Community Profile

This community will help you rid your diet of preservatives, additives, hormones, and other chemicals that are found in commercially made foods, specifically SULFITES (a very common preservative that can have a very dangerous effect on a lot of people). This community is about eating home made foods from base ingredients. Years ago because there was no commercial food industry our bodies functioned on home made foods. I do not believe our bodies were ever meant to ingest a lot of the chemicals we now eat and I think that everyone would be a lot healthier and at their good weight if they didn't eat commercially produced foods.

Remember that there is no preaching here...if you just can't give up (or just plain don't want to give up) a chocolate bar or bag of chips everyday or that burger from a fast food chain, then don't. Even if you only change half of the foods you eat your body will still benefit and you will feel the difference. Though if you suffer from preservative intolerances like I do you might be like me and deny yourself that burger because you don't want to be sick...but it is a choice that you need to make.

I originally decided to set this journal up as a food journal to help keep track of my own progress. I realized though that there may be others who are interested as well and so I made it a community. This community welcomes all, whether you are underweight, overweight, perfectly weighted but not healthy, or already healthy but wanting to make a change, everyone is welcome.

There is a lot of info on this page so make sure you scroll down and look at it all :o)



Here is a little info about me:

I am 23 years old and have been sick my whole life (underweight, fatiqued, and just general not in good shape). At 21 we discovered I have a sensitivity to a group of preservatives called "sulfites". A year and a half later, after cutting out foods labelled as containing sulfites I was still sick and severely underweight. I did a lot of research and discovered that sulfites do not need to be labelled if they are contained in small amounts. I continued researching and discovered that sulfites are in practically every commercially made food product and also occur naturally in some foods. I decided to go onto a 100% home made diet. In my 4th week (the week I set this up) I had gained 10 lbs and have more energy than I have ever had in my entire life. At the beginning of March '04 (my 8th week) I discovered a way of eating called raw foods and have found it considerably easier to eat preservative free consuming only raw foods. If you're interested in this way of eating scroll down to the recommended links.



Tips for changing your diet:

I have an extremely high sensitivity to sulfites and msg so I have completely eliminated them from my diet. You may find that you can eat some of the foods that contain sulfites in low levels without problems, just pay attention to your own body and listen to the signals.

If you are the type that is all or nothing (like I am) then you will probably pick a day and from that day on your diet will be changed. Do not be discouraged if you get sick immediately following your change. A lot of people experience a "detox" effect when eliminating their body of chemicals, hormones, and additives.

Be honest with yourself...if you are not the type who sticks with radical changes, don't try to do that with your diet otherwise you will not stick with it and everything you have done will have gone to waste. Even though I do usually work best via radical change I also had to learn to cook in order to change my diet. This meant that cooking took a LOT of time and I did not have enough free time to completely home cook everything until I got faster at cooking. I started by cooking my big meals from scratch but continued to buy store made granola bars, breakfast cereal, etc until I got faster at cooking.

I do recommend you either have a freezer or buy one, used ones are fine and you don't need a big one. This will make your life a lot easier because you can make pizza pops, soup stock, breads, dough, etc for use at a later date in big batches and this will help cut down time and make snack foods easier. If you don't have a freezer don't fret, you will just have to be more creative...



Weight Loss:

Let me just take a moment to say that I do not believe in "diets". I believe in healthy eating. Gaining/Loosing weight is scientific. If you take in a specific amount of calories you will maintain a specific amount of weight. If you want to loose weight you need to take in less calories than it would take to maintain your goal weight. If you want to gain weight you need to take in more calories than it would take to maintain your goal weight.

If you are trying to loose weight and you choose to move to a home made diet, do not worry about calories in oil, etc that you add to your foods. The simple fact that you are making your own foods are going to cut hundreds of calories from your diet. If you choose to move to a home made diet you WILL loose weight because your body will be so healthy and you will have so much energy. In this community there will be no talk of starving yourself or dieting unless when you say dieting you mean eating a healthy diet, not actually dieting and feeling guilty if you eat a cookie. Eat when you are hungry, just make sure you only eat foods you make yourself, and you will be healthy and healthy is the best way to loose weight!



Weight Gain:

I am including this section because I know how difficult it can be for people to find information about healthy weight gain. For years I tried to find info and all I could find was recommendations to drink cake mixes or information for guys who wanted to bulk up.

I am successfully gaining by following a healthy eating plan. I have always had a good appetite but could never gain. I am gaining now because my body is rid of all the things it can not process and so instead of working extra hard to expell the preservatives, etc, it is working just fine at processing the food I eat. With my increased energy has come increased mood and appetite.

