Every day I read another story about our food… or our health…or how our food is affecting our health and each story discourages me a little more. I just don’t understand why our country must change our food so much. I remember growing up and not having to worry about what I was eating. I don’t remember fresh fruits and veggies costing more than a bag of chips or a candy bar…call it a selective memory, but it seems to me that our country was “living on the land” rather than “living on processed foods”.
Don’t get me wrong, from time to time I love to go out to dinner with my family and enjoy “junk” food at Disney when we go, but believe me when I say this, I am very very conscious about what I put in my mouth and what I let my children put in their mouths. I feel like it should be up to me whether or not I want my child to eat genetically modified foods, or foods that have petroleum added to them shouldn’t it? Why is it such a big deal for the food industry to put an accurate label on things? Sure, they might lose a little revenue, but as consumers, don’t we have the right to know what we are eating?
Since my oldest son was diagnosed with Autism my family has changed the way we “look at food”. I read labels, my son constantly asks me, “is this gluten free”, “do we eat there”,and so on. I am trying to teach my boys that food is the fuel our bodies need to help us grow and be strong (and quite literally some foods out there do put fuel in their foods) with the hope that as they get older they will make good decisions about what they want to eat.
Eating healthy doesn’t have to be hard, it doesn’t have to be expensive, and it doesn’t have to be impossible. Making the choice to “make better choices”starts at home, when you make your meal plan for the week and write your grocery list. It doesn’t start in Washington, because face it; if you wait for the people in Washington to decide to help you change the way your family eats, you could be waiting for a long time. Here are some great websites about eating healthy, eating a little “cleaner”, and feeding your family in a way that will make you feel good about the meals you are cooking.
How to make your own applesauce…why not?
http://www.pickyourown.org/applesauce.htm
100 Days of Real food on a budget…sounds good to me!
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/100-days-on-a-budget/
Why shouldn’t I eat processed foods…they taste great!
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/10-reasons-to-cut-out-processed-food/
What is organic anyway…and why does it matter?
http://plantingseeds.kashi.com/organic-past-and-present-what-you-might-not-know-4/
Homemade Strawberry Jell-O…without the dyes and artificial flavors…really?
http://takebackyourtable.com/2012/04/homemade-strawberry-lime-gelatin.html
Facts on food coloring…what is wrong with a little color?
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/03/13/real-food-tips-7-reasons-i-hate-artificial-food-dyes/
What is the deal with high fructose corn syrup anyway…it seems harmless?
http://www.livestrong.com/article/362233-why-you-shouldnt-eat-high-fructose-corn-syrup/
Just a few fun photo’s for y’all! Last weekend we went to Disney’s Halloween Party with some friends. When we got home was looking through my son’s “treat bag” and noticed some “fruit snacks”in there and wanted to compare them with the ones I buy…just for fun. Well, I couldn’t find any nutritional information on the package so I pulled it up online. I wasn’t surprised that the calories, sugar, etc. wasn’t much different between the two, but just as I suspected, the brand he got at Disney was full of dyes, corn syrup, and artificial flavors…If my kids are going to have a sweet treat I would rather it be made with real sugar, and definitely made with fruit juice instead of artificial colors.
Ingredients list from the Kellogg’s Fruit Snacks ,taken from their website at
http://www.kelloggs.com/en_US/FruitFlavoredSnacks.html
CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, APPLE PUREE CONCENTRATE, WATER, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, GELATIN, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF CITRIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, COCONUT OIL*, CARNAUBA WAX, RED #40, YELLOW #5, SODIUM CITRATE, BLUE #1 *ADDS A TRIVIAL AMOUNT OF FAT.
Here is a picture of the ingredients in my favorite fruit snacks…
Don’t get me wrong, from time to time I love to go out to dinner with my family and enjoy “junk” food at Disney when we go, but believe me when I say this, I am very very conscious about what I put in my mouth and what I let my children put in their mouths. I feel like it should be up to me whether or not I want my child to eat genetically modified foods, or foods that have petroleum added to them shouldn’t it? Why is it such a big deal for the food industry to put an accurate label on things? Sure, they might lose a little revenue, but as consumers, don’t we have the right to know what we are eating?
Since my oldest son was diagnosed with Autism my family has changed the way we “look at food”. I read labels, my son constantly asks me, “is this gluten free”, “do we eat there”,and so on. I am trying to teach my boys that food is the fuel our bodies need to help us grow and be strong (and quite literally some foods out there do put fuel in their foods) with the hope that as they get older they will make good decisions about what they want to eat.
Eating healthy doesn’t have to be hard, it doesn’t have to be expensive, and it doesn’t have to be impossible. Making the choice to “make better choices”starts at home, when you make your meal plan for the week and write your grocery list. It doesn’t start in Washington, because face it; if you wait for the people in Washington to decide to help you change the way your family eats, you could be waiting for a long time. Here are some great websites about eating healthy, eating a little “cleaner”, and feeding your family in a way that will make you feel good about the meals you are cooking.
How to make your own applesauce…why not?
http://www.pickyourown.org/applesauce.htm
100 Days of Real food on a budget…sounds good to me!
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/100-days-on-a-budget/
Why shouldn’t I eat processed foods…they taste great!
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/10-reasons-to-cut-out-processed-food/
What is organic anyway…and why does it matter?
http://plantingseeds.kashi.com/organic-past-and-present-what-you-might-not-know-4/
Homemade Strawberry Jell-O…without the dyes and artificial flavors…really?
http://takebackyourtable.com/2012/04/homemade-strawberry-lime-gelatin.html
Facts on food coloring…what is wrong with a little color?
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/03/13/real-food-tips-7-reasons-i-hate-artificial-food-dyes/
What is the deal with high fructose corn syrup anyway…it seems harmless?
http://www.livestrong.com/article/362233-why-you-shouldnt-eat-high-fructose-corn-syrup/
Just a few fun photo’s for y’all! Last weekend we went to Disney’s Halloween Party with some friends. When we got home was looking through my son’s “treat bag” and noticed some “fruit snacks”in there and wanted to compare them with the ones I buy…just for fun. Well, I couldn’t find any nutritional information on the package so I pulled it up online. I wasn’t surprised that the calories, sugar, etc. wasn’t much different between the two, but just as I suspected, the brand he got at Disney was full of dyes, corn syrup, and artificial flavors…If my kids are going to have a sweet treat I would rather it be made with real sugar, and definitely made with fruit juice instead of artificial colors.
Ingredients list from the Kellogg’s Fruit Snacks ,taken from their website at
http://www.kelloggs.com/en_US/FruitFlavoredSnacks.html
CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, APPLE PUREE CONCENTRATE, WATER, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, GELATIN, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF CITRIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, COCONUT OIL*, CARNAUBA WAX, RED #40, YELLOW #5, SODIUM CITRATE, BLUE #1 *ADDS A TRIVIAL AMOUNT OF FAT.
Here is a picture of the ingredients in my favorite fruit snacks…
