If you do one thing this holiday season – avoid what I call “The Holiday Death Aisle” at the supermarket and discount drug stores. That aisle is filled with brightly colored JUNK made with bleached and heavily processed flour, artificial colors derived from petroleum, nasty preservatives, GMO refined white sugars, GMO oils, and the absolute worst ingredients you can put in food.
This is no way to celebrate the holidays and food manufacturers know they can get away with selling you the cheapest ingredients during this time of year because they can tap into the nostalgia of the holiday season and the idea that “it’s just once a year” – but really it’s ALL YEAR. Almost immediately after they clear the Halloween candy from their shelves, grocery stores stock up on Christmas candy and all the fast food places come out with “holiday drinks”… and then comes Valentine’s Day… and then Easter… and it really just keeps going in an endless cycle of toxic seasonal treats.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t have festive treats for the holidays, but it just baffles me that food companies and restaurants fill their foods with the worst possible ingredients in the name of the holidays. Just take a look at what’s in Chick-Fil-A’s popular Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake for example…
Gross, right?
The holidays shouldn’t be an excuse to poison the public.
Just because it’s the holidays, you don’t need to subject your body to ingredients like this. Years ago, I stopped buying packaged and processed holiday candies, cookies and treats, and started the tradition of making seasonal treats with real whole food organic ingredients instead – and I’ve never looked back!
Here are some holiday treat recipes that are favorites of mine. I hope you make a few of these goodies for your friends and family this holiday season:
- Classic Real Ginger Cookies
- Chocolate Goji Sea Salt Drops
- Almond Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies
- Roasted Pumpkin Spiced Nuts
- Goji Berry Cookies
- Gingerbread Cupcakes with Coconut Icing
- Almond Butter Brownies
- Candied Ginger
- Homemade Fruit Leather (Fruit Roll Ups)
- Healthy Sugar Cookies
- Healthy Holiday Granola
- Brownies or Cookies In-A-Jar
Please share this list of recipes with your friends and family too! Let’s help everyone make healthier treats this year and beyond.
Xo,
Vani
P.S. If you are still looking for last minute gift ideas, you’ve got to check out my Food Babe Favorites! Our partners have extended some amazing DEALS just for you to get the perfect gift.
I made the thumbprint cookies yesterday and they were delicious. Very moist.
Thanks Bonnie! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂 Happy Holidays!
Thank you so much for these alternatives! I have been trying to cut out candy with my family as well, but I know we definitely can’t go without treats completely.
It’s amazing that all that junk doesn’t blow up in the gut ! Thank You, Vani
My problem is getting junk food from my brothers and they
know I only consume Organic foods. I have to hide their gifts
to me for months and then throw it out.
Boy if you don’t have intestinal problems now you sure will after drinking this stuff!
Corporate greed, seasoned with Chemical companies special spices. Later, Pharmaceutical Companies special elixirs will be in order.
I’ve been making changes to my diet over the last two years based on recommendations by Vani on foodbabe.com – the thing that surprises me the most is that the cheap, fake and artificially-flavored crap that I used to throw down the hatch on a regular basis tastes absolutely disgusting now – the cloying sweetness, the chemical aftertaste….I took a bite of a Burger King croissant breakfast sandwich yesterday (I was shaky and hungry and obviously didn’t plan my nutrition for the day) and immediately spit it out. It was nauseating. If I needed a tiny reminder of why I don’t eat that junk anymore, that was it.
Thank you for going against the grain and doing what is in all of our best interest. Americans are too complacent about allowing crap food on our shelves. THANK YOU, VANI!
