But it’s all natural….

I would love to write a race report on the super awesome 5k race I did with my kids, husband and grandmother, but I have to pull the pics off my camera so until then I thought I should write about a topic that has been buzzing in the back of my head.

This past Saturday I made a trip to Costco, something I try to do once a month. I like to stock up on things we use a lot of, like meat, eggs, frozen veggies, cereal etc. It gives me a chance to save some money and stock up my freezer/pantry. As I was walking thru the refrigerated meat section I made an interesting discovery.. Jimmy Dean sausage decided they wanted to compete with the groups of Americans that are trying to ‘clean eat” aka eating natural foods that have little to no processing….



Bam they have a new label, it boasts the fact that it is “natural” and “minimally processed”… hold up! Some people might grab that and say oh look its healthy pork sausage!! I had to laugh when I saw that because I know there is more to a label then what they try to catch your attention with on the front…

Let me say real quick that I LOVE pig.. I love pork, bacon sausage, pork chops, ribs, you name it I love it… BUT since educating myself on clean eating and trying to become a healthier person I have limited myself to eating pork tenderloin and only having bacon and sausage very rarely as a part of a treat meal…because it is HORRIABLE for you.. And really I have always known sausage isn’t the best.. I mean anyone who knows what sausage is made out of KNOWS!!!!
It is important to really read labels… find out what is in your food… I try to avoid eating things that have ingredients I can’t pronounce… which the marketing team at jimmy dean seems to have under control…

Ingredients of Regular Jimmy Dean pork sausage: PORK, WATER, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF THE FOLLOWING: CORN SYRUP, SALT, SPICES, DEXTROSE, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE.

So if you were a clean eater or someone who was trying to eliminate processed foods you would put that back in the case and RUN AWAY as fast as you can…

Ingredients of the “new all natural minimally processed” jimmy dean sausage: PORK, WATER, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: SALT, SUGAR, BLACK PEPPER, SAGE, RED PEPPER, SPICE EXTRACTIVES.

Someone might read that and say oh wow they removed dextrose and monosodium glutamate and I can pronounce all the ingredients.. sounds like the way to go!! Right? WRONG!!!
Now listen young grasshopper.. besides using common sense you need to dig deeper… maybe you don’t know what monosodium glutamate (MSG commonly used by fast food chains and in canned and processed foods… known to cause headaches) or dextrose (another word for glucose) is… you can’t think it sounds good for you… despite the fact the FDA tries to say there are no adverse side effects to MSG they started requiring it be on the label.. say you trust the FDA and think they would never steer you wrong (giggle).. look up the inflammation factor of sausage… -27.. which means its mildly inflammatory… if you want to understand why you shouldn’t want to eat foods that are inflammatory check out this link http://nutritiondata.self.com/help/inflammation in a nutshell.. if you suffer from achy joints, are tired a lot, etc your food could be the culprit… don’t believe me? Refer to above link,, type in the most common foods you eat or drink in a day (including diet soda) for 3 days cut out anything that is considered inflammatory and see how you feel....

Now that we have decided we have gone on and on about the un pronounceable ingredients and how bad they are for your body let’s look deeper into the labels of the two jimmy dean sausages…
Regular Jimmy Dean Natural Jimmy Dean
Total Fat 16g Total Fat 15g
Saturated Fat 5g Saturated Fat 5g
Trans Fat 0g Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 40g Cholesterol 55g
Sodium 450mg Sodium 520mg
Total Carbohydrate 1g Total Carbohydrate 1g
Dietary Fiber 0g Dietary Fiber 0g
Sugars 0g Sugars 0g
Protien 8g Protein 12g

The natural minimally processed sausage has MORE cholesterol AND sodium…why??? Because there is no healthy way to make sausage, it still needs additives to keep its shelf life the same, and to keep it tasting and looking the same.. so instead of adding unpronounceable ingredients they just upped the amount of normal salt they put into it….
To my loyal blog followers who find my blog amusing and interesting I know this is a bit out of my normal tone… BUT the whole point was to share all the secrets I have learned along the way… and I know a lot of people say they can’t exercise because they don’t have the energy or they have sore ailments.. etc.. by paying attention to what you eat you will have more energy and feel better… and honestly I can’t believe that ME out of all people am sitting here typing this blog posting… whenever I met “crunchy” people as I called them who ate like rabbits I thought they were crazy.. and honestly when I first started getting into clean eating I thought it sounded a bit silly... BUT I was desperate… I was exhausted and hungry all the time following weight watchers and training for a triathlon.. I needed help… and despite the fact I thought it sounded crazy I tried it… and let me tell you what my energy levels are through the roof… I always assumed I felt tired all the time because I was a working, college going, mother of two, but by reading labels and cutting out foods that are high sodium.. have names you can’t pronounce etc I have more energy than I can ever remember and as a mommy I need all the energy I can get!