Foodie Resolutions for 2013

I don’t know about you, but I love starting the year fresh, wiping the slate clean and setting goals that motivate me into the new year. This year my resolution is simple and easy: knowledge of food ingredients. Rather than focusing on the calories or fat contents of food, I am going to first look at the ingredient label and see what I am about to consume.

Have you ever seen an ingredient list? It starts with the basics: flour, sugar, eggs… ingredients we all know. Then you start to see ingredients like Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Ascorbate, and High Fructose Corn Syrup. You may not have paid much attention to these ingredients, due to their confusing names. But all of those ingredients listed are common ingredients derived from GMO (genetically modified organisms) risk crops. Without getting too scientific, the easiest explanation (courtesy of The Non-GMO Project) is “GMOs are plants or animals created through the gene splicing techniques of biotechnology (also called genetic engineering, or GE). This experimental technology merges DNA from different species, creating unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding. Most developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe. In nearly 50 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs.” So why does the FDA approve them? Well, that’s is an entirely different debate that I won’t get into right now, but for more information, check out The Non-GMO Project.

The simplest solution is to eat foods in their most whole form. Okay, so you don’t want to give up some of your favorite snacks. Here are two questions to ask yourself when reading the ingredients:

1. Could a third grader pronounce all the ingredients listed?
2. Would your grandmother have been able to find that ingredient when she was making the family dinner?

If not, maybe you should think twice. I found a great app for your phone called Fooducate. You scan the bar code on the box of your favorite cookies and it gives you a health rating, as well as an alert, if there are GMOs in the product.

The idea that knowledge is power is simple and true. We must eat; food fuels our bodies and keeps us going. So why not make a resolution for 2013 to be a little more conscientious of what we are eating?

What’s your foodie resolution for 2013? Share your thoughts here.