Lifestyle Changes~ Pantry Clean Out

Dr. Oz recommends beginning your journey by eliminating the five main offenders from your pantry.  Thankfully for us, the majority of these are already gone from our cabinets.  (Here's the article on Dr. Oz)

~High Fructose Corn Syrup (We avoid corn syrup of all kinds).  This is nasty stuff.  I keep it out of my kids bodies because it affects their behavior and I know its not good for them. My one personal offender was soda (pop, coke, whatever).  I escaped that one with Lent this year, when I gave up soda.

~Hydrogenated Oils~ Since we are a Nourishing Traditions family, we've already switched to EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), real butter (grass fed preferred), and unrefined coconut oil.  We still use these fats in moderation.

~Sugar~ We are still working on this one, but have made drastic improvement.  We've switched to Sucanat when sugar is needed, otherwise we opt for honey or maple syrup.  We also use stevia or Sun Crystals (blend of sugar and stevia, 5 cals per pack).  My goal is to completely remove refined sugar.

~White foods~ (white flour, pasta, potatoes, white rice).  We already use whole wheat flour in addition to gluten free grains like almond and coconut flours and brown rice (though hubs is a hold out and requires white rice).  We do still eat pasta & potatoes.

~Enriched Flour~  Read labels... anything that says enriched needs to go.

I feel that this is a redundant list... sugar is white, so it goes with the white stuff.  Ditto enriched flour.

In addition, we are preservative free, artificial flavor and color free.  This can be tough if you use any packaged (ahem, frozen meals) foods.