Health Food

There are loads of reasons to eat health food. You know, the kind of stuff that costs twice or more than twice what the regular brand costs, and has names like BeautyEats and GreenYummies. Health food chips are the weird colored ones--they might be orange or purple instead of the usual light yellow or white. And the health food granola bars have little pieces of stuff in them. You know the food I'm talking about.

The health food companies will tell you that if you eat their food, you will have more energy, have prettier skin and hair, grow faster (if you're still a kid), grow thinner (if you're an adult), have a stronger heart, cleaner blood, breathe better...the claims go on and on.

But I will tell you the number one reason I like health food--the ingredients are easier to understand. Here are the ingredients for a popular flavored chip--the non-health food brand:

WHOLE CORN, VEGETABLE OIL (CORN, SUNFLOWER, AND/OR SOYBEAN OIL), CORN MALTODEXTRIN, SALT, WHEY, NATURAL FLAVORS, SODIUM DIACETATE, JALAPENO PEPPER POWDER, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, DEXTROSE, SUGAR, CREAM, BUTTER (CREAM, SALT), CORN STARCH, ONION POWDER, SPICES, CANOLA OIL, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, SOUR CREAM (CULTURED CREAM, NONFAT MILK), CHEDDAR CHEESE (MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES), ARTIFICIAL COLOR (INCLUDING: YELLOW 6 LAKE, YELLOW 6, YELLOW 5, RED 40, BLUE 1), SWISS CHEESE (MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES), COLBY CHEESE (MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES), PAPRIKA EXTRACT, MONTEREY JACK CHEESE (MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES), AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS. 

And these are the ingredients for a similar chip--but it's the health food version:

Organic blue corn, expeller pressed canola oil and/or safflower oil and/or sunflower oil, seasoning (dextrose, sea salt, spices [red pepper, white pepper, black pepper], torula yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, autolyzed yeast, tomato powder, extractives of paprika).

You tell me, which one would you rather have your 9 year old read when she's deciding whether or not she's allergic to eat? 

Health food companies can keep their skinny bodies and healthy hair--I just want the simple words on the package, so it's simple to see if their health food is healthy for my Sophie.