When it comes to nutrition, my brain’s been doing flip-flops lately. But maybe that’s to be expected. You can’t switch from the Crystal Light mindset to butterfat-is-healthy all in one fell swoop, right?
I like hearing what the experts have to say, but I prefer to hear from friends and family. I appreciate that Dr. Mercola thinks we shouldn’t eat grains because they’re difficult to digest and that Sally Fallon thinks we should eat organ meats because they’re so full of nutrients. But I want to know what real people are cooking for dinner. (No offense to Dr. Mercola or Sally Fallon.) I want to know what my friends—people with busy schedules and tight budgets and picky kids—are going to eat tonight.
Does anyone else feed their kids PB&J in the car while running errands on a regular basis the way I do? Does it help that I usually buy organic peanut butter and sometimes bake my own bread? I know, I know, jam is full of sugar. And we should always eat at the table. But sometimes I like having a break from wiping and sweeping beneath the table. Having a messy car doesn’t bother me that much, especially because we leave it in the garage when we get home.
I guess I’m trying to figure out what long-term changes we should work on as a family. I’m not interested in going on a health kick that fades away two months from now.
The best thing about my recent series on food was hearing what some of you think about nutrition. And if you feel like sharing, I’d love to hear more.
Respond to one or all of the following:
Or just write whatever you want to say. I like comments.
1. What is your top priority when it comes to food? What do you consider the healthiest way to eat?
2. Are any of you 100% off processed food? And if so, WOW. Tell me how you did it! And please, tell me honestly, do you still like making everything from scratch? Right now we are having loads of fun in the kitchen cooking and baking, and it seems to fit well into the stay-at-home-mom life. But I wonder how I’ll feel about it a year from now. Are you at all burnt out? Or does it just get more fun as you get better at it?
3. For everyone doing lots of organic or local-and-almost-organic food, do you spend more on groceries than when you ate lots of processed food? What are your thoughts on money and food?
4. Are any of you raw milk people? Were you nervous when you first tried it?
5. What’s your philosophy on sugar? Have any of you given it up completely? How did you do it? I believe sugar’s not good for me, but I’m not sure anything can take the place of a Dove dark chocolate (or 3) once my kids are both finally asleep at night. Is chocolate really that bad? **Sigh**
I don’t want to be fanatical about food. But food is a big deal. It affects us in many ways—our mood, our energy level, how we sleep, our ability to concentrate. And look at these two characters. I want them to enjoy their childhood as much as possible. I want them to eat mostly natural food, run around all day like the little maniacs they are, grow healthy bodies, and oh yes, sleep very soundly at night.
In April of 2010 our lives changed forever. My son was diagnosed with severe food allergies at the age of 5 months old. Not just the “if he eats it his tummy will hurt” kinda thing. Every day I was living in fear that my son would die if he was even close to an allergen. His Epipen was in tow 24/7. As a mother who was breastfeeding her baby boy, I too would have to change the way I ate to insure he was safe. I was told to “give up” breastfeeding as if it was as simple as that. My thoughts were, if I couldn’t eat that way, how would my son survive when he WAS able to eat? So I gave it all up. Every bit of dairy, soy, egg, wheat, peanut, tree nut, oats and peas. Its not as simple as not eating those things, many ingredients in products are made from those ingredients and its not labelded as clear as day. So the research began. I looked into every single ingredient. What was in it? How was it made? Was it processed in the same facility as one of his allergens? Was it made on the same equipment as his allergens? I found out so many things I had not known and it was scary. I then began warning my friends and family of the dangers of soy, cow’s milk, wheat etc… Unfortunately it is very hard to eat in the United States right now. Can you even trust something that says “organic” on it? Organic companies have gone to the dark side, buying certain products from GMO companies. I am a believer in God, so I pray everyday my family is safe, we pray over our food of course but that doesn’t mean we make poor decisions and throw it up to God and let him sort out all the chemicals! In our home, more than a year later, we eat mainly whole unprocessed foods. Fruits, Vegetables, Meats. I do buy processed foods like brown rice pasta, or