Yesterday, Penelope, at Penelope’s Romance Reviews, discussed the changes she’s made in her diet since her heart attack - at an awfully young age - last summer. Women are not spared heart disease, we just think we are and our heart disease often goes undiagnosed. Anyway, a couple days ago, Penelope wrote a great post about her lifestyle changes and yesterday, she talked about her new healthy eating habits and resulting weight loss and increased energy level - from the combination of diet and exercise. She is an amazing, courageous, determined woman.
So let’s have a conversation about food. I’m no slacker when it comes to healthy eating, but neither am I a perfectionist. Penelope asked the question, how do you get a kid who only likes chicken nuggets to eat right? That IS the question of the decade and there are no sure answers.
Eating habits are generational. Seriously. But, and this is a big but, healthy habits aside, kids don’t always like the taste of what we consider healthy foods nor are all those foods we consider healthy good for kids. There is a reason kids don’t like broccoli…it’s difficult for their bodies to digest and process.
I’m so very lucky. I come from a long line - on both sides - of good cooks. In my mother’s family, everything had to be made from scratch, our bread, our pastries, our jams and jellies. We had a huge garden and every year my mother canned and froze whatever we didn’t eat. In our own home, were not allowed to eat white bread, white rice, sugar-coated cereals, canned foods aside from tuna, or heavily salted foods - although we were free to eat whatever we wanted at our friends’ homes. It’s just that my father and mother believed the following: whole grains and homemade meals are healthy, processed foods are not. Oh, and we weren’t allowed pop (soda) unless we were on death’s door.
I raised my kids the same way, but because of the increasing popularity and availability of fast food, it was not easy. Plus I’m not a food Nazi. If my kids wanted French fries, they got French fries. If they wanted chocolate chip cookies, I baked the real thing. I also taught them how to cook and bake. All three kids are not only great cooks and bakers, they enjoy fresh foods.
I believe in this - all things in moderation. I know people who won’t allow their children to have anything sweet and their kids come to my house and devour every single cookie in the cookie jar. Bad idea. Forbidden fruit.
Little things sometimes make the difference:
Craving French fries? Try oven fries.
A baked potato is great with salsa on it. Even better with barbecue sauce!
Pick out your daily fruits (3) in the morning and put them in plain sight - easier to remember to eat them! Frozen fruits are better for you than canned - usually they are picked at the peak of freshness so they retain more of their nutrients and they contain less sugar. Same with frozen veggies. Canned vegetables are loaded with sodium.
Bake a batch of cookies and stick them in the freezer - it makes you think twice before grabbing a handful. Out of sight, out of mind.
Don’t sweat it if your kid doesn’t like vegetables with strong odors. Kids are built that way. I like to hide shredded veggies in dishes like mac and cheese or spaghetti. A shredded yam makes a great addition to Bolognese sauce and nobody ever even notices.
Don’t assume raw almond milk or raw cashew milk is a good substitute for cow’s milk. Raw almonds and raw cashews contain compounds (toxins) that kids cannot digest and that their little bodies cannot process. Two of my three kids are lactose intolerant, but they can eat some yogurt and cheese. My son is 6’3″ so I guess he got enough calcium.
There are two ingredients I avoid when buying any type of prepared food - partially hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup. I think these are two of the most unhealthy additions to food ever created. (I hope the corn gods don’t come after me because I dearly love fresh-picked sweet corn!)
Okay…lecture done. Way to go, Penelope!
I am so food conscious because I know it’s such a huge part of life, health and happiness. Without going nuts (organic nuts, please) I try to eat, cook and shop as close to nature as I can. This blog really struck home with me because one of my all time icons just died the other day. I grew up admiring Jack LaLanne and learned a lot from him. He was a man who knew how to live a good life. The results speak for themselves.
XXOO Kat
Word! Agree 100% and I have to admit I was one of teh rare kids that LOVED veggies- no matter what. No wonder I turned out to be vegetarian.
I read Penelope’s blog yesterday. How horrible to have a heart attack so young, but as you pointed out, with women it’s not as uncommon as we think. I’m one of the worst eaters you’ll meet, yet my children are great.
My grand daughter loves fresh fruits and all sorts of veggies. Things you wouldn’t think a little one would eat.
After reading Penelope’s blog I realize I have to start making small steps to a more healthy lifestyle. I want to be around as long as Jack LaLanne.
