Sift Food Labels

Another story showing the absurd conflict of interest that exists around food policy and guidance in this country 😡

From 2011 - 2017 the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, who helps shape much of the food policy and recommendations in the U.S., received over $4M in donations from large food manufacturers. Companies who donated money include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Hershey, and Kellogg’s. Ya know, all the companies that make ultra-processed foods that are full of sugar and are major contributors to the rise of type 2 diabetes and obesity in this country.

In addition to these absurd donation amounts, in 2015 and 2016, the organization also held more than $1M worth of stock in PepsiCo, Nestle, and J.M. Smucker. These are not from index funds, they actively sought out and purchased stock in these companies.

There is a very obvious financial interest, conflict of interest if ya ask me, to create policy and guidelines that sell more ultra-processed foods 🤯

Someone please make it make sense 🤔

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/10/24/nutrition-academy-processed-food-company-donations/

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When I’m bringing my A game, I try and carve out an hour on Sundays to meal plan for the week ahead and today is one of those days 🙌🏽

This cauliflower gnocchi is definitely making it to this weeks recipe rotation. It’s a staple in our house - quick to make and nurtures our bodies ✅ The recipe is from and I’ve been making it for years.
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Making gnocchi from scratch is a bit intimidating for me and I don’t really have the time during the week so, instead I simplify the recipe and buy the frozen cauliflower gnocchi from . 🤫 nobody has to know.
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It takes about 20 minutes to throw this together and is packed with goodness...⠀
- canned coconut milk ⠀
- organic spinach⠀
- garlic ⠀
- tapioca flour⠀
- salt and pepper⠀
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That’s it 👊⠀
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Do you meal prep? If so, share your faves below.

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Friendly reminder: Stop counting calories. Start counting chemicals.

Not all calories are created equal and “Low Calorie”, “Low Fat”, and “Sugar Free” are almost always just marketing tricks to make us think something is “healthy” when, in fact, it typically just means more chemicals.⠀
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How many chemicals are used in our food production? Over 9,000 😱⠀
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We need and we DESERVE more transparency in food 💪

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This 🤯

In September 2022, the White House hosted a conference focused on nutrition, health, and hunger in America. There, a newly designed food pyramid was presented and these new guidelines tell us that…drumroll please…

Lucky Charms are healthier than steak 🤬

WHAT?!

Despite the absurdity, these studies shape people’s perception around nutrition and, the most unfortunate part of all of this, these new guidelines will most certainly inform the foods that are served to our kids in school.

Hopefully this gets more people asking the question, “are these recommendations truly for our benefit or are they for someone else’s?” 🤔

Source: https://www.goodranchers.com/blog/new-government-funded-foodpyramid-says-lucky-charms-are-healthier-than-steak

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Bromated Flour is a banned ingredient in many countries around the world - most of Europe, Canada, Brazil, China...you get the gist here. It’s a known carcinogen and has been linked to cancer so, really, it should be banned everywhere 😰

But, in the U.S., it has remained legal since it was first introduced in 1914 🤯

It’s so bad that in 2007 China pulled a batch of imported chips from grocery stores because it contained this ingredient and guess where the chips were manufactured - the good old USA 😩

If you want to learn more about what’s lurking in your pantry and be a more empowered shopper then give our mobile app a try 💪

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Do you ever find yourself feeling frustrated by how “expensive” it is to eat healthy? I totally get it, I’ve been there. But the more that I learn about the food industry, the more I think it’s critical that we reframe the way that we think about the cost of food.⠀
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For starters, Americans spend the LEAST amount of money on food when compared to just about every other developed country in the world.⠀
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How is food so much cheaper here?⠀
1. Mass production⠀
2. Minimal Regulation ⠀
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This leads to things like our cows being pumped with hormones so they produce more milk and our food being pumped with nasty preservatives making the shelf life longer than we care to know.⠀
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And it hasn’t always been this way. In the 1960’s the average American spent 17.5% of their income on food. TODAY IT’S 6.4% 🤯⠀
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In a time when the cost of everything else in the U.S. has gone up exponentially we really should be asking ourselves how it’s possible that food has gone down 🤔 ⠀

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The story of Sift Food Labels started long before we ever had an app in the app store. It started when this little nugget was the size of a coconut in my tummy 🤰

After a diagnosis of gestational diabetes I knew that I had to make a change. I decided to turn myself into a guinea pig so that I could learn, and ultimately avoid, foods that were spiking my glucose. Refined sugar was the primary culprit for me so I made the decision to stop eating it. This didn’t seem like something that should be hard, so I was surprised by how challenging it felt in the grocery aisles. I quickly learned that there are over 100 different words used for sugar on our food labels. This would not be as easy as I had expected. I was beyond frustrated.

This frustration eventually turned into a passion for helping others be more empowered in the grocery aisles and, eventually, Sift Food Labels was born.

PS - it feels like this photo was taken just yesterday, but this little baby is now a 9 year old who is almost as tall as I am 🤯

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People always ask me “is organic “worth” the price tag or is it just marketing? To me it’s 💯 worth it. The toxic load that our bodies are carrying is bigger than ever before so my approach is to limit toxins where I can… but that may not be the right answer for every family 🤷‍♀️

We’ve broken down what it means so you can decide if it’s worth it to you and your family 👉🏽

It’s very expensive and a lot of work for food producers to get the USDA organic label (shocker) which does typically mean higher prices at the grocery store. If you can’t justify the spend for organic at the store then local farmers markets are a great way to get organic without the price tag - many farms follow organic practices, but can’t justify the spend for the official label. I tend to be more lenient when shopping at my local farmers market and I love talking to farmers about their farming practices 👩‍🌾 🥕 🥬 🍎

So, what do you think? Is organic “worth it” to you?

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People always ask me “is organic “worth” the price tag or is it just marketing? To me it’s 💯 worth it. The toxic load that our bodies are carrying is bigger than ever before so my approach is to limit toxins where I can… but that may not be the right answer for every family 🤷‍♀️

We’ve broken down what it means so you can decide if it’s worth it to you and your family 👉🏽

It’s very expensive and a lot of work for food producers to get the USDA organic label (shocker) which does typically mean higher prices at the grocery store. If you can’t justify the spend for organic at the store then local farmers markets are a great way to get organic without the price tag - many farms follow organic practices, but can’t afford the cost for the official label. I tend to be more lenient when shopping at my local farmers market and I love talking to farmers about their farming practices 👩‍🌾 🥕 🥬 🍎

So, what do you think? Is organic “worth it” to you?

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New Year’s Resolution 💪 ❤️ 💪 ❤️ ⠀

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