Kindest regards,
Jessica Ginet
Williams, Oregon
Congratulations on your efforts to eat well and dodge the toxic foods/drinks. . . It does take effort and lots of due diligence. . . I have done so since the 70s-mid. . . And you are right about your taste buds do change and so does your entire body and digestive system; dramatically. . . Our bodies, from top to bottom, has been given the innate ability to heal itself IF GIVEN THE RIGHT FOODS/DRINKS. . . The simplicity of it all is eat what is God Based Foods; stay away from foods that are heavily tainted with substances-‘science based EXTRAs’ (( the tree of knowledge )) that will, are and have been wreaking havoc ::: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. America is now the 34th healthiest nation in the world. . . opps!!! One daily activity that brings about the greatest clinical significant changes for the betterment of the patient is when the patient begins drinking enough water every day. Chronic conditions that have plagued people/patients of all ages has/is /will resolve serious health issues is drinking enough water::: Period!!! How much . . . Bottom line is ::: your goal is to drink HALF OF YOUR CURRENT WEIGHT IN OUNCES OF WATER EVERY DAY. . . If you drink any diuretics (( sodas, alcohol, coffee/tea, power drinks etc (( again most are from the tree of knowledge)) except coffee/tea lead to excessive loss of water. IF you drink such beverage(s), add that amount/day to the total above your weight. Example::: I weigh 200 lbs. sooo I drink 100 ounces of water. . . IF I drink any of the aforementioned beverages, I add that amount to my 100 ounces. . . Most folks/patients that follow this health activity, have significant positive health changes. Some folk have had ( example) migraines for 30 plus years and drugs have been a complete failure. . . Within three weeks, their issues – migraines were gone. . . So many other areas:: sleep, depression, headaches, back pain, dizziness, nausea, constipation, chronic diseases . . . brain fog and chronic aches and pains vanish. . . Again God Based. . . . The best program for acquiring good drinking water is through steam distillation. . . FEMA and the Red Cross endorse steam distillation. . . and that is exactly what the earth does every day with water. . . evaporation, condensation and rain. . . That’s all I want to share with you right now. . . except MERRY CHRISTMAS and I truly hope this information will bring you greater health and happiness for you, your family and friends and your community. God Bless…
jpakdc
p.s. ‘Nobody makes an apple like Him’ !!!
p.s.s. ‘Don’t eat foods that will bite you back’!!!
Johnpatrick I agree with you wholeheartedly with your statements. Chick-fil-A was founded by a person with Christian principles and for the company to allow some of these components into holiday beverages is so anti-celebration!!
God-made cherries = cherries with a stem and a seed.
Chick-fil-A-made cherries = high fructose corn syrup, water, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, citric acid, artificial flavor, FD&C #40, sulfur dioxide. WHERE ARE THE CHERRIES?????
Thank you FOOD BABE for exposing the fake substitutions.
MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HEALTHIER NEW YEAR
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Have you ever thought about having a small group of people standing in front of Chick Fil A with a big poster showing the ingredients?
I tried to print out your list of ingredients with the Chick fil A logo so I could post it on the drive through next door but I couldn’t print it w/ out your logo on it and I don’t want them coming down on you.
Wow, I’m so sorry to see this list of reprehensible ingredients! I know you’ve had good success with contacting Chick Fil A before. I think if you bring this to their attention, they may consider changing their ingredients. I have personally found them very nice to deal with.
I would really like to know why you picked on Chick-fil-A. Haven’t taken the time yet but I probably will now – to find out the ingredient lists on other people’s holiday as well as regular menus. I believe that I will find that all of the fast food places – and many other ” sit down and eat your food off the plate with a fork type” restaurants have pretty much the same list of ingredients. So why did you choose to set Chick-fil-A out as a purveyor of death – – like all the others aren’t?
I love the recipes you give.. I do try make at least one of your recipes a month.. I’m on disability so I do not have good financial stability.. Having Fibromyalgia I should be able to get healthier food but when you’re on government disability they give you such a minimum amount to live on, it’s almost impossible to buy healthy food for 100% of the time.. Thank you for your recipes though..
Hi, I would like to know which sandwiches at Chick fil A ok to eat, and if the chicken wraps ingredients are safe to eat?
Ew! ew! and more EWWWWWWW !!!!!!! These ingredients are gross toxic chemicals that are disgusting. Our poor bodies !!! OMG! A nightmare disguised as a treat !!! This is criminal! Thanks FoodBabe! ☺️
Thank you. I was literally just thinking how I could figure out what sweets I could eat that weren’t filling my body with toxins…and if I just need to make them myself…
Thanks Vani,
Wishing you happy holidays…
This is exactly what I think when I’m walking the isles of the supermarkets… Before I could walk for hours and wanted to taste everything…now my visits become shorter and shorter..even non existing for I go for the special markets and shops for most of the time and even started my own veggie and fruit garden.
The less sugar I eat..the less cravings I have…not craving anything anymore… Even though I’m not on a strict diet..just eating with common sense the food is enough to satisfy me to the max..
You are one of those who woke me up to this “death trap” called over processed food… I suffered a LOT as a Crohn patient but since I cleaned out my diet and household…. I feel great and very energetic!… thanks again
This is why I just avoid all fast-food, and eating out in general. It is absolutely mind-blowing what will pass for food these days. That should be called the “Peppermint Chocolate Chip MISTAKE” instead. How gross. I hope no one I know eats that nasty concoction. I wouldn’t trust any sweet treats like this at any fast food place though. Homemade ice cream, made with honey and milk that is raw that I can trust is all I can stomach anymore.
