PowerGardening's Blog

by Caroline Yourcheck

In PowerGardening – Lose Weight and Weeds! (excerpt), I talk a lot about how important (and easy!) it is to grow nutritional foods in an environmentally-conscious, safe and healthy way (while at the same time getting a great workout!).

For serious gardeners, thinking fresh becomes the new mindset. Simply put, it’s the difference between eating “close to the earth” and eating what comes out of a factory.

What I find is that most people have no idea what they’re really eating when they buy processed, prepackaged, often-frozen meals at their local supermarket.

Breaded Italian-style Chicken Cutlets

Choice A: Packaged Breaded Italian-style Chicken Cutlets

Let’s take an ordinary package of breaded Italian-style chicken cutlets. Probably just chicken and breading with a little seasoning, right? Wrong. In the package above, there are more than 40 ingredients, most of which have little to do with chicken. Space precludes listing them all. Here are just 12 of them:

1. Chicken
   
2. Polysorbate 80 – used primarily as an emulsifier in food products, cosmetics, vitamins, and medicines.
   
3. Sodium Diacetate – a food additive used to impart a salt and vinegar flavor.
   
4. Corn Syrup Solids – dried/dehydrated form of corn syrup.
   
5. Sodium Lactate – used as a preservative.
   
6. Thiamine Mononitrate – a food additive.
   
7. Modified Food Starch – used in food products typically as a thickening agent, stabilizer, or emulsifier; in pharmaceuticals as a disintegrant; and as a binding agent in coated paper!
   
8. Calcium Propionate – used as a preservative in bread, baked goods, processed meat, whey, and other dairy products.
   
9. Dehydrated Lemon Peel
   
10. Potassium Lactate – used in meat and poultry products to extend shelf life.
    Potassium lactate is also used as an extinguishing media in First Alert Tundra
    fire extinguishers!
    
11. Sodium Phosphates – used as a meat preservatives, often as an alternative to sodium
    nitrite.
    
12. Soy Lecithin – used as an emulsifier (thickener).
    
    Soy Lecithin
    
    Soy Lecithin Powder

Choice B: Homemade Breaded Italian-style Chicken Cutlets

Here’s a better way. A healthy, more natural way to prepare the same meal with
just a little preparation (15 minutes) and a few healthy ingredients (some of which
you can grow in your own backyard!):

1. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
   
2. Plain Bread Crumbs – (Unbleached wheat flour, salt, dried yeast)
   
3. Grated Parmesan Cheese
   

Fresh Italian Herbs

1. Oregano
   
2. Basil
   
3. Parsley
   
4. Freshly grated Lemon peel
   
5. 1 Egg
   
6. Olive Oil
   
7. Salt and pepper
   

CHOICE A: 40+ ingredients, including chemical additives, emulsifiers, and
preservatives.

CHOICE B: Total of 10 ingredients, all natural and delicious.

Which one would you rather eat?

Think “close to the earth”!