Quick Tip: Limit Food Additives to Stay Lean

Along with controlling the macronutrients of the food you eat (protein, carbs, and fat), it’s important to make sure that you limit any additional ingredients that might be added that provide no nutritional value, and oftentimes only serve to keep bodyfat on and inhibit change in body composition.

Take, for example, heavy cream. While it’s great to add to your coffee to provide flavor and slow down the release of caffeine, not all cream is the same. A random sampling from a local Jewel Osco found four different brands of heavy cream, and 3 of them had ingredients beyond just cream. In fact, one of them was actually an organic brand (Land O’ Lakes) and still had additives. Here is the ingredients list:

Ingredients: HEAVY CREAM, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS;NONFAT MILK, SORBITAN MONOSTEARATE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CARRAGEENAN, SUCRALOSE, MIXED TOCOPHEROLS, NITROUS OXIDE.

Compare that with Dean’s brand heavy cream:

Ingredients: HEAVY CREAM.

So make sure to check your labels and if you don’t know where it came from or what it does, you may want to put it back.