Hi Julia! Thanks for the shout-out! Guess what we had for dinner last night? Broccoli! Luckily for us, my kids love it. I think it’s great you had a big garden when you were young. It’s a terrific way to get kids involved with healthy eating. My daughter helps to choose the seeds, plant the seeds, weed and water. She’s a great helper. We always plant edible flowers, too (Johnny Jump-Ups are my fav) and then make fun salads with flowers and herbs. After my heart attack, I threw out all the crappy snacks and replaced everything (cookies, crackers, etc) with Kashi brand stuff. My kids really like it.
Here’s to good health for everyone!
Penny
Kat and Amber - I know, Jack Lalanne was one of those people you thought might live forever! Penny really is an inspiring example too!
Hey Susi! I’m not as strict a vegetarian as I used to be. When you have one child who is a meat-atarian you have to become flexible!
I make oven fries all the time.
I’m lucky. My youngest son’s favortie food is Brocolli. 
I do not allow soda unless it is a special occasion. BUT, I do allow the occasional visit to a fast food joint, if for no other reason than on a bad weather day they have a place to play.
Ciara - when my kids were little, they got a McDonalds’ run every couple weeks. Plus their friends had birthday parties there. I figured if they ate pretty well most of the time - and my kids were three different types of eaters - one meat only, one vegetarian only and one barely ate anything.
Penny - I loved our gardens growing up, plus I learned to can. We’ve always grown edible flowers too! Yum! I think my mom would have liked to get take out once in a while because she worked hard to prepare meals, but my dad just did not like take out food. There were two places in our little town we got to go - a pizza place owned by an Italian family, and they made/make the best pizza I’ve tasted outside of Rome, and a little drive-in owned by a couple my dad grew up with - home-fries, cheeseburgers and homemade ice cream. When I was pregnant with my second (the blood-sucking carnivore) and I was so anemic the doctor wanted to transfuse me, I refused a transfusion and promised to start eating meat - those cheeseburgers were all I could tolerate.
Broccoli must be going around - we had it last night too!
This is just a note but when I was pregnant my sister bought me an tiny iron teapot to drink my herbal pregnancy teas from. My red blood cell count rose during and after my pregnancy even though I lost a lot of blood in delivery. My mid-wife pulled me aside after my blood-work came back and asked what the heck I was doing. I told her, and it’s now a tradition in our circle to give a mother to be an iron teapot. I even let apple juice sit in that teapot overnight and drank it in the morning with the tea. I think it made a big difference-and its easy.
XXOO Kat
Kat, what a great idea! I now have an iron tea kettle! I took iron supplements and folic acid. I was a pretty strict vegetarian and had done fine with my first, but this kid - who ate only red meat for years - was such a vampire! I was so anemic the doctor could not even understand how I remained upright. He said either eat meat or I’m putting you in the hospital and giving you three units of blood. Not for me. I just ate the meat.
Yep. I ate healthy up through my forties and then went to work. And fast food struck big time. Now I’m working it all off, one pound at a time. Good post, Julia.
About a year ago I did a huge change in my diet. Stopped drinking coke and watching what I ate. It helped me drop the weight and made me feel better.
Anny, here’s the thing with fast food - it takes fewer calories to process the micro-nutrients and you absorb more calories so processed food hits you coming and going and then, to make matters worse, it spikes your blood sugar, making you hungry all over again.
Savannah - I love Coke, but I try to drink it with Mexican food only! Sometimes you just need Coke with Mexican food - if I buy it, I buy those little tiny cans. I think they have like three ounces in them. Coke is one of those forbidden things I was never allowed to drink. My sister is an addict.
Totally into good food. My husband - poor culprit he- had a heart attack at 49. he iss heavy but has low cholesterol and works out every other day. But, they keep telling us to watch the transfats - there are none in this house!
We eat 5 plus veg a day.
But growing up we had appalling habits in the sixties with neither family growing more than tomatoes. We had white bread, candy everywhere, cookies, chips, etc. It is hard to break those habits. Since I can’t eat most prepackaged food (gluten) and since I am lactose intolerant too I am saved from a lot of crap. I just don’t keep it in t he house. From experience I know my husband has no will power.
There is something to gluten intolerance, Steph - keeps you on your toes!