I feed my kids real food...

So you can feed them junk!

It has come to my attention lately that what we feed our children varies immensely from home to home. And I'm not talking about cultural differences, I am talking about standards.  What one family considers healthy, another wouldn't even touch, and another does not even consider whether or not it is healthy to begin with.

I openly admit to being a good snob.  I only buy meat at Whole Foods or from a local ranch/butcher, and even then we only eat meat/fish about once or twice a week.  I never buy anything from the dirty dozen list that is not organic, including when these items are added in as ingredients in another product, applesauce being an excellent example.  I buy free range, vegetarian fed, organic, omega-3 eggs, for at least three times as much as other people pay for eggs, questioning my decision each time.  I spend an immense amount of time reading and learning about our food system, nutrients, pesticides, fertilizers, supplements, etc.  I volunteer to bring "treats" for my daughters class for every celebration, so that I will know what goes into those snacks.  For the same reason I avoid potlucks and eating "other people's food".  I know I sound crazy.

I am crazy in fact.  I am not the hovering mother type, and I try to let my children have as much freedom as they can developmentally handle, plus a little bit more!  But when it comes to food I am much more conservative.  I am not 100% convinced that all the precautions that I take are necessary,  but I continue learning and changing as I see fit.

Every night, or just about,  I make a heathy, well balanced meal for our family.  I make 99.9% of our food from scratch and enjoy doing it.  We serve dinner at the dinner table and we all sit and eat together, talking about our day.  I try to always make sure that there is at least one component of each meal that is familiar and well liked by the children, because what I make for dinner is for everyone and that is all there.  I don't do separate meals for my children, and if they don't like what we are having then they go to bed hungry, and I know that they will eat a big breakfast the next day.  I also know that they will not starve or suffer from not enjoying one meal with us.  On the rare occasion that this does happen, I try to make sure that breakfast the next day is something that they really like, to fill their bellies!  We love the motto, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"

Thanks to this strict policy in our home, my children are both very good eaters.  Of course there are things that they do not like, and they go through picky phases now and then, but we stay the course and  everything usually works itself out.

So the other day I offered to bake the cupcakes for the cupcake decorating part of the fall festival at my daughter's school.  I suggested pumpkin cupcakes, and was quickly informed by the room parent that most children do not like pumpkin and that chocolate and vanilla would be preferred   I was surprised by this response.  In my house any dessert is well received  and my kids love pumpkin cupcakes.  The room parent later admitted that her kids have probably never really tried them,  but she doesn't think they would like them.   I see where they get their tastes from.  I agreed to do chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and make the frosting from scratch to avoid canned stuff.  I am okay with treats, I just prefer them to be homemade with good stuff.

I know I can't control everything that they eat, but I do what I can.  I also educate them what kinds of things are in some of the packaged and prepared foods, so that they are aware what they are putting into their bodies.  They also know that a little bad stuff now and then isn't so bad, it is just when you eat that stuff all the time that your body gets sick.   We strive for "everything in moderation"!  The point is that I feed my children healthy, wholesome food the majority of the time, so when they are faced with junk, I  will know that: 1-It won't kill them to have it so infrequently, and 2-It is often so different tasting from what we eat at home that they don't really like it anyway.  This is what works for us.  How do you feel about packaged, processed, artificially flavored and/or colored foods?  Do you think about this stuff as much as I do?

Organic Junk Food

No, that is not an oxymoron, but it seems that many people would seem to think so.  I am not one to judge, as I sit her in a Halloween candy induced semi-coma, but I do think we should clear up a few terms.  People need to be talking about nutrition with their families and friends.  Our children have more choices than ever before and will need to be well armed with knowledge to make life-long healthy choices.

Organic does not mean it is good for you.  Better? yes, possibly, but not necessarily good.  A few examples are: organic potato chips, organic candy coated chocolate drops  (“m&m’s”), organic chocolate sandwich cookies (“oreos”)and organic gummy fruits.   None of these items, organic or not, are good for you.  The organic versions are better than the originals, in that they don’t contain artificial flavors or colors, preservatives, or partially hydrogenated oils just to name a few of the really bad guys in the originals.  If a person were craving on of the aforementioned items, and was going to eat it no matter what, then the organic version would be a better choice.  Not a good choice, but a better choice. 

Natural is another one of those confusing terms, but it is even worse than organic from meaning good for you.  Organic is at least regulated by the Federal government.  The term Natural really has no legs to stand on.  It is not regulated by the FDA or USDA.  The word “natural” can just be slapped on a label and there is not much anyone can say to question it.

One last term that I have seen a lot is Farm Fresh.  Like Natural, this term really has no clear definition or anyone to enforce it.  The item does not have to be “fresh”, meaning it was made or grown recently in relation to competitors, or from a “farm”.  Farm fresh is just a fun alliteration put on labels to sell food to well meaning shoppers.

So the conclusion here is that processed food is not as good for you as real, whole food.  Of course, organic “real” food is better than non-organic.  We have to stop pretending that junk food isn’t junk food when it is organic.  Lunch boxes should not contain cookies, organic or not.  My favorite example of organic junk food is those yogurts in a tube.  They are filled with sugar and give children another opportunity to not sit and eat with silverware at a table.  Mid morning or afternoon snacks should be organic fruit, veggies, low-fat dairy products, nuts, etc. NOT organic cookies, chips, candies, and “fruit” snacks.

Don’t get me wrong, we eat our fair share of junk food in our house, mostly in the form of home baked goods!  We try to include organic fruits and veggies with every meal and snack, to counter act the not so healthy things we eat.  We try to teach our children why we eat healthy food, and what our bodies need vs. what we sometimes want.  We eat non-organic junk food too, on occasion.   We don’t however, try to pass off junk food as anything other that that - JUNK.  We live by the “everything in moderation” motto.  It works for us!   What works for you and your family when it comes to nutrition?