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shayne's avatar

I'm a food label reader, and I buy European produced foods at Aldi. It's eye opening.

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Kate Finis's avatar

I also read food labels avidly - avoiding products with more than 5 ingredients or those with seed oils. But the best way to health via food is to eat foods that don't have labels! I.e., (organic, if possible) meats, eggs and produce.

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Wendy Lemmel's avatar

Buy organic from people you know eg CSAs. Too many commercial companies slap the label on foods that are not truly organic.

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George Burnet's avatar

"Organic" is what we used to call "food".

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Kathleen Janoski's avatar

I try to buy chocolate and cookies only from Europe.

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Susan Seas's avatar

We lived overseas for years and when we moved back my kids wouldn’t eat bread 😅 and I won’t touch American wax, I mean chocolate .

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RunningLogic's avatar

There are very good small craft chocolate makers here in the US but the mass produced stuff (except maybe Ghirardelli) is mostly crap.

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Robin Esau's avatar

The HU brand is so good, and void of garbage. Fairtrade + organic!

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RunningLogic's avatar

Yes! And there are many, many others! Castronovo, Dick Taylor, Amano, Letterpress, to name just a few…

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m cameron's avatar

I read it was listed as very high in heavy metals.

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RunningLogic's avatar

Was that from Consumer Reports?

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m cameron's avatar

Would you believe Consumer Reports?

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Robin Esau's avatar

😳

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Michele's avatar

High lead levels found int he HU brand

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Ripple's avatar

Equal Exchange chocolate rocks!

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shayne's avatar

Same. When I visit home... OMG, the bread is so delicious, and the cheese, I won't get started on the cheese...

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ViaVeritasVita's avatar

Can you not bake your own? Janie's Mill is a regen. ag. farm in Illinois, growing and stone-milling their (many and varied) grains. www.janiesmill.com

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shayne's avatar

How funny you should mention Janie's Mill. I buy wheat for my hens from this mill, have done now for about a year. I like their Organic Red Fife Heirloom wheat, it has high protein. I buy bulk Wheat Montana for my sour dough bread. I haven't bought store bread for about three years now. Cheers.

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Karmy's avatar

Shayne are you in Montana? I’m in SW Montana.

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shayne's avatar

No Karmy, I'm in NE Kansas.

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nancylee's avatar

and sunrise flour mill https://sunriseflourmill.com

which raises and grinds the same heritage wheats still grown in Europe which the US abandoned in the 40's.

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char's avatar

nancylee--There is still a concern since both wheat and corn pollinate in the air. Non organic could easily affect [infect] organic crops.

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ViaVeritasVita's avatar

Thanks NancyLee, I will investigate Sunrise flour mill. I have been lately baking with einkorn flour, grown, milled by Mennonite regent ag farmers in central Pa,. brought to me in Phila suburbs by my raw milk delivery truck.

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nancylee's avatar

LOLOL alas my raw milk truck only brings milk and delish cream

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Pelicanus's avatar

Wax. You're right! Hershey's bars taste like those wax lips we used to eat at Halloween.

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Tom's avatar

And don't get me started on "Fun Size."

It's supposed to be "fun" to get LESS candy?

I wasn't born yesterday.

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ViaVeritasVita's avatar

Right about the wax, IMO. Tastes like that to me. Family brings us lots of Lidl chocolate when visiting from UK

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Dorota's avatar

There is Lidl in USA, and there are products made in Europe.

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ViaVeritasVita's avatar

I know this. A Lidl not far from me. But cost (exchange rate being figured) is much greater. Tariffs perhaps?

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Tom's avatar

So you don't find paraffin delicious?

/sarc-off

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Leskunque Lepew's avatar

Fine & Raw chocolate. Check them out.

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Anita from Tucson - Now In MI's avatar

My favorite cookies are Walkers shortbread.

I can eat only one or two and be satisfied now.

I have bought them at Christmas, or right after when the clearance prices show up, and stocked up for the year, as the budget allows. And the cans are worth saving if you're in to that. :)

Yum.

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ViaVeritasVita's avatar

True Scottish shortbread: proportions of 4,2,1. Nothing else.

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Karen Bandy's avatar

When I ate wheat I made those all the time. Yummy, the buttery taste….

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Susan Clack's avatar

If you want to try making your own, here's a recipe ... Reminds me of "Biscuits With The Boss" from Ted Lasso ....

https://cravingsjournal.com/scottish-shortbread-cookies/

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Lynn46's avatar

Thank you for that. We love shortbread and usuaĺly buy from Cost Plus. I forwarded this to my daughter who is the baker in the family and bakes for everyone for the holidays.

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Anita from Tucson - Now In MI's avatar

Thank you!

