#Ingredients July 1

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Today begins the 31st consecutive month taking on a new Coach4aday 30-Day Challenge. For July 2022 the theme will be INGREDIENTS.

Chopped is a TV show were contestants have to incorporate mystery INGREDIENTS in recipes for an appetizer, entree, and dessert. Often, I watch the contestants open their baskets and find myself dumbfounded on what some of the items are. Doing a 30-Day Sugar Free Challenge in January 2022 had me reading a lots of food labels. Reading exposed me to a couple of facts. Lots of what we consumer contains sugar and additives.

Rules for the 30-Day Ingredients Coach4aday Challenge

Educating ourselves and becoming more aware of what INGREDIENTS are in the products we consume, or use is the goal. Knowledge often is power in helping us make better informed decisions. How to accomplish this challenge daily that will be up to each individual, but the general guidelines are below:

1. What is the name of your ingredient?
2. What is it?
3. Where did you find it?

Each day find a way to answer those three questions. If you are so inclined share your results in the comments or on social media using the hashtag #Coach4adayChallenge.

Toothpaste

Optimism is high that everyone reading this uses toothpaste. A recent trip to the dentist resulted in me receiving a complimentary tube of toothpaste. Shown below is the front and back of the package it came in. I discovered two items that I did not know anything about.

Active and Inactive Ingredients

Went researching Potassium Nitrate which is one of the active ingredients and Sorbitol an inactive item. Active ingredients in this brand of toothpaste are the components that trigger the effect. Inactive ingredients, which are also called excipients, are the components that don’t have an effect on you. They are included for a reason. They might be fillers, flavorings, coatings or preservatives.

Potassium nitrate can be found naturally occurring in vegetables such as spinach, celery and cabbage. It is added to toothpaste to alleviate and treat tooth sensitivity. When used in toothpaste, potassium nitrate makes up just 5% of the total ingredient content.

Sorbitol is a type of carbohydrate called a sugar alcohol, or polyol. Sorbitol is found naturally in berries like blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, and other fruits such as apples, apricots, avocados, cherries, peaches and plums.