Pantry Check

For those of us in the US, Thanksgiving has kicked off the holiday season, and I absolutely love it! Decorating the tree, spending time with family, and obviously eating lots of delicious food. So as you’re restocking your pantry for the upcoming festivities, lets talk about what to keep and what to avoid! I did a little pantry inventory of a typical pantry, and pulled out some of the good and some of the bad.

The Good

You want to stock your pantry (and of course your fridge) with as many whole, real ingredients as possible, obviously. I like to keep mine full of quinoa, barley, beans, and other easy-to-store ingredients. But convenience food tends to slip in there as well. If I didn’t keep a few handy things on hand, like pasta and pasta sauce, then we’d be eating a lot more last minute dinners at Chipotle. So here are a few examples of things you might have in your pantry:

Whole grain pasta is one of the easiest things to keep, as it is cheap, easy to prepare, versatile, and doesn’t really go bad. I always have a box or two on hand. And naturally, it’s nice to have a jar of pasta sauce at the ready. While many of you might make your own pasta sauce, I find it helpful to have a jar around if I’m pressed for time. This jar of Prego doesn’t cost more than a couple of bucks, and the ingredients list is great! (Check ingredients lists on jarred pasta sauce. Many of them have high fructose corn syrup and/or tons of sodium!)

Obviously, I have to have snacks around. This bag of popcorn might not be the “healthiest” snack ever, but sometimes you have to eat something other than carrot sticks to satisfy a craving. This stuff is just three ingredients: corn, oil, & salt. While it might not be the most nutrient dense snack in the kitchen, it’s easy and delicious, and I know exactly what I’m eating.

The Bad

Now lets cover some of the not so great things you might have lurking in your pantry. You might not realize what types of ingredients packaged foods are slipping past you. Can we talk about high fructose corn syrup? You know it’s in soda, and often in things posing as “fruit juice” but you might not know it’s in hundreds of other packaged goods, and not just sweets. ALL of these items have high fructose corn syrup in there.

Seriously, why is there high fructose corn syrup in stuffing? Or crackers? What is happening? My point is, check the label! The sugary substance isn’t just hiding in sweets. And don’t even get me started on reduced fat peanut butter! If you’ve made peanut butter at home, you know that you really only need one ingredient: peanuts. And maybe salt. So why are we buying “reduced fat” peanut butter, where they’ve taken out the natural fat, and replaced it with high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils? Don’t be fooled on this one. Go natural. Now about those hydrogenated oils…

 

The Ugly

Trans fat. Maybe you’ve heard of it. But did you know that it can be hiding in all kinds of packaged food?

These days, it seems like anything that comes in a package could contain these. But the good news is, a lot of these things have better alternatives. For example, that microwave popcorn has a long, long list of ingredients, but that popcorn I mentioned in the first paragraph has a fraction of those. (Also, making your own popcorn on the stove is shockingly easy, and cheaper.) Most of this is just a matter of checking the ingredients list. Oh, and that chicken soup also contains high fructose corn syrup. YIKES!

While I absolutely understand the need to count calories if you’re trying to “get healthy” I want to encourage you not to lose sight of the ingredients! Whole ingredients are the way to go! It’s much more satisfying and much better for my body. I believe in “everything in moderation”… but I have a hard time justifying ingredients that are proven to be bad for my body.

What do you keep in your pantry?