Millet bread or something allergen free to make life seem a bit more “normal” at times. In the beginning it was almost as if I was mourning something. You have no idea that food has that much control over your life until its taken away. You go days without eating much and you feel like its unfair. Until you wake up one day and realize, those foods were never good for you in the first place. You realize your body and mind are much better off without them. Why? You actually can tell the difference in your health by not eating them. We all don’t realize we are slowly poisoning ourselves and although the response is not immediate, like in my son, it builds up in your system over time and causes dis-ease. I’m not saying there is a right or wrong way. Everything in moderation right? What is moderation to each of you? A typical dinner in my home is a meat, with mostly fresh vegetables and possibly a starch. Rice or potato, an allergen free something or other. I cook every single meal. We do not eat out. We have no choice. There is no open a box or pop in the microwave, unless its leftovers from the day before. Our family is very fortunate though, today there are many allergen free options so we don’t suffer, it’s not about “poor you” we are actually much better off and much healthier. Is it more expensive? Yes! You find ways to save. I clip coupons for everything else. Just a few weeks ago I saved $118 on my grocery bill in sales and coupons. I spend about $400 a month on a family of 5. We eat very well. Every meal is filling, there are snacks etc… We don’t go without. It is very possible to live this way, you have to want too. (I’m not saying to give up everything we do but you can eliminate the processed foods and still survive) I try and tell other families that are going through a similar situation. You eat to live, not live to eat. We need to revolve our lives around more than what’s for dinner? I’m happy to say that my son is now going on 19 months and we are still at it. We are surviving (even after diagnosis of things like Eosinophilic Esophagitis and Celiac) You keep going because you have too. Thanks to God for giving me the strength to get through each day as well
xo
Wow Tara, I had no idea! You guys have been through so much. Thank you for sharing your heart. You are such a dedicated mommy and your family is blessed to have you!
Hmm…well we are mostly off processed food, I still use canned tomatoes, and spaghetti sauce, along with instant oatmeal, boring cereal, ect. We’ve eaten this way for years due to my food allergies, which also force us to use butter, no low fat type products, ect,.
I try to keep ingredient lists really short, and to sneak vegetables into as many dishes as possible.
We are working towards organic produce, ESP, the dirty dozen, and I fear salt over sugar. We do use the reduced sugar version of jams, if not homemade, but I have yet to find an acceptable sugar substitute, so we just use less, if any.
In our house, it’s about keeping out hidden sodium, additives, and corn syrup. If it’s sweet, it should be sugar, if it’s salty, it’s sea salt., ect.
And we love our dark chocolate. Because we keep the sugar down elsewhere, including yogurts and such, then chocolate and ice cream are an ok option a few times a week.
I guess, in the end, I aim for real food, not altered to make it healthier, I would rather eat less fat, and have it be real butter, than to load up on processed crisco. Most of the food in my house can’t be eaten without preparation, but dinner still only takes about 25 minutes to make. Imalso make sure to make at least one extra meals worth. We roast a whole chicken fairly often. I depend on my oven a lot. So roast chicken last night, then tonight it will be chicken tortilla soup, then chicken quesadillas or ‘quiche’ for lunch later on.
Lunches are harder, I feel you there for sure. I try to severly limit nitrates , so lunch meat is restricted, and nico can’t have peanut butter. He eats a lot of whole wheat quesadillas with various leftover meat and cheese. They pack well in ziplocs bags too!
I like your chocolate plan. I think I’m willing to cut out all the other sugar for the sake of some good dark chocolate.
It gets alot easier, you learn the shortcuts fast, and frozen vegetables are a huge time and cost savings for us. Processed food, has to have less than six ingredients to come in the house, as a general rule. I’m excited to make your crackers and kick the goldfish out!
Those crackers do taste kind of like goldfish! Except they’re fresh.
My cooking style tends to be mostly what Beth described: simple ingredients, few canned items, frozen veg when possible to help the budget…Basically, the closer it is to what it was like in the garden (or while walking around) the better it probably is for you.
