Clean Out Your Pantry

Posted on by Legras Family

Why cleaning out your pantry can help you lose weight.

This might sound ‘Oh you want me to clean out my pantry to get rid of all the sweet biscuits & snack foods’ and yes that is one way to help you lose weight. The real reason I want you to clean out your pantry is to educate you to always look at your ingredients list before you buy something. Why you may ask? Because in so many of our processed foods there are ingredients that are simply bad for us, for some they may have little to no impact in the short term but for others they can have significant affects immediately and, in the long term it’s almost guaranteed to affect your health as they build up as toxins in your body causing inflammation, weight gain and diseases. All things we can avoid if we eat healthy.

As many of you would know I’ve become a little (a lot) obsessed about what I am putting into my and my family’s bodies, and I have been on (and still am) a learning journey. What I do know is, when I remove certain ingredients from my diet, my body has extremely positive reactions, JC has experienced this as well. It is not just through weight loss, but we have noticed that joint pain disappears, sleeping improves, no night sweats and a clearer mind.

This is what I suggest you do if you really want to change your eating habits. Start with one shelf at a time, pull out everything from the shelf.  Look at the items you’ve pulled out. Now before you put each item back, look at the ingredients list. If it has any of the following numbers or ingredients then put it to one side;

  • Colours 102 107 110 120 122-129 132 142 150 151 155 160B.
  • Preservatives: Sorbates 200-203, Benzoates 210-213, Sulphites 220-228 Nitrates, nitrites 249-252 their role is to preserve but they are considered toxic and carcinogenic, Proprionates 280-283
  • Antioxidants 310-312, TBHQ BHA BHT 319-321
  • Flavour Enhancers 620-625, 627 631 635, additives that are disguised in many foods but always contain 62, Hydrolysed vegetable protein– contains between 30-60% MSG, Hydrolysed plant protein, Plant protein extrac, Calcium caseinate and sodium caseinate, Autolysed years, Hydrolysed protein, Potassium glutamate, Yeast extract, Textured protein or TVP, Anything hydrolysed
  • Artificial Sweeteners 951 Aspartame is the most complained about food additive. Linked to many health problems including cancer, asthma, depression, hyperactivity and seizures., More artificial Sweeteners and other Sweeteners (linked to cancer and other disorders), 952 954 955 965 966 967 958 951, High Fructose Syrup, Corn syrup
  • Soy Protein Isolate found in most high protein foods, like protein bars and protein powders, Textured Vegetable Protein TVP, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil and Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil – due to trans fats and processing to create an oil that doesn’t go rancid, Margarine (beware the new 1% trans fat, they are substituting it with saturated fat, up to 30%)
  • Vegetable Oils like corn, canola, soy and sunflower (which are used in ‘vegetable’ oils),  are alien to human physiology and toxic to our bodies.

Now it’s up to you to decide, do I keep it? Or get rid of it?  Keep it and use it till its finished and don’t buy again, give it away to a friend or charity if unopened or bin it!

Now I don’t like wasting food, it makes me angry.  So on occasions when JC or the kids bring something home, we’ll eat it, particularly if it’s a refrigerator item.  Or you can give it to the food bins at your local market, the funny thing is, I have a bit of guilt about giving it away, as that means I’m just passing ill health on to others!

I could go on and on and on about this, I have to confess we are not perfect, but we are improving our healthy eating at home, eating out is a whole other article for another day. If you’d like to know more though, the team and I are more than happy to have a chat with you about it.  Recently I caught up with one of our lovely clients for a coffee to do just that, because I believe we can’t educate everyone at once but I can help one person at a time and hopefully the word spreads and we all become fitter, healthier and happier!