Thanks for making everyone aware of this holiday nightmare!!
Hi Vani,
Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. It helps me to review those ingredients yet again to know better how to avoid other foods with same ingredients. Your vigilance is a true gift.
Here’s my dilemma: on the surface, that pink drink you speak of LOOKS so inviting , so happy and good for you – pink with tiny chocolate chips and whipped cream on top? ‘How bad can it be?’ asks my kneejerk-childlike self.
But my sensible self knows it is. But it leaves my childlike self disappointed and pissed that I don’t get to drink such a drink and feeling duped by the industry. How difficult would it be to make something healthy for us that is pink, happy and has whipped cream on top?
So here is what I wish for: a recipe for a strawberry or raspberry/peppermint smoothie with carob bits that would look the same, (including, of course, the whipped cream:-)) but actually be good for us. Is there such a recipe that you know of?
Sending you much gratitude during this holiday.
How about HEALTHY and good for you RAW deserts, cookies, pies, etc. Easy to prepare, no waste in electricity to cook and everyone will enjoy. They will not believe it was made from raw ingredients. Visit: http://avenaoriginal.info click on… receipies.
Oh this clip made me laugh and laugh…had to listen to it several times.
You sound like the voice in my head whenever we happen to pass ‘over’ this aisle in the stores. I MUST have said it ‘out loud’ many times because my young daughter repeats it whenever we see this ‘death’ food!
Hi……I do Love getting the info you so graciously give out..I wanted to say I recently read up on goji berries..an they aren’t that good for us..I was so surprised along with upset..I throw away what I had left..and I was just the day before planning to bake my mom’s applesauce cupcakes with those..then that day I read about them..I’m going back to raisins..which is fine since we all love those too..
Happy Holidays to you and yours……………Wende
Vani, can you give us a peppermint shake recipe for the holidays? I’d love to see your healthier spin on one!
Ugh, i got a stomach ache just from reading the ingredients. Is Chick a Fila ingredients in food bad for you too?
Its fast food, what do you think? Of course its horrible.
Unbelievable ! Well, actually not, which is why we haven’t eaten in restaurants for several years. Once or twice when we were with someone, but otherwise, I fix all our food. And yes, it’s sometimes difficult if we’re stuck somewhere and haven’t eaten, but usually manage to make it home before starving.
With the ‘so-called’ drink above, you get double & triple doses of delightful food coloring as well as the syrupy corn syrup……..gag.
Thanks for all your effort in keeping us advised and in getting through to some of these companies to get rid of their disgusting toxins.
So they keep you alive with their healthy chicken but you lose all that when you buy their shake?
Chick-Fil-@ has disappointed me for many years since I began to pay attention to keeping excessive carbs, sugar, starch, and preservatives out of my face. The moral image they portray; closed on Sundays, etc., leads the uninformed to believe their food is healthier as well. Avoiding prerservatives, etc. means having to read labels. I was dismayed and disappointed to discover sugar as an ingredient in their chicken sandwiches, grilled and otherwise. The same with their nuggets. I thought I had found a healthy, somewhat pure item I could snack on, but this is not the case. As well, there is sugar in nearly all their salad dressings.
Their commitment to healthier supplies is commendable, but there are other ingredients that harm the human. I can’t understand all these companies that add sugar in places it hardly seems necessary.
Please allow us to pin your recipes. It will is the very best way to catalog your recipes for use. Thanks for your consideration
M
And in other breaking news, water is wet.
Seriously folks, why does this surprise anybody? Its a fast food chain after all. Anybody truly concerned with their health should NEVER, EVER, under any circumstances, eat fast food (or eat out in general).
Thank you for keeping us informed! Thank you for all that you do in the crusade to promote a healthier lifestyle and choices! You truly rock sister! Happy holidays and blessings!
I can only recommend the Healthy Sugar Cookies!!
They are one of my favourites! I cut down on the sugar in the recipe as it was still a little too sweet for my taste. One day I accidently starting mixing the ingredients until I realized I didn’t have any eggs at home.. so I replaced the egg with an equal amount of water and they turned out even better! Or try mixing in different nut flower 1/8 cup of Hazelnuts is amazing 🙂
But First of all – THANK YOU Vani for all you do! I just bought your book for Christmas and love it so far 🙂
Nina
So, what’s with the “grapefruit and coffee” gag, on Seinfeld/TheSubway?