I try to keep sugar fairly limited (icecream is our treat of choice) and look for ways to reduce it in my baking, but don’t plan to eliminate it entirely. Olive oil or another good quality vegetable oil is really versatile so I use it for all kinds of things, but sometimes only butter will do and that’s just fine. Margarine is not something I like – it’s just a chemically processed spread.
Fave fast, easy breakfast for us is homemade oatmeal cooked with frozen (or fresh, depending on the budget that week) fruit of choice and just a little sugar – it’s easy, cooks in minutes and a big pot can go for a couple days when a serving is reheated with a little milk.
My cooking has gotten even more simplified since returning to school. Rule 1 = it must last for several days. Rule 2 = it must primarily qualify as a one-pot dish. And when it comes to keeping track of overall nutrition, I’m a fan of the “Plate method”: if you put your meal on a plate, at least half should be veggies, 1/4 grains/starch, 1/4 meat/other major protein. Surprisingly we recently learned that MyPyramid.gov was planning to endorse this method since it’s easier to visualize than the traditional food pyramid.
I like your rules.
And we can’t really go wrong with lots of veggies, right?
Hey Linnea,
Saw you on facebook, so great to see your back on a blog and to see your beautiful kids again in the pictures! I smiled when I read your latest posts because I have been going through the exact same thing in the last 6 months. I have been putting in a lot of hours reading and doing research on the internet about what we should be eating. My goodness is there a lot of opinions! The book I recommend over any that I have read is “The China Study” by T. Collin Campbell. Full of information, peer reviewed studies in nutrition, and some observations by culture and country about nutrition and its affect on a population. I couldn’t put it down, it made a lot of sense, and has completely transformed how we eat as a family. Thanks for doing these posts about nutrition, it is fun to read what people have to say.
I went online to request The China Study at the library and I’m number 16 on the waiting list! It must be a good book.
I like this cookbook:
Feeding the Whole Family: Cooking with Whole Foods [Paperback]
I also recommend Animal Vegetable Miracle.
Another cookbook I use a lot is Essential Eating: Sprouted Baking
I just ordered the Whole Foods book. It looks really good.
We try to be more Nourishing Traditions (concept, not necessarily her recipes as they are not the tastiest,in my opinion) and I’ve even fed some raw grated liver to my kids and to myself. That was very hard to do…still is! I know the dietary advice out there can be daunting and controversial and food does affect us so much. I personally believe God wants us to take care of ourselves and sometimes I am unsure how to put all this knowlege into action without killing myself (which would be counter-productive). I personally disagree with the China Study and it’s “science” and there are some good critiques of it out there (check out Chris Masterjohn’s blog) and of course, everyone has to decide themselves who/what to believe.
So, we eat the same meal a few times over—chicken soup made from the whole chicken, or beef stock made into Coconut soup. I try to make stock about 1 x per week and then it takes us several meals to eat them up. We also like Taco Salad a lot for dinner. We are mostly off of grains currently and that has proven good to get in more veggies, but I am nursing two little ones and have a hard time not wanting to eat, eat, and eat more.
We eat bacon and eggs or steak and eggs with veggies for breakfast and our hamburgers are eaten with salad and with organic ketchup and mustard. These are easy meals. A more time-consuming meal would be a Spaghetti Squash Lasagna (just replace your fav lasagna recipe with spag. squash as the noodle).
I bake with sucanat or honey and we love to make our own ice cream. And, yes we all drink raw milk and have never had any problems. We do have a great dairy here though (Organic Pastures). I even eat raw eggs/extra egg yolk all the time.
We tend to spend a good amount on food, but don’t go to the Dr. much and hope that it will mean less health problems down the road for our kids. I have a lot of health issues so I feel like I have to try my best for my kids. But, I can’t do it perfectly (like I may like to) cause, again, that would defeat the purpose.
We have berries and whipped cream for dessert lots!
I get my chocolate daily mostly through cocoa powder (love my milk drinks with coconut oil, milk, eggs, cocoa powder, honey). Once you are off white sugar—a lot of other sweeteners taste decent.
My 2 year old will actually not finish her dessert and LOVES to eat red meat, but she loves chips too! Do you have a Trader Joe’s? That and the Farmer’s market are our main places. You can save a lot actually at the Farmer’s market once you figure out what’s in season and build a relationship with the farmer.