It has taken me almost 2 months to perfect my diet so that it is not only healthy and well balanced but so that it helps me gain weight. There are 3 things I eat daily that I feel are integral to my weight gain:
1) A high calorie, and EXTREMELY healthy vegan breakfast shake. Click here for info on how I make it. I included the info on each item that goes into it so if you don't want quite so many calories you can change the proportions to suit your needs
2) 1 to 1.5 cups of trailmix each day. My trailmix is a mixture of nuts, dried fruits (becareful as many dried fruits contain sulfites, I bought a dehydrator and dry my own now), and vegan chocolate chips (watch the ingredients in your chocolate chips, vanillin is known to contain sulfites).
3) An avocado

All of these items are not only high in calories but are excellent sources of healthy fats. The shake is about 1100-1200 calories depending on the fruits I add, the trailmix is 800-1000 calories depending on how much I eat, and the avocado is another 200-300 depending on the type and size.

If you are trying to gain weight follow the food logs here. They are sporadic as I don't remember to do it all the time but it will give you an idea of what constitutes a healthy diet and help you see how many calories I am getting.



A word about water:

Whether you are underweight, overweight, or healthy chances are you are not consuming enough water. It is recommended to get 8-10 servings of water a day. Fruit juice counts as a serving of FRUIT not water. Fruit punch, lemonade, etc count as servings of water. Soups also count as servings of water. It really isn't that hard to get enough water as long as you pay attention. Chances are you will only need another 2 or 3 glasses a day. That sounds like a lot but if you put it in a bottle and sip on it all day long then it will be easy to get.

Water is important for a number of reasons. Do some research but here is some basic information for you. First, water helps your liver function. Without water your liver will not function at full capacity. Your liver is responsible for filtering out the crap and also helps in fat processing. If you are overweight, limiting your water intake can make you not loose weight even if you decrease your calories. Limiting your water will also make you tired and will help your skin look like crap. On the other hand drinking lots of water will help your body function to it's fullest capacity (and that is what this group is all about!) and it will also help control your apetite if you are prone to snacking on empty calorie foods (that is, instead of craving potatoe chips to fill the void in your tummy your body will not crave anything because it will be full of water and good foods).



Eat when you're hungry:

Obviously there are exceptions (like people who have extremely large appetites or health problems relating to appetite or loss of appetite) but the general consensus is that the three square meal rule is outdated and physiologically unhealthy -- it was likely invented as a means of convenience.

Ignoring those who are the exception, you should eat when you are hungry. If you feel hungry it is because your body needs nutrition. Your biggest meal of the day should actually be breakfast, not supper as has become the tradition. When you wake up and get ready it has been sometimes as many as 14 or 16 hours since you last ate, you NEED to replenish yourself. You also will function better if you are fully replenished in the morning before your brain and body have to start working hard at work or school.

I personally do this: I have a nutritionally dense high calorie shake for breakfast. This is quick and if I don't have time to drink the shake it goes in a bottle and I drink it on my way to work/school. Shakes are also great because you can adjust them for your weight goals. I want to gain weight so my shake is pretty filling (see above). If you wanted to loose weight you could use water and frozen veggies (you could add some milk to make it frothy or some nutritional yeast to thicken it). Then I go on my way with a whole ton of snacks (fruit, veggies, with dip, apple sauce, granola bar, cookies, etc). I eat all day long. Whenever I am hungry I eat. I believe that this is the healthiest way for my body (and many others) to function.




About this community:

This community contains recipes I have used, the foods I have made, the things I have discovered about sulfites, msg, and additives, and my daily intake of calories and vitamins.

I know there are many others out there who are underweight and constantly sick and maybe this community can help you. Even if your problem is not the same as mine (sulfites & msg) I do believe that if you are under/over weight, tired, or just looking for a change in the way you eat in order to get healthier the information here will help a lot.



How to use this community:

Ask questions, add it to your friends list so that you read it all the time, look at the memories (they are divided into recipes, questions, sulfite information, etc), share information that you find, and if you know anyone who might be interested recommend they check it out. I will be adding some of your posts to the memories but I will always add them as Friends Only for your own privacy if they are of a private nature (such as photos, etc), that means that only members of the group will know they exist.



The foods you will find here:

I want to make sure that you know one very very important thing. While organic foods are the best foods for your body, if you are sulfite sensitive there are some foods you will still NOT be able to eat, even if they are organic. The reason why is because sulfur is a naturally occurring element in soil and acts as a pesticide. It can be added to certified organic crops legally due to the fact that it is itself organic. Some foods will absorb this from the soil, grapes are by far the best example of this. Now when foods absorb sulfites from the ground it is lower levels than what you get otherwise so try around and see if you can handle the low sulfite levels before completely eliminating them from your diet.

