Label Reading 101

One of Carter's "homework" assignments this week is finding two items (food, personal products, whatever) to bring in for a label-reading project -- "We're checking for nutrition and chemicals and stuff."

I'm not sure I will like where this is going. First he was reading the plastic water bottle "recycling numbers" last night and was ready to throw out our fancy one because it had some number Carter deemed to be dangerous for us.

What if he starts getting nosy and starts looking at my Diet Coke can?? He'll be like, "Mom, do you know what aspartame and phenylalanine (and he'll be able to pronounce it) are doing to you?" I'll be like, "Yes, I know, but it keeps me awake a work."

Not a good answer. Bad mommy.

I will say I do read labels a lot. Seriously, I mostly am looking at the calories and fat content. Doesn't mean I won't buy the product (I mean, some are worth it), but it's good to know what the truly healthy options are out there.

I remember when my dad had just gotten out of the hospital after a heart procedure. He'd also learned he has diabetes. So here I am shopping for healthy food for him and I was shocked when I was reading the labels for "healthy" soup. Ohmigosh, there is so much sodium in one can! Shopping was a quite a challenge, but as usual, you can't go wrong (unless Carter learns differently) with fruits and vegetables.

At our house, we've pretty much cut out salt as much as we can from our diets. I mean it's probably hidden in food, but I don't add it to anything. We're big fans of pepper, though, and other spices that aren't sodium-based. I came across a mention of this one recently in an article.

Cardamom: One of the most popular spices in the world, cardamom is used around the globe in both sweet and savory dishes. For an entirely new taste, try mixing a little bit into your ground coffee!

I think I might try it because the name sounds like "carter-mom" doesn't it? Then it has to be healthy. And sweet, too! But that goes without saying...