Change is hard…just change a little at a time. Keep learning and have fun with it. Definitely don’t stress when you eat something that isn’t as healthy as you think you should be eating.
Also, sometimes buying in bulk can really stretch the budget and help you not go to the store too often, which for me, can mean I buy things I don’t need or buy things that look good.
Thanks so much Sara! I found Chris Masterjohn’s critique of the China Study and the author’s response to it last night. I think I will still read the China Study and want to keep an open mind, though Price’s book made a big impact on me. I found a small dairy farm here with raw milk, but it’s 8$ a gallon. Yikes! So we haven’t tried it yet. Maybe some time down the road. I really appreciate all you said about not trying to be perfect. I need to keep that in mind.
I look forward to more of your thoughts and to what you think of The China Study. If it makes you feel any better about the $8 per gallon milk, our milk is 5.5 for a half gallon and that’s a co-op price so you’re getting a good deal! Just in case that helps to know they are at least not ripping you off!
Hi Linni,
I just read through all your new blogs in one
It is great that you are writing again, I really enjoy reading what you’re thinking and see photos of our gorgeous nephew and neice.
I’m fascinated reading all your posts about nutrition and foods and am encouraged by your outlook and desire to eat the best and give the healthiest otpion to the kids.
I try hard to make things from scratch too, although the time thing is my biggest problem. I tend to make LOTS of each thing I make and then freeze it in meal-sized quantities for the whole family. That’s our version of ‘instant meals’!
I’ve always been really keen on giving the kids full-fat stuff, I think because my Mum did right up until we had an opinion about such things, but I’ll very rarely buy ‘reduced fat’ things because I just worry about what’s in them.
We’ve been growing our own vegetables this year which I’m really excited about – although we haven’t actually harvested anything yet!! I’d love to buy organic and think we’ll eventually err that way, but it’s just so expensive :S
I’m keen to read some of the websites and books you’ve suggested and find out more about it from people who have researched it – I tend to go with gut feeling which is sometimes right but often complete here-say!
Sending love to you all in Ocala,
We miss you x x
Katy, I miss you so much! August in Shorewood won’t be the same without you. Any chance you guys might come in the winter?
Probably not this winter
We just can’t afford it at the moment and it is such a massive trip to make over. We aren’t exactly sure when our next trip will be which is really tough to stomach sometimes. But God is far bigger than anything we can hope or imagine, so who knows when we will next all be together drinking tea and laughing at the babies!
x
Love reading others comments and your thoughts on all this Linni, so good for us to know what we’re feeding ourselves and our families!! My short answers: I try for organic, less or unprocessed, from scratch more of the time than not. But I don’t worry too much over it if I am feeding them pb&j on the run (I do it too!:) a few days in a row, esp. if the pb is organic and the j is home made with little to no sugar. I try and put out raw veggies when my kids are at their hungriest so they’ve developed a taste for them. I sneak spinach into their smoothies (can’t even taste it!:). I bake our bread when I have extra time and freeze tons of local produce, home made spaghetti sauce, etc. in the fall to eat on through the winter. In trying to eat more organic than not I cook seasonally, so fall winter is lots of root veggies, squash, and little to no salad according to what is the best price. Overall we do spend a little more on our food to eat the way we do but I see it as part of our ‘health insurance plan’!:)
Do you find that what you know of people living in poverty or much simpler means from your travels shapes some of your food perspective? It definately helps me keep things in perspective, we have done a weekly beans and rice night to remind us of how most people in developing nations eat day in and day out, I want to get back to doing that. I want my kids to know how to eat healthy, but also how very blessed we are that we can choose it as a lifestyle when so many people don’t have that option, ya know?
Love your blog, thanks Linni!
I love that you do a beans and rice night. What a great idea! Ad and I are both turn the water on and off while we shower for the same reason–most people in the world take bucket showers and it’s good to remember that. I love that you include your kids with the beans and rice. And I agree–I would much rather pay a little more for food and less for healthcare down the road. Thanks for sharing! Miss you friend!