I am vegetarian so you will see no meat recipes from me. If you are a meat eater this is okay but if you truly want to be healthy you will use meat as an addition to the meals and not as a meal itself, you will also buy certified organic and free range meats which means that the animals are free to roam around, are not pumped full of steroids, and eat only grains. If you do not do this you will be unwittingly consuming hormones, additives, and preservatives via the products that your meat consumed while it was alive. From what I have heard red meat is not good for you at all so if you are a meat eater you might want to stay away from the red meat but I encourage you to make an informed decision after doing your own research.

Cheese contains sulfites so you will see no cheese recipes. When you see recipes for cheese replacements keep in mind that it is not going to taste like cheese, but can be used the same way (such as over steamed brocolli or in a cream soup).

I do not eat eggs because they are very easy to replace in a recipe (check the memories for information on egg replacements). If you do use eggs instead of the replacements make sure you buy free range, certified organic eggs or else you run into the same problem described with meat above.

Animal milk is designed for baby animals. It was NOT designed for humans (baby or adult). For this reason I do not drink animal milk. It is a common misconception that you need milk. Milk has almost no natural nutrients (most are added during production) and the nutrients that are natural can easily be obtained via other foods. Also it is very hard to find organic, free range milk and when you do it is usually quite expensive. If you must have milk make sure you get organic, free range or again you are going to be consuming a lot of additives, hormones, preservatives, and other chemicals. When I have a recipe that calls for milk I use rice milk because Soy can contain sulfites and I don't want to take the chance. Also, I use a fortified rice milk which has the same nutrients added to it that milk has added to it...there is more about nutrients below. Remember that the flavor of the milk you are using (such as vanilla flavoured soy milk) will affect the final taste of your meals so keep this in mind when cooking.

Although I am vegetarian I do not buy meat substitutes. Some of the recipes I add here might say you can add tofu but usually if I want a meat substitute I will just make my own. The reason I do not do this is because as a commercially made food I can not garauntee that there are no sulfites in it...just because it is made from a vegetable does not mean it has no additives. Also soy and tofu have both been known to contain sulfites so it is a really touchy area.

All this being said if you have a recipe that contains these ingredients that you want to post, please go ahead!



Cost of food:

You might be wondering if this is going to be expensive to cook everything from scratch. Well the answer to that question really depends on how you eat. If you eat a lot of macaroni and cheese then yes, this is probably going to cost more. If, on the other hand, you eat a lot of frozen dinners, pizzas, salad dressings, dips, junk food, etc, this is probably going to be a hell of a lot cheaper.

At first it will be more expensive unless you already have cupboards full of ingredients. Because I didn't know how to cook before I started my home cooked diet it was expensive for me. I had to buy the base ingredients, the spices, the utensils even. But now my grocery bill is considerably less money because I basically just buy fruits, vegetables, flour, grains, milk, and oil/margarine/etc.

This decrease in cost has allowed me to significantly vary the foods I eat. I still spend the same amount on groceries because I've started buying more expensive fruits every week that I used to only buy every couple months as a treat. Strawberries, pinneapples, mangos...these are my treats now instead of chocolate bars and chips.



Eating out:

Personally, I am very careful when I eat out. I almost never order anything that is on the menu. But that is because I have a very severe sensitivity and I would rather eat blandly at a restaraunt and be healthy than eat something full of chemicals and feel sick.

If you are choosing to go onto a home made diet because you just want to be healthier but you haven't had problems with preservatives, hormones, additives, or chemicals then eat what you want. But either way I recommend you pay very close attention to the signals your body gives you and make the concious choice to be healthy even if it means a bit of inconvenience in what you can eat when dining out. Take note that this doesn't mean depriving yourself of chocolate or sweets...like I said before this isn't a diet community, this is a healthy eating community. When you are at home you can likely make healthy versions of every dip, sauce, spread, or sweet you can think of, but when you are at a restaraunt and you don't have control of the ingredients, just remember that they are probably using a lot of ingredients that contain preservatives, additives, and other chemicals.

If you do have a sensitivity to these things: Always find out if vegetables or fruits are washed or sprayed in anything but water (if they are then no veggies/fruit for you). Also make sure no spices are used in the production of your food. The easiest thing is to get a sandwhich made with whatever you want on it as long as it does not contain any of the bad foods listed below, ask the waiter/waitress to bring you the bag of bread so that you can double check the bread ingredients.

