MyFitnessPal Challenge re-cap and winner! #MFPChallenge

I forgot to update on the challenge at the end of the first month, but, since I started using the MyFitnessPal app on February 5th, I have lost 18.9 lbs. It might seem slow to some of you, but this weight loss is a re-loss which tends to be slower anyway. I'm happy as long as I'm still making progress in the right direction. using the app as my "food journal" and "exercise diary" had been very helpful at keeping me focused and on track with my goals.

I need to announce the winner of the prize for the challenge. Everyone who commented and participated in the MyFitnessPal Challenge event on Facebook was entered into the drawing. I chose a prize too. The winner of the drawing will get a copy of  "Making the Cut: The 30-day Diet and Fitness Plan for the Strongest, Sexiest You" by Jillian Michaels.

The winner (selected by a random number generator) is:

Lisa Shambrook

Congratulations, Lisa! e-mail me a mailing address to send you your prize.

Now, on to a little rant that I need to get out:

Living in the UK has really opened my eyes to the things that the US gets away with in the food it produces. I missed a lot of food from back home and found some web sites that sell them to people in the UK. I found out that the reason many of the food that I loved is not sold to us over here, even through these sites that import food from the US, is down to the additives and chemicals allowed in food in the US.

For example, one of my favorite drinks is Diet Mug Root Beer. I know that soda is not good for me, but it is one drink I hated to give up on, so, once a year, I would buy myself a case of it from Americansoda.co.uk or from Cybercandy.com. Well, neither of those companies sell them anymore, or, for that matter, any root beer. Why? Because american root beer (and also many other sodas in the US) contain higher levels of certain harmful chemicals than is allowed in EU countries. Here is what one of the sites had to say about it:

"A&W (and some other sodas, more of that later), you see, contains a certain ingredient, sodium benzoate, that, under EU law, can only be there at very low levels. Sadly for us (and you), A&W is well over the limit. We’ve tried to fight this, we’ve had several batches tested, but there’s just no way round it. The level of this particular ingredient in A&W is simply too high for us to be able to import it anymore."

And this was true for most of the brands of root beer that they carried. What I don't understand is, if these chemicals are so bad for people that these levels are outlawed in Europe, then why is the US still allowing these levels in food and drink produced and sold there? This is not the first or only additive or chemical that the US allows in its food despite being outlawed nearly everywhere else.

Although my children and husband live here with me, my parents, siblings, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins and many of my friends all still live in the US. I worry about the things that are being allowed into their food supply.





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