say that sugar is the healthy alternative ☺

Another thing to note with soda is that there isn’t the variety of choices in Uruguay that there are in the US. You have the basics: Coca-Cola (people don’t call it Coke here), Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke in the US), Coca-Cola Zero, 7-Up, Sprite, Orange Fanta and occa
sionally you’ll find a restaurant that serves Pepsi. There’s not much to choose from, and I’d say out of these choices, the majority of the time, I see people with Coca-Cola Light (and yes, it has artificial sweeteners in it so I haven’t tried it).

Salt
Another one that surprised me was table salt. First, we can’t find sea salt in Uruguay, which is what we used in the States (although we did hear that one couple found it at some obscure shop, but it did have additives so it’s not what we’re used to using). We like sea salt because it’s natural and you can buy it unprocessed with no food additives. Plus, it just makes food taste better.

Second, the table salt you do find  in Uruguay has iodine in it (same as the US) as well as fluoride in it. I don’t mind the iodine so much, but I wasn’t happy about the fluoride. I did finally find one brand of salt without fluoride at the Disco Natural (supermarket) at Punta Carretas Shopping… Urusal. It’s a small plastic bag with a picture of a whale on it. So, that’s what we’ll be using until Brian picks some sea salt up in the States this weekend.

Gatorade
After realizing that soda is sweetened with sugar, I was eager to read the label on Gatorade hoping I’d find that it is also sweetened with sugar. Unfortunately, the ingredients of Gatorade are the same as in the US… it’s still made with high fructose corn syrup ☹

Ketchup
Ketchup in Uruguay is also made with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. Except Heinz, which is imported from the US and is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that until I had already bought it. I’ll have to pick up another brand next time.

Cookies and Crackers
Read the packages carefully. You’ll find not only sugar, but also high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated/ partially hydrogenated oils in many products. This isn’t much different than in the US, but it’s something to be aware of nonetheless.

Basically, the moral of the story is: make everything you can from scratch. Fresh ingredients are so inexpensive in Uruguay compared to the US; there’s really no excuse to buy packaged, processed foods filled with harmful additives.