I always bring a tupperware container when I go to people's houses. They don't find it rude, they completely understand. Now if you are eating home made because you just want to be healthy and not because you have an actual problem with the food people might not understand but that is your call to make...I think if you explain to them they may think you are weird but accept it ;) As for us who have problems noone is going to expect you to eat their food if you may have a reaction to it. So I bring a tupperware container with supper in it and then I grill the cook on what went into the foods they made and I eat what I can of theirs. That way if there is nothing I can eat then I still have supper with me.

As a final word on this topic, always carry snacks with you. That way if you get really hungry you don't break down and buy chips or eat something that someone else has cooked that will make you sick.



Nutrient Information:

Remember you should get most of your nutrients from foods. Suppliments are okay but you should not be taking a suppliment for every single vitamin thinking that you are just as healthy as if you ignore the foods that contain those vitamins. They are called supliments for a reason...they are there to supliment the foods you eat, not replace them.

Read this message board post to learn a bit about Zinc, Iron, Vitamin D, and Omega 3 Fatty Acids.

Read this message board post to learn a bit about calcium.

It is a modern myth that vegetarians do not get enough protein. This myth began because meat contains a lot of protein and people figured if veggies aren't eating meat than they don't get as much protein as meat eaters. This is actually correct, the part that is wrong though is that meat eaters get WAY WAY too much protein. In fact most vegetarians get too much protein as well. You should get about 1.4-1.6g of protein each day for every kg you weigh (if you don't know the metric system just search google for a converter to figure it out in the english measuring system). If you are a very active person you can go as high as 1.7-1.9g of protein for each kg you weigh. If you actually pay attention to your protein intake you will find that you are getting more than you need. When I went to a nutritionist I was getting 2.2g/kg of body weight and I wasn't even trying to eat lots of protein. If you want to be healthy though please research protein because it's not just enough to get the proper amount of protein, you also need to get it from the right sources...just getting protein from meat or just getting it from nuts is not healthy, it needs to come from a variety of sources. You might wonder about these high protein diets that people are loosing weight on...yes you can loose weight on a high protein diet, because your body goes into a state of ketosis (basically it thinks it's dying), these diets are not healthy and this community is about healthy eating on a day to day basis, NOT about dieting.

Other things to remember is to watch your vitamin B12 intake, the easiest way to do this is to take a Vitamin B-50 complex. One thing that you will notice when you take this is that your appetite (for most people anyway) will increase. If you are overweight and this upsets you, do not fret...the reason your appetite increases is because your ability to process carbohydrates is related to vitamin B and when you increase your vitamin B intake your body does a better job at processing carbs. You will have more energy and burn carbs easier but in turn you will need to consume more food...you will probably not gain or loose due to this vitamin but the extra energy that you get from the increased ability to process carbs will help you have the motivation to complete your goals.

It is also worth noting that some people believe different blood types require different diets. I do not have any information about this because this community is not about diets, it is purely about healthy eating from home made foods and no foods are off limits unless they are commercially produced. If you are interested in learning about the blood type diets I encourage you to do your own research and then use this community to learn how to eat healthy foods that adhere to the foods you want to eat.



Book/Website/LJCommunity Recommendations:

Please check the memories for entries members have made regarding book and website recommendations. If you think a resource is important enough to mention below just contact me and ask me to add it. If you make a post recommending something please try to make your recommendation helpful with information about WHY you are recommending it.



Advertising LJ Communities:

Advertising other LiveJournal Communities is allowed and encouraged! But ONLY if it is health related (this includes food, exercise, etc) and only one advertisement allowed every two months. I want you to be able to share information with other members but lets not turn this into a spam board.



Other resources:

Please do not rely on this community to be healthy. I am not a doctor, I am just a person who was sick and am finding success and wanted to help by compiling my research for others who are interested. I do not garauntee the validity of any information I or anyone else posts and I encourage you to do your own research.
http://members.aol.com/nosulfites/
http://www.the-starshadow.com/Sulfites/sulfites_home.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sulfitesnomore/
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/vegan_recipes/
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl (nutritional information of foods)
http://www.vegsource.com
http://www.vegweb.com
http://www.rawfoodssupport.com
http://www.livingfoods.com



Ingredients that contain sulfites:

This is the list of sulfited ingredients that I have compiled. In the links above there are some other lists that I recommend you check out as well. These are just base ingredients...it goes without saying that any "Instant" foods like instant noodles or just add water pasta and sauce mixes are VERY BAD! Now don't forget that every person reactes differently to different items. You may find that many of these are alright and also that other things are not.


