Here is my food philosophy in a nutshell, gleaned from reading and listening to people more educated than myself: eat food close to it's original state, with few ingredients, minimal sodium, minimal sugar, less meat, less dairy, less packaging.
About 2 1/2 years ago, I read the book Skinny B!tch. It promotes a vegan diet that is void of refined sugar, refined carbohydrates and most alcohol (Organic sulfate free wine OK in moderation). I decided to give it a try. My sister has been vegan for over 10 years so I was not unfamiliar with what this diet might look like. I loved my chicken, had given up red meat for several years of my life but never lived long without chicken or cheese. Undeterred, I decided to give it a try and see if I would feel better and lose weight. I set a goal of 30 days, lost weight and felt great. Three weeks in I committed to a year. Despite underwhelming enthusiasm from the kids, I also decided to stop buying meat for the family. They finished off our frozen meat stores order meat at restaurants or eat it at potlucks. I bought less cheese and milk (couldn't convince the kids that almond milk was as good as cow's). Not only did I lose about 20 lbs (I stopped losing when I reintroduced sugar and refined carbs) but our grocery bill when down. We were spending about $1000 a month on groceries and by changing our diet our spending went down to about $600-700 a month. I wasn't surprised by that but what really shocked me was how little garbage we had. We went from about 1 1/2 cans of garbage a week to about 3/4 of a can (for a family of 5). I was doing something for my body and my planet. I am not eating vegan today but I eat what I consider a low meat, low dairy diet. The kids weren't completely sold on our new diet so we compromised: I agreed to buy bacon crumbles. I do occasionally have meat when we go out. Like after a 20 mile run a couple of weeks ago tacos al carbon sounded really good. But we went to the Pike Place Market yesterday and while the boys all wanted seafood, my daughter and I went and got pizza. She got pepperoni but I got a veggie pizza with fresh arugula on top and it was great. I find that I am choosing vegetarian more lately because that's what my body craves. It's becoming more automatic. We still have a long way to go though.
One of the things that Jamie Oliver mentioned in Food Revolution was that he has been to South African Townships and that these kids eat better than the kids eating the school lunches. I realized something I have seen but didn't really pick up on. I shop at a local independent market that sells produce in a warehouse but also has lots of Russian, Mexican and Asian food. There are
lots of languages spoken there. When you see what is in the baskets of those "new to America" it is all "healthy" fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, etc. They do have packaged items that probably contain a lot of sodium, but largely the people who shop here are buying real food. Alternatively when I shop at my chain super market (I won't even talk about Walmart) I see the "Americans" piling in TV dinners and chips and sugary cereal (confession, I let my kids eat sugary cereal for breakfast every morning, we are far from perfect) and pop and juice and cookies and granola bars and then they throw some apples and a salad mix in the cart. The bulk of what I see in carts is processed crap while the real food is the side dish. So here is what I see. I hope I don't offend anyone but I think that when we talk about the kids in schools who eat subsidized lunch we tend to think of the recent immigrants as falling into that category and it is always mentioned when discussing the highly charged topic of school lunch that for "some of these kids this is the only meal they get". Well I am guessing that it is those recent immigrants who have not fully assimilated into the American way of eating, are eating better than those low income Americans and even the middle class Americans. Most likely students who receive free or reduced lunch are also receiving food stamps so they do not have to go hungry.
I grew up eating typical American food. Our family ate fast food and take out more than my friends. I ate home cooked meals more often at my HS boyfriend's house than I did at home. My mom (and I love her to death!!) made tacos (with seasoning packets and hard shells), spaghetti (sauce from a jar), hamburgers, deli sandwiches, pizza (frozen), shake and bake chicken, oh and my arch enemy, canned green beans. As we got older my sisters and I introduced new foods to our diet. I discovered frozen green beans to be a world apart from their canned cousins. We ate salads, discovered pesto, and Indian and Thai food. So my kids eat a much wider variety of foods than I did growing up. Incidentally so does my mom. Although she still detests oatmeal and peas she enjoys most other veggies and I don't think she's made, or eaten, spaghetti with jar sauce anymore. My kids have never had a hard taco shell because we have always made (fried, again not perfect, but soooo yummy) and when we have tacos (which we do for company) we make homemade vegan refried beans and pork. The pork is just plain pork, shredded with no salt or flavoring added. They add homemade pico de gallo (we have to ration it) and homemade guacamole (also rationed), with olives and cheese. The tacos of my youth included ground beef with flavoring packet, cheese, and lettuce. My kids eat and enjoy all those flavors. My kids are all picky in their own way so I don't think they are any different than most kids. My youngest refuses to eat all potatoes, except french fries and all rice, weird. So we charge forward in an attempt to eat better and healthier and tastier and hope the country catches on too.
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