High Fructose Corn Syrup

Over the years most sugary foods have replaced their sugar with high fructose corn syrup, which is much worse for you than actual sugar is. The reason for the replacement is simply because it is less expensive, and because it is easier to sweeten foods with hfcs. If you read ingredient labels you will see that you can't buy much these days that doesn't contain it, and so you must be very careful about the foods you purchase and consume. Even if you buy whole wheat items, such as breads, most contain hfcs. Aunt Millie's brand of whole wheat and cracked wheat breads actually put on their label that they do not contain hfcs.

Many people feed their kids fruit snacks thinking they are healthy simply because they have the word 'fruit' in the title....but these are terrible for your kids! The first ingredient in these and also in fruit roll ups is hfcs. Most canned fruit and fruit cups, pre made jello and pudding, salad dressings, Sprite, Coke, and all other soda products (aside from 7-Up) contain high fructose corn syrup, as do so many other store bought products.

It's very important to read ingredient labels, not just to look for this, but to look for other ingredients that are harmful. The best thing to do is to buy organic and all natural foods, because they will not contain hfcs. However, please keep in mind that just because it is organic doesn't mean that you can eat it in abundance, it can still be incredibly fattening, and it can still be bad for you if you eat too much.

Floods

My family has been blessed beyond belief this past week in more ways than one! I will start with the job my husband got last week. As some may know, he was laid off of his job a few weeks ago and from day one he said he knew that everything was going to be okay. He didn't worry one bit and because he didn't worry, I didn't worry! Even though it's obvious with the fact that he was laid off, and the fact that several families in our church are struggling right now because of lay offs, that the economy is in dire straits...we knew he would find something and we would be alright. Sure enough, within only a matter of days he found a great job that he started today and it looks very promising! We believe that this was God's way of quickly removing him from a company that is getting ready to go under before it actually happens! I also believe that his employers let him go with the first group because they knew he wouldn't have any trouble finding work. Some of the others will not be so lucky!

We were also blessed this past Saturday morning, because the entire town around us was completely flooded and we didn't have a drop of water in our house or basement! Our neighbors on one side all the way down the street had flooding in their basements, and the street on the other side of our neighbor's house was completely under water....and we are bone dry! It is almost as if the water just stopped right before it reached our house!

Today as we were driving down the streets that were completely under water just a few days ago, we saw that people had started removing all of their belongings to the curb, and several of the homes looked as if they had everything they owned out for trash removal! It was very sad and you could see the sadness as we drove down the street. I said out loud to my kids that we really got lucky....and my daughter said "No, mom....we got Jesus!" She's absolutely right! Thank you, Lord!