I have become quite nutritionally conscious of recent, not all has been put into practice but I am thinking. It certainly helps being on maternity leave as I have the time to think clearly beyond the office, read labels at the grocery store, surf the net and most importantly, I have been responsible for feeding my older pair 3 meals a day for the past several months.
I sometimes think it would have been much easier to simply be ignorant. My husband and I don't eat much fast food, our dinners are often prepared by me with fresh ingredients, and we don't buy very much junk. That in itself is likely a good enough starting block. But, I had to keep reading.
My stumbling blocks:
- organic or non-organic veggies & fruit: I had been purchasing a organic box from a local supplier but began to dread its weekly arrival with copious quantities of kale, very dirty (and small) potatoes, swiss chard, oranges and unripe bananas. We would rarely get to the stuff before it rotted in the fridge's veggie drawer. The cost was also a bit over the top. Can I just wash my fruits and veggies really well and make do?
- organic or non-organic milk: This has to be one of my most recent quests. I had read much literature on the possible correlation between early maturation in girls and milk due to the addition of growth hormones. I thought the big push for organic milk was to avoid the growth hormones only to find out (and confirmed on many websites) from a friend of a friend that Canada has banned all growth hormones. Is it possible we Canadians are getting some growth hormones in our milk supply, yes - is it a lot, unlikely given the nature of the Canadian dairy industry. So, why pay twice the price for 4L of organic milk? Am I missing something?
- soy milk: Now I thought we had moved into 'crunchy' domain when we switched Andrew to soy milk in response to his nasty nasty diapers. The soy didn't help with the diapers and I soon decided that milk has nothing to do with his output - it is just him. We tried many different varieties of soy - some were utterly disgusting, almost like drinking sand paper. We settled on Soy Good, I will even drink the stuff - well, wouldn't you know, read the LABELS - of course it is good, look at all the corn syrup (aka sugar) they add to the stuff. (The sweetness was my biggest pet peeve of the stuff - I originally thought it was just the way this soy was.) I told husband this week that we are cutting out the soy (it was his idea) after we finish our current inventory and switching back to milk (organic or not, haven't figured that one out yet). Don't even get me going on the 'latest' and greatest on soy milk - it is the high estrogen-like plant hormones in soy that has caused the early maturation in girls. According to the anti-soy people (everyone has a motivation), it also causes infertility and skin rashes.
- trans fats: Now this is something we have just about beat. I don't buy anything at the grocery store with reported trans fats, other than the naturally occurring trans fat in most dairy products. I remain utterly confused on the hydrogenated versus partially hydrogenated oil products and their relationship to trans fats. Some websites say it is only the partially hydrogenated oils that create trans fats. The downfall to this current label reading frenzy, I know I am practically ignoring saturated fats. Can you have good packaged products with zero trans fats and very low saturated fats? Also, did you know that Tim Hortons glazed timbits have transfats but the baked ones (or vice versa, go to their website) don't. I think we like the ones with the trans fats.
- organic meat: I will admit I haven't even begun contemplating this issue. The source of organic meats remains elusive (unless you go to the specialty butchers that have limited hours). I am not sure what I plan to do on this front. Will keep reading and researching.
All I really want are healthy kiddos that don't make the stats of being among the 25-30% of obese children in Canada, don't develop heart disease or cancer. I think the odds of obesity are low given the parental gene pool, but I am sure many of the parents with those chunky kiddos might have also thought the same thing. The other pair could strike I guess - so will just keep working.
I feel better having written all of my issues. You are blessed if you made it this far. If you have got an opinion, a source or a recommendation, please please help me.
1 comment:
Oh you so sound like me!! I bought an easy to read, practical book with ideas and recipes to feed kids a healthy diet. Will get you the name of it, as I am a total blank right now. I often go to the store and return with very little in my bag as I cannot buy half the stuff they sell as food in the shops.
In terms of organic veggies - just take the skins of before you cook it, I know most vitamins are gathered there, but 90% of the toxins too. So we take skins of, steam lightly and supplement with organic vitamins. It horrifies me to read what is in kiddies products, it is mostly some form of sugar and potato starch!!My biggest challenge is to pack something for e for his school snack box! If you have any great ideas on that it would be nice...specially for a mom who have very limited time to bake and carry on.
Meat - I only buy free range meat that states it has not antibiotics in it,and not fed on animal by products (this counts for eggs as well) not sure how that is different from organic produce but it is a bit cheaper. The same with milk - I buy milk with a statement that it is free of any growth hormones, in cost it is somewhere between organic and no label stuff here. And then just think to feed the different colours in your diet and to not buy refined or processed stuff. I think that goes a long way to ensuring a healthy family.
We do sometimes pig out, but then it is a decision we make - to throw all caution overboard, it is not a way of life!
Post a Comment