Can we buy these Cheese Puffs?

My wife asked me this a few weeks ago when we were grocery shopping. She's trying to make an effort to eat better. She pointed out these things and asked if they were good for her to eat. I looked over the nutrition label with her. They had little calories or fat, not a lot of salt, and they didn't have any of the ingredients that tipped me off as unhealthy (like MSG, corn syrup, or trans fats). Still, looking at the label further, they didn't really have anything to offer nutritionally. I said that they weren't the smartest choice for healthy eating and she declined to get them.

Granted they didn't have any truly bad ingredients in them, the also didn't have much nutrient content either. If you think that doesn't matter, think again. If I could make changes to people's way of thinking about diet, this is one of them. I'd have them thinking of eating as an investment.

It's not brought up in any diet or nutrition books and many don't realize it but your body has to make an investment in the food that you're eating. It has to give things up in order to digest them. The salivary glands must produce saliva to initiate the digestion process. The stomach has to produce pepsin and hydrochloric acid. The liver and the gall bladder secret bile to break down fat. The pancreas secretes insulin to break down sugar. The whole digestive track burns calories to keep the food moving. I've only scratched the surface here of the materials that the body has to give up to get that food digested. There's more, believe me.

So, looking at this from the investment standpoint, the body has to get MORE out of what it's digesting than its giving up in order to maintain good health. At the very least, it should break even. Going back to the baked cheese puffs, is the body going to get out of them what it put in? Doubtful as hell. Think about that when you choose what you eat. Get yourself a book that details the nutritional breakdown of foods. Choose nutrition-dense foods. Get more on your bodily investment.