Small Changes: Peanut Butter and Jelly

I eat the same thing for breakfast every single day. Most people think it's weird, I just think of it as fuel to get my day started. I was never big on cereal, mostly because I don't like milk. Other than a little splash of it in my tea I don't drink it.

I start my day with an organic brown rice cake with peanut butter and jelly on it. It works for me. The peanut butter provides protein and the jelly provides the yum.

I prefer the Lundberg Farms brown rice cakes. Brown rice is a good carb, white rice is a bad carb. White rice has no nutritional value and turns to sugar in your system. Brown rice is a whole grain and is a much better choice. 

I get the lightly salted ones. I find these in the organic food section of my favorite grocery store.

Now, let's look at some peanut butter and jelly. For the peanut butter I just chose Skippy because it's a brand that everyone is familiar with. I prefer the natural peanut butters, but if you don't like the texture of them and want the smoothness that you're used to (like Jif or Skippy) then read on.

 Pictured above is regular Skippy creamy peanut butter. The ingredient list includes hydrogenated oils, these are the oils that are bad for your heart and will raise your cholesterol levels.

Below is the same creamy Skippy, but it's the Skippy Natural peanut butter. Same taste, fewer ingredients. Better ingredients.

  
   Another option that Skippy offers is their Skippy Natural with honey:

 These all sit beside each other on your grocer's shelf. They have the same amount of calories and cost the same amount of money. Choosing the natural version is one small change that you can make without noticing anything because they taste the same.

Some friends of mine make their own peanut butter with only peanuts. I purchase a different natural brand that's only peanuts and salt. The taste and texture is a little different, but I prefer it now. It's not as sticky as conventional peanut butter.

With my breakfast I prefer apricot preserves. I just love me some apricots! Once in a while I'll switch it up with blueberry, but apricot is my favorite.

Here we have some Smuckers Apricot Preserves:

    Made with high fructose corn syrup, this is not the best choice.

Smuckers also offers a sugar free version:

 With a ton of ingredients. Including Sucralose (Splenda) and yellow dyes #5 & #6. I consider Sucralose and Aspartame to be poison. Last week I accidentally ingested some and that verse in the Bible about poison not affecting you went through my mind as I prayed that the Aspartame would go right through my system. 
Anyway, back to the preserves. Why did they have to add in the yellow dye? What exactly did all of the other chemicals do to the fruit that they had to add color back into it? Think about that for a while. Scary stuff.

This is the one I choose. Same brand:

 Smuckers Simply Fruit has ingredients that I recognize. Again, these all share the same shelf. 

Obviously choosing organic would be better, but some things are just so expensive in the organic version that I have to make some choices. I choose the organic rice cakes and then the natural forms of peanut butter and jelly.

Read the labels! Your body will thank you in the long run.

Remember: Just because they sell it in the store doesn't mean you should eat it.