I love the title with "better than Walkers" in parentheses.

:)

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SteelJ's avatar

Thanks for that tip. I eat mostly paleo, the non-mostly part sometimes includes cookies. My wife is gonna be on the lookout for Walkers. I'd love to find some where I'm happy with one or two!

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Anita from Tucson - Now In MI's avatar

Don't get me wrong, I can eat more than one or two, lol.

But I take supplements that should be eaten with food, and sometimes I just grab a couple Walkers cookies, and that keeps me from eating more when I'm not really hungry.

Occasionally, I eat FOUR at one time, lol.

But I buy the biggest tins with the most cookies (volume discount) and they last me longer than if I sit down with a smaller pack where I'd probably just eat the whole thing...

INGREDIENTS: wheat flour, butter, sugar, salt.

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Anita from Tucson - Now In MI's avatar

C&C could also be for coffee & cookies...

just saying, so.

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Maggie Think of Me's avatar

TJ Maxx, Marshall's, and Publix are just a few of the stores I know of that carry them..

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jewel's avatar

I found them at Krogers!

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Susan Clack's avatar

My family hosted a foreign exchange student from the Faroe Islands (way back in 1973!). She tasted our chocolate (must have been Hershey's!) and was NOT impressed! She felt bad for us, having to eat that nasty stuff!!

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Truthseeker's avatar

Everything made by Hershey’s now has ‘bioengineered ingredients’

Good luck even finding what that means….

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Kathleen Janoski's avatar

M&Ms also...I always used to have a small bag of peanut M&Ms to stave off hunger pangs...no more.

Bio-engineered ingredients now.

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CMCM's avatar

When I was in high school in the 1960's, I loved Crunch Bars. They're still around....I tried one a few months back and it was horrible, I threw it out after one bite. Maybe it was always that bad....

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Bailey's avatar

Bioengineered typically means GMO, but genetically modified organism sounds creepy & scary. In candies, it's the sweetener, mostly -- granulated sugar made from sugar beets, corn sweeteners, soy oils, canola, and of course all the artificial colors and "natural" flavors may be GMO origin. Note that CANE sugar, made from actual cane sugar plants hasn't gone GMO. Yet.

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Dorota's avatar

GMO

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Karen Bandy's avatar

Watch out for cadmium and lead. It’s in the soil all over the world. I’m simplifying but they can’t do anything about it.

There’s a list, google it. Ghiradell’s 86% is on the current sorta ok list. It’s not great tasting nor does it have great texture. 😢

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char's avatar

Karen. Want to read about testing of chocolates. mamavation.com

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Karen Bandy's avatar

Thanks!

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Leskunque Lepew's avatar

Fine & Raw chocolate.

They have a healthy Nutella product as well as other items

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shayne's avatar

Yes! Yummy.

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JCrutcher's avatar

Lol

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Leo's avatar

European sugar less harmful than American sugar?

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Kathleen Janoski's avatar

I never saw high fructose corn syrup on the ingredients of a European chocolate bar.

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Danielle's avatar

We don’t really have anything here in Australia with HFCS either.

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Leo's avatar
Oct 15Edited

No, me either. Just the regular sugar is sufficiently unhealthy.

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Kathleen Janoski's avatar

Of course...but chocolate would taste terrible without it.

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Leo's avatar

Do you know about Stevia? It sweetens nicely without the downsides of sugar.

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Bailey's avatar

Stevia doesn't need sugar's downsides -- it has plenty of its own. Not the least of which is that its sweet flavor triggers the body to flood insulin into the system ... which isn't needed to balance out what the body perceives as sugar. That insulin circulates, dropping the existing blood glucose level and thereby triggering hunger. Eat more, gain weight. Extra 200 calories a day, one cookie, means 10 pounds gained in a year

If you want something sweet, eat a real cookie. Or if you want to lose weight, try a sour pickle or try several pats of butter instead. Sugar cravings may actually signal a need for animal fats.

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Kathleen Janoski's avatar

Stevia has had its share of problems. It was originally banned by the FDA in the 1990s.

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Kathleen Janoski's avatar

I don't like the way it tastes.

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Dorota's avatar

Because they taste better, and are less sweet?

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Kathleen Janoski's avatar

More flavor...less nasty ingredients.

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Donna in MO's avatar

I am not most of the time, although I should be, except when I shop for my mom. She is allergic to red dye #40 and it's amazing how many products have that in there. Including a calcium supplement. It's a white pill!?

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Stacy's avatar

Yeah, but the right shade of white is crucial… 🙄

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Dorota's avatar

Buying pasta made in Italy means it's non GMO. Mexican made crackers as well.

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Kathleen Janoski's avatar

Trader Joe's pasta is made in Italy...it's the only kind I buy.

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