With my 2010 sustainability goals in mind (eat real, seasonal food), I thought it would be a good idea to clean out my fridge and pantry. It’s a good thing to do every now and then anyway, and it’s such a good feeling when it is all neat and clean. This particular “kleanout” would be a symbolic adieu of my former, slightly unconscious, eater self and a salute to real food.
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Hellmann’s Low Fat Mayonnaise Dressing was the first to go. It was expired AND it had way too many suspect ingredients: water, modified corn starch, soybean oil, vinegar, HFCS, egg whites, salt, sugar, xanthan gum, lemon and lime peel fibers, colors added, lactic acid, (sodium benzoate, calcium disodium EDTA) used to protect quality, phosphoric acid, natural flavors. I read in a book recently that the only way to eat mayonnaise without all the additives is to make it yourself. I think I can live without mayo.
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I also bid farewell to the possibly expired lemon juice in a plastic lemon.
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In the freezer, I said bye-bye to Purely Decadent’s non-dairy frozen dessert. Going forward, if I’m going to have ice cream, it’s going to be the real deal made with cream, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla bean.
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Keebler’s Light, Flaky, Buttery… CLUB® Crackers was possibly the scariest item to get kicked out of the pantry: enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [vitamin B1], riboflavin [vitamin B2], folic acid), soybean oil with TBHQ for freshness, sugar, contains two percent or less of salt, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), HFCS, corn syrup, cornstarch, soy lecithin. What the heck is “TBHQ?” Here is an answer from askville:
The letters stand for Tertiary ButylHydroQuinone.
It’s a chemical compound used in foods as an antioxidant, primarily for unsaturated fats and oils. To put it very simply, it keeps oils from going rancid as quickly as they ordinarily would.
Some studies say it has caused tumors or pre-tumors in lab animals at very high doses. Other studies have shown that it may have protective effects. All we know for now is that in the short-to-medium term, it appears to be safe.
Well, I’d rather be safe than sorry. The club crackers are gone. And they ain’t comin’ back…
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