by SactoBob » Sun Oct 02, 2011 10:34 am
Hi RAS.
Congrats on accepting the salt and sweetener part of the challenge. Everybody has to decide what they wish their own challenge to be.
As for me (and as per above) I would not consider Bush Baked Beans whether or not on a challenge. I could not find complete label info, and they make many products. I assumed that you selected the Vegetarian Baked Beans. The ingredients listed (from an independent website) were:
INGREDIENTS: Prepared White Beans, Water, Brown Sugar, Sugar, Tomato Paste, Salt, Cornstarch, Mustard, Onion Powder, Spices, Extractives of Paprika, Garlic Powder, and Natural Flavor.
Anytime I see Brown Sugar listed in addition to Sugar (and in addition to corn starch, which acts like sugar) I assume it is because if they just listed Sugar, that it would be the first (i.e. main) ingredient. That is a lot of sugar.
If you don't have Jeff Novick's DVD on reading labels, you should consider getting it so that you are not fooled by this type of label. A quick course would be this:
1. Check the total calories per serving against the calories from fat per serving. You don't want more than 20% of the calories from fat. Watch for tricks like here - by adding sugar they can lower the per cent of fat.
2. Check the sodium per serving against the calories per serving. You don't want the number for sodium to be higher than the number for calories per serving.
3. Check the ingredients, which must be listed in order. You don't want any oils or simple sugars or other bad stuff. Ideally, the label should contain only whole plant foods.
I don't know the salt numbers - but this already fails miserably from the ingredients. Getting this out of your diet, and having just beans would be great.
Any time you start improving your diet, it usually means a "withdrawal" of sorts, because your body is used to the old food (here sugar and maybe salt). Within 30 days or so, it should be no problem. But it is a challenge, and only you can decide how much challenge you can accept. If you can ditch these beans for whole plant food, that will be great. In fact, that is the sort of thing that is the point of the challenge. As you approach and get to all whole plant food, you will really notice the difference.