BAKERY AND GRAIN PRODUCTS:
Dough conditioners
Breading batters
Modified food starch
Cornmeal
Cornstarch
Hominy
Spinach Pasta
Some wheat pastas
Potato chips

PROTEIN PRODUCTS:
Infant Formula
Imported Sausages
Soy products
Textured Vegetable Protein
Tofu

BEVERAGES:
Beer
Cider
Wine
Wine coolers
"Filled" milk (milk enriched in fat content with vegetable oil)
Bottled lemon juice
Bottled lime juice
Dried citrus fruit beverages
Instant tea
many fruit juices (canned, bottled, or frozen)

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES:
Coconut
Coleslaw
Sauerkraut
Grapes
Raisins
Corn
Potatoes
Apricots
Mushrooms

FISH AND SHELFISH:
Clams
Crabs
Dried fish
Lobsters
Oysters
Scallops
Shrimp
Shellfish
Cod

SWEETS AND SUGARS:
Beet sugar
Corn sweetener
Honey
Gelatin
Pectin
Brown sugar
Powdered sugar
White sugar
Molasses
Syrup
Shredded coconut

MISC FOODS AND INGREDIENTS:
Caramel colour
Dried herbs & spices
Maltodextrin
Polydextrose
Corn Syrup
Flour
Cheese
Chives

PREPARED FOODS:
Frostings
Horseradish
Olives
Processed Cheese
Relishes
Salad Dressings
Vinegar (Rice Vinegar is okay)
Peppers (bottled, pickled, or canned)




Ingredients that contain corn:

Corn is a food that is high in sulfites and unfortunately corn is used to make a lot of other products so you have to be very careful if you are sensitive to the sulfites found in corn. Corn contains sulfites because it is sprayed when it is picked to prevent it from going back. Organic corn may also be sulfited because remember sulfur is allowed on organic products due to it being natural.

Artificial sweetener (may contain corn)
Blended sugar (sugaridextrose)
Confectioners sugar (contains cornstarch)
Corn syrup
Corn syrup solids
Corn sweetener (may just say sugar)
Crystaline fructose
Dextrose
Dextrin
Equal (contains cornstarch)
Fruit juice concentrate (may contain corn sugar)
Fructose (often made from corn)
Golden syrup (may contain corn)
High fructose corn syrup
Honey (may contain corn syrup)
Invert syrup or sugar
Maltose
Malt syrup
Mannitol
Polydextrose
Powdered sugar (contains cornstarch)
Sorbitol
Splenda
Sucrose (may be made from corn)
Sugar (may contain corn sugar)
Xanthan gum (corn sugar)
Xylitol (may be made from corn)

ADDITIVES:
Ascorbic acid (may be from corn)
Barley malt (may be mixed with corn)
Bleached flour
Calcium citrate (may be made from corn)
Calcium fumarate (may be made from corn)
Calcium gluconate (may be made from corn)
Calcium lactate (may be made from corn)
Calcium stearate (may be made from corn)
Caramel color
Citric acid (is usually corn)
Corn alcohol (may not say corn)
Corn extract
Corn flour
Cornmeal
Corn oil
Corn starch (any starch is suspect)
Distilled white Vinegar (may be corn or petroleum)
d-Gluconic acid
Enriched (may contain corn)
Enzymes (may not be listed on label)
Ethanol (may not be labeled)
Erythorbic acid (may be made from corn)
Flavorings (can contain corn)
Food starch
Fumaric acid (may be made from corn)
Glycerides
Glycerin (may be corn)
Gluconic acid
Glucono delta-lactone (may be made from corn)
Gluconate
Glucose
Glutamate
Gluten
Grits
Hydrolyzed corn
Hydrolyzed corn protein
Hominy
Iodized salt (cornstarch likely)
Lactic acid (may be made from corn)
Lecithin (may be made from corn)
Linoleic acid
Maize
Malic acid
Malt (any malt may contain corn)
Maltodextrin
Maltol
Modified corn starch
modified food starch
Mono & di-glycerides (may be from corn)
MSG (monosodium glutamate)
Olestra/Olean (made with unspecified sugar)
Partially hydrolyzed corn oil
Polydextrose
Polysorbates
Potassium citrate (may be made from corn)
Potassium fumarate
Potassium gluconate
Propylene glycol
Sodium fumarate
Sorbate
Sorbic acid
Sorbitan (any, may be made from corn)
Starch (may be made from corn)
Tocopherol (vitamin E)(may be made from corn)
Vanilla, vanilla extract (may contain corn)
Vegetable gums
Vegetable oil
Vegetable starch
Vegetable (on the label, can contain corn)
Vitamins (may be made from corn)
Vitamin C (may be from corn)
Vitamin E (may be made from corn)
Yeast (may contain corn)

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